After all those ruminations about Sonny Stitt and bebop, it’s high time for another storm chasing post. Got just the thing for you: education. That’s right, education. After all, you can’t intercept storms successfully without knowing a thing or two about them.
Last year was the year when I felt I finally had learned a few things about severe weather. Not that I was clueless before–2006 was a great chase year for me, and 2005 wasn’t too shabby, either–but last year I racked up a good 14,000 miles or more chasing storms everywhere from the Texas/Oklahoma panhandles, to South Dakota, to Wisconsin, to Indiana, to–dare I say it?–Michigan, and a few other states in between. Saw a few tornadoes for the trouble, too, not to mention some great storm structure. I witnessed my first tornado last year in late February just east of Kansas City, Missouri, and I bagged my last supercell in Indiana during a regional outbreak on October 18. That event produced a number of tornadoes, a couple of which did EF-3 damage.
This year has gotten off to an even earlier start with the big January 7 Midwest tornado outbreak. So I’m hoping this will be my best chase year yet. My buddies and I are bulking up for it with a forecasting inservice tomorrow at the National Weather Service office out by the airport. I’m really excited about this–it’ll be a great way to prime the pump for 2008.
The guy who will be conducting the inservice is quite enthused about it, too. John is a young fella who has immersed himself in studying severe weather, particularly tornado climatology and tornadogenesis (i.e. how tornadoes form). He’s passionate about his topic and eager to share his knowledge. Tomorrow evening, he will be giving me and my chase buddies, Bill Oosterbaan, Tom Oosterbaan, and Kurt Hulst, his presentation on synoptic (large-scale) setups that are responsible for the bulk of significant tornadoes in our area. This will include his analysis of the 1980 Kalamazoo tornado. From there, we’ll get John’s input on how to make maximum use of the SPC’s mesoanalysis tools, and how to use other forecast models and parameters that are available on the Internet.
It’s amazing just how many weather tools you can access for absolutely free these days on the Web. We’re talking about some truly superb tools, too–professional-quality stuff designed by and used daily by NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and the SPC (Storm Prediction Center). This is one area where you can get real bang for your tax bucks. From Doppler radar, to satellite images, to soundings, to numerical models, the challenge is no longer finding powerful resources for storm chasing; it’s sifting through the bewildering array of options to find the right tools, and learning how to use them effectively.
There’s no end to the learning. That is one of the daunting things about storm chasing–and one of the wonderful things. Whether you”re sitting in front of a computer pondering a 500 millibar vorticity chart, or watching a dry slot wrap around a mesocyclone two miles away, there is always, always, always something new to discover. I can”t wait to see what this year has in store!
