Near-Blizzard Conditions in Michigan on Winter Solstice

“Near blizzard conditions” is what KGRR is calling it. I call it a good, old-fashioned Michigan snowstorm, the kind I remember from my boyhood down in Niles. Seems like such storms started to peter out once my family moved to Grand Rapids back in 1968, though I remember we still got a few good, solid blasts. It has been a long time, though, since I’ve seen a December like this one. Last year”s winter set a record for snow accumulation; this year”s looks well on its way to becoming another record-breaker, if it isn”t one already.

Here is the view from my apartment onto my deck.

The two mushroom-like objects on the bottom left are pots of chicken soup, thoroughly frozen. On days like today, I like to chisel out a nice chunk and enjoy it at my leisure. Explosives could accelerate the process, but out of consideration for my neighbors, I refrain and use an air hammer instead. It”s a more time-consuming approach, but it”s worth it. There’s nothing like a good, hearty slab of chicken soup on a blustery winter day, that’s what I say.

Where was I, anyway? Oh, yes–near-blizzard conditions. I have to agree with the NWS on that one. Here”s a view of the parking lot.

Nothing about that picture says “tank top and shorts.” The current station reading at 11:30 a.m. shows 11 degrees Fahrenheit, winds of 24 miles an hour gusting to 33, and a wind chill of -9. If you”ve ever felt an urge to go streaking down Main Street, today would not be the day. No, this is the kind of day when you can hunker down inside with a cup of hot tea and feel totally guiltless about doing absolutely nothing.

It seems particularly fitting that we’re getting a major winter storm on the day of the winter solstice. Today isn’t just the snowiest day of the year so far, it”s also the shortest. From here on, we begin the slow but encouraging trek toward spring. Winter has just begun and–though, looking out the window, the thought seems unbelievable–the worst still lies ahead. Three months of ice, slush, flying snow spray, slippery roads, and bitter cold. But we’ve finally descended to the utmost depth of the long nights, and now we’re heading back for the sunny surface. March, the transitional month, isn”t that terribly far away. And amazingly, we may get a crack at a storm chase as near as next week in southern Illinois and Indiana.

This last chase season got off to an early start on January 7, and then a month later on February 5 with the Super Tuesday Outbreak. So who knows what next weekend will hold. I”m not holding my breath, but I am crossing my fingers.

December 21, 2008 by
Filed Under: Life, Nature, Storm Chasing, Weather

More Winter Weather: This Round Looks to Be a Doozy

We’ve got another winter storm on the way. It’s expected to hit around 1:00 a.m. and hit its max here around 7:00. By the time it”s over, we could have up to eight inches of new snow, and with more winter storms in the forecast for these next few days, that’s just the leading edge of the snowfall.

But this is nothing new. Already snow is old hat. Since November, Michigan has gotten slammed with one major winter storm after another. A series of Alberta Clippers dumped a squatload of the white stuff on us a few weeks ago, and that was just part of the cold season”s synoptic fun. We’ve had freezing rain, flurries, and whiteouts. Of course lake effect snow has pitched in its obligatory contribution; what would Michigan be without that?

And it’s not even winter yet. Not officially, not till Sunday.

Sure seems like winter, though. Not only so, but it seems like this winter is well on the way to eclipsing the one we had last year, and that one set a record for snowfall.

This latest round of incoming winter weather promises to chuck in pretty much everything a body could hope for. I see lightning flashes recorded in Iowa. We may be logging some of that here in West Michigan come morning. Interestingly, besides looping us in for a winter storm warning, the SPC has included our area in a “general thunderstorms” region. With thundersnow a distinct possibility, I have a hunch that life is about to get fun.

Tomorrow will be a day to lay low, write, and enjoy being indoors with a good mug of brew and my friend Lisa to make for good conversation. I don’t mind that arrangement, not at all. I can”t believe I”m saying this, but…winter ain’t all that bad.

December 18, 2008 by
Filed Under: Life, Storm Chasing, Weather

Tornado Photos I Have Known and Flubbed

Even as I’m discovering the rewards of winter photography, I confess that I’m beyond eager for storm season 2009 to arrive. I expect that it will be the year when I finally–finally!–start taking some decent storm photos.

I bought my Canon Rebel XTi with Sigma 18-200mm OS glass in March of this year. Not knowing a thing about DSLR cameras, I naively figured that the automatic settings would make up for my lack of experience. As a result, I made an absolute mishmash of my chase photos. In the extremely low light of some of the storm environments I encountered out west this last May, my camera would refuse to fire at the worst possible moments. Alternatively, the flash would go off, illuminating such fascinating subjects as the rain streaks on the windshield which my auto-focus, in a display of whimsical and sadistic humor, was zeroing in on while ignoring the tornado crossing the road in front of our vehicle at close range. Here”s what I”m talkin” about…

Not exactly everything one could hope for, right?

Please don’t chide me for not spending time getting to know my camera–I thought I had done just that. But the fully manual mode, which could have saved me a lot of grief, was still a mystery to me. So was RAW, and white balance, and bracketing, and anything beyond the basic automatic settings. Nuff said. I got what I got.

Not all of it was terrible, either. If you like wall clouds, I wound up with some cool shots. And at least one tornado photo turned out well enough that you can actually see an elephant”s trunk waaaaay off in the distance, provided you squint and use your imagination.

Still, the Oberlin cone…the small tornadoes circumnavigating the backside of what I think was the Quinter meso…the Hazleton, Iowa, wedge…oh, maaan, the shots I screwed up! I see some of the beautiful images captured by other chasers on Stormtrack, and I’m filled with a mix of admiration and pure-green envy. I could”a been a contender!

But 2009–that’s when I get to redeem myself. I hope. If it”s a good year for storms, and if it’s a good year for me as far as getting to where the storms are, then I think I”ve finally got both the equipment and the basic know-how to put some decent taxidermy in my convective game room. I can”t wait to try!

December 16, 2008 by
Filed Under: Life, Photography, Storm Chasing, Tornadoes, Weather

Historical Tornadoes: Remembering the Worst of the Worst

Every year, scores of tornadoes roam the United States. Probably the better part of them have minimal to no human impact, but there are always a fair number that inflict damage, injury, and even death. Some hit a farm or two; others sweep through communities, tearing up homes. No matter how you cut it, they’re bad news, and the people affected by them will never forget the experience.

Once in a great while, though, a tornado comes along whose ferocity and the toll it inflicts on communities set it apart into the upper echelon–that rare one percent which comprise the absolute worst of the worst. There is a uniquely horrifying, haunting, and almost mythical quality about such extreme storms. The great grand-daddy of them all is, of course, the Great Tri-State Tornado of 1925. But there are others, usually known by the town they destroyed. Woodward, Oklahoma. Xenia, Ohio. Topeka, Kansas. Dunlap, Indiana. Moore, Oklahoma. Greensburg, Kansas. Plainfield, Illinois. Wichita Falls, Texas. Saint Louis, Missouri. Flint, Michigan. Worcester, Massachusetts. The list continues.

Many of these monsters, such as the Tri-State and Woodward tornadoes, have no photographic record of the actual storm. Lots of damage photos, but nothing that shows the actual funnel. Others, dating at least back into the early 1950s with the Worcester tornado, were captured on camera.

Many of these storms were a part of larger outbreaks, including such notorious, massive events as the 1974 Super Outbreak, the 1965 Palm Sunday Outbreak, and the 1999 Central Oklahoma Outbreak. Others, such as the Flint-Beecher tornado, occurred as the worst of a relative handful of tornadoes.

Regardless of its unique circumstances, each storm stands apart in terms of property damage, intensity, and either loss of life or, in some cases, a surprisingly low mortality rate given the circumstances. Most notably, the supercell that spawned the 1.7-mile-wide 2007 Greensburg, Kansas, tornado may have also generated the largest tornado ever recorded. Over four miles wide at cloud base, the radar-detected circulation may forever remain a subject of speculation as to whether its tornado-force winds actually reached the ground, but it seems reasonable to think that they could have.

I’ve had the good fortune to chase the historical Six State Supercell, and the exhilarating but disturbing experience of locking onto the tornado following the EF-5 that wiped out a third of Parkersburg, Iowa. But a truly historical tornado, in the league of Greensburg or Moore? Not yet. Hopefully never. I don”t want to witness that kind of carnage. It”s bound to happen from time to time. Thank goodness, such occurrences are uncommon. The part of me that is fascinated with tornadoes would like to score such a coup. But another part of me which recognizes what that implies hopes I never get the chance to see something so awful. I have friends whose lives were terribly impacted by just such an event. I can’t imagine going through something like that, or witnessing it in progress. Metaphorically, it’s one thing to film lions in the wild; it”s another to watch one maul a fellow human being.

December 14, 2008 by
Filed Under: Nature, Storm Chasing, Tornadoes, Weather

A Winter of Contrasts

Yesterday I drove out to an area near the Coldwater River in extreme southeast Kent County and returned with the following photos among many.

Ice and Snow

Linear

I just showed you those shots because I felt like it. Also, though, to give you an idea of what a mixed bag this December is proving to be. While snow has been the rule up here in the frozen tundra of Michgan, the Gulf has been doing brisk business farther south. Pulling juicy dewpoints northwards and combining them with high helicities and good bulk shear, a low has been firing off severe thunderstorms and tornadoes across the Dixie Alley. In fact, Wednesday’s tally shows twenty-two tornadoes spread across Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama. Perhaps that figure will be modified, but I”m simply impressed with the fact that there were any tornadoes at all. Up here in the land of ice and snow, such phenomena seem like mere pipe dreams.

But who knows what this winter has in store for us. The last one held a few surprises. In Michigan, the surprise so far has been the massive amount of snow that has already been deposited on the landscape. It”s not a bad thing; the Great Lakes water levels can use another good, snowy winter of the kind we got last year, and as a new enthusiast of winter photography, I don’t mind so much if we get one. But I can still hardly wait for March, and the first rumblings of serious convection. Bring it on, I say. The sooner, the better.

December 11, 2008 by
Filed Under: Nature, Photography, Storm Chasing, Tornadoes, Weather

Snow Photography at Maher Audubon Sanctuary

Today was my second winter photo expedition, and I returned from it more impressed than ever with the stunning possibilities that reside in a snow-clad landscape. It was after 3:00 p.m. when I headed out to the Maher Audubon Sanctuary on 108th Street near the Coldwater River. The afternoon sun had that marvelous slant to it that brings out the gold in the light, and long shadows stretched through the woods and added drama to the snowscape.

Once again I’ll conserve my words and let a few images tell the story.

Frozen Swamp

Cattails

Snow Sculpture

Tree Trunk

December 10, 2008 by
Filed Under: Life, Nature, Photography, Weather

Freezing Rain in Michigan, Big Storms in Texas

Freezing rain has been on the menu for this evening here in lower Michigan, but it looks to be transitioning to plain old rain as surface temperatures warm into the thirties. My friend Lisa and I were up in Stanton earlier, visiting the Beshadas, and I expected an icy drive home, but it didn”t turn out that way. Driving was fine. And now, seeing that rain is in the forecast rather than snow, I’ve had the pleasure of switching the reflectivity table on my radar from winter mode to rain mode. I take my joys where I can find them. This is a fleeting one, but kinda nice. Temps are forecast for the thirties into tomorrow, but drop back into the twenties by Wednesday.

Meanwhile, severe thunderstorms have been scooting across Texas and Oklahoma. A line of embedded supercells produced at least one tornado warning earlier. The storms now have transitioned to a couple small lines with bowing sections plus “scrap” storms, and overall things seem to be weakening.

Today has been an active weather day both north and south, and more appears to be in store for tomorrow. Gotta love this time of year!

December 8, 2008 by
Filed Under: Nature, Storm Chasing, Tornadoes, Weather

Alberta Clipper: A Michigan Snow Slam

The low has lifted off to the northeast into Canada and the skies are clear, but the wind is still lashing powdery snow across the landscape as the tail end of an Alberta Clipper reluctantly eases its grip on Michigan. From what I can judge looking at RUC and NAM, the winds should die down by late morning or early afternoon tomorrow as a high moves into the area.

Here’s what the system looked like on GR2 earlier today.

Of course, this is just the radar at KGRR; a regional composite would depict the system in its entirety. It hasn”t been as bad as I”d anticipated, but it has still dumped a lot of snow. Taken all around, we are experiencing what I would call a good, old-fashioned Michigan winter–the real deal, the way things used to be. We got one of those last year, too. And it won”t be such a bad thing if we get another one. The Great Lakes water levels could stand another good injection of snowmelt, and the way the season has started, they look to be getting one.

Having just discovered how rewarding winter photography can be, I”m curious to see what the season holds. Tonight, having driven home from a gig, I can safely say that black ice and cold temperatures are a part of the mix. But that”s just part of the price tag for living in Michigan, and there are compensations. I”ll be standing by with my camera, hoping to make the most of the snowy season.

December 6, 2008 by
Filed Under: Life, Nature, Storm Chasing, Weather

Winter Photography: My First Images

Looks like I caught the perfect weather yesterday for my first foray into winter photography. Today the sky is a milky gray monochrome filled with a constant supply of snow, now light, now heavy, subject to the whimsies of the lake effect. But yesterday was magical, a day of contrasts–of fantastic cloudscapes, resonant, deep blue skies, dancing snowflakes, and vanilla-colored curtains of distant snow showers gleaming in the slanting sun.

I’m not going to say much more about it. Instead, I’m going to let a few pictures tell the story. These were all shot southwest of Hastings, Michigan, near the Barry State Game Area.

Cloudscape — I’m captivated by the expressiveness of the clouds. And I love how they seem to follow the contours of the treeline like a penumbra.

Linescape — Winter strips the landscape down to its fundamental geometry, to tapestries of lines and angles. I’m so pleased with how this shot turned out. Not bad for a greenhorn, I think.

Transfiguration — The stump to the right of the backlit tree makes me think of Moses before the burning bush.

Old Drive — The Barry State Game Area is punctuated with the relics of old homesteads and farms that couldn”t quite make it in the sandy soil. I’m sure a house once stood here. All that’s left is the drive leading past the trees into an empty field.

December 5, 2008 by
Filed Under: Life, Nature, Photography, Weather

Snowy Landscape

My friend Kurt Hulst brought to my attention the fact that I don’t include many photos in my blogs. This is true. Part of the reason has had to do with my learning curve as a photographer. But I fancy that I’ve improved quite a bit since I first bought my Rebel XTi in the spring; the rest of the matter is simply that I’ve limited myself regarding this blog to storm chasing and sax playing.

Now, storms come when they come, and unless global warming accelerates remarkably, I expect it’ll be a while before we see anything resembling springtime weather. As for the sax, when I”m at a club, it’s usually to play, not to photograph.

So those are my excuses. But I think maybe I need to broaden my options a bit for the sake of adding a little color to this blog. Otherwise, I face three months–four, really–with little to say, weatherwise, other than, “Dang, I wish the spring would get here.” And all that time, the winter has a beauty and interest of its own, and photo opportunities I hadn”t imagined.

Until today, that is, when I set out to photograph my first snowy landscape of the year. I drove out to some of my favorite backroads in Barry County, out near my church west of Hastings. There, in the glacial hills near the Barry State Game Area, the landscape is particularly photogenic, and I was not disappointed in what I found.

Here is one photo. There are others, but this will do for now.

Kurt, this one’s for you!

December 4, 2008 by
Filed Under: Life, Nature, Photography, Weather
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