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Ian/Ellinwood/WxWarrior Chase Thread


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Yeah probably. Fortunately that's pretty unlikely by this time of year. But overall I'd rather chase high based supercells here than even a solid tornado threat in the DC area.

Yeah it was kind of a joke question. If I were in your shoes there would just be something terribly wrong heading back east on your own chasecation.

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Nice vid. I got to admit, I kind of wish you wouldn't edit out though...or at least keep it as edit free as possible. Unless, of course, you edited Ian out while he was screaming like a high school girl as the tornado dropped. Then that is ok.

I edited the tornado stuff a bit because at that point I went to the car to grab the GoPro, so you aren't really missing anything :P

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Was one of the other group a girl? I can't remember what the second vehicle was now but if it was you we pulled up right behind on a side road in a red ford escape for a bit. Car in front was a civic. I thought it was you but wasn't sure enough to call out. ;)

Yeah, that was probably us... that's hilarious if you were actually stopped right there too! Anymore, I tend to tune out other chaser vehicles cause it's so crowded out there and there's always somebody else nearby. Got pretty annoyed with a certain fleet of tour-group vans on Tue who repeatedly swarmed on good pulloffs I'd already "claimed." No worries with you guys, though... if I didn't even notice y'all, you obviously had the courtesy not to pull past me to park, sprint out in front of my tripod and act like high schoolers on a field trip to Six Flags... unlike certain others. :lol:

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Brettt yeah that most certainly had to be you then. I remember the Subie and civic.We're in a rental red Ford Escape (which I dislike with a passion now). I think we were all liking thw wounds of a bust chase and were not really in the mood to chat I guess. like you, I tend to avoid and only nod and wave at other chasers. Not like in the 90s when actually seeing another chaser in the field was a real rare experience. I miss those days.

We did have a great down day though. We ran onto one of my old chase buddies Chris Kridler at the laundry mat of all places. I did a quick swim in the hotel pool (where the water wasstill quite cold). We did go to The Big Texan and finally got our victory steaks (chaser institution). Ian and Mark stayed at the hotel after that tto process video and stills (I'll process mine once home....no rush for me) while I headed out to the Cadillac Ranch to photograph the cars and the stars.

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You guys still in the PH today? I like the potential for more cool-looking NW flow sups today just off the Caprock... HRRR looks promising.

Yeah we are headed north toward the developing storms now. Hoping for some good structure.

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It is ironic that a rather significant threat seems to be developing in the D.C./Maryland/Virginia areas this Friday afternoon, but here's to plains chasing.

We've not seen a 15% tor either year in the Plains! Of course its probably overdone. Mass i95 hysteria ftw.

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The pattern seems to be evolving kinda poorly for the week. Haven't looked a ton but the gFS has backed off on the trough push. May have to consider bailing a bit early..

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I wouldn't ditch just yet. Looks like there will be some decent chances at upslope, especially in NE CO and ern WY. Could see some landspout action near the DCVZ...

Don't know enough about that kind of setup I guess. Though for a while I thought maybe I'd have to go alone this yr and was considering something like the 10th-20th based out of Denver as I know CO peak season is in June. Not sure it would be worth staying just for landspouts tho there are some pretty cool ones obviously. Will try to take a closer look as we may try to decide by tomorrow.

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Tough decisionmaking today. We're kinda leaning to the south side perhaps even south of the 5% on SPC. Looks more and more like this is it for us... will evaluate after the day's over though.

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Today was an end to the trip sorta like last yrs end tho at least we saw storms this time and the potential was not quite as great. Nice seeing storms fire in a 4500-5000 cape environment and fall all over themselves... First cell that went up evaporated as we neared it. The second appeared quite nice, got svr warned and then crawled with the main updraft seemingly continually dying while new ones fired to the north. Finally I guess it just ruined its own environment or something and disappeared. I guess the story there was you need some shear for something good. Sorta perplexing how SPC ran a meso that storms were about to explode.. they didn't.. then finally after the one was svr warned for a while they issued a big tornado box which basically failed. Fun to see how difficult a science this stuff is either way I suppose.

Given the abysmal May, hard to be too disappointed with our trip. We chased on 10 of 11 days while out and saw svr storms on 8 of those days I think. We didn't really run into any days with major potential... but we obviously scored nicely on a few.

I'd perhaps have stayed through the week if alone as I like seeing storms even if they aren't tornadic, but I am getting a bit tired, and a day like today is a good reminder that chasing -- while fun -- can also be something of a waste of time at points. It'll be good to get some rest at the end of the week before going to work...

I took several thousand pics, though many will make up panos etc. It'll probably take a while to process the ones I want to use. I'll post a link to them here or some in this thread as I get to them.

Other than that.. until next yr.

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Thank goodness for 5/25 and 5/29. You guys absolutely nailed both days and averted what could've otherwise been a disastrous trip. Two tornado days with 5+ total tubes isn't terrible even for a typical 10-day chasecation, and for 2012, it's downright impressive. Can't wait for more pics. Regarding the late-week potential, it's a really tough call, since the next few days look more or less worthless. Would suck to putz around three more days waiting, only to have the threat go up in flames come Thursday or something like that. I'd say the 2012 legacy thus far is enough to push the scale toward calling it a trip now. ;)

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Thank goodness for 5/25 and 5/29. You guys absolutely nailed both days and averted what could've otherwise been a disastrous trip. Two tornado days with 5+ total tubes isn't terrible even for a typical 10-day chasecation, and for 2012, it's downright impressive. Can't wait for more pics. Regarding the late-week potential, it's a really tough call, since the next few days look more or less worthless. Would suck to putz around three more days waiting, only to have the threat go up in flames come Thursday or something like that. I'd say the 2012 legacy thus far is enough to push the scale toward calling it a trip now. ;)

Yeah who knows for sure on the weekend threat, it honestly is a bit late either way as we gotta go back to work at some pt and that would be a hell of a drive to try to make Monday! Plus we gotta throw people a bone by leaving so something sizeable can happen.

It would be a different story particularly without 5/25 I'm sure. So it's a good thing we left early.. Original plan was to leave that day. That said, while tornadoes are the ultimate goal it was somewhat nice just to see a good variety of storms. We just don't get them of that quality on the EC as you know. Plus, last yr we barely saw anything since the pattern was so terrible while we were out.

As a chasecationet I guess it's always going to pop into the head that you would have done better on a different 10-day stretch or whatever. That's something that has to be learned how to deal with I guess. Of course I'll be jealous if something widespread happens a few days after departure! But, at least we got a better taste this yr...

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  • 4 weeks later...

this is a really old bump but i realized i never shared the photos ive posted.. may end up posting some more but this is kinda the "final" set

edit: arg, it embeds them.. here are direct links:

set: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ianlivingston/sets/72157630096550422
slideshow (chron order) http://www.flickr.com/photos/ianlivingston/sets/72157630096550422/show/

mark (ellinwood also posted some more vid)

more: http://www.youtube.com/user/madusweather

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  • 3 weeks later...

Awesome photos. My understanding is the actual tornado count this year is below average, so getting those pictures is extra good work.

I think I'll be satisfying myself during the cool months watching tornado videos, as I suspect very few tropical cyclone videos. Not completely true, i-Cyclone may be barren but http://www.typhoonfury.com/ has typhoons and volcanoes, ice cream with the jimmies.

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