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Jonesing for a Chase

HurricaneJosh

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Ed Lizard

Ed Lizard

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Posted in Atlantic thread, but the GFS forecast heights for mid-September look happy for Florida.

 

I would *so* look forward to an iCyclone daytime landfall in Florida, with its quality road network and fairly flat terrain.  YouTube would have 50 chaser videos up within 2 days if that happened.

 

Nothing personal about Florida.  I lived in Orlando for a year, I liked Florida.  They do have the best hurricane building codes in the nation...

post-138-0-20015000-1377974860_thumb.gif

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WNash

WNash

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My big fear about a major going into that kind of topography in the mainland US is that experienced chasers like Josh would have to work around a lot of inexperienced jugheads who could put themselves and others at risk. I'm just thinking of some near-catastrophes in the tornado chase season-- there are some idiots out there, and it seems to have gotten exponentially worse in the last few years.

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Typhoon Hunter

Typhoon Hunter

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Posted in Atlantic thread, but the GFS forecast heights for mid-September look happy for Florida.

 

I would *so* look forward to an iCyclone daytime landfall in Florida, with its quality road network and fairly flat terrain.  YouTube would have 50 chaser videos up within 2 days if that happened.

 

Nothing personal about Florida.  I lived in Orlando for a year, I liked Florida.  They do have the best hurricane building codes in the nation...

2 days?! That's slow, I was uploading footage to YouTube during the eye of typhoon Utor last month :P

 

Considering the crapolla quality of storms in the Wpac this season (our ACE is about 50% of where is should be) it's been a very fruitful chase season so far with 3 storms gone after. Whilst the wind does fascinate me the most I also focus on other aspects of tropical systems which are often overlooked especially flash flooding. The extreme mountainous terrain of Taiwan and Luzon, whilst challenging for nailing the wind offers some amazing opportunities to film water at work, a good example being the dam flood event after Trami a couple of weeks ago!

 

Going into September hoping to catch 2 more storms, interestingly every year since 2005 (with exception of 2010) there's been a solid chaseable landfall within just a few days of 1st October, so that's quite a hawt date out here!

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icebreaker5221

icebreaker5221

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2 days?! That's slow, I was uploading footage to YouTube during the eye of typhoon Utor last month :P

 

Considering the crapolla quality of storms in the Wpac this season (our ACE is about 50% of where is should be) it's been a very fruitful chase season so far with 3 storms gone after. Whilst the wind does fascinate me the most I also focus on other aspects of tropical systems which are often overlooked especially flash flooding. The extreme mountainous terrain of Taiwan and Luzon, whilst challenging for nailing the wind offers some amazing opportunities to film water at work, a good example being the dam flood event after Trami a couple of weeks ago!

 

Going into September hoping to catch 2 more storms, interestingly every year since 2005 (with exception of 2010) there's been a solid chaseable landfall within just a few days of 1st October, so that's quite a hawt date out here!

 

Don't forget about mudslides (or boulder-slides), like this one from Kong-Rey two days ago:

 

http://youtu.be/WaBBRmD8QHg

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Ed Lizard

Ed Lizard

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Perhaps someone could make a separate thread about floods and mudslides?  I'm sure someone will enjoy it.

 

 

Didn't you have a Mexican Pacific chase where mudlsides and downed trees delayed your return?  The stress of a lame season is getting to everyone, a couple of comments about mudslides isn't derailing the thread

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HurricaneJosh

HurricaneJosh

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Didn't you have a Mexican Pacific chase where mudlsides and downed trees delayed your return?  The stress of a lame season is getting to everyone, a couple of comments about mudslides isn't derailing the thread

 

It was a boring chapter of the experience after the chase-- basically as interesting as a traffic jam.   For me, when the wind passes, it's over.

 

P.S.  The chase you're remembering was Jova, which had awesome, violent wind.

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Typhoon Hunter

Typhoon Hunter

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Don't forget about mudslides (or boulder-slides), like this one from Kong-Rey two days ago:

 

http://youtu.be/WaBBRmD8QHg

Wish I owned copyright to that footage! A friend of mine was driving the opposite direction and was less than a minute away from the scene when it happened. Luckily there were no fatalities.

 

It will be interesting to see what the situation is regarding the next major landfalling system in the US especially given the large increase in numbers of chasers out there who might be interested in hurricanes. In the social media times we live in I know I certainly put more pressure on myself to get shots to feed the audience and in dodgy situations have to just step back and tell myself it's not worth the risk for the sake of a cool Youtube video. I just hope those tackling their first major hurricane think along similar lines!

 

Josh the Euro's sucked all year with TC genesis, it's really not even worth bothering to look at until you got a formed TD or TS.

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HurricaneJosh

HurricaneJosh

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Remembering 10 of my favorite non-USA sexycanes of modern times-- most of them deep-tropical-- the real deal.  A recurrence of any of these in the next two months would make up for the last couple o' years o' hell:

 

JANET 1955:  The unforgettable Miss Janet-- a small, violent, Caribbean Cruiser microcane that made 150-kt direct hit on Chetumal.  A station in the city, in the eye, measured 914 mb.

 

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"GREAT MEXICO HURRICANE" 1959:  This remains the only known Cat-5 landfall in the EPAC.  The city of Manzanillo-- which was in or just outside the right-front quad-- was devastated.  Like most significant EPAC landfalls, this happened in Oct.

 

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HATTIE 1961:  A large Cat 4 that devastated Belize City-- and the whole reason why Belize's capital is now a small inland town called Belmopan.

 

post-19-0-34232300-1378188860_thumb.gif

 

CARMEN 1974:  This one hit Louisiana as it was unraveling, but the hawtness happened earlier, when it made landfall on the Yucatan with winds of 130 kt.  Chetumal was in the S eyewall and measured 118 kt.  Hawtness.

 

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ANITA 1977: A Cat-5 landfall that would have been a nuclear-grade hit for TX if that ridge wasn't so strong.

 

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GILBERT 1988:  Big Cat-5 landfall on Cozumel, moving in a straight line.  Obvious hawtness.  'Nuff said.

 

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JOAN 1988:  Cat-4 hit on a large Nicaraguan town called Bluefields.  This would have been a very tough chase-- but so worth it, just for the novelty.  Spanish-speakin' locals call this cyclone "Juana", cuz our J sound doesn't exist in Spanish.

 

post-19-0-21054400-1378188903_thumb.gif

 

IRIS 2001:  Perhaps the tiniest major 'cane in modern times, this monster Cat-4 microcane had a tiny eyewall and was probably like being in a large tornado when it came ashore in S Belize.  This one defines "small and vicious".   B)

 

post-19-0-21945900-1378189690_thumb.gif

 

KENNA 2002:  Classic, sexy Oct recurver in the EPAC.  Came ashore with winds of 120 kt, just barely missing Puerto Vallarta.

 

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DEAN 2007:  Another Cat-5 landfall on the Yucatan.  I chased this one, riding it out in downtown Chetumal, which missed the S eyewall by just a few miles.  We got raked real good, though.   :pepsi:

 

post-19-0-72619000-1378188898_thumb.gif

 

Oh, and here's video from Dean.  The core of the cyclone passed just N of downtown at dawn, when it was just light enough to shoot video-- so I captured some of it.  The downtown area starts to get really raked around 1:20 or so:

 

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icebreaker5221

icebreaker5221

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Remembering 10 of my favorite non-USA sexycanes of modern times-- most of them deep-tropical-- the real deal.  A recurrence of any of these in the next two months would make up for the last couple o' years o' hell:

 

JANET 1955:  The unforgettable Miss Janet-- a small, violent, Caribbean Cruiser microcane that made 150-kt direct hit on Chetumal.  A station in the city, in the eye, measured 914 mb.

"GREAT MEXICO HURRICANE" 1959:  This remains the only known Cat-5 landfall in the EPAC.  The city of Manzanillo-- which was in or just outside the right-front quad-- was devastated.  Like most significant EPAC landfalls, this happened in Oct.

 

HATTIE 1961:  A large Cat 4 that devastated Belize City-- and the whole reason why Belize's capital is now a small inland town called Belmopan.

 

CARMEN 1974:  This one hit Louisiana as it was unraveling, but the hawtness happened earlier, when it made landfall on the Yucatan with winds of 130 kt.  Chetumal was in the S eyewall and measured 118 kt.  Hawtness.

 

ANITA 1977: A Cat-5 landfall that would have been a nuclear-grade hit for TX if that ridge wasn't so strong.

 

GILBERT 1988:  Big Cat-5 landfall on Cozumel, moving in a straight line.  Obvious hawtness.  'Nuff said.

JOAN 1988:  Cat-4 hit on a large Nicaraguan town called Bluefields.  This would have been a very tough chase-- but so worth it, just for the novelty.  Spanish-speakin' locals call this cyclone "Juana", cuz our J sound doesn't exist in Spanish.

 

IRIS 2001:  Perhaps the tiniest major 'cane in modern times, this monster Cat-4 microcane had a tiny eyewall and was probably like being in a large tornado when it came ashore in S Belize.  This one defines "small and vicious".   B)

 

KENNA 2002:  Classic, sexy Oct recurver in the EPAC.  Came ashore with winds of 120 kt, just barely missing Puerto Vallarta.

 

DEAN 2007:  Another Cat-5 landfall on the Yucatan.  I chased this one, riding it out in downtown Chetumal, which missed the S eyewall by just a few miles.  We got raked real good, though.   :pepsi:

 

Oh, and here's video from Dean.  The core of the cyclone passed just N of downtown at dawn, when it was just light enough to shoot video-- so I captured some of it.  The downtown area starts to get really raked around 1:20 or so:

 

 

Hey Josh, was there a reason that you didn't chase Felix (2007)?  Not enough road options in Nicaragua, or perhaps too close chronologically to your Dean chase? 

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BuffaloWeather

BuffaloWeather

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Hush-- or I'll fix you, too.

 

With all this downtime. What are your top 5 Hurricane intercepts throughout your chasing career? Have you ever been scared at how high the winds got in any particular storm? Also, how are you able to chase these Hurricanes all over the country? Do you schedule vacation time impromptu? I would love to chase a Hurricane someday, its on my bucket-list! Finally looking like the tropics are getting a bit more active, hopefully we get rewarded for being so patient.

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andyhb

andyhb

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Remembering 10 of my favorite non-USA sexycanes of modern times-- most of them deep-tropical-- the real deal.  A recurrence of any of these in the next two months would make up for the last couple o' years o' hell:

 

The main lesson here...lol the US for the most part.

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HurricaneJosh

HurricaneJosh

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Hey Josh, was there a reason that you didn't chase Felix (2007)?  Not enough road options in Nicaragua, or perhaps too close chronologically to your Dean chase? 

 

Yeah, like Jorge said, I hadn't yet added Nicaragua to my chase turf at that time.  I was actually planning to chase Felix 2007 when guidance initially brought it into Belize, but then when it shifted S, I bailed.  Felix would have been tough, because-- as you mentioned-- there just aren't a lot of road options in parts of Nicaragua.  Joan 1988 hit a much larger town and would have been a tad more chaseable.  By the way, Joan's landfall point was at an extremely low latitude:  11.9N.

 

He decided to make Nicaragua part of his chase turf after Felix.

 

Sí.

 

With all this downtime. What are your top 5 Hurricane intercepts throughout your chasing career? Have you ever been scared at how high the winds got in any particular storm? Also, how are you able to chase these Hurricanes all over the country? Do you schedule vacation time impromptu? I would love to chase a Hurricane someday, its on my bucket-list! Finally looking like the tropics are getting a bit more active, hopefully we get rewarded for being so patient.

 

Hey, what's up?   :)  I'm a brand/advertising exec and political consultant by day, and my business partner and I own our company-- so that means I'm my own boss.  That doesn't mean I can just jet out whenever I please-- I work hard and I have clients, and they come first-- but it does mean that I have a certain amount of flexibility and can leave town on quick notice without anyone's permission.  I've never missed a chase in N America because of work.  I don't really take more vacation time than an ordinary 9-to-5er, but I tend to schedule it more suddenly, and not months in advance.

 

Top 5 Chases

 

Hmmm.  Tough one. I kind of wubz them all in different ways.  But if I had to pick five to keep in my portfolio and lose the rest, it would be (in chronological order):

  • WILMA 2005 (Everglades City, FL).  Near the landfall point of a big, powerful Cat 3.  Got really raked by a surprisingly intense backside, after the eye passed.
  • DEAN 2007 (Chetumal, MX).  This is the only 'cane I've chased in the last decade where I missed the inner core-- but it was only by a few miles, and since this was a 150-kt Cat 5, my location still got really pounded.
  • KARL 2010 (Veracruz, MX).  I was in an urban area with an incredible amount of flying debris-- pieces of roof just flying everywhere-- so that made it both scary and dramatic.
  • JOVA 2011 (Emiliano Zapata, MX).  Very violent winds-- see below.
  • ERNESTO 2012 (Buena Vista, MX).  A true microcane--  the smallest I've ever chased.  With the help of my remote chase partner, Scott (Strat747), I was able to navigate into its tiny inner core, and the NHC used my air-pressure data to upgrade the cyclone to Cat 2 in postanalysis-- which was pretty awesome.

You can see that most of my really satisfying chases have been in Mexico-- that's where I've had my greatest success and made my most unique contributions as a chaser.

 

Scariest Winds

 

The hurricane with the scariest winds was probably Jova 2011.  We were right in that right-front quad as it came ashore, and we just got raked. Check out the video:  the wind starts to really pick up at 2:29, steadily building to a ferocious climax at 4:26, as the center passed just a few miles to the W:

 

 

The NHC officially has Jova as only an 85-kt Cat 2, but it was in the EPAC with no recon, and I'm wondering if it was actually a bit stronger.  I've been in the cores of many Cat 2s and 3s, and Jova knocked the socks off of all of them-- it had an explosive quality that the others didn't.  Maybe we were in some kind of localized feature, like I microburst. I was with Jim Edds, who was in the eyewall of Cat-4 Charley 2004 in Punta Gorda, FL, and he felt the same way as I did--  that Jova was really violent and the worst he'd seen since Charley.  And residents in the direct-hit zone whom I talked with the next day described being frightened by it (and I've generally found that Mexicans take hurricanes in stride and don't overreact to them).  So, it wasn't just me freaking out.   :)

 

Great video Josh from Hurricane Dean. 0:54-1:08 sounds scary. My favorite part is1:37-2:00.

 

Omg, thank you so much!!   :)  It's funny you mention that clip at 1:27, cuz that's one of my favorites, too!  I had trouble keeping the camera still because the conditions were so crazy, and there's barely enough light to see anything, but it still captures the experience of an urban area just getting raked by some serious hurricane conditions.   B)

 

Glad you liked it-- thanks for saying so.

 

The main lesson here...lol the US for the most part.

 

:D

 

I've had my greatest successes in Mexico, and the historic 'canes I really fantasize about tend to be the ones in Mexico and Belize, but hey, the USA has had so many awesome sexycanes:  Charley 2004, Andrew 1992, Hugo 1989, Celia 1970, Carla 1961, King 1950, etc.  We have a lot of hawt ones to be proud of, too.   :D

 

LOL at all three basins this year.

 

Yeah, it's of true.  Nothing has sucked like the NATL, but the EPAC cyclones haven't been particularly strong, and the WPAC has really only had one really great system-- that Cat 4 that hit Luzon a few weeks ago.

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