Gorky

More storm porn for you guys

Whilst I'm sure you mean no ill, wishing for an 'F5'/EF5 is pretty bad as the Fujita scale is a damage scale and the only way you'll probably end up seeing an F5 is if a violent tornado hit's a lot of properties and causes a ton of damage. Wish for a violent tornado over open plains on land owned by an over insured farmer or better - state owned land - would be a little less offensive Of course it then would only be rated ef2-ef3 maximum based on vegetation damage. I'm sure that's what you are getting at but just thought I'd point it out as a few people might get upset at that sort of talk. The Bowdle tornado could easily have only been rated EF2-EF3 had it not hit those transmission towers when most would agree it probably had wind speeds capable of doing damage in the EF5 range for isntance. It still sucks that that tornado clipped a farm property just north of Bowdle as it almost avoided all structures during it's life span...

Storm with a major couplet heading up I55 towards Jackson, Ms at the moment. I'll get a screenshot in a moment ======================= Edit 1. Just got confirmation. Tornado Emergency just issued for the Jackson area. Large tornado reported... SEVERE WEATHER STATEMENT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE JACKSON MS 457 PM CST FRI DEC 31 2010 MSC049-121-312330- /O.CON.KJAN.TO.W.0109.000000T0000Z-101231T2330Z/ HINDS MS-RANKIN MS- 457 PM CST FRI DEC 31 2010 ...A TORNADO WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 530 PM CST FOR WEST CENTRAL RANKIN AND EAST CENTRAL HINDS COUNTIES... ..THIS IS A TORNADO EMERGENCY FOR THE WARNED AREA AT 456 PM CST...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE METEOROLOGISTS AND STORM SPOTTERS WERE TRACKING A LARGE AND EXTREMELY DANGEROUS TORNADO. THIS TORNADO WAS LOCATED NEAR BYRAM MOVING NORTHEAST AT 40 MPH. THE TORNADO WILL BE NEAR... RICHLAND BY 505 PM CST... JACKSON BY 510 PM CST... PEARL BY 515 PM CST... FLOWOOD AND BRANDON BY 520 PM CST... ============================= Edit 2. Higher Res GRLevel2 Image. Wow.... Fingers crossed for those in the path of this thing...

The whole Byron issue was more than likely just the case that Byron couldn't chase due to other committments, and they scripted the falling out to explain this away. They did it last year with Joel when he couldn't commit to the entire series when something came up at the start of the season, and lo and behold, after a breif jog together in epispde one(with film crew in tow!) they make up and are back chasing together! It doesn't help that none of them are actors and it's quite obvious when some are reading from a script (I'm looking at you Reed!) Barely anything on that show involving Sean and the TVN guys is real though Tim and the Twistex lot are represented much fairer light admittedly. As for the fallout, I kinda feel sorry for Sean. I put most if not all the blame on the editors. They have these guys under contract and hold all the purse strings. The mess with V2 was completely unecessary and why Josh Wurman agreed to become a panto villain I don't know. I'm dumfounded at the response from those on Youtube who took it all so seriously also. Some people still deny that Sean and Josh wrote those explanations that the show is entertainment and not everything is exactly as it seems. I've always had a deep respect for Josh, and get the feeling that under his cold snarky persona, Sean is actually a really down to earth, nice guy. Not sure Reed is someone I'd ever get on with mind you. Not keen on that loud, brash, walking American sterotype. Despite the negativity, I do enjoy the show. Just take absolutely eveything you see at face value.

To be honest, there is lots of soap opera during the entire season, even during that Bowdle episode. Enough that some of the more moronic followers of the show actually sent death threats to members of Vortex 2 after believing some concocted tension during the later episodes. Still, in it's own way I found it particularly amusing to watch. It certainly has it's moments. The tribute to Matt is very good and the entirety of the bonus behind the scenes episode at the end was surprisingly interesting. There were better more believable 'characters' behind the scenes than in front of the cameras! The Dominator and Twistex got some amazing tornados later on in the last 4 episodes which are definately worth watching. I could not believe the May24th tornado's Twistex were on given I was sat in the same bloody car park as them around midday. I tried to intercept at Faith, they went North and caught the same storm later with lots of amazing tornado action whilst I was too late to the show and cut off by the advancing line. The TIV actually had a surprisingly bad year. The three 'intercepts' were tenuous at best. Something just irrtates me about people saying they are in a tornado when they are actually in only a moderate RFD well south of the business end of the storm! Still, they edit the show to make it look much better than it was in reality.

As far as La Nina years go, I seem to think the threats tend to be more frequent but further east than other years and more progessive. Seemingly, the best years recently have been where La Nina has been transitioning to neutral as spring arrives. This is pretty much anecdotal from the few years I've looked at. Would be interesting if anyone more meteorologically inclined could back this up or shoot me down Still waiting on flights to get cheaper. I expected direct flights to be pushing £500 this time of the year (pre sales) but am surprised there are no bargains yet by taking multiple connections like I did last year. I imagine there's a ton of extra surcharges to pay over last year so we have the privilege of being molested by security agents as we pass through the airport etc

Stormchasers has been this way for a while, and each season has been longer and longer meaning more filler is required. They have 8 episodes to fill and despite a good year, they can't have them all packed with tornado footage. As a result you get a ton of forced drama (What on earth was all that with Reed's 'girlfriend'???). It's actually so bad I'm almost enjoying the soap side of it. Do wish for more footage though As for future episodes, they'll have some Dumas footage from the 18th, and perhaps the Leadey tornado which was very brief on the 19th. I believe both TIV and Dominator were on the same storm as me that day so it's not going to much tornado wise. Perhaps Twistex were on Hennesey but I gather they were working close with Vortex and likely also on the Leedey storm. The 22nd should be epic though I imagine. The TIV was close by me for much of the day and I had some good shots so they should also. At one point they head north and I headed east, they then catch up to me 15 minutes later so I think that they ran into downed powerlines and had to backtrack. The TIV possibly missed much of the beastly wedge. Reed was much better positioned throughout and just up the road when I had my 'multiple-tornados-heading-for-me-dive-into-a-field' moment. This day could easily take up an entire episode Don't think any of them got the Faith 'nado on the 24th May. I only saw the Twistex guys however and I left before them to intercept at Faith. I didn't make it in time so no way they did. I think they headed north and may have got the EF2 later in the day near the ND Border. I think the Wadena day was the only other big day for any of the featured teams. I believe they missed out on Campo on the 31st, Illinois on the 5th, Dupre on the 16th and had wrapped filming for the season after the 17th. From that, I'd imagine 2 of the remaing 4 episodes will be excellent and 2 will be filled with more rediculously manufactured drama

Decided to leave work early to watch this unfold and there are already 19 Tor warnings and it's only 10:30am stateside... Yeesh!

I don't imagine this is really a chaseable setup. 60mph storm motions through questionable terrain is difficult, but about doable with discrete cells (just position and let the storm come to you). This seems like it's going to be less discrete and more raging squall line with embedded mesocyclones surrounded by rain. Either way it's going to be very dangerous. One aspect that I know a few chasers are picking up on are the winds across the Great Lakes the possible high waves and storm surge battering coastal areas. Just another impressive part of what is a pretty multifaceted system.

Recon are flying Megi at the moment. Flight Level winds of 169kt, Surface winds of 146kt and a central pressure of 908mb and falling fast (down from 916mb the previous pass). Impressive... Would make it the strongest storm of the year.

Probably will be unable to attend this one given the distance involved. Will just have to see if I bump into you guys out in the states again come May I'll let you know if things change of course!

Had a pretty intense thunderstorm come through at about 3:30am. Lots of loud thunder and got a few lightning pics from the window. Best storm in years here but that isn't actually saying much Got to work and have a flooded office with 6 computers swimming in water I now need to replace... not happy anymore...

Defo not beach weather at the moment lol...

First proper thunderstorm of the year here for me. (At least UK wise ) Been thundering for a good half an hour with a line of storms just south of me, Managed to avoid a soaking by probably a mile on the walk home as a massive thunderstorm erupted before my eyes and moved just south of my route home. The cloud base was very black and very low to the south side of town and down towards Filey! If you loop the radar, you'll see how fast it sprung up!

I don't have many photos with the exception of a timelapse I did of the guys trying to put up Paul's 9 man tent. I think they did a pretty good job! Video is here: http://www.stormfever.com/Galleries/Misc/tent2.wmv We watched a lot of storm videos late on. I've uploaded the Timelapse from May 22nd onto Youtube if you want to check it out! No sound so put your own music on in the background I plan on annotating it at some point...

I can't add anything that hasn't already been sent. Great BBQ, great host, great company. What more could you ask for? (Well... a passing 'nado would have been nice )

I've got a tent sorted so no turning back now I've got plenty of video on the laptop though nothing on DVD from my trip. Not sure if I can hook the laptop up to a tv or not. Probably not... Still, I will probably bring my storms of 2007/2008 DVDs and I just received a copy of Bullseye Bowdle yesterday which documents the insanity of May 22nd. Managed to spot myself (well my car) twice on that DVD I've done a timelapse of the entire chase from the first touchdown from that day also, although lack of tripod means if you are easily motion sick, you may want to avoid watching some parts I'll chuck it up on youtube after the event so Pat can see it

Hope it's not too late to upgrade my 'Maybe Attending' to a 'Probably Attending'. Still not 100% sure I can make it, but should know by the end of this weekend. Got the following Monday booked off work for recovery reasons now so I'm fairly confident

As excellent as that video is, it only serves to remind me of how bad mine of the same storm is in comparison

I'm at work, but I presume it's Skip Talbot's Keister-Conger-Albert Lea timelapse video which is insane His timelapse of the May 22nd Bowdle-Roscoe, SD Wedge is almost as good also Do check it out. I so wish you could buy those robotic roof mounts from Walmart or something

Add me to the maybe list... Transport and funding being the most likely issues. Weird how a 4 hour drive in America to get on a storm seemed the norm, but a 4 hour drive here is half way across the country! If I do get to go, I'll hopefully have edited my video into a highlights clip by then

That storm has just passed a few miles or so south of me at the moment. Skies are really dark in that direction. Not heard any thunder yet, but imagine it's dropped a fair bit of rain on it's way through. The joys of been stuck at home with no transport to go chase.... (you'd think I'd be chased out after 3 weeks in the states heh)

Good job guys. Can't say I'd looked at the models or SPc since leaving on Saturday (too busy sleeping off jetlag), but am I right in thinking this was only a 2% day or so? Beautiful structure... wish I was still there....

Aye, it is a truly beautiful area. Shame you have to rush back to DFW. A down day in the black hills would be amazing. The scenic highways around that area are also amazing (The Needles highway especially) as also is Mt Rushmore and the Badlands. Been in Wall several times and never visited the Drug store. That place is advertised on the interstate every half a mile for about 150 miles either side of the town!

Saw 4 landspouts early on, followed by 2 supercellular tornadoes later. All but one of the landspouts were very brief affairs. Pictures to come tomorrow though the landspouts were shot from extreme distance and are slightly low contrast :lol: (100-400L lens comes through again though ) These are on different storms to the one the team was on by the way! I chased around the Tribune area.