Weather or Not

Misguided Infatuation in the Front Yard

2008-08-26T05:52:47Z

A couple days ago when I was cutting the front acre with a push mower, as usual, I kept noticing a fat female cicada hovering around me and landing nearby, as unusual. This specimen was peculiar also: fat, with a mottling of reddish tan and black that blended to an overall orange appearance from the distance, and about 30% larger than most of the endemic, green and black "dog day" cicadas (e.g., Tibicen pruinosa, photo) that are so prevalent in these parts. I haven't seen one before, here or in Dallas, though I've read since that they're natives --- the bush cicada (Tibicen dorsata, photo). Cicadas of all species make great snacks for the Mississippi kites that stay here in the warm season. In fact, Elke once tossed a male dog day cicada out of the garage, only to see a kite swoop in and snatch it mid-air, the insect's obnoxiously loud buzz sounding from every point along the kite's flight path before predator and prey receded somewhere into the distance. Listening to the Doppler effect manifest in a rapidly receding cicada alarm is an interesting and uncommon experience, but well worth the novelty should the opportunity arise. We've got a mating pair of roadrunners that visit quite often. In addition to their obvious decimation of my property's toad and tarantula populations the last few years, the roadrunners love to grab any cicada they can. It's downright hilarious to watch one of these dinosaur-like creatures dart back and forth a short distance with a buzzing cicada, throttle it a spell, then gulp it down. Cicadas also are an edible snack for people, and like crickets and termites, a nice source of protein in survival situations. [We'll make an exception for one cricket-consuming Dallas Cowboys fullback!] I'll eat cicadas, but only if necessary. It ain't necessary yet. In the meantime, I'm content to listen to their summer choruses and watch them get devoured by other fauna. Somehow, my bold little interlocutor somehow escaped the kites, roadrunners and cicada killer wasps, only to pester me incessantly. She flew above and around, then landed on the mower or in the grass near me, again and again. Each time, I picked her up and either threw her in the air, whereupon she would swoop about and descend back down near me, or placed her on one of several little lollipop trees we've planted between the native ones out in the lawn. The cicada would climb the stick-trunk slowly, get near the top, take off, and...head right for me again. I kept wondering, what was this bug's major malfunction? If I were a predator, I would have consumed it a dozen times over by now. Finally, I figured out why the cicada just wouldn't leave me alone. The attraction wasn't anything about me, fortunately. It was the machine. The cicada was lookin' for love...from the lawn mower! It took me awhile to figure this out, but what else is there to occupy the idle mind while cutting high, damp grass in 75 degree dew points? The noise of the mower does bear a fleeting resemblance to a magnified male cicada call. Somehow, miss lonely-heart cicada became convinced that she had located the ultimate male cicada - from the bug's perspective, a huge, strong, uncommonly loud and magnificent dude, clad in red exoskeleton, bursting forth a most powerful and irresistible call, a mighty stud that surely could deliver the goods better than any other. What bush cicada in her right mind would turn down such a romantic opportunity, right? Alas, the mower ran out of gas, and the cicada wasn't seen again. Poor bug...jilted by a Troy-Bilt.

EJSSM Bibliography

2008-08-04T09:18:08Z

This listing also may be uploaded soon to the journal website, but in the meantime, here is a full, two-way bibliography (with direct links) of all papers published so far in EJSSM. EJSSM articles are cataloged onsite using volume and issue number, where each manuscript is its own issue. But this format will provide yet another way to browse the journal. Each link opens a separate window or pane with the jump page that will let you choose the abstract, HTML or PDF version of the paper for viewing. Once on the site in whatever format we ultimately choose, the bibliography would be updated each time a new paper is published (several more are in various stages of review and editing as I write this). ================================== Full Bibliography of the Electronic Journal of Severe Storms Meteorology (as of 4 August 2008)

CHRONOLOGICAL -- Most Recent First

Esterheld, J. M. and D. J. Giuliano, 2008: Discriminating between tornadic and non-tornadic supercells: A new hodograph technique. Electronic J. Severe Storms Meteor., 3 (2), 1-50.

Ostuno, E. J., 2008: A case study in forensic meteorology: Investigating the 3 April 1956 tornadoes in southwest Lower Michigan. Electronic J. Severe Storms Meteor., 3 (1), 1-33.

Straka, J. M., E. N. Rasmussen, R. P. Davies-Jones, and P. M. Markowski, 2007: An observational and idealized numerical examination of low-level counter-rotating vortices in the rear flank of supercells. Electronic J. Severe Storms Meteor., 2 (8), 1-22.

Lewis, J. M., 2007: A forecaster's story: Robert H. Johns. Electronic J. Severe Storms Meteor., 2 (7), 1-19.

Kennedy, A. D., E. N. Rasmussen, and J. M. Straka, 2007: A visual observation of the 6 June 2005 descending reflectivity core. Electronic J. Severe Storms Meteor., 2 (6), 1-12.

Doswell, C. A. III, 2007: Small sample size and data quality issues illustrated using tornado occurrence data. Electronic J. Severe Storms Meteor., 2 (5), 1-16.

Doswell, C. A. III, and M. J. Haugland, 2007: A comparison of two cold fronts -- Effects of the planetary boundary layer on the mesoscale. Electronic J. Severe Storms Meteor., 2 (4), 1-12.

Lindley, T. T., and L. R. Lemon, 2007: Preliminary observations of weak three-body scatter spikes associated with low-end severe hail. Electronic J. Severe Storms Meteor., 2 (3), 1-15.

Bunkers, M. J., and J. W. Stoppkotte, 2007: Documentation of a rare tornadic left-moving supercell. Electronic J. Severe Storms Meteor., 2 (2), 1-22.

Doswell, C. A. III, 2007: Historical overview of severe convective storms research. Electronic J. Severe Storms Meteor., 2 (1), 1-25.

Doswell, C. A. III, and D. M. Schultz, 2006: On the use of indices and parameters in forecasting severe storms. , 1 (3), 1-22.

Umscheid, M. E., J. P. Monteverdi, and J. M. Davies, 2006: Photographs and analysis of an unusually large and long-lived firewhirl. Electronic J. Severe Storms Meteor., 1 (2), 1-13.

Edwards, R., and D. M. Schultz, 2006: Editorial: Introducing EJSSM. Electronic J. Severe Storms Meteor., 1 (1), 1-2.

ALPHABETIC

Bunkers, M. J., and J. W. Stoppkotte, 2007: Documentation of a rare tornadic left-moving supercell. Electronic J. Severe Storms Meteor., 2 (2), 1-22.

Doswell, C. A. III, 2007: Historical overview of severe convective storms research. Electronic J. Severe Storms Meteor., 2 (1), 1-25.

Doswell, C. A. III, 2007: Small sample size and data quality issues illustrated using tornado occurrence data. Electronic J. Severe Storms Meteor., 2 (5), 1-16.

Doswell, C. A. III, and M. J. Haugland, 2007: A comparison of two cold fronts -- Effects of the planetary boundary layer on the mesoscale. Electronic J. Severe Storms Meteor., 2 (4), 1-12.

Doswell, C. A. III, and D. M. Schultz, 2006: On the use of indices and parameters in forecasting severe storms. , 1 (3), 1-22.

Edwards, R., and D. M. Schultz, 2006: Editorial: Introducing EJSSM. Electronic J. Severe Storms Meteor., 1 (1), 1-2.

Esterheld, J. M. and D. J. Giuliano, 2008: Discriminating between tornadic and non-tornadic supercells: A new hodograph technique. Electronic J. Severe Storms Meteor., 3 (2), 1-50.

Kennedy, A. D., E. N. Rasmussen, and J. M. Straka, 2007: A visual observation of the 6 June 2005 descending reflectivity core. Electronic J. Severe Storms Meteor., 2 (6), 1-12.

Lewis, J. M., 2007: A forecaster's story: Robert H. Johns. Electronic J. Severe Storms Meteor., 2 (7), 1-19.

Lindley, T. T., and L. R. Lemon, 2007: Preliminary observations of weak three-body scatter spikes associated with low-end severe hail. Electronic J. Severe Storms Meteor., 2 (3), 1-15.

Ostuno, E. J., 2008: A case study in forensic meteorology: Investigating the 3 April 1956 tornadoes in southwest Lower Michigan. Electronic J. Severe Storms Meteor., 3 (1), 1-33.

Umscheid, M. E., J. P. Monteverdi, and J. M. Davies, 2006: Photographs and analysis of an unusually large and long-lived firewhirl. Electronic J. Severe Storms Meteor., 1 (2), 1-13.

Hand Analysis of Weather Charts: A Lost Art and Science?

2008-07-19T03:27:13Z

I'm fortunate to work at an unnamed national severe weather forecasting center that serves as one of the last bastions of frequent manual map analysis in the nation. Twice a day, the mandatory level (925, 850, 700, 500 and 250 mb) upper air charts appear from printers on 11" x 17" paper for analysis in support of the core forecast mission. Surface maps are printed for analysis many times per day as forecasters take the time and interest to do so. When these analyses are done in a careful, detailed way, this is a very, very good thing; for it forces the mind to slow down and truly immerse in the observations, connecting them into a carefully constructed, multivariate conceptual model of that snapshot of our atmosphere. Excellent analysis is time-consuming, and requires a good deal of both skill and practice. Unfortunately, especially in local offices, hand analysis is vanishing, partly because of increasing volumetric workload (and resulting loss of time) and partly from ignorance and laziness. I often feel that time pressure myself, and fear that the same fate may befall the national center(s) if we're not diligent and careful. The slow creep of forecast automation -- and of the related phenomenon of "meteorological cancer" (first noted in this 31 year old paper by Snellman) -- is on the move in some insidious ways. As I've pointed out here before, procedure is taking over forecasters' time at the expense of meteorology. Sometimes it seems like those of us who bother to do detailed hand analysis are becoming an endangered species. It utterly baffles me why so many put so little value in it, and why the quality of many hand analyses is so poor -- with lines on the wrong side of data, closed highs or lows unlabeled, missed boundaries, unlabeled lines, time continuity jumps (e.g., a cold front oscillating backward from one map to the next) and other fundamental errors. Were I still a synoptic meteorology teaching assistant, I would assign grades of "D" or lower to 90% of the drawn maps I have seen, anywhere, in the last several years. I don't understand this inattention to excellence in hand analysis. Is it lack of exposure or training, time pressure, disinterest, inexperience or all of the above? Acquiring the deepest possible grasp on the current state of atmosphere is absolutely essential to forming the conceptual models needed for consistently good forecasts, and also, for good forecasts of rare and extreme events that are most poorly handled by objective analyses and guidance. Throughout all the technological advances, this basic truth remains unaltered. I engage both hand-drawn maps and objective analyses of all kinds on a daily basis, in considerable detail, and can assure you that the latter is a piss-poor substitute for the former, when excellence in hand analysis is made top priority. Now please understand that I wouldn't violate the Golden Rule by holding anyone else to a greater standard than myself; nor do I claim to be a more skilled analyst. The principle of (and need for) analytic excellence absolutely applies to me as much as anyone. I can (and do) go back and find inexcusable and shameful mistakes in my own analyses. A missed max or min here or there, or a boundary not drawn under hurried circumstances, may not seem like much, but how does one know what "minor" feature is really unimportant until the event is over? Superficial skimming of objective, computer-drawn analyses -- which often miss or misplace small but critical features -- is not the same as truly diving into the data, taking the time to thoroughly draw for and interpret it. If it comes to a choice between more hand analysis or more model output, I'm choosing the hand analysis. An informal (not yet published) experiment called Project Phoenix, managed by Pat McCarthy of Environment Canada's Prairie and Arctic Storm Prediction Centre, showed over several seasons that forecasters who looked at observational information only (including hand analyzed charts, as well as satellite, radar and other observed data) performed better at forecasting basic variables during day-1, and often into day-2, than those on regular, operational shifts looking at numerical models. Why would this be? I don't advocate eschewing model guidance any more than I would dropping hand analyses. In the practical sense of operational forecasting, it would be dumb to ignore the most pertinent nuggets of prognostic information. I make intensive use of models in day-to-day forecasting, including an increasingly heavy reliance on clues provided by short-range ensemble forecasts (SREF). But when pressed for time, I'll sacrifice a deterministic model or two for more insight into the current state of things. After all, how can we consistently predict the future atmosphere without deepest possible understanding of the present atmosphere? Those who claim to have such understanding by ignoring manual diagnostics and looking at objective analyses instead have deluded themselves, amidst the intoxicating abundance of quick-n-ready digital diagnostics -- the choice drug of forecasting, so to speak. These forecasters are dooming themselves to a fate they probably deserve -- automation of their jobs -- but in the process, increasing that risk for the rest of us as well. Just remember: garbage in, garbage out. Without corroboration from reality, how does one know the computer drawn map is accurate? Failing to do good hand analysis also is quite selfish. The subjective analyses are not just for the forecaster doing them; they are for the entire forecast team and shift successors, and are important to continuity of understanding of an evolving situation. Even if a forecaster doesn't "get much" from his own analysis (which is a surefire sign of a scientific and conceptual deficiency on his/her part), it has meaning to others, and as such, should be done and done thoroughly. Hence... Understanding the current state of the atmosphere isn't a matter of personal choice; it's a matter of professional responsibility. The solution for the troubled forecaster is simple: Get out those colored pencils and start drawing! To help get going, here are links to online, national upper air maps, ideal for hand analysis and optimized for 11 x 17 printer paper (but useable at smaller sizes): 12Z Plots with VAD and Profiler Winds (PDF format): 925 mb | 850 mb | 700 mb | 500 mb | 250 mb
00Z Plots with VAD and Profiler Winds (PDF format): 925 mb | 850 mb | 700 mb | 500 mb | 250 mb

The first step in making the best forecast that the science permits requires a thorough high quality diagnosis. Successful short range forecasts are more the result of good diagnosis than of prognosis.

- Len Snellman, 9 October 1991

Wind Farms and the Storm Observer

2008-07-15T03:54:08Z

Some colleagues and I have had a discussion about the merits and demerits of wind farms when storm observing, which also wandered into some concern over the impact of removing gigawatts of energy from the boundary layer. The latter is very nebulous, but photographically speaking, one thing is clear: One man's eyesore is another's photogenic desire. I've found the wind farms in some sky-scape settings to make great subjects or foregrounds (e.g., from SkyPix, Outflow Power and Solar Powered Wind Power), and fully intend to make use of them in the future as opportunity permits. Some other storm observers have taken great shots using wind farms as foregrounds or silhouettes. Elke and I also took a bunch of mixed wind-farm pics (old style windmills in front of the giant new turbines) recently in Baca County CO, just W of US-287 (not while chasing). I'll post those links once we get the shots processed. [Still working on images from 2008 chase vacation...] I'm in favor of more wind farms, which is fortunate since their numbers across the Great Plains are rising no matter what we think about them. They provide relatively clean energy and an economic boost to remote and downtrodden communities. In the process of learning more about the Roscoe wind farm shown in that last link, I came across this article from NPR online, which illustrates the point well. Many of these areas have been beaten into submission economically and welcome both the income infusion and the opportunity to contribute some cleaner energy to the power stream than what's come out of the ground beneath. The expensive part, from various sources I've read, is providing the high-capacity transmission infrastructure to get this power from remote, windswept reaches of the Great Plains to somewhat nearby areas of high demand (e.g., the Metroplex, DEN, MKC, etc.). Boone Pickens wants to set up essentially a nearly unbroken chain of wind farms from west Texas to the Canadian border. The guy's motives are questionable and his schemes often laced with more hyperbole than legitimacy. Still, whether it's by his doing or from an aggregated collection of lesser fat-cats, you can count on the same basic thing happening: numerous wind farms from west TX to the Dakotas within 10-15 years. The energy source exists, and as it becomes more economically feasible, will be exploited to the extent that environmental regulation, private landowners and market economics allow. And it's going to be a lot harder to regulate something as wholly subjective and purely judgmental as "sight pollution" versus measurable, tangible, physical emissions from fossil fuels. Like other Great Plains enthusiasts, I would like to keep the wind farms out of some areas of special scenic meaning to me as well (e.g., Flint Hills, Badlands, Wichita Mountains, national grasslands). [Incidentally, a part of the power I'm using to post this comes from that OEC wind farm N of the Wichitas, near Meers OK. That sucker slices across the northern horizon every time I'm atop Mt. Scott.] Compromises will be necessary between competing aesthetic/economic/societal interests if this is going to work at all. But if we as a civilization decide to keep either exhausting or checking off sources like wind, coal, nuclear, oil, solar, hydro, etc., from the list, for various reasons large and small, then we might as well let the roads crumble, close down our offices, and go back to a mixed hunter-gatherer/agrarian society, and storm chasing and all BLOGs are moot matters anyway. [I am, BTW, for vastly expanded nuclear energy production in this country as well. ] As far as the kinetic energy removed by wind turbines from the boundary layer, this needs to be analyzed better to see what, if any, physical feedbacks there are among pressure/height gradients (wind origin), forcings aloft for related isallobaric fields in the lowest ~100 m where the energy is being extracted, and the response/restoration of said gradients to that energy extraction (if any). I'll hypothesize that it's a negligible gnat fart of an effect given the small aggregated cross sectional area of the blades compared to any vertical cross section of the entire boundary layer across the Plains, but let's find out if that's valid. Does an array of turbines extracting a few gigawatts of energy alter del-p at the surface, or isallohypsic patterns aloft by upward propagating influences of boundary layer processes? How big of a butterfly is a wind farm in Texas relative to a tornado in Kansas? We do know one thing: Ultimately, wind energy is solar in origin, and the sun's output is independent of kinetic energy removal in the ~100 m layer above ground. Beyond that...who knows? It's a great area for research.

Long Unanswered Questions

2008-07-12T00:49:07Z

For background, I wasn't the kind of kid who asked questions like, "Mommy, why is the sky blue." At 7, I knew the answer to that (differential scattering across the visible spectrum). [This probably had to do with the fact that I learned to read not in school, but around age four, out of an old set of World Book encyclopedias.] Instead my questions tended to hover along the lines of, "How can Ford possibly continue the previous administration's policies, like detente with the Soviets, if he is under such heat with the fallout from pardoning Nixon?" [This probably had to do with our one consistent splurge -- a subscription to the daily Dallas Times Herald.] Recently, while engaging in the reasonably mindless but necessary chore of mowing grass, a series of previously scattershot questions came to me that I realized still have not been satisfactorily or completely answered, and about which I have wondered since childhood. * Why is elementary school often referred to as "grade school," when middle (a.k.a. junior high) and high schools also have grades? * What is the name of the person who decided that "ain't" shouldn't be a word, and what gave him or her the authority to make that decision for me? * Smoking causes disease in oneself and others, tars lungs and teeth, fills the house with noxious fumes, makes one's breath stink, and costs lots of money. Why do it? * What, exactly, is the modern function (not purpose, but practical function) of a necktie? If "none," what's the point of using one, really, other than to waste time and effort? * How can it matter which hands you use to cut the meat and hold the fork, as long as you're keeping your elbows to yourself and the food gets in your mouth without making a mess? * How can it be anything but hypocritical for those on the left who advocate "tolerance," "diversity," and "tolerance of diversity," to be so bitterly intolerant of those with opinions radically different than their own (e.g., neoconservatives and evangelical Christians)? * Yellow Cab, Greyhound and Amtrak never "overbook." [Neither does JetBlue these days.] Why should United, Delta or American? * Two identically sized bottles of shampoo have the same ingredients in the same proportions, and smell the same. Only the labels are different. Why on earth would anyone pay three times as much for one as for the other? * For more than a few months, my parents could not get away with spending more than what they earned, even if the spending was for what we believed to be necessities. How does the government?

Today's Sociopolitical Incitement

2008-06-25T02:18:50Z

Thanks to JEvans for forwarding me this link to a thought provoking essay on the greater unsaid agenda behind environmental extremism, and how it is becoming normalized, mainstream behavior for the Democratic Party -- including it's current deity du jour, B. Hussein Obama. My only change would be that the movement he represents, cloaked in a deceptive veneer of "audacious hope," is far more socialist than fascist. For all the hand-wringing over climate change on both sides of the fence (most of it driven by underlying dogmatic agendas), I've got the simple solution for whatever shifts may occur: adapt! We are, by innate origin, a tropical species anyway. And if technological assistance and innovation cannot aid us in any adaptation necessary, then so be it. Humanity isn't promised a free ride on this ball of water and dirt. The possibilities of warm climate shifts don't bother me a tiny fraction as much as the reactionary extremism to the most speculatively grandiose of those possibilities, and the consequences thereof on the social and economic fabric of the greatest and most powerful nation the world ever has known. Sure, I personally believe it's dumb to drive SUVs around unless they're going to be taken off-road and used for their constructed purpose. Sure, I would like for my own vehicle to be more fuel efficient -- or for my 6'-3" frame, my family that includes an even taller 12 year old son, and all my gear, to fit comfortably in smaller cars. Sure, I would love to see far more people put true effort into conserving energy and resources (after all, isn't conserving at the definitional root of conservatism?). But that's up to the consumer to decide, not the government to decide for us. I got solar hot water and geothermal systems, and set up recycling bins at home, because I freely chose to conserve, not because anyone else (especially in government) told me to, and most certainly not because of any guilt-trip spewed by the green goblins of environmental nannyhood. So if B. Hussein Obama doesn't want me eating a great American corn-fed steak, I'll tell him exactly where to stick his granola bars (that come packaged in petroleum-derived plastic, BTW). Same goes for anyone else amongst the babbling lemmings of leftism that will follow this guy into their delusional dreamscape of socialist rule. Still, despite BHO's abject lack of substance or of expertise in anything in particular (outside of smooth talking), a perfect storm of events may well put this shyster in the Oval Office. For reasons both justified and not, Republicans in general are unpopular at this time. BHO and his unprecedented campaign wealth have vanquished the Wicked Witch of Arkansas/Chicago/New York and (on the surface) folded her into his web. He's charismatic, cunning, clever, with a shiny smile and a smooth style -- someone who could con most folks out of the lint in their pockets and sell it back to them for a hundred bucks. Gifted by virtue of birthplace with the street sense of my inner-city background, I can see straight through his game like a new windshield. Apparently, however, too many millions of others haven't had to deal with enough used car salesmen, dice throwers and downtown wristwatch hustlers to develop that ability. And they're going to vote for him. This modern day snake oil salesman is running against a very old man in John McCain who, much as I respect him and his vastly superior Presidential credentials, simply may not be able to keep up oratorically in the media sound-bite game to which the huge majority of voters are so pathetically gullible. The West Coast and Northeast are, by in large, bastions of leftism and, as such, already lost to electoral insanity. But if BHO somehow can convince the bulk of far more sensible Middle America to vote for him, it will be the most impressive con job ever performed on a group of tens of millions. Not on me. Unless John McCain chooses an absolute moron as his running mate (in which case I would abstain, given the natural lifespan of someone his age and the potential the running mate may become President), I'm voting for the Arizona senator and Vietnam POW. I fear I won't be in the majority. Say, how big of a "carbon footprint" is B. Hussein Obama's campaign and its fawning media entourage leaving anyway? This hypocrisy alert was brought to you by red-state sensibility. ;-)

Review: LAS Tracking Key GPS device

2008-06-22T17:26:32Z

During this year's storm intercept vacation from 5-21 Jun, I used a LandAir Sea (LAS) GPS tracking device (web link) -- intended by the manufacturer for fleet vehicle monitoring. Apparently it often is used to track truck drivers. If an employee goes through that liquor store drive-through when on the job, this will show it, given the 2.5 m tracking resolution. Zoom in far enough in Google-Earth, and you will see the driver's track into that parking lot or off the road. It also gives max speed in mph (and location of that speed). We used it for self-surveillance: to track chase routes and stops, and the timing thereof. It was a gift, so why not? I know many storm observers instead employ mapping software and a GPS puck to do basically the same thing, but this device has very useful Google-Earth output (more below), and also will be used to keep track of my soon-to-be-driving teenager's vehicular whereabouts. In short, it's worthwhile if you have multiple uses in different vehicles, such as tracking your own storm observing and the driving of someone else. Some things to know: You will need to be still for more than about 5-7 minutes for the output to show a stop, but because of two factors, we still get useful output, even for quick "pull-outs" to photograph a storm: 1. High spatial resolution: Pulling safely off the road, as storm chasers are supposed to do when performing photography, shows up on the tracking at highest (2.5 m) resolution as a knob or bump on the path. If you back a few m into a pull-off, side path or driveway, this ensures the "bump" will show on Google-Earth. 2. High temporal resolution: The raw (.las) log file shows the times and locations, so one can see when one was stopped even for brief "stop-n-shoot-fast" situations. The device is weather sealed and has an intense magnet that should secure its place anywhere inside the car. I wouldn't trust it on the outside, given what we do, because it still could get knocked loose by, say, a tumbleweed or hailstone that smacks it while driving at 60 mph. I stuck the tracker to the inner top/back window frame of my sedan, and its reception was almost flawless. I can't speak for its reception when placed in more surreptitious locations in a vehicle; but others have posted glowing reviews on sites like Amazon. My favorite aspect of the LAS Tracker is that its output can be set to upload directly into Google-Earth, and saved as a "kmz" file, so we can have all chase routes stored quickly and permanently. We also can use the "kmz" file to match all our photo locations to the landmarks around the shoot. A photographer can derive very precise directional and positioning info this way, in combination with the EXIF data from the camera that shows the lens' focal length, to better locate a distant subject, in addition to himself. LAS Tracker has three minor nuisances, all involving the batteries. 1. One has to unscrew the battery compartment to turn it on and off. I realize this was designed deliberately, so the subject of surveillance can't just switch it off. [My subject will lose driving privileges if any harm comes to the device, or its signal is interrupted for any reason.] But the battery compartment's screws are tiny, and therefore, easily fumbled, dropped and lost by someone like me with large hands. 2. The battery compartment is too deep for the batteries, which on rough and shaky roads, may pop loose from the terminals while still within the compartment. I jerry-rigged a solution by folding up a piece of #2 plastic between the compartment door and the battery slots, to hold them in place. 3. Battery life is far below what's advertised. When using Ni-metal hydride (rechargeable) batteries, I had to change them out every day. When I tried to leave them in two days, the batteries (new Energizers, BTW) ran out during the evening of day-2. I don't use its own mapping software; so I can't say one way or another about that. I've read that it has old, crappy mapping, but it doesn't matter if you've got Google-Earth anyway. All in all, I do recommend the tracker, as long as you are willing to change/charge batteries daily, and to build that into your nightly equipment unloading and debriefing routine.

RT's Suckfest is Over

2008-05-23T09:14:15Z

For several years now, Rich Thompson has been mired in a prolonged situation where he sometimes sees tornadoes, but only at a distance, at night, wrapped in rain, in low contrast, while driving and unable to safely pull over, or other settings absolutely not conducive to quality still photography. In some ways, I can relate, because I've had stretches of a few years at a time like that. In addition, however, Rich has had untimely medical problems that forced him to either miss some great chase days, or in one case, he couldn't hold up a camera well enough to this tornado because of a surgically repaired arm mired in a cumbersome, unwieldy sling. Pneumonia, flu, surgery, suddenly hospitalized relatives, bad patterns, inescapable prior commitments...you name it, aside from the lack of photogenic tubes when able to head out, other calamities of many sorts have dominated his chase vacations. Rich has described the phenomenon to many friends and colleagues this way: "(For photographing tornadoes) this whole decade has been an absolute suckfest." I am happy to report the suckfest is ending. Rich, chasing with Ryan Jewell, saw a few decent contrast, daytime tornadoes out on NW KS yesterday, and from what I've heard, got a few shots of them. They'll have more opportunities for perhaps even better success today, as stronger storm-relative upper level winds give them a shot at more updraft-precipitation separation. Outstanding! This is great news, not just for Rich and Ryan, but for the rest of us who have watched this sad state of affairs unfold since 2000. I say this not just because Rich and Ryan are among the photographers for Insojourn, and the possibility of more great images beckons. Instead, as a fellow 23+ year storm observer who has experienced long droughts, it stinks to go extended periods without the atmosphere providing photogenic hoses on available chase days. Rich is as skilled and knowledgeable of a storm observer as there is. But misfortune with timing -- luck still being the biggest factor in chase success -- has had him snake-bitten for the most part. The only cure is a feast on the smorgasbord of atmospheric violence. And so it is. I'm glad they called with their reports, too. Rich and Ryan didn't have contact info and aren't on Spotter Network yet, so it was good to be able to relay their reports to the right offices quickly and without disrupting official duties whatsoever at my unnamed workplace. It was also neat to be able to see their observations on Ryan's dashboard camera, which will be active again today whenever they have digital cellular telephone connectivity. I'm watching this whole several-day event unfold in front of computer screens, being on a set of evening shifts throughout. I won't complain, though. It goes that way sometimes, and I actually don't mind as much as it may seem. There certainly are worse things to keep you from observing an event than forecasting for it. Doing outlooks for these events is challenging in a good way, because every forecaster wants to tackle the "big stuff." Work has to take priority anyway..it pays the bills! I'm also saving hundreds of bucks in fuel and lodging that I'll surely spend later when Elke and I go on our June vacation. So my hope for Ryan and Rich today is a hosefest of epic proportions, to further flush the suckfest down the toilet of history. Go git' em dudes!

Birthday Musings

2008-05-21T07:12:07Z

I've got an amazing family and I thank God all the time for them. Another birthday comes and goes, with thoughtful gestures and presents from my beautiful bride Elke and both kids. I would be happy just with their wishes and thoughts, because that's what matters. But they got me some great gifts that were inexpensive -- just the way I like it. How did David and Donna know I would like little buckets of microwave pork rinds and a framed Roger Staubach card from 7-11? That's fantastic. They couldn't have spent ten times as much and made me any happier, because it truly is the thought that counts. The best part is that I'm living with three people who are generous of heart and time -- far more important than money or material goods. Really, there's only so many things you can buy for a dad who doesn't care much for "stuff" and who is about as anti-materialistic as it gets in modern America. What do most folks get for dads... High-end electronics? Don't need them. Ties? Don't own or want any, unless one is strong enough to double as a tow rope. Tools? Got all I need, most for free or at great discount. Fishing gear? I've got what I need for a good while. Storm chase gizmos? Nahh...that stuff usually ends up being frustrating and failure-prone out of proportion to usefulness, with just a very few exceptions. I've heard I'm pretty damned hard to buy for, so most of my friends simply don't. And you know what? I'm absolutely cool with that. Good wishes and good times are OK with me. I don't think anybody ever will go wrong with giving me Dallas Cowboys stuff, though. ;-) Speaking of the Cowboys, I got another birthday gift yesterday, this one from the sports pages. Marion Barber and Terence Newman each inked long term deals that ensures two more members of the Boys' young offensive and defensive nuclei remain in place. It wasn't cheap, but who expected it to be with either of these guys? The risk with Barber in particular is that his confrontational and relentless running style -- which I admire, actually -- will wear him down prematurely. Given that, the length of the deal is just about right, perhaps a year long since The Barbarian will turn 31 before contract expiration. [This signing actually makes me all the more glad for drafting both Felix Jones and Tashard Choice.] Terence Newman already is one of the top corners in the NFL, so his deal was on par with market value. That may be overinflated for all players, but Jerry has to deal the deck he's given. I like the idea of reshuffling the balance sheets on Tony Romo's contract to accommodate this, such that he actually gets more up-front money in the form of a signing bonus and counts far less against the upcoming seasons' cap. I've had problems with the way Jerry has handled the salary cap in the past, especially when he overpaid the back end of veteran contracts in the 90s (a boneheaded strategy that ended up imploding the Greatest Team Ever). By contrast, this and several other deals the past 2-3 years provide considerable confidence that he not only has figured it out, but mastered the shell game. Jerry has led Cowboys fans to the height of elation (3 Super Bowl crowns in 4 years) and frustration (the idiotic ways he fired both Tom Landry and Jimmy Johnson, and his egomaniacal mismanagement of the team in the mid-late 90s). Let's hope these maneuvers keep things on the upswing this time. Now the attention turns to some of the other core players, like Chris Canty, Ken Hamlin, Terrell Owens and especially DeMarcus Ware. I don't care if Jerry has to wear pink leotards and bend over backward into a barrel of Hawaiian Punch while donning snorkeling gear and waving a copy of the VHS tape of Who Framed Roger Rabbit. DeMarcus Ware must be signed, priority one! He is an absolute terror for opposing offenses, one of the top two or three defensive players in the league at any position, and indispensable to the teams' hope of winning another Super Bowl. Pay him top dollar. Others will restructure to accommodate Ware because everyone and their mom knows he's the best player on that or just about any defense. Owens? Well, I went on record before he came as being against his presence, but I will admit that (so far!) T.O. has proved me wrong. I hope he continues to, because the Cowboys' lack of depth at wideout has made them far too dependent on him. So get him signed. The guy is a workout warrior and will keep his body in amazing shape for even an NFL player, and wants to bask in the brilliant glory of JerryWorld when that facility opens, but at some point he will lose a step. At least he finally seems to have a quarterback he respects and likes, professionally as well as personally. He's saying all the right things so far also, unlike in his contract years in his previous stations. I say, a 3 year deal with incentives out to 5 is good for his situation. Canty? Underrated and improving, a surefire Pro Bowler in the future. He can rush from the end or collapse the pocket, blocks passes, and is getting better versus the run every year. He's far better than Marcus Spears, but gives out vibes of wanting to test the market. Ken Hamlin? Another top-5 position player (safety) in the NFL, now that he's healthy again. He is another must-sign. Fortunately he seems to want to stay in Dallas. Pac-Man? Don't get me started. I trust this guy way less even than T.O., for reasons that are well publicized. He's been an irresponsible, reckless punk and thug, a seeping lesion on the face of society, and I do not expect this leopard to shed his spots. But we've got him, like it or not. Get what we can out of his amazing on-field talents before he starts hitting any of the thousands of strip joints in the Metroplex and gets hauled off to the can again. But don't get dependent on him, because that's exactly when he'll get busted for the last time as an NFL player. At least he comes cheap, with lots to prove, and one last chance. Geez, I went on another Cowboys tangent. It's why I don't BLOG about them that much. There's way too much to cover about your five-time Super Bowl champions and too little time for it all. Weatherwise, there won't be any tornadoes for my birthday. It falls on a bizarre and inexplicable climatological minimum in nationwide tornadoes for the month of May (As Doswell 2007 illustrated in his Fig. 3, green line). I'll be on evening and nights shifts through early June, but maybe I can treat Elke to another birthday tornado for her, this year on the day our chase vacation begins. It's the least I could do, atmosphere willing. That amazing woman puts up with me all the time, which surely qualifies her for sainthood.

That Town Must Close for Good

2008-05-17T05:54:25Z

On 10 May 2008, a long-track, violent (EF-4) tornado crossed parts of Oklahoma and Missouri, and laid further waste to much of the old mining town of Picher, barely south of the Kansas-Oklahoma line. NWS Tulsa has a nice, concise, online briefing about the tornado, which killed six people and injured at least 150 others in Picher before causing even more casualties in Missouri. The tornado only has hastened the inevitable demise of Picher (AP story). Once sporting a population of 20,000, only around 800 folks remain. Picher lies inside the notorious Tar Creek Superfund site (more information here and here). Federal and state officials are doing the right thing by not funding any rebuilding, and instead directing relief toward relocation of the folks who remain. While I still wish they had taken this approach on a larger scale with New Orleans, post-Katrina, it seems the lesson has been learned to some extent. Common sense and rational thought prevail over sentimentality, as it should. Government buyouts of homes already were underway, and should accelerate. Evacuating and demolishing the town now is the simplest and most prudent solution. Now I only will grieve for those whose lives were lost, because I grieved for the long-dying town itself long ago, on my first and only daylight visit. Steve Corfidi and I were on a storm chase trip from Kansas City, back in March 1996, on the way to the Nowata area. As we zigzagged through town, we sat aghast at the deplorable state of Picher. Though it was just a few minutes from 12 years ago, those mental images linger vividly today. Ramshackle frame houses abounded, some abandoned, others occupied. A few of the occupied homes were in worse conditions than those long vacant, with busted windows, peeling paint, rotting wood, torn screen doors, animals running hither and yon, some porch overhangs leaning downward on the verge of collapse. One entire house had a roof displaced noticeably sideways from the foundation, its walls leaning in the direction of the displacement, clothes on a clothesline in the yard, the glow of a TV shining from within. The only thriving businesses we saw were a bar and a convenience store. We since have talked often of the extreme disrepair and poverty we witnessed, and the status of Picher as part of the Superfund site. Perhaps the saddest sight was the dirty, shirtless children playing in the yellowish mud that had drained directly off a big heap of mine tailings looming behind one house. This rock detritus (locally known as "chat") comprises mini-mountains in the countryside around Picher, as well as in portions of the town itself. The "chat piles" contain residue of the materials for which they were extracted: lead and zinc, as well as cadmium. The lead, in particular, has been the focus of concern because of its drainage from the tailings piles and into soil, as well as airborne dust contamination, and elevated lead levels in children and adults there. Whomever that whomever wishes to blame for the situation, the fact is that the area is highly toxic. It needs to be evacuated and remediated, not lived within. Those poor townsfolk have been residing in a festering wasteland (literally!) for decades, and now a substantial chunk of the town is blown to smithereens by a big fat tornado. Some folks didn't want to leave, but I hope this changes their minds. I applaud the notion of just helping the citizens of Picher to get the hell out and never return. Leave whatever's left of the town to the bulldozer and environmental mitigation process. The abandonment of Picher should have happened long ago, and it's terrible that it appears to take a killer tornado to finish off the town, effectively. This is not an occasion to celebrate, mind you. People perished! But perhaps some good can come from a bad event -- a blessing in disguise, of sorts. If all goes as hoped, a tornado never again will kill Picher residents, and kids never again will play in lead-contaminated mine waste there.

Demise of Spring Blooms and a Baseball Season

2008-05-03T11:34:05Z

It's never too early in the season for another entry in my longstanding website devoted to the futility and weirdness of the Texas Rangers baseball club. The newest item: The 2008 season already was turning into a thudding clunker by the end of April, with the Rangers firmly cemented at the bottom of the standings. Seeming somewhat indignant at this development with which we fans are quite accustomed, some national sports writers made the following observations in their respective rags in the same week:

Sports Illustrated (Who's Not column): "A familiar scene in Texas: The Rangers (9-17 through Sunday) were dead last in the AL West. Who to blame? Hitters like Ben Broussard (.173 batting average)? Pitchers like Jason Jennings (above, 7.46 ERA)? Team president Nolan Ryan, explaining a 2-8 slide: '[We] had a total breakdown in all aspects of our game.'"
The Sporting News (Bob Hille's Starting 5): 'May. It's my favorite month, but it does make me sad that spring blossoms curl up and die so quickly .. kind of like optimism in the Texas Rangers' clubhouse."

Rogelio, Crackin' Skulls Again

2008-04-21T09:52:46Z

A couple of months ago, before all this travel, I was sawing apart assorted ice storm damage, when a falling branch clocked me upside the head and dug out a chunk of my scalp. I didn't cut its base correctly and it fell the wrong way...namely, onto me. I was wearing a hoodie, and didn't realize the tree had done anything more than bounce off my skull until a minute later, when I felt that characteristic warm cascade of liquid dribbling down the back of my neck, and around both sides of my right ear. "Bummer," I thought...I would have to waste the waning daylight tending to a busted-open head instead of finishing the chore at hand. Elke was tilling soil in a flower bed, and I casually strolled up to her and said, "Wanna help me patch up this hole in my head? It's a might messy." She used to be a vet assistant many years ago, and she has cut up hundreds of rats to feed to her mom's hawks and eagles. It's good she is not squeamish about blood. I'm certainly not...besides, men tend to have high iron levels and should shed or donate blood sometimes. So all was cool as long as it didn't need stitches. We went inside to the laundry room sink...she chopped off a bunch of surrounding hair, cleaned the torn scalp out really well, dressed it old-west style and sent me back outside to fetch the tools. A pint or two of blood lost and a knot on the head later, I healed up for a few days then got right back to tree trimming. I probably sawed down 200 limbs and branches, and half a dozen whole trees, and only one of 'em tagged me. A 99.7% is an A+ in my book. The hair has grown back and all I've got to show for it is a bumpy scar underneath a full, thick growth of new hair. Can't complain...many men in my age bracket are getting bare scalp there anyway. A few nights ago I was corresponding with an old friend from the Metroplex, who was giving me some grief about that, and we got around to discussing the last time anything like this happened. I was about 15, biking on a sidewalk, while roaring downhill at speeds that may have been illegal for a car. Suddenly, thanks to a badly buckled segment of pavement on that sidewalk, the bike wasn't under me anymore and I was airborne at that very velocity...head-on into the trunk of a big ol' hackberry tree. You might guess who won that collision, but it would be only partially correct. At that age I was known for having a very hard head (the head-butt being a fantastic tactic to gain quick advantage in close-quarters fighting), and it showed. I actually tore off a few square inches of bark, but left some of my scalp and hair in the remaining bark that was still there over the following week or two. To this day, my hairline is a bit higher on the right side of my forehead, as a result of that very incident. The tree is still there on the north side of Oram St., 150 yards east of the corner of Skillman, and for a couple years, had a little scar too. Call it a draw! After wincing away the blinking points of light and that annoying buzzing sensation between my ears, I asked, "how the hell did I get over here, this far from that tree?", gathered up my unnaturally bent bicycle, and strolled down to the Eckerd's drugstore a block away. Blood poured down my forehead and face as I calmly asked the pharmacist if I could use his wash basin, some soap and some wrapping. The look on this dignified old gentleman's face was priceless, at least what I could see of it through my own ugly mess of dirt, hair and blood. I probably looked like Bruiser Brody after one of his chair-swinging, ice-pick dodging ringside riots with Abdullah the Butcher. Lots of free gauze and iodine for me, though... My mom was rather aghast at how I appeared when I got home, but saw I would be OK in a few days. My dad, of course, being a former rodeo man and still tough-as-an-old-boot Texan, shrugged off my own injuries as nothing special ("Hell, you ain't dead and you ain't crippled, so what's the big deal?") -- but was absolutely furious because of what I did to that bike. He must have spent a couple hours straightening the rims and handlebars, and fixing the tire, occasional staccato bursts of profanity tightly glued to my name as his wrenches slipped or a spoke broke. His frustration mounted by the minute with both my recklessness that caused this ordeal and with his own lack of coordination using knuckle-busting tools. I didn't dare to even go say "thanks" when he was done, for dread of uncorking the lid on an already seething temper that by then was on the brink of pyroclastic explosion. It may have been as close as he ever came to backhanding me halfway to Houston, and I couldn't claim I didn't partially deserve it. Or was it that Pyrex beaker full of new zinc pennies that I melted down on the kitchen stove burner a few weeks before, only to see it break and spill molten zinc all over the stove's innards? Or the time I climbed up to the top of the kitchen cabinets at age 4 to go catch some spiders I saw up there, found a shoe box filled with hundreds of metal nails of all shapes and sizes, and dumped them all over the floor far below? Or that time at age 6 that I found the prized watch that his late older brother took off a slain Japanese soldier in WWII, and hurled it against the wall in a horrifically successful effort to "crack the metal nut open" and see what was inside? Or the time at age 9 that he got home from work and I hollered howdy to him -- at 4 a.m., on a school night, from our roof top, through howling wind, while I was trying to get a better view of an approaching thunderstorm? Or the time my mom was in the hospital when I was 7, and I hid days and days worth of his uneaten cooking between my toy box and the wall? Or when I threw dozens of water-soaked pieces of toilet paper onto our painted bathroom ceiling at age 5 to see them stick up there and drip all over the room in fun patterns? Or was it that time at about age 8 that I thoroughly dissected his wind-up alarm clock down to its tiniest gears, and in what I thought was a favor, laid it all out neatly on his nightstand for him to reassemble? Or the time at about age 10 when I wired together a bunch of old TV and radio parts at random with part of a string of Christmas lights, and plugged them into the wall to see what would happen (blew multiple fuses in the fuse box and filled the house with acrid smoke)? Or was it...forget it...I've made my point. :-O Fortunately, he tended to calm down and forgive about as fast as he could boil over. After that crash, I healed up fine but for that prematurely elevated hairline on one side. I think I kept the blood-and-iodine soaked bandages for a few weeks as a souvenir until one of my parents found out and made me throw them away. I wonder why... Now I'm the father of a 14 year old who already is taller than me (and I'm 6'3"), even clumsier, and more injury prone. At least neither he nor I experiment with molten zinc or wet toilet paper these days. Still -- poor Elke...she has to deal with both of us!

Slosh of the Air Masses

2008-04-16T06:08:02Z

I've been too busy to do much BLOGging lately, but this has been a good brand of preoccupation. The most active early portion of storm chase season in my recent memory is calming down somewhat, and I have been fortunate enough to participate in most of the events as a mobile observer. Here we are in mid-April, and in climatologically common fashion, several strong synoptic waves and short waves in the upper levels have come and gone since mid March. This is the time of year when, as Rodgers and Hammerstein once wrote, the wind comes sweepin' down the plains...but then, back up them again, then back down again, then back up again, and so forth. The difference is that, in many recent years over the southern Plains, the approaching waves were timed badly with respect either to the solar heating cycle or to scant return of Gulf moisture following its expulsion deep into the subtropics by preceding frontal passages. Granted, moisture return has been same-day and less than ideal for prolifically tornadic storms in most of these events. But there have been some, and I was fortunate enough to witness the beginning of one of the tornadic circulations (SW of Breckenridge TX near Eolian, 9 Apr). More importantly, these systems have decorated southern Plains skies with an impressive array of photogenic supercells with amazing structure, the likes of which more commonly swirl across the high plains in May and early June than this region in March and April. Normally, I count myself fortunate to get the right days off and atmospheric cooperation for one or two great "structure storms" in a season. This year there have been five -- three of them in one day (7 Apr on three sides of Wichita Falls) and two on the other (30 Mar around Corn and Gotebo OK). Things have been so busy, in fact, between the usual family time, working during several severe weather events, and traveling for both business and pleasure (including visual indulgences of the atmospheric kind), that I've hardly had time to stop and smell the roses -- or in our case, the eruption of pleasantly pungent wisteria blooms over our front porch that is being buzzed by clouds of ecstatic bumblebees on a daily basis. In one six day period, I traveled from Norman to Orlando (to speak on TC tornadoes at the National Hurricane Conference), back to Norman, down to Mineral Wells TX the same day my flight got back...down further to Fredericksburg and Llano (yes...Cooper's barbecue, German food and wildflower photography with Elke again)...back to Norman, down to Wichita Falls the same day I got back to Norman (three spectacular, sculpted supercells in one fine evening), then back to Norman the same night. This was after recent trips to Texas A&M in College Station, a US-China Symposium session here in Norman, and a regional severe weather conference in Beaufort NC -- also to give talks on TC tornadoes. A few other chases also interspersed themselves somewhere in the past month, including a fun one with the kids down to southeast Oklahoma that was at least as much about dad time as about storms. It was good to get some rest after all that, but I ain't complaining...far from it! Usually I don't like rushing around so much, but that was an absolute blast. I love learning and teaching about tornadoes and about hurricanes, so the combination of the two is outstanding. Then there is that great Texas Hill Country drive that Elke and I try to do annually anymore, usually around the peak of wildflower season if I've got fortuitously placed days off. The bluebonnets this year actually were better in North Texas, up around I-20, than in some of the usual hot spots like the Willow City loop, thanks to untimely dry and wet periods farther south. Nonetheless it still was a great time with fantastic food and scenery, and some time just to spend with my beautiful bride of six years. And of course, the feasts at the smörgåsbord of atmospheric violence...every one was an adventure unto itself, as all worthwhile chase trips are. I've just started posting photo-festooned summaries of those to our chase BLOG, and will continue to do so in the coming days or nights. I'm going on a stretch of assorted evening and night shifts through early May that will curtail storm observing almost completely, but I am not complaining about that, either. Some years have been so lame, both atmospherically and as far as timing of opportunities, that I've been unable to chase even once by this time. it's great to have some spectacular storms under the belt already, and a couple of period of more extended time off in mid May and mid June still are a good ways off.

Amazing Luck in Atlanta

2008-03-19T00:15:19Z

Yet Another Large Event Venue Is Spared a Mass Disaster There was exactly one tornado reported in the whole USA on 14 March 2008 (preliminary), and it hit large venues in downtown Atlanta. That's astounding. It goes to show that there doesn't need to be a well-organized outbreak, or even a singular large and violent tornado (this one "only" was an EF-2) to realize a dangerous situation. A single, isolated severe storm in precisely the wrong place can pose a huge problem also. They got extraordinarily lucky at the Georgia Dome. Even while barely sideswiping it, the tornado and its inflow winds were starting to transform that stadium from an indoor to an outdoor facility. Had the tornado been stronger and/or scored a more direct hit, there would have been larger pieces of that roof coming down onto those fans -- maybe even the hanging catwalk that already was swinging back and forth. The PA announcer in the infamous video waited 'til the tornado was upon them to announce severe weather in the area. That's not evidence of a well-known, detailed severe weather plan. In this day and age, the liability risk is too large for any major venue to fail to execute a short-fuse severe storm and tornado plan of action. Instead, it was "every man for himself" in the fan seating. The reason fans hadn't already dispersed into the street (where they would have been even more endangered) was that the game went into overtime. That's pure, unadulterated good luck. Spectator safety, when severe weather strikes large venues, should not depend on serendipity. But it did, and here's how: 1. The game happened to go to overtime, keeping the fans inside before the tornado, yet 2. By good fortune, the tornado strike wasn't stronger and more direct, therefore the roof didn't suffer partial or substantial collapse with major falling pieces crushing those fans still milling about the exposed seating areas. A comprehensive plan for such situations would discourage the fans from going outside, but also, use fully warning-informed announcements and posted tornado shelter signs to direct them away from areas where that roof could fall down on them. In a place like that, such shelter may include areas under the upper deck and any concourses not exposed to outside airflow. The nightmare scenario about which I've BLOGged here, and about which Les Lemon and I have presented many times and written in a paper years ago, almost happened...again. The good news is that Les, who has great organizational skills and some key contacts, has been working hard behind the scenes to assemble a national committee of experts from many related communities (public and private meteorology, severe storms forecasting and research, large venue operators, major league sports, sociology, emergency management, etc.) to tackle this matter in a systematic, nationwide way. The G-Dome event certainly will help to motivate some folks who otherwise were hesitant or unaware of the problem to get proactive. Others will keep their heads in the sand, baselessly blame "acts of God" and play Russian roulette with the crowds at these events. [EDIT] As of this writing (18 March 2008, 2152 CDT), a fairly thorough search of the Georgia Dome website reveals no public severe weather safety plan, whatsoever. This is interesting, considering the taxpayers fund this facility directly through the State of Georgia's Georgia World Congress Center Authority.

Tempestuous Rejuvenation

2008-03-04T07:26:38Z

The first true storm intercept trip of the spring season can't be matched for its sense of relief and release, even if temporary, from the frigid and dreary dungeon of winter. It is a door atop a stairwell leading upward from the catacombs, opening wide into the bright light of the dawn of storm season, another spring's world of adventures, anticipations of travels yet to be determined. Think of all the new sights, sounds and smells and combinations thereof, somewhere out there -- who knows where? Isn't that sort of uncertainty a fantastic thing in its own right, one of those far-too-uncommon unknowns that is to be anticipated instead of dreaded? Moments of elation and frustration and boredom and excitement, impatient waiting followed by a frenzy of danger or beauty or some hybrid of both, all cobble together to form a big gift revealed and assembled one component at a time. Each chase day is another multi-hued piece that clips onto the one before, and in turn into the next, to form a truly unique whole kaleidoscope of learning, beauty and adventure, a storm season that never can be duplicated again in ten thousand lifetimes. This isn't just a chance to whisk away the mental cobwebs of a long offseason, shake off observational rust and test drive new equipment (if any), but also, to begin a season-long process of renewal and reinvigoration, all at the behest of every southerly surge of warm, moist return flow. Such rejuvenation has an uncertain duration, across still undetermined travels and parts unknown, dictated by the whims of the atmosphere. Its beginning, on the other hand, is definite and most welcome: storm chase trip number one. It is wanted, needed, and finally happening! The inaugural chase of the new year begins against that backdrop. Heading out onto the highway amidst the mild southerly breezes, the promise of a new storm observing season begins to be fulfilled, with all that brings not only in anticipation and eagerness to experience whatever adventures that lie ahead, but also a sense of heading home. Yes, home. For the connoisseur at the smorgasbord of atmospheric violence, home is wherever the storms are.