Keeping Score

This is Leora again, glad to be back after an unplanned break. It's the halfway point of our season. The team has been conditioned to operate smoothly (most of the time). Crew members have sized each other up and down. Entertainment during waits becomes essential: throwing a football or frisbee, lifting weights, wrestling, doing push-ups. An accounting of mission successes and failures occurs. Josh is understandably sensitive about this topic.

"Our bar for success is much higher than if we were just chasing," he explains. For him it's never been about seeing or photographing tornadoes. In fact, from his sealed perch in the DOW, he must rely on the team forecasters to assess the storms visually. "Our mission is getting 12 pods and the TIV into a tornado, while getting radar data of it." He doesn't consider the sighting of a tornado an intercept. There is a single objective: obtaining measurements.

According to this demanding criterion, we've achieved only one success so far. During a chaotic and very dramatic intercept in the town of Stuttgart, AR (thanks Beau!), we finally deployed a couple of pods in an EF-3 tornado, as the TIV and DOW logged data. To find out what happened to the various crew members who were caught by surprise when the tornado crept up on them--separating during their flight--you should watch Storm Chasers this fall. Suffice it to say that some of the less experienced supporting staff were shaken, and even some veterans admitted to being afraid.

If you want to apply more liberal criteria, we've scored four intercepts: two visuals, one on radar, and the Stuttgart tornado. Having been present for the two visuals, I hate to break it to you, but the sightings were of weak, almost invisible funnels that were the subjects of great debate. Did you see that? I think so...Do you mean over there? Yea.. It was a split-second phenomenon. There is now a consensus that after a month of hard labor we DESERVE to see a classic, seductively swaying tornado progress over an empty field in broad daylight. In a year of high tornadic activity, it's frustrating to be excluded from the action. The reason for this is that most of the outbreaks have occurred to the east of our chase domain. The DOW is limited to flat (or slightly hilly) terrain for scanning purposes. The territory must also boast road grids conducive to a quick escape.

This is a convenient point to segue into readers' comments, as one referred to the terrain of eastern Arkansas. So, yes, Ryan, we did venture into your home territory shortly after you posted your advice--and netted our best catch of the year until now. Thank you for your offer of a home-cooked meal, but 30-something mouths are a lot to feed... By the way, Josh doesn't intend to make a habit of visiting eastern Arkansas because it's hemmed between hills to the west and the Mississippi River to the east.

Joe asked why the masts on the Probes need to be so high (13 feet). Here's Josh's reply: "The higher the mast is the farther away the instruments are from the airflow over the vehicle and the better the measurements. If I could make them 20 feet high I would, but we'd be hitting every overpass on the highway." By the way, even at 13 feet, someone I won't name shaved the instruments off one of our support vehicles this year.

Rich asked if standing outside the rainy band of a lightning storm is usually safe. Josh: "Lightning can occur almost anywhere near a thunderstorm. One should always be extremely careful near an electrically active storm."

And finally, here's a picture that 7-year-old Carson sent in. He built Lego DOW and TIV look-a-likes. Way to go Carson!

Any other young fans out there? Shoot us a message or a picture.

Comments

[Richard]

Hey do not worry about the downtime, In my job it is always the time spent preparing that proves most fruitfull. Weather in the UK has been Overcast the last few days. Watched a storm front move over Salisbury Plain had a small gust front that lasted minutes. Cloud was hitting the ground at some points. The wind speed died down really fast. West of my location there were thunderstorms which I missed. I spent a couple of hours hanging around Stonehenge waiting for CG lightning. This time I stayed in the car and positioned my self so I could shoot safely. I remember my dead arm from my previous attempt near lightning not funny at all. I did not get the classic CG lightning around Stonehenge that I wanted. But never mind. If you want to see the effects of lightning google Top Gear Richard Hammond Struck by lightning. It is a fantastic scientific experiment showing how safe a car is when struck by lightning.

Can you thank Josh for his reply as I know how stressed he gets and how busy he is.

Watch the skies!

Rich

[Lawrence P Pleiss]

Hello! Its great to here from the crew, I just read your blog today and was wondering what happend. I try to keep updated on where tv and dow are at as I havent seen to many post on your blog. I hope every thing is going ok and safe as I like to go out and try to chase some tornados my self here in Nebraska, and this year its been pretty quiet. Take care hope to more see reports on whats happening.

[Byron]

Carson rules!

[Beau from AR]

Just wanted to drop a grammer correction for ya. It's Stuttgart, "AR", not "AK"(Alaska). Don't worry, I see the same mistake all the time. Can't wait for the show this fall!! It's amazing there were no fatalities in Stuttgart and it's a great example of how much the warning systems have improved.

[Beau from AR]

Now one for myself....that's "grammar" not "grammer".

[Tori]

Hey...I know this is a really old blog post but in response to the last line (any other young fans out there?) I am a young fan and PROUD OF IT!!! I'm 13 and am horribly obessed with the show, and I want to become a storm chaser.