Stormchase 2008

Day 10: Out With A Bang!

noreply@blogger.com (gadjitfreek) — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 06:29:00 +0000

Our final chase day...wow. I woke up at 7:30 with a bit of a stomach and nausea issue. All the food I ate on tour caught up with me this morning. I ate nothing today, not a single bite of anything. It is 10 PM and we are headed back to hotel and I still don't feel entirely right. Still, it turned out to be an amazing day.

We met at 8:30, but had trouble getting out the door. Roger and Alister accidentally locked themselves out of their room and the maintenance guy had to break in to the room, which he did just a little too easily. Steve opted out of the last day chase, as his wife was coming to town. We drove south on I-35, then side roads as we made our way to today's target, Lorenzo, TX. We stopped in Childress for lunch. As we drove, we started getting an ever-thickening cumulus field. We stopped several times along the way to watch them grow. We saw an amazing number of dust devils. We headed to the Dairy Queen in the town. There we sat, everyone else having dinner. Eventually, small storms started to pop, so we left, trying to decide which storm to chase.

We noticed the storm to our south about a mile away had a nice base, so we chased it. It underwent a split. We watched the north split, then the south split went crazy and became the storm of the day. We raced after it to get in position to see the structure. Two more storms formed off to our south. We got to where we needed to be, and the structure as amazing. As we watched, the hail core moved across the road just north of us. We drove into it, and golf-ball sized slushball hail pelted us mercilessly. We stayed until it ended, then drove east to get to the main action area. The storm strengthened and developed multiple tiered striations. We raced to get ahead of it, as the road angled north into the core before turning southeast again. Alister's expert driving got us to the intersection just as the hail began to hammer us. We got away and drove on ahead. Further up we stopped to have a look at it. It was becoming magnificently electrified, and the updraft was a sculpted beauty. We didn't notice the hail coming down the road towards us until it was almost too late. We evacuated the area and went further on. We stopped to watch the lightning, which was spectacular. When the hail reached us once more, we raced ahead one final time and watched the remnants of the lightning as the storm gusted out. We stood in strong outflow winds taking in the last storm of our chasing year. Well, some of us. Jacquie is going to be on Tour 2 and Tom will be out for three more. How I envy them. We stopped for gas, I was the only one to stay in the van. Five minutes later the driving rains came and made getting back to the van a bit challenging. We drove on towards the hotel. I dozed the best I could. We made one more stop, and here is where I stop, 50 miles short of our hotel. It's 12:38 AM on Sunday, and our tour is now over. It was incredible...five chase days out of ten, four of which were particularly special. We had a little of everything...LP, HP and classic supercells, amazing structure, a tornado, several close calls to being tornadoes, gustnadoes, dust devils, lightning, wind, hail and all in abundance. This goes down as the best tour yet. Oh, and I learned that hippos eat 150 pounds of grass daily and produce 100 pounds of poop. And that the company of fellow storm enthusiasts is priceless beyond measure. But I already knew that.

Day 9: Heading Back To OKC

noreply@blogger.com (gadjitfreek) — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 02:59:00 +0000

From left to right:

Me, Lloyd, Marie, Steve, Jacquie, Tom, Alister, Roger

Woke up and hit the snooze button. Woke up again and took a shower and went down to breakfast. Biscuits and gravy, a good Plains breakfast. It was snowing outside. We all met at 10 and got the van packed up in a brisk and bitter cold wind. We headed east on I-80 and then dropped south. We drove and drove and drove, stopping for a lunch buffet at Pizza Hut just inside the Kansas border. We stopped in Blackwell, OK so Roger could pick up replacement sensors from a storm spotter friend of his. He drove a rather uniquely decked out Nissan Sentra with gear on the top and a custom instrument package mounted where the front passenger seat would ordinarily be. We got in to our hotel in Oklahoma City at 6:15. I made some phone calls. We met back at the lobby at 7 and went to the Cimmaron Steakhouse, where we celebrated the tour's great storms. The rest of the crew treated Roger and Alister, and they treated me as well because of how long it took before I got my first tornado. My goal is now to see one form and live its whole cycle. I will probably do the Canadian Prairies Tour next summer.

We went to Walmart and then back to the hotel. We meet for departure at 8:30 in the morning...for what ,may be a significant chase day.

Day 8: Unbelievable Colby Supercell

noreply@blogger.com (gadjitfreek) — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 14:30:00 +0000

Got in just short of 2 AM and went to bed. Woke at 7:45. Went down to breakfast, met by the rest of the gang. We all walked over to the Dorothy Gale house. I grabbed a geocache with Jacquie's help, then we perused the gift shop and returned to hotel to pack for a 10 AM departure. We got out the door, but were stymied at the gas station by Roger's credit card. We headed north and north to Wakeeney, stopping off at Dodge City for a quick grab and go lunch. Jacquie and I walked up to the drive-in at Sonic. We got to Wakeeney at 1 and parked by Twisters II Bar and Grill. Josh Wurman and his Doppler On Wheels crew were there with a full contingent of Discovery Channel personnel. The Tornado Intercept Vehicle had lost two tires (flew off while driving down the interstate), their third axle broke and their bearings went. We bought T-shirts at Twisters. The Discovery crew interviewed myself and Lloyd and took shots of my tornado and other storm pics. We stayed at that place for what seemed eons. At 3:30, SPC issued an MD for Oklahoma, and in dramatic fashion, Josh Wurman swept his crew up and they left. Roger said the MD gave more reasons not to chase there, which was good, as we were not sure which play was better.

At 4:30, storms started popping up on the CO/KS border and were getting stronger fast. We hopped on to I-70 west and drove until we reached Colby. There we encountered a high-based beast of a supercell with another one right on its southwest flank. Our storm developed a hook and tried to build a lowering. The storm to the SW was looking stronger. We rushed to the east to get a picture of the storm structure. It was a striated barber-pole updraft with a stack of plates. It would be difficult to top this storm's structure. Meanwhile, the SW storm began to crash into our storm...and they merged. We raced along dirt roads to keep ahead of it. It became a sculpted and electrified monster that got lower and lower and started pulling in strong inflow. Wall clouds developed, refocused forward. We were about to blow it off when a massive lowering occurred right to the NW perhaps half a mile away. It jumped to a new spot a quarter of a mile away and started spinning like crazy. I don't know how it didn't produce a tornado, but we were as close to having a massive cone tornado less than 1/4 miles from us as you can get. We had to get out of there, so we jumped south on terrible dirt roads until we reached the highway. The storm wrapped up tight and developed over 130 knots of shear with an amazing couplet on radar. We raced east towards Hill City and Roger told us the storm had major tornado written all over it. By now it was dark and we were relying on lightning or power flashes. The storm picked up speed and headed right for Hill City. We got ahead of it and stopped for a look. The RFD core was headed right for us, and Roger thought he could see a tornado just behind the hook. We never could confirm it. We dove into the van before the RFD could kill us and drove to Hill City and turned south. We parked on a hill a few miles outside of town and watched this monstrosity bear down on it. Public vehicles like ambulances and fire trucks evacuated towards us in a caravan as the town's tornado siren blared. The storm cycled, weakened and just missed Hill City to the north. We headed north and Roger, Alister and Steve got out in a field and gathered monstrous hail. Hail to 3" went into the freezer in the back of the van. The cold front surged forth and produced wind that nearly blew us off the road. Alister fought it well, and despite the wind's best efforts, it could not wrest us from the safety of the highway. We stopped for gas in some small town in southern Nebraska and the wind was driving ice-cold rain that stung our faces. We drove on to Kearney, Nebraska and stayed at the Country Inn and Suites. We got in at 12:30 AM, I got to bed at 1:30.

Day 7: A Long-Awaited Tornado

noreply@blogger.com (gadjitfreek) — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 03:01:00 +0000

Woke up at 7 and packed up. Met Lloyd for breakfast and talked politics with the owner of the hotel. I got my gear and stood by the van watching low level clouds stream northwestwards. Roger and Alister came down for breakfast and then we all met at 9. We left to fill the tires on the van and get snacks. We drove southwest towards La Mesa. There was a monster supercell munching its way across the countryside, formed on a kink in the warm front. It died before we got there, but fresh supercells were forming. We stopped in Snyder for lunch and then got right on a supercell. We drove north and punched through the RFD core, with decent hail and got violent motion in the bear cage. It didn't produce, but did come quite close. We drove south again into Snyder and headed west towards Patricia.

We intercepted the storm of the day just outside Patricia and it did magical things. It cycled and cycled, producing gustnadoes galore, big blocky wall clouds with tremendous motion, hail and very strong inflow winds. Roger was concerned that it was north of the boundary and couldn't warp the boundary up into itself, but it was sucking in cold air.

We got one strong RFD hook that occluded with rain, and we drove south. Suddenly Roger screamed "There's a tornado!" The rain curtain parted to reveal a gorgeous tapered cone tornado, which morphed into a stovepipe a few miles to our west. We watched it for a few minutes until we were in danger of getting munched by the forward flank core, so we went south. The tornado roped out, a very pretty sight. We continued to chase it as it cycled again and again, and it did come quite close to dropping another a few times, but it just didn't get it done.

We decided to blow off the storm in favor of the stronger one to the west. It had a wicked hook on it. It didn't take long to get there, and it looked good. This storm presented incredible structure with crazy inflow and a 50-mile long laminar beavertail. It also cycled, spinning like mad. We got an enormous gustnado next to us. We had to blow off the storm to get gas 20 miles south of the storm. The overall storm structure was magnificent. As we were gassing up Roger said that a tornado was being reported on our storm, so we jumped back into the van and raced back north. It wasn't doing anything, though the beavertail was amazing. After watching it cycle once more, we blew it off and headed northwest to Gail to intercept a little high-based LP supercell. When we got there it had collapsed, though we did get some hail out of it. We stopped in Post to get a McDinner, then north. We have hours to go yet to get to Liberal, KS. Tomorrow looks scary.

Day 6: Shear Disappointment

noreply@blogger.com (gadjitfreek) — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 01:48:00 +0000

We woke up, we left, we went south, we went north, we went south, we went north, no storms, 3 geocaches and we went to bed.

We left OKC at 11, headed south to Wichita Falls for lunch. We did a Subway in the Walmart. We drove north to just east of Waurika, stopped and watched clouds form towers and die by an old abandoned farmhouse. We got tired of that and dropped back to Wichita Falls and south to Archer City, where we had dinner out in front of a tiny grocery store as the skies cleared. Disgusted, we went back to Wichita and checked in to the Ramada Limited. Lloyd and I went after a geocache by a lake (dried out) near the hotel, then back and to bed.

Day 5: Late Reward

noreply@blogger.com (gadjitfreek) — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 07:07:00 +0000

I woke up at 7 and quickly got dressed. Met Lloyd at 7:30 for a quick breakfast. We walked into town to Wolfe Camera, where he bought some batteries and some DV tapes. We met up with Roger and Alister when we got back into the hotel. We went up to pack up our things and then came back downstairs with all of our gear at 9:40. The models started looking better and better. We left the hotel at 10, then circled back because Roger thought that he might have left his camera at the hotel. He hadn't, so we left again. Then Lloyd thought he had left his tripod in the room. He hadn't, it was under the front bench, but we circled back again. Finally, we got out of Topeka and drove southwest to Wichita.

The overcast skies gradually cleared as we stopped off at about 12:20 for lunch at a Cracker Barrel. I found a geocache right outside the door of the place. We were split into two groups, and the later group got served first. It was quite delicious. After, we bought various sundries in the gift shop and then left to get gas across the street. After that, we headed south once more, on I35.

At 2:50 we entered a truck stop near Billings, KS and waited for things to develop. SPC downgraded the chances of seeing anything. There we sat as nothing happened. It got hotter and hotter and the clouds scudded by from the southwest. 3:30 passed, then 4:30. Tom finished his book (Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill, Stephen King's son) and passed it along to me.

I got bored of waiting and went outside to get some time lapse shots of the clouds. Alister set up to do the same. Finally, Roger said we were packing it up, there was a mesoscale discussion for eastern Kansas. We blew north on I35, past Wichita and El Dorado. The cumulus towers were finally beginning to form after sunset. We stopped to look at the nearest tower, which did nothing. We went south and got gas, and a massive supercell fired 70 miles to the south. We raced off after it, by now it was about 9. The storm split and the northern split weakened and died. The southern split intensified greatly, but started to die as we approached it. We sat in the darkness as it regained strength. There was a bright moon lighting the storm, and we got magnificent shots of it kicking off lightning. A brilliant orange fireball flew overhead (I missed it as I was checking the camera). We stayed until the storm died, then headed south to Oklahoma City and our hotel. We got in just short of 2.

Day 4: Memories and Ticks

noreply@blogger.com (gadjitfreek) — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 02:27:00 +0000

I woke up and went out for a walk. I went across the Kansas River to grab a geocache in a pocket park on the other side. The cacche was gone, but it was a good walk. I met up with Marie as I got close to the hotel. I had breakfast with Marie, and we were joined by Tom and then Alister. Roger came down with Caryn. We all left at 11 and drove east to Missouri. We stopped off for gas and junk food. We stopped off across from Leavenworth prison and took funny pictures. We then drove until we got to Weston State Park, which used to be owned by Roger's grandparents. The little bridge going over the creek was named for his grandfather. We walked to the abandoned white house which belonged to his grandmother. The root cellar was still there and in good shape. We walked over to the old derelict barn which used to be a tobacco manufactury. We walked up the steep hill to look for mushrooms. Gasping for breath, I made it to the ridge. There Lloyd, Marie, Jacquie and I waited as Roger, Alister, Tom and Steve negotiated the steep slope of the other side to look for mushrooms. We didn't get any mushrooms, but we did get lots and lots of ticks. We walked back down and I discovered there was a geocache mere feet from the van, and I found it quickly. We shook off ticks and left to come back. Partway, we stopped off at a Chinese restaurant. We were the only non-Hispanic folks in the place, interesting. We went back to the hotel. Jacquie and I went on a walk to the Walgreens in town, then walked back. I met up with Jacquie, Lloyd, Marie and Alister at the restaurant in the hotel. I had a Caesar salad. Alister's meal was stone cold. We went up to our rooms. I found one last tick as I took a long, hot shower. I got caught up with this and went to bed. Roger came down to tell us that if a storm forms tomorrow, it will be tornadic. We will meet at 10 AM and dash off to Wichita.

Day 3 Horse Show and Zoo

noreply@blogger.com (gadjitfreek) — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 03:25:00 +0000

I woke up at 7 and watched TV on my phone...catching up on what I had recorded on my DVR. It was a beautiful crisp morning. I met Lloyd for breakfast, which was magnificent. We then walked around the block and met up with Marie. We got back to hotel, grabbed our cameras and went with Roger to see Caryn and the horses. Lloyd and I were the only ones to go. It was an interesting experience. At 12:30, Roger took us back to the hotel and picked up everyone else (except Marie, who had schoolwork to do). Lloyd and I went to the zoo, which was a cute small-town family zoo. We wandered around and saw bears, foxes, zebras, eagles, turtles, orangutangs, gorillas and small children. Afterwards, we went across the parking lot to the Gage Park kiddie train, the basis for Charlie the Choo Choo and Blaine the Mono in Stephen King's "Dark Tower" series. We rode it! We went back to the zoo entrance so Roger could pick us up. We saw Steve there, he had walked from the horse show to the zoo. We got picked up, Roger was excited about Monday and Tuesday's models. He told us we would meet at 7:30 to go to dinner. I came upstairs and just relaxed. At 7, Lloyd and I went downstairs and we gradually got everyone. Roger came in with Caryn, and we gave him his birthday card. We drove to On The Border, where we waited for 30 minutes and then spent the next 90 minutes having Mexican food and great fun. It ended with the wait staff bringing out sopapillas and a birthday song for Roger. We came back to the hotel. Tomorrow we meet at 11 and go to a park to pick mushrooms. The models look good for Monday and Tuesday...

Day 2 Travel To Topeka!

noreply@blogger.com (gadjitfreek) — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 02:23:00 +0000

I am writing this as we sit in the van after a lovely lunch at Applebees in Ardmore, OK. Nothing going on today, winds are out of the northwest and it's clear and cool. I got up at 7:30 and met Lloyd for breakfast at 8. We then took our morning walk. Lloyd was looking for some superglue to attach his wide-angle lens to his camcorder, and we went towards a Walmart that we were told was just down the road. We didn't find the Walmart, but we did get the glue at a gas station. We walked back to the hotel and met up with Roger and Alister. Before long, it was time to go, so we went back to the rooms and brought our bags down. We got gas and then found the Walmart, where I got the white board. From then on, it was driving up I-35 north to Topeka. We have left Ardmore, it's 2:30 and our trek north continues.

North and north we went, stopping for gas and snacks at a Love station. Jacquie, Alister, Lloyd and I bought spoons with tornado-shaped handles. We talked, we listened to our mp3 players, I watched a couple of episodes of House. Afternoon turned to evening as we passed the exit to Wichita and Salina on our way to Topeka. A line of storms from Mississippi to Kentucky was moving east, way out of our range.

We stopped about 80 minutes south of Topeka at a Braum's, which did not disappoint. When we were done, we got back on the road. I listened to the first period of what would turn out to be the final game between the Rangers and the Devils (the Rangers won 5-3). The sunset was magnificent.

We got in to Topeka at just short of 9. We were at the Ramada, an absolutely magnificent hotel...the ritziest place I've ever stayed in. Lloyd and I decided we would meet at 8 tomorrow morning to take a walk.

Day 1 WOW...

noreply@blogger.com (gadjitfreek) — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 04:07:00 +0000

Roger suggested that we bring our bags with us, and we threw everything into the van and got moving just after 11. Roger couldn't find the registration for the other van, but he eventually tracked it down. We drove the other van to airport parking to store it, then we hit the road. We drove south on I44, settling into conversation as the miles rolled under us. The clouds continued to cover the sky, which was not a good sign. SPC dropped the tornado potential from 5% to 2%, as the models suggested a linear development. At 12:30 we stopped off for some gas and a junk food run. As we got back on the road, the smell of Lloyd's cinnamon roll was maddening. We had brief pockets of sun.

Room him would on balls in and headed Southeast and do we not on who will of him who. When all the time we pull had no cold front. We stopped off in Bowie to have lunch at a McDonald's. And we hung out there for a while while Steve demonstrated would his gymnastic and parked in the back lot. This gave us a nice view out to the west, and dying off the bases are obscenely high, but at least it I tested out the time lapse feature works very well. Stop linking to him a

This is voice recognition at its worst. I am keeping it because it's so funny. We dropped southeast from Wichita Falls and got ahead of the cold front. We stopped for lunch at McDonald's in Bowie, TX. There we stayed for a while as the skies cleared. we watched the radar as two storms formed on it and on the cold front, and moved north behind the cold front. Roger figured they would entrain cold air and die. We moved out of town into an abandoned Walmart parking lot to watch the convection along the front. Melanie called to find out what we were looking at, as the chasecam is active. There was some very explosive convection (even a pileus cloud) that hit the cap and glaciated. We stayed there for a while before chasing the closest cell. We went back north and caught some wall clouds on some line segments. The northernmost supercell to the south got up to the cold front and wrapped it into itself. We decided to go for that storm. We drove to Chico, and dropped south. It took a while to catch up to it and there were a lot of accessory clouds. No structure was evident until we got southwest of Chico and saw a wall cloud. We went back to Chico and were greeted by the most incredible storm I have ever seen. Tail cloud screaming in from the north, intense inflow winds at the ground and amazing rotation. We sat and gawked at it until we were in danger of being caught by softball sized hail. We then blasted towards Fort Worth as the storm south of ours took over the show. 130 knots of shear and a hook from hell. We stopped quickly to get gas and flew southeast. We ran into stopped traffic from an accident (ambulance and helicopter on the scene) and did a U-turn. We were stymied by a little old lady who was too timid to make the turn. We took a detour through a town with lots of traffic lights and then got on the western loop around Fort Worth. The storm's hook closed and the storm went HP before we could get to it. At 7:20 we were approaching a strong core. We pulled into a town and looked for shelter. We found it in an overhang by a bank on the east side. Every available hiding spot had been taken by cars, and there was a tornado siren going off. The storm became linear and we watched it as it bore down on us. The locals said a tornado was reported, but Roger was skeptical. It developed a gorgeous shelf cloud and very dense core. As it neared, some of us (me included) went back into the van. Alister, Lloyd, Tom and Steve braved it under the carport. It started coming down in buckets. Hail to golf ball size obliterated all visibility. We got a river of runoff passing by the van. The van refilled, and we headed towards Waco, watching lightning. Roger got us rooms at the Comfort Inn in Hillsboro. we drove on for a while, and got to our hotel at 930. We all took our bags up to our rooms, and met back down in the lobby. We went next door to get dinner at Pizza Hut. It was actually a very nice dinner, I had a bowl of broccoli soup with a side salad, and everybody else ate similarly lightly. It started raining fairly heavily halfway through our meal, and it really came down in torrents as we were ready to leave at about 1030. We ran through the parking lot, which was already beginning to blood, and ran up the stairs to our rooms. We only got moderately saturated. This was by far the best tasting I have ever had. It makes me glad to be alive, and to be able to spend that life out here doing this.

Day 1 Morning

noreply@blogger.com (gadjitfreek) — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 15:15:00 +0000

So there I was, in a Third World country neighborhood, with my shoes all, running quickly down the road on my toes. In the dream, this seemed to be an extremely rational thing to be doing. I got to the end of the cul-de-sac I was running down, and there was a house. I was being told in documentary style that in this country, traditional lawns are pointless because of the methods that they used to train for battle. The grass was short, and arranged in diamond shaped lines throughout the lawn. I was at the front of the house, and the family was there behind the opening that would have otherwise housed a front door. I was debating the merits of planting two Alberta Spruce trees when I faintly heard the alarm going off. Wearing earplugs, I slept extremely well last night. I got up and got about the business of the day. It was seven o'clock, and the day he looks full of possibilities. The storm prediction Center seems to indicate that we may have a very fun day today indeed. They are saying next Monday and Tuesday might be more than extremely fun. They are talking about a "high end severe threat". If that comes to pass, I may get my wish after all. And just extremely happy to be out here, and seeing all these books again makes it seem like no time at all has passed since the last time I saw them. Meeting Steve and Marie for the first time was a real treat. We had not all met before, but within moments we were like family again.

At eight o'clock, I tapped on Lloyd's door. We started to walk for a geo-cache before realizing that we would rather have breakfast. We walked a little bit more than a mile into town, crossing over a bridge, and ending up at Waffle House. There we either wonderful breakfast and were soon joined by Marie, who had done a brisk walk into town. We stayed there for quite some time enjoying a fine Oklahoma City morning, and then walked back to the hotel in a stiff southerly breeze. The sky is overcast this morning, but the wind is coming from the right direction, and you can definitely feel more moisture. I read packed everything, and waited for our meeting.

End Of Day Zero

noreply@blogger.com (gadjitfreek) — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 04:46:00 +0000

I brought my new tripod arrangement over to Jackie's room, and we decided to go down to see Roger was in. The van was gone, so we walked around a little bit. By the time we got back, Roger was back. He told us there was a chance that we would be chasing this evening, and he showed us the models. Tomorrow is looking better and better with every model update. Jacquie and I went to lunch at Panera Bread right next to the hotel. We each got half a sandwich and some soup, and we yakked it up while eating. While we were there, a guy came in who looked a little bit like Lloyd whose name was Lloyd. It wasn't our Lloyd, however. Jacquie bought a brownie for herself and one for Roger, and we brought it back to his room. We hung out for a little while longer, and Roger introduced us to Steve each. While he was doing this, Lloyd came in. We were all here except for Alister, who was stuck in Vegas. Roger told us all to meet him back in his room at 530, and we would evaluate the situation to see if we would chase this evening. at the time drew near, Lloyd and I made our way down toward the main part of the hotel, where we ran into Marie. Lloyd went into the restaurant and ordered a cheeseburger. It cost him $10. It took awhile to get, and in the mean time the whole crew gathered around the table. We then made our way over to Roger's room, where he showed us the models, which predicted that we could get some storms tonight. We all decided it was worth the risk and got into the van. He drove west and then northwest out of Oklahoma City towards the eastern tip of the Oklahoma Panhandle. There was a storm that had gone up, but as we got closer to it it just got sucked dry. In fact, all of the clouds started dissipating. We stopped off for dinner, which was a nice break, and then went outside to evaluate the situation. There were clouds, there was nothing organized. We stopped off at the Holiday Inn express to scam off their free WiFi. Everything looked to be falling apart, so we drove back to the hotel. It was about 120 miles there and 120 miles back. On the way back, we listened to my CD. It seemed to receive fairly favorable reviews. We got back to the hotel at about 11, and Roger told us we would all meet up at 11 AM. He said the storms would start popping midafternoon, and we were only two hours away from the target area. I'm going to get up at seven in the morning, and meet Lloyd for breakfast and a walk at eight. I went inside my room, took a shower, got caught up with this, and went to bed. It's going to be difficult getting to sleep tonight without Mina by my side.

April 16th: The Arrival

noreply@blogger.com (gadjitfreek) — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 19:47:00 +0000

Wow. Murphy kept me awake all night by pawing my face or vomiting. I had just had a lucid dream for the first time in my life...it had barely begun before Murphy woke me up. I finally got fed up at 3:30 and got up. I had a nice, slow start to the morning. I eventually had a small bowl of cereal, using up the milk. I called father at 4:45 and went into the basement to triple-check my packing. Everything's there! I wanted to make a clean escape to avoid Mina crying at the top of the stairs, and I succeeded. I had to go back upstairs to get my eyeglass case, then I left. I stopped in the road to gaze in wonder at the blazing stars. Father was pulling the car out of the garage as I got there, and I hopped in. We had a very nice drive to the airport, as nice as I had daydreamed. I sighed, went into the airport and was confronted by a huge line. It did move fairly quickly. Fifteen minutes later I got to the security point. A woman was asking to cut through lest she miss her flight. I passed through security and went upstairs to the gate. They have really done major renovations to this place! I took my Dramamine and sat down. I realized that I never gave Father my garage door opener. Never mind, the keypad works well. I typed this out. They called for preboarding but had no takers. We got on the plane at 6:30, but they had to de-ice the wings. We took off at 6:50. It is a glorious morning. We are at altitude and the are serving drinks. The dramamine is making me drowse a bit. It is a glorious morning. We are at altitude and the are serving drinks. The dramamine is making me drowse a bit.

It was an uneventful flight. We arrived 30 minutes early and debarked to the tarmac. When I got into the terminal, my next flight wasn't listed yet. I called mother to see how she is doing, the doctor has not called yet. I had breakfast at the Chili's near my arrival gate, then walked from Terminal D to Terminal C and all the way to gate C46. There I waited for my flight. It was a long wait, so I synced my Treo and downloaded a book and posted to the SLT Board. Roger left his predictions there, things look good! At 11:30, I boarded my flight and prepared for Oklahoma City!

It was a fairly routine flight, and it was completely clear until we got within 100 miles of Oklahoma City. Then we passed through a cumulus field and landed at 20 minutes to one. It's a nice, small airport, and I called the shuttle bus to pick me up. The bus came fairly quickly, I barely had time to say hello to Roger on the cell phone before it got there. We were stuck there for a while as we waited for another lady to make the bus. I got to my hotel, and Roger was at the registration desk. He looks great! He has taken off a tremendous amount of weight. I wish I could do the same. Anyway, he said that the prospects look fun for tomorrow, and maybe even tonight, but Sunday through possibly Thursday could be really, really interesting. I'm not counting any chickens yet, especially considering what happened last year on the Northland tour. I got up to my room, which is at the end of the hotel, next to everybody else's room. I grabbed my GPS and went out to grab a few caches. There was one very close to the hotel and two a few blocks up. It didn't take long to grab them, and now I can add Oklahoma to the list of states I have found geo-caches in. I came back to the hotel after making missed phone connections with Jacquie, and went up to her room which is only two doors down from mine. We are all very excited to be here, and we hope everybody else gets here soon so that maybe we can actually go out and chase today. Wouldn't that be a treat!

85 hours to go...

noreply@blogger.com (gadjitfreek) — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 20:05:00 +0000

The day is quickly approaching where I must leave my darling cats behind and venture forth on my adventure. As the days go by, the forecast for Tour 1 clarifies into a glorious prognostication of violent weather. My gear is packed and I am down to deciding which jacket to bring along. Mina is looking at me now as if to plead with me not to go. As painful as it is to leave her, I must...for the storms await.

25 days to go...

noreply@blogger.com (gadjitfreek) — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 14:47:00 +0000

I have been putting together songs like mad to come up with a CD for the chase. I think I will end it with my rip-off of Bohemian Rhapsody today. Our final chase roster looks like this:

Alister Chapman: Driver
Roger Hill: Leader

Participants:

Jacquie Kukuk
Marie Smith
Lloyd Suter
Tom Howley
Steve Peach
Mark Rosengarten

We will inaugurate the brand-new chase van in 25 days. As Tom Petty once sang: "The waiting is the hardest part!"

38 days to go...

noreply@blogger.com (gadjitfreek) — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 11:53:00 +0000

What can possibly be better than obsessing over a trip that is barely more than a month away? I have been putting together songs for the trip, and I just ordered a new digital camera for the trip. It's the Canon SD870 IS, and it features a time-lapse video mode that will make it easy to take those convection-bomb movies. It uses the same battery as my other camera does, so I will bring along the second battery as a spare. Only question...is there room in my gear bag for the spare battery? I have gone back and forth on how to pack my gadgets for this trip, and come back to the Podzilla every time. With 38 days to go, it is still my strongest contender.

StormChase 2008

noreply@blogger.com (gadjitfreek) — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 19:59:00 +0000

OK, so this year I am set up to go on Tour 1 of Silver Lining Tours' lineup of trips. We depart from Oklahoma City on April 17th, and go for ten days! This is where I will be posting my trip photos and journal!

This photo was taken on the last tour, south of Milk River, Alberta Canada. Our van had broken down and we crammed into one van to chase this beauty. If our van had not kicked its alternators, we would have missed it. On the other hand, we couldn't chase it further. More's the pity!

On tour this year will be Jacquie, Marie, Lloyd and myself. Alister will be driving and Roger will be navigating and on the data end of things. It is going to be a great tour, no matter what comes weatherwise.