Monday, April 28, 2008

Slow Week



The doc said today maybe one more week before Baby B. SO I HAVE TIME FOR ONE GREAT CHASE MOTHER NATURE!

Sounds like it's going to be a slow week in Kansas. Thursday (Thor's day) night might provide a little excitement. So in the mean time, I'll post this.

I took this last summer in Iuka, Kansas. First one was of some strange clouds that I shot while in a cemetery. Second one was the same storm after it got angry.




Sunday, April 27, 2008

Can't sleep clowns will eat me

So I'll post some old favorites.


The Severe Storm Lab out of Colorado. They were out chasing with the TIV vehicle (now featured on the Travel Channel).


These guys (Severe Storm Lab) are my heroes. My geek is showing.


Note: I have it labeled as OU mobile storm lab. This is wrong.




I love dramatic cloud photos, and sometimes you just get lucky, don't you punk.






This is in Reno County, Kansas. Chased a squall for a couple hours, found a great wall cloud. Watched 15 tornados drop in 8 minutes (yup, up and down that quick). This couple pulled up next to me and asked what to do, it was there first tornado, and they wanted to see it.
I was changing lenses and was distracted (not a good trait of a chaser). I told them to go up the road about a mile and you could see it well. One mile up the road is where the debris cloud is on the ground. I took a picture before they went to OZ.
If your interested, this is the chase: http://members.cox.net/mightybri/


More the next time I can't sleep.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.
B









Saturday, April 26, 2008

Squal line April 26, 2008




To what did my wandering eyes did appear, but a thunderstorm warning for Hutchinson.


Ah, no big deal. Probably moving to the Northwest. Nope. Moving right for Kechi . . . Hazzah.


NOAA (National Weather Service (and this is probably the only time I will ever tell you this)) reported one inch hail and wind damage in Yoder. Remember, stuff there is Amish built. They pound their power poles all the way in the ground so you don't see them.

I stood outside and felt the temp drop about 10 degrees. My little girl got mad that I was outside and banged on the door until I let her out. She played outside until I saw lightning.

The photo's taken from my deck. Don't worry I'm not eleven feet tall.

So my dog continued to happily munch on her log and I stayed waiting on the wind. Wind kicked up to maybe a 40 mph gust but nothing that great. I did see a little rotation in the clouds above me but nothing to send me running to the basement.

If anyone is interested April 29 - May 1st is looking interesting for storms. Will someone babysit so I can go chase!

B

Greeings and Salutations

This is a fairly serious blog that you won't hear as much of my explosive writing.

I am a storm chaser. Scratch that. I freaking worship storms. You have your tree huggers, I'm a tornado hugger. Don't try it, hurts like Hell.

This time of year I'm like a kid at Christmas. My wife laughs at me because when a decent storm comes up I usually have the radio going loud, running to the computer to check radars, and running outside to see what's going on. Okay, it's more like a tweaker on meth.

Don't do drugs kids. Seriously. The drug companies will own us all someday.

With life being usually complicated, I have a baby due SOON. Like in the next ten days. This really makes me rethink about all the chasing and the close calls I've had. There have been a few, and this baby makes number two.

I don't think that I'll give it up. I can't. Storm chasing is one of my strongest passions in life, stronger than my need to write.

B