2009.05.23
Storm Chase Day 2: Dodging flying debris
BEATRICE, Neb. -- The piece of metal seemed to be floating in the air like a bird. But it wasn't. It was falling.
A kabooming explosion startled us. About 75 yards ahead of us, leading the 3-vehicle Virginia Tech chaser procession today, the back tire of a tanker truck exploded into shards across the multi-lane Interstate 70 in the urban tangle of St. Louis. A huge piece of crumpled metal from the truck was dropped in our lane.
And a piece of metal about the size of a car window was ejected upward, about 50 feet off the ground. Geography professor Bob Oliver, driving the small car not far behind me, likened it to watching a pop-up in baseball. But I didn't want to catch it. I aimed to miss it.
The metal crashed into the lane to my left, safely missing the van I was driving. All three of our chase vehicles were able to safely dodge metal and tire shards in the road, as the tanker veered to the right shoulder of the highway.
We had already endured two traffic tie-ups in St. Louis and would experience yet another. When the third tie-up occurred in St. Louis' western suburbs, a car in the lane to my left ended up careening into the median to avoid rear-ending the car in front of it. For a second, it appeared that car would come back out of the median, bump into a vehicle on my left, which might then bump us. Blessedly, thankfully, that didn't happen.
It all underscores a point we've often made. Tornadoes are never our biggest safety concern on the annual storm chase trip -- not even close, ranking under more common storm dangers like lightning, hail, heavy rain and high winds. But all of those rank well below our number one risk: Road travel, often in dry, beautiful weather. The greatest risk of a storm chase trip varies little from that of a cross-country family vacation or any long-distance road trip.
We are in southeast Nebraska tonight after a drive under cumulus-dotted skies that signal an increase of moisture and instability. We're still not expecting any huge outbreaks or, really, much in the way of organized severe weather. The upper air dynamics remain very weak, and show no signs of changing on a large scale for the foreseeable future.
But thunderstorms are expected to occur almost every day this week in the Rockies and the High Plains region that parallels them to the east. We're looking for the little pockets that could spin up severe weather in localized areas.
It's a difficult way to chase storms. But it's what we have.
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We're headed out to SW Nebraska this morning for a marginal risk of severe weather.
Comment by Kevin Myatt — May 23, 2009 @ 9:59 am
I could be way wrong with this observation, but could it be safe to say that the current weather pattern is more akin to mid to late summer than mid-late spring?
Hope you all keep safe!
Comment by Nate — May 23, 2009 @ 4:21 pm
I realize that this comment is 3 days late, but trying to avoid other drivers who are crazy is one of my biggest problems as a letter carrier. Did you happen to see if the driver of the car that swerved into your lane was on the cell phone? That is often a cause of putrid driving. Just today I was on Loudon Avenue and had to come to an emergency stop (even though I had the right of the way!!) because some bozo in a City of Roanoke mini-pickup would have run a stop sign if I had not "sat" on the horn. Suggestion: if you have to come home by driving through metro St. Louis, do so in the evening.
Comment by Doug Griggs — May 26, 2009 @ 10:31 pm