Today has been one of those days where it is a drive down nightmare lane, not memory lane… it is the one year anniversary of Category Five Hurricane Michael making landfall at Mexico Beach, FL in Bay County, FL.
I say nightmare because this was the scariest storm intercept of my life. Then again, I was in one of the worst possible position you could put yourself into without getting hit by the surge. The trip also was good to answer questions about time and distances for my own sanity since this was the first time being back at Mexico Beach, FL since the storm.
Shot on 10/10/2018 in the eye wall of Hurricane Michael on highway 98 before the surge.10/9/2019 The view of what is left along the same area of Highway 98 a year after Hurricane Michael.
Below are some of the images from the area on the one year anniversary of the storm. You can see some of the damaged homes and structures are still waiting on insurance claims and a large amount of lots are empty where houses once stood.
Photo from the drone of the party at Mango’s in Mexico Beach, FL
Over the next few weeks I’m working on a follow up documentary project for this storm and the recovery.
When I first started out chasing, it was not about getting the best video or video sales but it was about getting amazing still images. The other day I was able to get back to playing with the still images and time lapse work which will be a main focus for 2020 for me.
Here is the time lapse stuff I shot on 9/30 that was featured on The Weather Channel.
Vivid lightning time lapse over Eagan, MN and MSP Airport – 9/30/2019
Starting later this year, major upgrades are finally taking place with the camera equipment and working on more in house productions as the state of media chasing has drastically changed over time.
Back in June we started chatting with a company that wanted to work with us on various different productions and after about four months of back and fourth, last week we are going ahead with it. This comes just in time for us to bow out of another project that sounded interesting at first but after careful consideration and looking at the pros and cons, we decided against it. The main reason was, do we work for someone else or do we become the production company and chart our own path and own future?
We picked the path that allowed us to chart our own path. From what I have heard through the chasing channels, us or “SCV” as a whole declining this project, has killed off this project. Probably for the best as this was a show that morphed into following around chasers chasing and talking about their chasing and into a competition show of one chasing team against another chasing team like so many of the other “So Called” reality shows. The last thing chasing needs is a show that makes all the chasers look like a bunch of jerk offs looking for destruction.
It was pretty funny as I was trying to be polite (rare eh?) and say we are not interested last week but Monday I was bugged about “Why Can’t You Do Both?” and “Can’t You Double Dip?” and this one made me laugh “You Will Have Lots Of Eyes On You” by one of the producers. The worst part about this whole project is that they wanted me to sign off on being locked into their “potential show” for up to nine (9) months without any pay. Yes, you read that correctly, nine months, no pay, can’t work on any other projects but yet my company works on lots of different projects every week with production companies all around the world.
The conversation ended with me saying the following. Here is the fundamental problem. We already work in TV and everyone you have talked to has been on numerous reality clip shows, commercials or their own not so reality shows.
So eyes on means absolutely zero and it’s more of a pain in the ass vs being able to be incognito to get in and get out to get our shots.
The whole being on TV thing, we could be on the weather channel tomorrow if we wanted to with the footage we shoot today…
Seriously the show I did for in 2008, that only paid me scrap money and is still on the air 11 years later did nothing but brought me hate mail.
We could double or even triple dip but the problem is their is absolutely nothing in it for us but having a camera crew in our way all the time vs us being our own camera crew. Good luck with the project, but as of now, we’re not interested.
The following morning I followed up with a final message that just said. And like I said, screen time, I opened The Weather Channel morning show this morning with this video
10/1/2019 Opening shot on AMHQ on The Weather Channel with my footage in the background.
When I talked to everyone on my crew after I decided to not work on this project last week after hearing from another company that is looking to work with us, everyone was in agreement that a competition show would not be the best for chasing and doing more documentary project is the way to bring chasing into a much more friendlier public exposure after all the negative press over the last year by other’s.
Ugh, the marathon of Hurricane Dorian is over. Last week was one of those weeks of should we or should be not, do I go or do I stay home and work the desk? In the end, I made the decision to stay home and work the desk while the team went out and covered the storm in the USA. We didn’t send anyone to the Bahamas since we I did not feel the need for footage and the risk involved of going to or sending anyone into a Cat Five hurricane in another country would be worth it.
In other news, I finally closed out the Smug Mug account. That account was basically a cool idea but waste of money. Over coming weeks, I will be reviewing and editing all of my photography to make sure only what needs to be in a gallery is in gallery and have everything organized correctly.
Footage of a wicked car crash that looked like it was a head on crash. While working in the home office, we heard a large boom that sounded like a tree limb hit the house but soon the police scanner revealed the sound was a wreck two blocks away.
Video is of the scene of a “Head On” Accident on west bound 2nd Street just west of the intersection of Division. Force of the wreck was great enough that two tow trucks had to try two times to pull them apart. Still working on details of what happened.
So, no updates? What have I been up to for the last week since the chase in Iowa? Just working on paperwork here at the office and trying to get stuff caught up. Nothing exciting. Just working on the crews footage when they come in and entering data into Quickbooks.
Wow, so extreme… I’m joking since it is not extreme but boring. That is the other half of this fun life of chasing which is the not so fun side of paperwork.
Today was a different chase, was not that impressed with the setup but I was able to chase to I made the most of it.
Target this morning was the area around Blue Earth, MN to Mankato, MN. I left the house after lunch as the first cell of the day fired up and dropped large hail west of the Twin Cities metro and I was able to avoid that storm. I saw reports of hail up to four inches in size. No thank you, that would destroy my Jeep and I was focused on finding some rotation and maybe a lightning strike or two.
Just north of Medford, MN, I stopped to check the data since Minnesota is now Hands Free and I can’t use half of my equipment while chasing. Saw the data and the MD for a possible watch that I posted earlier today. I checked the weather data and yes, it was MOIST!
Kestrel 5000 showing it was MOIST!
The problem with today was the upper level winds. The storms had some sheer and were rotating but they were not moving all that fast and pretty much sat in place as they grew and started raining and eventually rained themselves out and created outflow and new storms.
The first storm of the day near Owatonna, MN was trying but it was just not that impressive while the original target area did have a storm that was over 51,000 feet tall. So I headed southwest and intercepted the storm near Amboy, MN . Below is a photo of the storm as it was growing before it became outflow dominate.
Severe Storm brewing near Amboy, MN
When I got over to the base of this storm, it split but I followed this to Blue Earth, MN and into Iowa.
North of Blue Earth, MN Blue Earth, MN Wall Cloud forming and weak rotation. Lowering and rotation near Blue Earth, MN
*** Update *** I was going to just edit the video later today (Tuesday) but I started reviewing the footage and I actually got a brief touch down when I continued to follow the storms into Winnebago County, Iowa and I was pretty much shocked that it showed up on the camera but I could not see it but then again I had so much going on at that time with three different cameras and watching out for the storm that was about to slam the area I was at.
Here is the video from Winnebago County, IA
Winnebago County, IA Tornado, Funnel, Lightning Time-Lapse – 8/5/2019
In the field now, decided to chase today. Targeting south central Minnesota and an MD just came out. Heading down to Owatonna now.
Mesoscale Discussion 1646
NWS Storm Prediction Center Norman OK
0118 PM CDT Mon Aug 05 2019
Areas affected...parts of central and northern Wisconsin...southern
Minnesota...and adjacent northern Iowa
Concerning...Severe potential...Watch likely
Valid 051818Z - 052015Z
Probability of Watch Issuance...80 percent
SUMMARY...Severe potential is forecast to gradually increase across
the discussion area, on the southern fringe of ongoing convection.
Watch issuance is likely.
DISCUSSION...Latest radar loop shows a band of thunderstorms moving
east across western Upper Michigan and northern Wisconsin, while
additional storms are increasing in coverage along the southern
fringe of the ongoing band -- and westward along remnant outflow
over southern Minnesota.
The airmass ahead of the storms/convective outflow continues to
heat/destabilize, with objective analysis showing 2000 to 3000 J/kg
mixed-layer CAPE -- in line with the 17Z special RAOB from MPX.
Latest VWPs, and the MPX RAOB, show low-level southerly/
southwesterly flow veering to northwesterly aloft, and increasing
40-plus knots at mid levels. Resulting shear is supportive of
organized/long-lived storms, and is contributing to an
intense/long-lived updraft which moved through the Minneapolis metro
area and has produced hail to tennis-ball size.
As storms continue to increase -- and likely organize eventually
into a south/southeastward-moving MCS, risk for severe weather will
likewise ramp up. As such, WW issuance will become increasingly
likely over the next hour or so.
..Goss/Dial.. 08/05/2019
Welcome to the first look at the reboot of the Behind The Chase, the StormChasingVideo.com blog video or “VLOG” that I never had a chance to do and was not sure what direction to take it. Now that the personal site is updated and up and running, time to give it another chance with weekly and several times a week in depth behind the chase info.
In this Behind The Chase, I bring you along on a chase where you don’t have to sit and watch it live and wait for something to happen. Now were editing the video after the chase to virtually ride along with us.
In this episode, ride along with for a behind the scenes look at the Sherburne County, MN, Intense Hail Storm – 7/26/2019. Yes, I’m a huge Rush fan and see if you can catch my Rush reference in the video about the hail storm.
The Behind The Chase video’s are going to be unlisted and published here first on my personal website for at least a half day before being made public on Youtube.
I have to get the pages up and running for the give away to have all the legal stuff to comply with Youtube terms of service for give away and contest rules. I will be working on that tomorrow for the next video. Until then, enjoy a sneak peak at the reboot of Behind The Chase.
