Day 6: Sobering and spectacular, but stormlessPosted May16, 2008 at 07:33 PMCARLSBAD, N.M. -- We are in a long waiting game now, as we see how and whether the weather pattern will shift to bring severe storms back to the central U.S. next week. Current indications are that it will happen, but probably not until Wednesday at the earliest. A mid-trip lull seems to be common on these trips -- it's happened in all four of the ones I've been on -- but a storm hiatus lasting a full week would be unprecedented. But, this is a trip focused on the weather, so we are at the mercy of the weather pattern. 
Storm chaser Taylor White, a Virginia Tech student, looks at the Saragosa tornado memorial On a happier tone, we also traveled through the beautiful mountains of southwest Texas, eating a picnic lunch at a roadside pullout with a great view of El Capitan, which stands beside Texas' tallest peak, Guadalupe Peak, in Guadalupe Mountains National Park. Most people do not associate the state of Texas with mountains, but the southwest part of the Lone Star State contains many mountains that dwarf those in Southwest Virginia ... Guadalupe Peak is about 3,000 feet higher than Virginia's highest peak, Mount Rogers. The views were stunningly gorgeous. Without a storm to observe, this was the next best thing. We are in Carlsbad, N.M. tonight. No, we haven't gone to the caverns ... don't know yet if we will or not. It was too late in the day when we came through to fight through the lines for a multi-hour tour. Our general plan is to slowly drift north the next few days, better positioning ourselves for what may happen in the middle to latter part of next week. Day 5: Looking back, looking aheadPosted May15, 2008 at 11:55 PMPECOS, Texas -- Although we did manage to find a small thunderstorm with a little lightning and rain over extreme southwest Texas, Thursday was mainly just a relaxing drive through the semi-arid terrain of west Texas. We are down this far south because the jet stream pattern is pushing south of Canada to such an extent that it is driving most of the moisture and warmth out of the United States. The extreme southern rim of Texas and eastern New Mexico looks like the only real shot at thunderstorms the next few days, as some warmth and moisture may linger, and a few disturbances along with the terrain may aid in allowing some convection to occur. The chances of severe weather are slim, but never zero when there are thunderstorms. Down time between storm chases can be beneficial, helping us get some rest and take care of tasks like washing clothes and buying food. We also use the time to look back and look ahead. 
Looking ahead ... we'll be looking for any sign of a pattern change that could yield more widespread storminess next week. Several forecast models are beginning to show just that, but the various models have been in poor agreement. We'll just have to wait and see where we end up going next week, but for now, perhaps we should just enjoy some good Tex-Mex food and see if we can coax out a picturesque storm over the desert. Follow Kevin's progress on this map. See video from May 15. Day 4: A taste of Texas supercellsPosted May15, 2008 at 01:27 AMBROWNWOOD, Texas -- Wednesday was a long day, but a good one for our group of storm chasers. We targeted a region near Abilene and southward as we headed out from Weatherford, Texas, in the morning. We were not at all confident that anything stormy would happen, but some atmospheric parameters began to look more conducive to severe weather as we moved west. On the move, we altered our plan with new data, and kept going west to intercept storms in west Texas halfway between Midland and Abilene near Big Spring, Texas. We were treated to a beautiful supercell storm cycling over the open Wild West terrain. The storm's winds kicked up lots of red West Texas dust, blowing it in horizontal plumes and spinning some of it into whirlwinds known as "gustnadoes." Dave's van went right through one gustnado, and both vans disappeared into a red dust storm a couple of times. Some chasers got a real taste of Texas as the wind blew dust into their mouths. The storm dropped a couple of rotating masses, one of which we observed in front of us minutes before a tornado warning was issued as radar picked up what we were seeing. We ended up chasing that on a gravel road around mesas and buttes, but it did not drop a tornado, and raced on eastward. We spent the rest of the day trying to catch up with the storms racing away from us, but could never get far enough to go around it (or through it!) again for another good look. Instead, we settled in behind the storms southeast of Abilene to end the day. Our student chasers were very amped about Wednesday. The weather pattern from Thursday for several days forward is likely to shut down most thunderstorm activity in the central U.S. We may be swinging WAY south to try to find anything the rest of this week -- but as the last couple of days proved, plans can change on a dime. The audio soundslide will come later today. Even if you've seen it once, be sure and go back and look at the Day 1 audio soundslide again, as photos have been added. Follow Kevin's progress on this map. See previous video from May 14. Day 3: A beautiful sunset storm in rural TexasPosted May14, 2008 at 01:44 AMWEATHERFORD, Texas -- It was getting past 5 p.m. Tuesday and there was no sign of storms firing anywhere close as we waited beside a church on top of a hill just west of Ardmore, Okla. Storms had started to develop from Oklahoma City northeastward toward Tulsa and beyond, but nothing was going up south of Oklahoma City. A warm layer in the atmosphere called the cap simply wasn't being broken by enough strong updrafts to produce thunderstorms. But a few counties south in Texas, we noticed storms rapidly developing on radar. With nothing else close to us, we made a quick jaunt south across the Red River toward the storm more than 100 miles away. Just before 8 p.m. we succeeded in catching up to the biggest of the stroms, over a very hilly and forested part of north-central Texas in Jack County that wasn't all that much different than Virginia, if you ignored the cactus. The countryside provided a dramatic setting for a powerful thunderstorm that dropped several lowerings and showed signs of rotation. Low-level shear -- winds changing with height near the ground -- was not strong enough to produce tornadoes this day. In fact, despite two large tornado watches being issued, there was only one tornado report in the nation on Tuesday, and it occurred along the Missouri-Kansas border. But we did get an exciting and gorgeous conclusion to a long chase day that looked for a while like it might be a bust. Our student storm chasers were excited with how the day ended. You can see some of those scenes in the audio soundslide that will be inserted into this blog entry. Here is one photo of a wall cloud trying to spin into something more. WEDNESDAY: It looks like there is severe potential in the same general area of north-central Texas, so we will probably not be traveling far. Follow Kevin's progress on this map. See previous video on May 13. Day 2: The calm before the storm?Posted May12, 2008 at 09:41 PMSHAWNEE, Okla. -- Today was just a slow, relaxing drift west under blue skies as we set up for a possible severe weather outbreak on Tuesday. We slept in a little bit, got going pretty late, stopped a few times, threw the frisbee around some, and ended up in Shawnee, Okla. for the evening. We ate a big barbecue dinner at wonderful local restaurant called Van's Pig Stand, treated so graciously by everyone who worked there. A big part of these trips for me is the food and local hospitality.
Tuesday could produce another in a long line of violent weather situations for the southern Plains, or it could be something less than that. There is always a chance that expected storms won't go up at all, if a layer of warm air aloft called the cap holds firm. Either way, we just want to position ourselves in the best place to have the opportunity to observe a supercell thunderstorm safely. That is much easier speculated about than it can be performed. Follow the storm chase crew on this map. See previous audio report on May 12. Day 1: Driving away from severe weatherPosted May11, 2008 at 11:57 PMNORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- There were 20 tornado reports from Ohio to Georgia on Sunday, and scores of hail and wind reports, some from our own backyard in Southwest Virginia. But our group of 12 storm chasers drove away from all of that. We encountered a brief round of gusty squalls with a few flashes of lightning in northeast Tennessee. That was it for storms on the first day of Storm Chase 2008. What we ran through over northeast Tennessee was the same cluster of storms developing that would later affect Southwest Virginia. A split in the morning precipitation shield, followed by some breaks in clouds in some areas allowing the sun to shine, cause the atmosphere to destabilize more than earlier expected much farther north than severe storms had been forecast. With upper air wind currents blowing strongly in different directions, this caused many storms to develop rotating updrafts, which led to hail, gusty winds and even some tornadoes. But these storms were racing 50 mph or greater through hilly, tree-covered terrain. And we wanted to be in position for a possible Tuesday intercept of what may be a very potent severe weather situation in the open plains of Texas and Oklahoma. So, though we monitored and watched the severe weather situation unfold, we only briefly connected with today's storms, and kept moving west. Our student leader, Sandy LaCorte of North Carolina-Asheville, even alerted family and friends as she watched on radar as a tornadic storm moved close to them on the outskirts of Charlotte, N.C. Going for the two in the bush rather than one in the hand, maybe. More likely, we are opting for a flock in the wide open Plains rather a couple of fast-moving, hard-to-see tweeters in the Eastern U.S. thicket. MONDAY: Likely a travel day west from our overnight abode here in North Little Rock, Ark., to near the Red River between Oklahoma and Texas, getting us in position for a possible severe weather outbreak on Tuesday. Storm chaser arrest triggers controversyPosted May10, 2008 at 10:33 AMAfter our 2007 storm chase trip, I wrote a Weather Journal column about the growing number of storm chasers in the central U.S. and the occasional tension with local aw enforcement officials. An incident in Crane County, Texas, earlier this week has brought that into the limelight. A man leading a commercial storm chasing tour, while also reporting storm information to the National Weather Service, was arrested by a deputy sheriff and charged with obstruction of a highway. (Click here for article, along with video clips and photos.) The storm chaser and at least one witness says he was safely parked in a roadside park, not obstructing anyone. The sheriff's office later issued a statement saying they were acting to protect the man and his tour group from tornadoes, and also that he wasn't reporting storm information to the local emergency office. The storm chaser community is outraged; a discussion thread goes on for many pages on the storm chaser Web site Stormtrack. It sounds as if there might be a protracted legal battle over this incident. Our dealings with law enforcement over the years have been, without exception, extremely positive. Most of the time, law enforcement officials in small towns throughout the central U.S. just come and chat with us when they see our vans with the magnets and the antennas. Faced with a similar situation, I have no doubt that we would have unquestionably complied with the officer's order to move to a different location, even if it meant sacrificing a better storm viewing spot. We want to be seen in the best light possible, and it certainly wouldn't be worth the trouble with two vanloads of college and high school students. Storm Chase Trip 2008Posted May09, 2008 at 09:21 PM
Recent severe weather in our region has only heightened both the interest level and the seriousness we have in the subject as we prepare to head out on the 2008 storm chase trip Sunday morning (May 11). It is quite possible we will be heading into some threat of severe storms almost right out of the gate on Sunday in Southwest Virginia and eastern Tennessee, though our main goal is to get far enough west by Tuesday for a possible Southern Plains severe weather outbreak. Above is a link to the main chase page that includes our position mapped on radar and a link to a blog being kept by the students on the trip: Of course, I will be providing daily updates here on Roanoke.com as we head into a very confusing and uncertain weather pattern. Storm chase team members are listed below by residence and school/professional affiliation:
Lots of storm imagesPosted Jun01, 2007 at 10:39 PM
Updraft base of "mothership" supercell storm in northern Kansas 
Suspicious lowering beneath updraft base of Kansas supercell But I also have lots of interesting shots from local storms, taken by me and others. For instance, a fierce thunderstorm late last September that dumped copious hail just to the north of Roanoke.  High-precipitation, or HP, supercell in Texas Panhandle I just wanted to put a large variety of storm shots online in connection with today's column. There are always amazing things to see in the sky, whether it's pulse storms in our mountains or supercells in the Plains. Wrapping up Storm Chase 2007Posted May25, 2007 at 08:35 AM
Though we are keeping an eye on severe weather possibilities along our route and to the north as we head eastward today across Arkansas and Tennessee, most likely the chase part of this trip is in the books. 
Also, here's a link to the inset photo from North Carolina-Asheville student David Ramsaur, our group's student trainer. The photo shows our chase team and vans under a swirling supercell structure over Kansas on Tuesday. Click here for additional photos from the chase trip. Weather Journal columns related to the chase trip can be clicked on here (June 2) and here (June 13) Once again, here is a list of the members of our 2007 chase team: Dave Carroll, co-leader, Pulaski County High School teacher and Virginia Tech adjunct instructor
Audio: Click the play button to hear Dwayne Yancey talk with Kevin Myatt about the final leg of his Midwest storm-chasing trip. Another big supercell -- maybe another tornadoPosted May24, 2007 at 08:33 AM
Our group of storm chasers caught another spectacular supercell Wednesday before sunset in the northeast corner of the Texas Panhandle. Unlike Tuesday, when we were almost constantly on the move, we were able to pull along a roadside and watch the rotating storm for about an hour without moving. It appears we may have observed and filmed another tornado (click here for still frame) ... also detected on radar and reported by a sheriff's deputy in the same time frame ... but it wasn't as immediately obvious to us as Tuesday's tornado was. In any event, it was a spectacular show of atmospheric violence amid the peaceful pastures of Texas.
Images from a great, grueling chase dayPosted May23, 2007 at 09:16 AM
I'll be working on getting images and video from Tuesday's chase in northwest Kansas for many days -- especially since we're expecting another potentially very active chase day today in southern Kansas. We targeted an area along and north of Interstate 70 between Hays and Colby, near and just west of WaKeeney. By 4 p.m., storms began to fire just west of where we were waiting for them, and we spent about the next five hours chasing storm structures of incredible beauty and power over the open plains of Kansas. We did see a tornado, as you can see in the middle of the attached video and also in the still shot linked below. Below is a sampler of some of what we saw, beginning with a big image of the "mother ship" supercell in the inset photo ... the structure of the storm rounded by powerful winds aloft.
"Mother ship" supercell Tornado in Graham County, Kansas Rotating wall cloud near silos Chaser Amanda Chambers of Buchanan photographing precipitation shaft and "rain foot" Tornado, hail and morePosted May23, 2007 at 01:33 AMI could write a book on today's storm chase, which included 5 hours of hard chasing on Kansas back roads, golfball-sized hail, numerous other-worldly supercell thunderstorms, and, almost as an afterthought, a tornado. But pulling in late to McPherson, Kan., late after an exhausting day, I'm much too tired to write much now. Hope to get some photos and video up soon. A serious gamblePosted May22, 2007 at 12:55 AMWe weren't sure we had a bird in the hand with expected severe weather in the Dakotas on Monday, but even if we did, we still would have probably let it go for a whole flock of birds in the bush here in Kansas. By mid-afternoon Monday, our group of 12 storm chasers made a decision to entirely forego chasing in the Dakotas in order to get an early jump on placing ourselves in Kansas for what may be a big severe weather event, with the potential for powerful supercells and tornadoes, today. So Monday became a travel day, and we arrived at Hays, Kansas, late Monday. We'll likely travel a bit more southward toward Dodge City or so today as we set up in the best place where instability, wind shear and moisture will be maximized. This could be a huge storm day ... or a huge bust day. So it is when you follow the whims of weather. NOTE: We seem to be having some trouble getting our location to show on the tracking map. We're unsure what the problem is. Hopefully, this can be corrected later today as we get near more digital repeaters that would pick up our signal. Today's tornado potential from Storm Prediction Center
Audio: Click the play button to hear Dwayne Yancey talk with Kevin Myatt about chasing storms in Kansas. An All-American storm chase dayPosted May20, 2007 at 11:35 PMSunday was the best day of our storm chase trip so far, as we succeeded in catching a supercell thunderstorm as it blew off the Black Hills over Rapid City, South Dakota. We targeted western South Dakota and southeast Montana as the area most likely to have significant severe weather despite limitations in moisture and deep atmospheric shear, or changing winds with height. But as we approached Rapid City, this storm (click here for larger version of photo) was already firing, and somewhere it was finding enough spin in the atmosphere to become a supercell. What we saw was a textbook look at a "low precipitation supercell," or "LP" as it's known in weather geek talk. It produced little rain but spit out quite a bit of hail in the Rapid City area, and a few larger stones dinged our vans as we headed southward to observe the storm. For a time, the storm produced a rotating lowering known as a wall cloud (click here for video still frame), which in some situations can be a precursor to a tornado. In this case, though, there wasn't enough low-level spin and the cloud base was too high for a tornado ... a very good thing for Rapid City! 
A supercell thunderstorm dominates the sky over Rapid City, South Dakota In between ... we found we were only 15 miles away from a great American landmark, so the chase vans pulled in for an afternoon stop at Mount Rushmore. Here I am below the presidential quartet set in stone. It's hard to beat a day like this, but the severe weather outlook continues to look more active for the next 3 or 4 days. So the best may be yet to come.
Another small chase; big chase days loomPosted May20, 2007 at 12:50 AM
We're in Chamberlain, South Dakota, tonight facing a confusing, but potentially very active, severe weather forecast the next few days. Sunday may yet produce a chase day in the Dakotas, and the Monday-Thursday time frame may produce several opportunities. For the first time during this trip, tornadoes become a serious possibility on Sunday, and that potential only grows as the week goes along. Maybe some action today?Posted May19, 2007 at 08:38 AMNo matter what the tracker map shows (link at upper left), we're in North Platte, Nebraska, this morning after pulling in early, a great meal at a steakhouse and a relatively early bedtime. We're drifting north toward South Dakota today on the lookout for isolated storms firing along a frontal boundary. There looks to be some chance of storms each of the next five days, with the best chances still focusing on Monday-Wednesday when widespread severe weather may occur advancing eastward from the northern Plains to the Ohio Valley. I've heard it's oddly chilly back home in Virginia. We're in a holding patternPosted May18, 2007 at 09:15 AM
Alicia Bayse of Pulaski County High School takes a photo over Palo Duro Canyon on a pretty West Texas day ... but a slow day for storms. Things look to change by Monday, and the next couple of day we will mainly be preparing for that. Unless something pops up in eastern Colorado today, we will not be chasing storms again until Sunday night at the earliest, and more likely, Monday onward, when we will likely have three or more very tiring days.
Audio: Click the play button to hear Dwayne Yancey talk with Kevin Myatt, in Liberal, Kan., about storm-chasing in the Great Plains. Chasing flying breadPosted May17, 2007 at 09:14 AMWednesday was a travel day as expected, headed west. The highlight of the day was a stop at Lambert's Cafe in Sikeston, Mo., where servers hurl rolls across the room to dinner guests ... the famous "throwed rolls." (Catching the roll in the video is David Ramsaur, a senior majoring in meteorology at North Carolina-Asheville and our group's trainer and lead forecaster.) We like to throw in a little tourist type stuff in the long downtimes between storms. We're in Shawnee, Okla., just east of Oklahoma City this morning. We're going to be headed west toward the region where Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado and Kansas meet, watching for storms to fire on moist flow up the higher terrain and then translate southeastward. We're not expecting much severe weather, just some photogenic clouds and maybe lightning in the early evening. The big thing for us now is the Sunday-Wednesday period next week when a potent severe weather setup may be developing in the Plains. Getting positioned for that will be the most important thing for us.
Audio: Click the play button to hear Dwayne Yancey talk with Kevin Myatt about storms, travel and flying rolls. An ill wind blows through IllinoisPosted May16, 2007 at 12:29 AM
Wednesday looks to be a travel day as we head toward the western High Plains to see if we can get any upslope thunderstorm action and to wait on potential weather pattern changes early next week that could turn things very active.
Audio: Click the play button to hear highlights of Kevin Myatt's trip Stormy day in IowaPosted May15, 2007 at 12:59 AM
Today, we head to central Illinois to follow the cold front responsible for Monday's storms farther south. Central Illinois provided a particularly memorable storm chasing experience on last year's trip, as this blog entry from May 17 recalls.
Audio: Click the play button to hear highlights of Kevin Myatt's trip A long drivePosted May14, 2007 at 01:32 AMWe left Blacksburg around 9:30 a.m. and arrived in Moline, Ill., on the eastern shore of the Mississippi River, at midnight Central time (1 p.m. Eastern). We made an 800-mile first-day journey to set us up for a possible storm chase in western or northern Iowa, perhaps eastern Nebraska, today. A cold front will be moving into warm, moist air in the region, but there are mixed signals on the upper air wind dynamics. So we're not sure yet if there will be a lot of severe thunderstorms or just a few isolated ones. But with even lesser prospects for storms later in the week, we're going all out for this event. Will let you know tonight or Tuesday whether our long drive was fruitful or futile. You can follow our position, relative to the map and to the radar, on the storm tracker page linked at the upper right of this blog. Follow the storm chasersPosted May12, 2007 at 11:13 PMNOTE: Technological problems have rendered our tracking page kaput, so I have removed this from the home page for the blog. This isn't really your typical weather bulletin ... I just want to keep the link for the storm chase tracking page in the upper right corner of my blog for the next two weeks so I don't have to repeat it in every blog entry. Click here for the current tracking of the storm chase team The page has been constructed by Ben Mills, a Virginia Tech engineering student and amateur radio enthusiast. There may be a few times when we're out of radio range and the page isn't current ... but every year, the gaps in coverage get smaller and smaller, so it should have us pinpointed most of the trip. Come ride along with us -- virtually! It's almost time to chase storms againPosted May10, 2007 at 03:38 PM
You can follow our progress on the Web site linked here, created by Ben Mills, an engineering student and amateur radio enthusiast at Virginia Tech. I will also be updating this blog from time to time as we go along. Chase team members are listed below: Dave Carroll, co-leader, Pulaski County High School teacher and Virginia Tech adjunct instructor Click here for a closer look at our chase trip poster. I shot this photo of a rotating wall cloud, with the sun shining under it, in a supercell thunderstorm near Maroa, Ill., on last year's trip. My first storm chase of 2007Posted Mar28, 2007 at 07:06 PM
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