What Storm Chasers Do During the Off Season

What do storm chasers do when there’s nothing to chase? Watch the “Storm Chasers” series on Discovery Channel.

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Of course I don’t speak for all storm chasers. But a good number of you, like Tom, Bill, and me, have been parked in front of your televisions on Sunday nights, watching Reed dominate, Tim deploy turtles, and Sean wipe his face in frustration. Once a
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week, we all get to vicariously relive this year’s chase season–the storms we got, the storms we failed to get, the days we wished we had chased, the days we’re glad we didn’t.

Here are some photos of me droogs that I took during last night’s “Storm Chasers” session. Just a nice, pleasant evening of buddies, beer, pumpkin pie, and tornadoes. Bill supplied the pie

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and I brought the Golden Monkey, a Belgian trippel whose potency I had forgotten but swiftly recalled. It’s one of those beers where, once it gets a hold of you, the best thing you can say is as little as possible. Just shut up and enjoy the show. Last night’s was great. Next week’s, featuring the Aurora, Nebraska, tornado, looks to be awesome.

Once the series winds down, whatever shall we do? View old tornado DVDs and mutter a lot, I suppose. Think thoughts like, “Only 120 days till April.” Stay away from sharp objects. Or, if you’re like Mike Kovalchick who just looooooves winter, hope for a good blizzard so you can go chase thundersnow.

Mike is probably onto something. It beats sitting in a dark corner cutting out paper dolls with a blunt-nosed scissors. Or maybe not. I may give the doll thing a try once the snows roll in.

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November 23, 2009 by
Filed Under: Life, Relationships, Storm Chasing, Tornadoes, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , ,

Comments

  1. Mike Kovalchick says
    November 24, 2009 at 6:29 am

    LOL! 🙂 After a very disappointing Storm Chasing season for me, it appears that the “Winter Chasing” season may follow a similar note.

    El Nino=EL OH NO!!!!!

    https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/enso_update/wkxzteq.shtml

    This Eastern moving downwelling Kelvin wave indicates that El Nino Eastern regions are definately heating up while the Western regions should start to cool. This probably means El Nino has peaked at moderate strength but will be maintained for several months. That usually means dry/mild Winter for us although it might turn cold towards Feburary. Ugh! 🙂 I can’t believe my cottage in the snowbelt will being going into the month of December with almost no snow this season and the inland lakes with no ice on them. What a contrast to the 200″ season last year!

  2. admin says
    November 24, 2009 at 8:14 am

    I call that sacrificial, Mike: putting a smile on other people’s faces at the expense of your own. But this is still Michigan, so never fear. You’ll get your ssss…your snnn…aaagh, I can barely make myself say the word…your snow. Maybe not up to 2009 standards, but we’ve never been known to starve for the white stuff in this state.

    I’ve heard some skepticism about the impact and longevity of this present El Nino, but I’ll trust the CPC’s take on it. In fact, I wouldn’t get your hopes too high for a cool-down in February: https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/predictions/threats2/enso/elnino/UStrank/djf.gif. The good news is, this next spring in the Plains won’t have the same concerns about drought adversely modifying the moisture fetch.