Discovery Channel: Storm Chasers

TVN team to appear on CBS The Early Show tomorrow morning!

The TVN team will be interviewed live tomorrow (Tuesday) morning from Greensburg, KS on CBS The Early Show, as part of the remembrance of the devastating EF5 tornado that struck the town nearly a year ago on May 4, 2007.  As many of you remember, this massive wedge tornado was the strongest to touch down in the U.S. since the May 3, 1999 F5 that struck Moore, OK.  Sadly, 13 people lost their lives and 90% of the buildings were completely destroyed as the EF5 tornado parked over the town of Greensburg.  Below are two videos of this tornado from development until it moved into Greensburg, KS at around 9:45 pm CDT. 

A few days ago, we visited Greensburg for the first time since the tornado, and while the rebuilding process is moving forward rapidly, visual scars of the tornado are widespread.  Nearly all the trees in the town are dead or severely injured, and bare foundations of previous buildings can be seen everywhere.  Still though, a strong feeling of optimism and  determination is apparent with the locals as the town continues to rebuild stronger and more eco-friendly than ever.  Heading the rebuilding process is Greensburg GreenTown, a nonprofit organization established to provide the residents of Greensburg with the resources, information, and support to rebuild as a model green community.  News and updates of the rebuilding process, as well as donation information can be found at the following website:   

http://www.greensburggreentown.org/

Storm chasers not only played a significant role in the warning process during this tragic tornado event but providing ground truth to National Weather Service forecasters and Emergency Managers, but also have established a charity program called Project Greensburg, where profit from storm chaser highlight DVDs are being donated to the rebuilding process.  Information on this program can be found at the URL below:

http://www.thestormsof2007.org/projectgreensburg.htm

As the 1-year anniversary of the Greensburg tornado approaches, there will likely be a few storm chasing opportunities this week, and thankfully, most of the action will remain east of Southwest Kansas.  A strong storm system is forecast to eject from the Rocky Mountain region on Thursday, bringing the chance for tornadoes to the Southern Plains on Thursday.   The TVN team will definitely be chasing this event, and we'll follow the storm system east to the Atlantic Ocean if we have to by the end of the week.  Stay tuned for updates!!

Nighttime Chase and Pod Deployment

The armada is still in Hays, Kansas, and this is Leora reporting from an indoor poolside, while a group of kids shimmies down a water slide. Josh chose this as the location of our makeshift office. Our team's spirits have lifted considerably following a riveting chase on Thursday night. After spending the greater part of the day at a sweltering gas station waiting for signs of emerging supercells, we heard from Josh that it just wasn't happening. We should get dinner and prepare for a boring stretch of weather. The mood was grim. The DOW drove off, but luckily Justin and Aaron weren't prepared to give up. Hannah, Probe 1 driver, was watching her husband: "I can read Justin's face really well...Justin was getting way frustrated, he wanted to go so bad. It had been days of driving and nothing."

As the sun assumed that disarming evening glow, the junior meteorologists checked their monitors and the sky, radioing back and forth to Josh. Then just before 8:15, Justin announced triumphantly: "OK, it's been tornado-warned." The picture above shows the storm as it appeared from WaKeeney moments before we set off in pursuit.

Our convoy, including most of the production vehicles, bumped along a dirt road with the storm to our north. It was moving east at about 25 miles an hour, flashing frequently. When we passed through the town of Morland, the tornado sirens blared. For Hannah, a newcomer to storm chasing, that was the moment she realized "this is really something, this is really going to happen." It was an isolated storm with a broad mid-level rotation and a clear back-sheared anvil. These are all elements chasers look for in deciding to target a supercell. But the environment was not particularly favorable to tornado genesis because the air was dry and temperatures were dropping.

We reached the intercept road shortly after 10:00 p.m. and executed our first pod deployment. Probe 1, Probe 2 and Scout teams placed a total of 12 pods by the roadside at intervals of about one quarter of a mile. Probe 1 was located closest to the core, with Justin and Hannah getting soaked and taking some hail. The deployment took about 15 minutes--longer than anticipated--but went smoothly overall. "Everything seemed so easy because I was so excited," says Hannah about lowering the 120-pound, unwieldy pods with Justin. She didn't even notice she was knocking her legs against the metal: "I have bruises all over my knees this morning."

Of course, the ultimate question is, did a tornado cross the road? Josh, who focused on the radar scans, hampered by a somewhat dysfunctional antenna, says the peak rotations don't indicate a tornado. Justin and Danny think they spotted a tornadic funnel in a flash of lightning. I caught my breath when I saw a sky-to-earth cloud that looked temptingly like a tornado roping out. But I'm just a beginner. A spotter reported a tornado at our exact location with a time that correlates with our deployment. And that same storm went on to damage a house further to the east that night. So the verdict is still out. Justin hopes the pod data will give some credence to those of us who think we intercepted a tornado.

Update from TIV leader Sean Casey!

Just checking in...I'll be adding to Byron's awesome blog from time to time. Heath Woods is stomping out the last of TIV2's bugs this week so we are ready for action this coming week. If it wasn't for Heath we'd be still stuck in Deertrail, CO. We are also bringing out the original TIV as a back-up. We can't afford to miss anything this year. Thanks Rav, my first love was an Australian girl. I was 11, she was 12, we met on the Barrier reef and her family invited my family to their home in Perth. I can still remember her name. Jenny Walters, Her dad was an artist. And thanks goes out to the Woodward Fire Dept. Thanks for taking us in!



Sean Casey

Hays has it!

Hey all, Byron Fever here. We have a couple down days in the lovely town of Hays, KS. It has been a rough week to say the least, but first here’s some reader comments.

“I have a huge crush on Ronan. Is he straight? lol.

Can't wait to watch this season unfold.

Kristopher”

Sorry to disappoint Kristopher, Ronan lives with his girlfriend in NY. He is pretty handsome, though. Thanks for reading!

“yummy Bryon! Just love a computer genius.

Am loving the updates. Keep em coming thick and fast! Which brings me to a vital question, do you have some arrangement for net access while on the road? Cos, that would be real bad if ya didnt.

Dani“

Oh hello there. We may have internet in our vehicles, not sure about that yet, but our hotels usually have internet. So I will update as often as possible, so keep checking in!

BTW my name is spelled “Byron”.

“Ok how is the TIV compared to the old one is it more comfortable? How Many cup holders does it have and does it have a xmas tree airfreshner?

I cant believe josh left his helmet behind that is such poor form.

Be safe. What tunes are you playing on your Ipods to break the boredom?

Rich”

Well, there are a few things more comfortable about the new TIV. Stock Dodge seats in the front are a great improvement over the race seats that I could not fit into from TIV1. Overall, the seats are more comfortable because there is appropriate leg room and head room. However, the number 4 seat in the back gets the roughest ride even though it is my preferred sleeping spot. No cup holders unfortunately, but plenty of spilt drinks around the sides of the front seats. As for music, I just broke my shuffle (bought while chasing in the 05 season). This is the second ipod casualty while storm chasing for me.  I usually listen to Green Day, some Foo Fighters, and my friends' AutoMatique mixed in with the occasional Tom Waits or a few other LA based bands I am friends with.

HOWEVER, we just got a stereo installed from Kicker in Stillwater, OK. The main purpose (especially since Sean does not listen to music while driving) is the get our radio loud and clear through out the whole TIV. Mission accomplished. Our first transmission almost blew the ears out of the whole Kicker crew. Whoops! That being said, we now have the sweetest sound system out there in the storm chaser community. At least to the best of my knowledge. If it weren’t for the Discovery crew filming us, we would be blasting Thunderstruck on repeat as we race into the tornadoes.

I got my camera charger and should give a visual tour of the TIV. Even though it is new and “more comfortable”, there have been plenty of head bumps and random knicks and bruises and it is definitely NOT a vacation on wheels.

So the past week has been rough. Real rough. Many repairs, Heath working until 2 in the morning and then a 2 hour drive to our hotel after that on consecutive nights, have put us on high stress levels. We are out here to chase storms not to check out the sides of roads, and the pressure is building.

Here’s a few pictures from our sound guy, Rob, of TIV2 in all its side of the road glory. Rob and our Tech/AC Jade have been along for the ride in our support vehicle Doghouse. I have had the pleasure of riding with them and Paul Robinson a few times. Good people.

Many thanks to the Woodward Fire Department for helping us out. You guys rule.

Augh, I’m tired. I’ll blog again soon.

Hays has it!

Byron

Third tornado of the season for TVN!

This is Reed, with a report from the field from the TVN team after another successful chase day in Texas.  We intercepted a rather large and apparently strong tornado in Dawson Co, TX, which is located in the west-central part of the state just east of the New Mexico border.  The tornado was on the ground for about 5-10 minutes, and quickly dissipated after being undercut by cold rain-cooled air.  Shown above is the video from this chase, and below are some frame captures of the tornado at peak intensity:
As the tornado was touching down, we activated the camera probe and tried to get in the path to deploy, but the tornado weakened before we could get within range.  Shortly after this tornado, we were all nearly struck by 5 consecutive cloud-to-ground lightning strikes within yards of our group as we were watching a massive storm!  This was probably the closest to dying I have ever felt in my life, and Chris temporarily lost feeling in his left foot just after the strike!  The production team captured incredible footage of this event, including Joel hitting the deck in a freshly plowed field as the lightning struck. 
At right is a radar image from our vehicle as we were approaching one of the tornado-producing storms.  The white circle is our vehicle position at the time of the image, and the dark red/purple colors represent heavy rain and hail.  The location of the tornado is in the vicinity of the "hook echo" at the southwest side of the storm, which is caused by rain wrapping around the area of rotation.  The purple triangles represent rotation indicated by radar, and show the approximate location of the tornado.  The purple box is the tornado warning issued by the National Weather Service.  Having access to radar images such as this in the field is key to successful tornado intercepts, especially at night, since it helps us locate the tornado-producing part of the storm.
Shown below are two more pictures of the today's (Wednesday) tornado in Southwest Texas.

Tomorrow looks to be a much more significant and widespread tornado outbreak across western KS into NE by late afternoon into evening.  In fact, as I'm writing this post, we're in the middle of an all-night drive to get into position for tomorrow's event.  Stay tuned for more updates from the field as TVN goes for double digit tornadoes this season!

The Armada

The DOW and TIV entourage, called "the armada" over the radio, is parked outside a nondescript hotel near Oklahoma City. Having left Boulder in a rush, we banked on a down day to complete a whole bunch of tasks. Today is such a one. The science team is tweaking the vehicle tracking system, which displays on Josh's six-monitor DOW command center. They're also trying to fix the radar antenna, which operated sporadically during the drive here. Traveling with Storm Chasers, it becomes clear that the mechanical and electronic challenges are almost as great as trying to forecast the location of tornado genesis--and then racing to a storm across hundreds of miles. So here are some pictures taken on the way of the DOW, Probe 1, Probe 2 and SCOUT in Kansas and the TIV on the I-70 median in Colorado before the rescue operation described by Byron.

By the way, thank you to all those who post comments! It's good to know you're out there!

 

Ouch!

Here's the scene. I was all nice and asleep in the back of TIV. Sean and Ronan up front and Kyle sitting just behind them. My ipod shuffle was playing a nice tune, some sweet dream was drifting in, and BOOM. TIV shakes. I look back and see some smoke. We pull over immediately. Broken axle shaft, TIV is immobilized. On a scale of 1-10, Heath gave this a 10, simply because we could not move. We hooked up his welder to our inverter and he patched up the axle well enough to head to a local's home and then patched in to his power and fully reinforced the axle.

Overall it was a pleasant evening spent with some Deer Trail locals. Many thanks to Jersey and his friends. A short night spent in Limon, CO, and we were back on our way. Now back with the crew, we are headed to Stillwater, early AM to get computers installed and a few other electronic goods. All the while planning to rejoin the crew for dinner in Amarillo.

No rest for the wicked.

No pictures, my camera's charger is en route to me, but there was some good footage shot by Kyle and crew (watch the show!!!). I should be ashamed for shilling...

Anyways, we have a new TIV and will be all over the heart of America's highways, so take pictures (careful when driving!) and send them to me in the comments section! Old TIV pictures are cool too.

Wednesday sounds to be a good day, Josh told us at dinner. He left his pink helmet behind though. We are going to be ready and better than ever!

But it was nice to get away from all the scientists for a day. Except for Paul. He was a pleasure to have on our journey.

Remember to send pictures.

Tornadoes: 2, Windshields Destroyed: 2

The chase season has gotten off to a fast start for the TVN team, especially for the hail collection project.  Beginning last year, we have been collecting large hail stones (2+ inches in diameter) for Boeing Co so they can research their impact on airplane exteriors.  Outfitted with a mobile freezer that plugs into our cigarette lighter, our goal is to collect the hail stones as soon after they fall as possible, and then ship them out the next day packed in dry ice.  Chris is the fearless hail collector on TVN, and gets the job done even if pelted by baseball size hail in a 70 mph wind.  For safety purposes, Chris wears a motorcycle helmet, body armor, and cup for protection in falling hail.  Even with this added padding, however, Chris sustained a direct hit in the thigh last week from a tennis ball size hail stone in North Texas and still has a massive bruise more than a week later!  In terms of volume of falling hail, I have never experienced a storm of similar magnitude in 10 years of storm chasing!  After the storm, the ground was covered with 6+ inches of hail and dense fog developed rapidly as the hail stones melted.  The scene looked similar to the blizzards I've experienced in Michigan, with cars were sliding off the road and fog streaming past in the strong winds.  Despite the beautiful scene, the TVN team took a beating from this hail storm with the truck covered in craters and the windshield destroyed.  But hail dents are like trophies to a storm chaser...

This week looks very active for severe weather...Today (Monday) has potential for supercells with monster hail and even tornadoes in Oklahoma.  The Storm Prediction Center has issued a slight risk from northern MO southward to OK, and we're targeting north-central OK just north of the Oklahoma City area.  Wednesday could be a severe weather outbreak over the High Plains as a strong storm system ejects from the Rocky Mountain region.  Please check out the live tracker throughout the week as we chase down twisters and massive hail!  The tracker shows the real-time position of the TVN vehicle, TIV, DOW, and Scouts, and also has a radar overlay so you can see how close they are to the storm.  If you see orange and red colors on the radar image, it's probably a strong storm!

   

Click here for the live tracker                  

Rolling

This is Leora again, writing from a hotel room in Kansas. So much for a day of dry runs. We were planning to go through some pod deployment drills, test runs of the radar and just general coordination using our new tracking system. Instead we're gathering our equipment to chase a storm forming in western Oklahoma. There were some looks of surprise--and of course thrill--at breakfast.

However Josh was in his typically serious, cautious mode now that a mission is underway: "I'm not really excited about it. There's still a strong cap, so storms might not form...but there's a lot more moisture than anticipated, so the storms could be strong if they form."

Sean and co. heard the news over the phone, having spent the night repairing the TIV, which broke down on the I-70. The rear axle gave way, leaving the team stranded on the median, a welcome attraction to drivers on an otherwise boring road. We hope they'll join us in Oklahoma for our first chase. Sean to Josh: "I'm jazzed."

Aaron, a newcomer to Storm Chasers and Danny's partner in SCOUT, questioned Josh's assessment that storms won't form before 6:00 p.m. Interestingly, he is Reed Timmer's house mate in Norman. They also chased together for a few seasons. Josh encouraged the junior meteorologists to make forecasts over a less-than-tasty breakfast. While not dismissing Aaron's opinion, he didn't think we could act upon it: "We kind of have to count on a late show because we're far away." Such are the vagaries of tornado forecasting: What a difference 12 hours can make. Last night we were expecting three calm days, and now we're scrambling.

I'm including a photo here, so you can see the size of the production and science crews combined. They're all sitting on a grassy mound opposite the hangar shortly before we rolled out yesterday at 3:00 p.m.

Tornadoes Here We Come (a little late)

About 12 hours before Storm Chasers hits the road to  Kansas, this is Leora reporting from the hangar in  Boulder. Yes, we are  four days behind schedule, but at least we didn't miss any tornadoes during the delay.

Spirits are high. Some of the hilarity may be more a result of sleep deprivation and tension than excitement that the season is finally starting. But hey, Josh and Sean will take any excuse to clown around. Today Josh conquered the TIV in his signature pink helmet, which he selected from a pile of overwhelmingly black or gray options. It’s time, he said, for the tougher breed--the scientists--to drive the TIV into the tornado.

Byron: Name one tough scientist.
Josh: Aaaah, aaaah…Darwin!
Byron: Oh I’d take him on in a fistfight.
Josh: Sure. He’s dead.

 You get the gist…

Work on the DOW entered a frenzied mode. It appears the bed is buckling. The decision to use thinner steel than in previous DOWs--to decrease the weight of the truck--looks questionable. This morning Heath was spotted gusseting the bed, on loan from the TIV team.

 
The big question, of course, is, are we going to catch any tornadoes during the first week? What looked like a reasonably active system on Monday now is “very poor,” according to Josh. In his words: “Monday sucks.” A lack of moisture has greatly reduced the chances for supercell formation. Flicking through weather maps on a computer monitor, Josh picked out Thursday as possibly “the first event.” Stay tuned!