Author: Doug

After a month on the road, stopping home for a mater of minutes just to check the mail and wash clothes then head back on the road again, I’m happy to say, I’m coming home, or I’m going home folks to spend some time at home for once.

I wrapped up the first part of a huge gig a week ago and then had to drive all night home only to get a few hours of sleep and clean up and pack and head back out to the scuba trip with Brian that has been in the works for almost a year.  The scuba trip was great and I got in 13 dives with the deepest being on the Baja wreck at 110 feet.  Yes the PO2 alarm was going off on my dive computer at 1.4 PO2 and I thought about pushing it a few more feet to get to the bottom of the wreck.

Now, I’m just chilling out in Fort Myers for the night and going to do some more laundry on the road at the hotel and then get some sleep. 

Before I forget, here is some photos from the dive trip with the new under water HD setup. A few cool shots and one of Brian working the camera. 

Here is this dude we picked up in South Park Colorado. His name is Johnny and he was in a Fitz… He was asking for change so we gave him a ride…

Life on THE ROAD is rough, it’s not really a homeless dude but one of the guys I’m chasing with who is just beat from all the travel.

Just an FYI, I’m still out chasing but can’t say much other than some know whats up.  Here is a shot from The Road…

Just a quick update from home for once.  I’m home for a few days then I’m going back out to chase again after I rest up and clean up.

Yesterday we got on the tornado that hit the southwest side of Omaha during the over night hours.  We saw the power flashes just off to the south of us and then got hit with the RFD as we chased after the rain wrapped tornado at night.  It was pretty intense to say the lease but we were seeing more then most chasers.  After the storm passed, I went and documented the damage area.   It looked like a small but intense tornado. 

Ok, been pulling 4 hours of sleep for the last week and I now have 2 days off and I’m going to enjoy them sleeping.

Just a quick update to the blog.  It is 3am and were in Kansas City and dead to the world but I was on the storm that dropped a tornado near Pittsburg Kansas tonight.  The storm fired at sunset so it was hard to see the thing and I’m not sure how the video will look but we could visually see it just southwest of the town drop a funnel that was almost to the ground in the middle of some fields with a nice wall cloud for a few minutes.  We followed it through town and when it started to fall apart.  It was pretty nice for the visuals to see the setup with the twilight back lighting the storm and the faint lights of the city helping out at times.

As far as I know, no damage was done by this storm but it was a great learning experience for Phillip who is chasing with me to learn how the whole chasing and media thing comes together. 

Also we were on another storm that was a low topped super-cell that was trying to produce near Adair OK.  Yes, today was one of those crazy chase days were it was a low chance of seeing anything and we saw a lot of stuff.  And crazy because we drove from KS to OK to MO to KS to MO back to KS and then back to KC MO for the night.  Ugh, this chase is really going “to the break of dawn”…

Ok bad rap music quote.  I’m going to share a couple photos and a screen cap from the video camera before I call it a night.

Here is what I got near Adair OK.  It looked better before this but I was stuck on the turnpike and had to drive out of my way to get back to here I could actually see this.

Here is the storm that went through Pittsburg KS.  The first is the anvil from just north of town and the second is a vid-cap of what I was seeing.   It was so freaking hard to see this since the lightning was pretty much nil and the storm was not that strong but it was still doing it.

Video Cap from just south of Pittsburg KS.

Ok, off to bed, tomorrow is already here and I only have a few hours to sleep before I go back out on the chase.

Well that was fun… Another high risk day, another turbo charged day full of fun chasing. This morning, I woke up to a High Risk of severe weather on the Storm Prediction Center – Day One Outlook.  It looked like we were going to have a great setup until I saw the upper level winds and I knew the storms would be moving along at insane speeds.  So this morning we stopped off in Hays Kansas to pick up some JATO (Jet-Assisted Take Off) units for the truck. They were not even enough to help out to keep up with the storms.   Just kidding about the JATO unit.

Here was the day one forecast that showed the high risk for today.

Pretty much just played the line today in Kansas and got on several tornadic warned storms. Not a bad day, just not something I think should have be high risk. I did get some sweet lightning footage and some wicked time-lapse video of the storms.

But for the most part the storms were HP or High Precipitation and you could not see much.  When you could see the setup, they looked pretty sweet.

I did stop and grab a screen cap of the radar while we were waiting around for the storms to fire. I think the storms were moving a little fast today.

Ok, it is 4am and we just rolled into our hotel here in Kansas.  We chased some storms in Northeast Colorado but got a late start due to a couple of things beyond my control.  It happens when you chase with a few people vs chasing on your own where you pick up and go when and where you want.

So we just got in and looking over the forecast and it could be anywhere from south central Nebraska to Topeka Kansas and further south to Wichita Kansas.  But what has me concerned is for the storms heading towards Minnesota and my home and Neva.  I hope the forecast that far north is more hype then anything north of the warm front but I will just have to wait and see what this low does.  I may end up chasing all the way back home. 

Ok, I’m back out in the field but I’m waiting on some stuff so today will not be a chase day even though I am out in the area I am stuck waiting on chase partners and guests and stuff that want to go chasing with me.  

Normally I would say screw you guys and go chasing solo but this time I’m doing the eco chase so to speak and going to try chasing with a couple people to help deal with the costs.  What is cool is that I will be chasing with some new people but it will be interesting compared to my normal chasing solo.

Oh yeah, and yes Neva, the coffee sucks out here.  I miss my home brew coffee already.

Also when I get some time tomorrow (Wednesday) I will work on the update to the blogs and chase reports for the last 2 weeks.  Everyday has been rush rush rush except for a couple that I took as down days to spend with Neva.

Ok, just a quick update from the field since it is another high risk chase day.  I still have a lot of stuff to put up line from the last week of chasing but I took a couple days off to spend time with Neva and take some much needed down time after tornado insanity.  I got stuck on the urban chase and was unable to get close to the storms that hit Hugo MN.  I can’t get them all but I will try.

So I’m just heading for Worthington MN and then to Sioux City Iowa and then reposition from there.  Looks like one hell of a chase day setting up.  I actually got a call from Bill Doms this morning and he left me a message saying he was heading out to chase.  When I got the message 2 hours later I saw the SPC forecast and almost had a heart attack trying to get all my gear together fast and get out the door. 

Here is what SPC has forecasted for today.

Yesterday was a HUGE let down for a lot of chasers who targeted Nebraska but lucky for me, it was just a stop on the way home to hang out with a bunch of friends just in case something happened.  I made it home about 2:00 in the morning and woke up to severe weather to the north of Minneapolis that were heading for St. Cloud and to Neva’s place.  I called her to warn her and just as the storms started to roll into St. Cloud and the hail started to fall.  Neva just got a new on the house because last year it got damaged by hail and less then a month after the new roof was put on, here we go again.

Today I’m targeting somewhere in southern Minnesota.  Not sure yet as part of the setup looks to be in SW MN and part looks good in SE MN.  Still forecasting and will be heading out in a couple minutes. 

Here are some hail photos that Neva took this morning from the back yard.  I’ll post all of my stuff from this last week as soon as I get back home and the weather settles down some.   Until then I will be posting just quick updates, images and video as it happens.