Discovery Channel: Storm Chasers

TVN to intercept Hurricane Dolly!!

TVN storm chasers are currently heading south through Texas to intercept Hurricane Dolly at landfall tomorrow near the Texas/Mexico Border east of Brownsville.  Dolly has strengthened into a minimal hurricane this evening, and is forecast to continue intensifying through landfall tomorrow morning or early afternoon.  The National Hurricane Center is forecasting maximum sustained winds of 80 knots at landfall, but this storm could easily strengthen further given the very warm waters of the southern Gulf of Mexico. 
An eye has appeared on the last few satellite scans (see left) with explosive storms wrapping around the center - as indicated by the red and brown colors at left.  The TVN team of Joel Taylor, Matt Chatelain, Matt Van Every, Daniel Betten, and Curtis McDonald will be streaming live video to TornadoVideos.net, and continuous breaking news updates will be posted on our blog.  Be sure to check back for updates as the TVN team attempts to intercept the eye of Hurricane Dolly tomorrow (Wednesday) morning!   Shown below is the forecast track for Dolly over the next 24 to 36 hours:

TVN intercpts INCREDIBLE Canadian supercell!

Here are video (coming very soon) and pictures of a Saskatchewan, Canada supercell from yesterday (July 10, 2008).  We drove 30 straight hours with no sleep to get to our target in extreme southeast SK just west of the Moose Mountains..  Well worth the 10 years of life that drive took from me!  Canada is the promised land for a storm chaser -- the scenery is insanely beautiful, with bright yellow canola fields, no haze, and perfectly flat terrain.  Not to mention it stays light up here until about 11:00 pm!  I've been talking with Environment Canada (Canada's National Weather Service) today, and they said there is significant damage  in Carlyle, SK.  We were right under the wall cloud at the time and experienced 80-100 mph RFD winds that nearly blew our car off the road.  We then stopped to get gas in Carlyle when the rotation was right overhead...the wind gusted to 100 mph, knocked the power out, and blew down about 5 firework stands inside the gas station when I opened the door!   

TVN heading to Canada!!

The Canadian tornado chasing season has finally begun for TVN!!!!

Even though our main target is the prolonged setup in Canada from Sunday through next week, we've decided that we can't pass up the opportunity tomorrow in North Dakota/southern Saskatchewan.  Our plan is to leave from Michigan, drive through the Upper Peninsula along the Lake Superior shoreline before surging west to Minot, ND!  It will require an all-night drive, so the energy drinks will be flowing.  After the Thursday - Friday event of this week, we'll head west to Alberta by Sunday and follow the persistent trough slowly eastward from the Canadian Rockies next week (assuming the long-range models verify).  Stay tuned for updates as we traverse the Canadian Prairies in search of violent tornadoes and multiple probe deployments!