Archives for November 7, 2008

Here it comes. Winter. We knew it had to arrive sooner or later, and it looks like this weekend is the appointed time in West Michigan.\r\n\r\nI see that the SPC has spotlighted Texas and the Gulf Coast for severe weather on Sunday and Monday, but here in Caledonia, none of that moves me. I”m girding myself for four months of snow, ice, and cold. Today is beautiful but on the cooler side, and tomorrow gets nasty, with snow and rain on the menu. I think it”s safe to say it”ll be a while before I get my next taste of Gulf moisture.\r\n\r\nStill, one never knows. On January 5 of this year, I was in Missouri with me droges, chasing tornadic supercells. A month later, down near Louisville, Kentucky, Bill and I caught the northern edge of the Super Tuesday Outbreak–in terms of fatalities, one of the worst outbreaks in years. The weather doesn”t care what time of year it is. It does what it pleases, and the best policy regarding it is the Boy Scout motto: “Be prepared.”\r\n\r\nBeing prepared doesn”t mean holding one”s breath, though. Now begin the long months of lake-effect snow squalls and Supercell Deficiency Syndrome, the season of Boning Up On Weather Knowledge. I”ll be spending a lot of time with Tim Vasquez”s Forecast Laboratory software and burying my nose in a book or two.\r\n\r\nThis is also a good time to read up on camera and Photoshop techniques and enhance my, er, development as a photographer. I”ve already come a long way since I bought my Rebel XTi back in March. Come next spring, I hope to not blow that shot of a lifetime, assuming I get another crack at a tornado as close as the Oberlin storm.\r\n\r\nFor now, though, the afternoon sky is still blue. And I am going out to enjoy this last, golden breath of Indian Summer.