Discovery Channel: Storm Chasers

Greetings from IMAX Filmmaker Sean Casey!

I'm licking my wounds from a this last chase season, and it's going to take a good amount of licking.

I'm in the process of fixing TIV2 with a fellow who builds class one vehicles for the Baja 1000.  We are also going to be building a TIV3. Yeah, I know, just when you thought the world didn't need another TIV.
I'd put a picture up of TIV3 but it's top secret right now,  I don't know why it's "top secret", but it sounds good.  TOP SECRET! Sounds like we know more than we actually do.  Guess that's why the Government has so many top secret programs.

Also trying to get funding for the Imax film. It's hard for me to ask "Hi. I need a million dollars, can I have it and give you 20% of an Imax film?" I want  to be finished in a year from now and then start a tornado
intercept tour company. Maybe I should auction a seat in the TIVs for next year on Ebay.  But then we'd have to deal with a client and I don't know think our SOP is in line with someone who is adverse to peeing in a water bottle.  And that client is probable going to be older and have some money, with my luck it'll be John McCain.  He'll get excited and have a heart attack and then we'll be faced with the question, "Do we stop the chase?"  The answer will be "no" and then we'll have some explaining to do a week latter when we drop off our client at the local morgue. Maybe we'll just sell TIV t-shirts

Besides all that, getting a little tired of Los Angeles, time I think to move a bit north...have gone on three fishing trips since chasing.  Caught 5 Yellow Tail, 4 Yellow Fin Tuna, and an assortment of Skip Jack, Sierra, Cabrillo, and Trigger fish.

I'm making fish tonight for friends and hoping I don't poison anyone.

Besides all that, I'm raising my beautiful family and trying to figure out what is eating all of my tomatoes.

Sean Casey

**************
Sean is making appearance on Extra today (Thursday!) and will be on a few other programs like Insider so keep a look out!

B

Remember, Storm Chasers at 10pm on Discovery Channel this Sunday!
tellallyourfriends.

Message from Ronan, TIV Driver

This past season was quite a ride. We had our share of problems, but in the end, I had a complete blast. Added almost 18,000 miles to my chase mileage. Saw more than my average number of tornadoes, yet my total number is still a guess.

Besides the actual chase action, I had the opportunity to meet and speak with so many people. Driving around in a street legal tank is one way to get a conversation started! Everyone asks if I ever get sick of people asking about it, and the honest answer is no. I love the interaction, and when we actually have time to stop and talk, I get to learn about more than the weather.

There were many memorable moments, like getting over taken by a tornado, at night, with winds higher than our official rating! (You may wonder what committee rates TIV's, well, with the help of a debris cannon, we have come up with a certain threshold.)

For me, the most frightening moment did not involve chasing. On a ferry day, an older couple, going the wrong way on the highway, caused a head on collision that occurred right next to us. The sound of two vehicles crushing next to you is something that will send a chill up your spine! Josh did come research for me and found that everyone survived!

Whenever I start the season, I think it will last forever, but in the end, it flies by. When it's over, I start counting the days until the next season begins, but at least for a moment, I get to enjoy staying in one place for longer than a night! Honestly, I love the nomadic life style chasing affords me, but after 2 months, it's nice to sit still for more than one day straight.

Back in New York, I continue my work as a producer, looking for new TV shows and working on a variety of projects on any given day. Once in a while, I go check out the series while it's in post and watch an occasional edit . But for the most part, once the production wraps, I don't start working one the show again until the next season gets closer. Making this show was an idea I had from the first year I went out, 2000, as I always thought there would be an audience. I hope everyone enjoys it!

I cannot wait to see the series start, giving me a chance to re-live some of the moments we experienced!

Ronan
TIV Driver
KC2LHD

Show Poster!

Hello again!

Byron here. It feels like forever since the last chase, and yet, when watching the commercials or seeing pictures of billboards in NY or hearing about movie trailers(!?!?) starring TIV2 all those memories rush back as if they happened yesterday.

It's that time of the year again. That time when I get random text messages from friends, "I just saw you in a commercial with that tank!" Then of course, while working at home I keep the TV tuned to Discovery Channel to see how many times I can catch our commercial, and to catch the split second of face time I get.

I try to enjoy this part, I admit it. Part of it is because I never planned on being in front of the camera, but the bigger part is that I am really excited about this season. Lot's of crazy stuff happened and a lot of very hard working people were involved in front and behind the cameras. Imagine that term paper you stayed up for a whole week writing being read to the whole class and everyone telling you how cool that tank was afterwards. I mean term paper. So, I am very eager to see the show and enjoy all the excitement of the chase season from the safety of my living room.

If you haven't seen the updated main page, GO LOOK AT IT NOW. Link is somewhere on the right side of this blog. Amazing new stuff, a cool chase game, pictures, and MORE.

Reflecting back, this year was a tough one all around. When things were not going well it was really tough, and when things were going well it was a lot of work to keep up with the weather. I had a weekend of relaxation after returning home before my body gave out. Viral throat infection, in non-doctor-speak, and it put me down for a whole week. I have since recovered and spent time with family and friends whom I missed while away, and resumed work freelancing. I've also picked up ice hockey again and am trying to talk someone into putting clips of me scoring goals into the show. I know at least one person who may or may not be writing this blog that would love to see that.

Watching the new episodes of Storm Chasers is likely going to bring back a lot of memories. I may take to driving around town wearing my helmet and wake up in the middle of the night yelling, "CLAWS GOING DOWN!" You know, nothing unusual just a few little quirks to work out again.

So, the new season of Storm Chasers airs October 19th (a Sunday) at 10PM. Between then and now I will have a couple of Team TIV return blogs from Ronan and Sean so keep checking back. For now, here's a list of chaser terms from Scout Navigator and ace meteorologist Danny Cheresnick. They'll help those of you unfamiliar understand a little more of the chaos of the chase.

Supercell - A rotating thunderstorm.  Supercells are the type of storm which most commonly produces tornados.

 

Mesocyclone - A rotation within the updraft of a thunderstorm.  It is a broad rotation from which a more intense local rotation develops, which is where a tornado can form.

 

Wall Cloud - An area of the cloud base which is lower than the rest of the base.  Wall clouds can be rotating or non-rotating. Non-rotating wall clouds can be a sign of outflow.  A rotating wall cloud is an area of a contracted rotation connected to a mesocyclone. It can be a precursor to a funnel cloud or tornado.

 

Tornado - A tight rotation connecting between the base of a cloud and the groun.  It is not always visible with condensation or dust and a debris.  The side of the tornado is also not clear just by looking at a tornado.  The core flow of the winds can be wider or narrower than the width of the condensation funnel or debris cloud.

 

Rear flank downdraft (RFD) - A region of dry descending air on the back side of a supercell.  Its also known as a clear slot because of the appearance, commonly a clear erosion into the base of the supercell.  The development of an RFD frequently occurs before the development of a wall cloud and possible tornado.

Core - The area of a storm with the heaviest precipitation, and where the largest hail is located.  typically to the northeast of the area where a tornado could be.  Not a good location to see anything, hard to drive in, and frequently in the path of the tornado.

 

EF-Scale - The Enhanced Fujita Scale is a method for rating the strength of tornadoes.  It is based upon the damage done by a tornado, and the expected wind speed to cause this damage.  Full details can be found here: http://www.spc.noaa.gov/efscale/

Thanks for reading! Oct 19th!

B

coming soon...

With the new season of Storm Chasers premiering Oct 19th at 10pm on the Discovery Channel, expect a little hello from the TIV guys, Sean Ronan and me, Byron. I'll be posting periodically so check back this week for something exciting!

B

THANK YOU

Having been home for a few days, this might be a little late in coming, but I had a lot of people back home to surprise Saturday. Such a great feeling, to see so many close friends with shocked looks on their faces-the good kind of shock.

I wanted to write a nice, detailed, long, and full of pictures blog thanking all of you for reading this and for taking interest in what we do. Unfortunately, just as the whirlwind of returning home has subsided, a cold or flu front is moving in. Which is great, because I have no food or medicine stored up yet!

But I digress,

Nothing fancy needed. Having chased with Sean and Josh for four years, a proverbial blitzkrieg style of chasing at that, it is easy to become jaded. The biggest cure for this is the excitement of others-chasers, fans, that everyday person who sees our circus for the first time. It's a reminder that what we do is a privilege and to take it for granted is to take for granted some kid's dream to do what we do. So sure, some days are longer than others, but in the end the passion and the love for storm chasing never goes away.

Thank you.

It has been a pleasure to ride this adventure with all of you.

Keep in touch with me regarding the show at:
http://www.myspace.com/thebyronfever

I will be posting any Storm Chasers related links that come about, as well as show times this fall.

To borrow words from avid reader, Richard,

Watch the skies and stay safe.

Byron

Unexpected tragedy

First off, thank you to everyone sending those positive thoughts our way. We had a bit of excitement in the midst of chaotic turn of events. Unfortunately, our mission was overshadowed by a very sad tragedy. Rich posted a link to a story about it in the comments, but here's another:

http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/Weather/story?id=5053388&page=1

It was a line of storms that produced a non supercell tornado. These are not the kind that lower out of a wall cloud and are even harder to predict/forecast. We were caught by surprise, and a boy scout troop camping in Little Sioux Scout Ranch were the target of this tornado.

4 died, 48 injured. I am sure everyone was shaken up. Please put these people in your thoughts. This season has been a dangerous one, every bit of research helps. Vortex 2 is lined up for next year, which will be groundbreaking in the field of tornado study. Hopefully, we can increase warning times, better accurately forecast tornadoes, and better prepare for them.

On a more positive note, Ronan wanted me to share this with all of you.

Stay safe.

B

Today could be the day!

Today I ask a favor from each and everyone of you. Today could be the season. We have a good forecast that could get better. Every single one of us is one our A game. Sharp as we are going to get storm chasing.

But we need something more today.

Positive energy.

Hear me out.

We have been getting by pretty well with this science thing, but I feel today it is time for something more. My pants and shirt that I wear everyday have now become my "lucky pants and shirt". I am making sure I wear them today!

So what I am asking from each and everyone of you is simple. Think positive, imagine that perfect long track tornado in a field with an abandoned barn and great road grid. Condensation funnel all the way to the ground. Light debris flying around. TIV pulls up, claws down, and intercepts while filming Sean's dream shot. I get great footage from the front seat. Kyle gets amazing footage from the back. Doghouse shoots the intercept from a safe distance (but then later try to tell us they were in the tornado). Then we get a move on and intercept as many times as we can.

And send those thoughts to us!

It worked at the end of last season, and it was just Sean visualizing with Ronan. So it has to work even better now, right?

Bango.

B

On the home stretch!

Hello again. I'm writing from a very nice Holiday Inn in Grand Island. The end of our season is approaching, although how quickly has yet to be determined. Just we begin to look towards returning home and resuming our daily lives, the weather has new plans for us. We are “glass half full” people and take this as an additional challenge. The current plan for today was to intercept an awesome tornado in South Dakota. As of late last night, the forecast really dropped off. So the plan may be to intercept the awesome tornado tomorrow somewhere else.

Our weather meeting is in an hour and the scientists will determine a plan of action then. Since this is a nice comfortable hotel (and since I washed my clothes here) I have a lot of packing to do before then. Some advice on packing for those of you going on the road-Don't unpack. It makes things SO MUCH EASIER. Wearing the same clothes over and over again also helps. But I'm beginning to get tired of cargo pants almost as much as I am getting tired of Subway sandwiches. Just a few symptoms of being burned out, I guess. Or maybe a normal byproduct for wearing the same shirt and pants and eating the same food everyday for 2 months.

We have had some big busts rain down upon high expectation days recently, and now we have something to prove. A few days ago nearly provided us with a tornado, and I would give you a location but all the days meld together at this point, but we were able to watch a supercell develop rapidly right in front of us. It was pretty cool, and a nice smell the roses moment.

As for that big surprise, well right now it's looking like I won't be able to share it. If this changes, then I will let you all know.

Ronan and I had some fun with Kyle yesterday. If you don't remember, Kyle is our amazing producer inside of TIV. He keeps asking me to write a 2 page blog about only him. Discovery wanted some content for the website so we did a tour of TIV1. Ronan likes to make a joke about the show needing to be scratch n sniff to really get the TIV experience. We'll see how it turned out, and hopefully you'll see it soon on the show's website.

I have a show myspace, it's nothing fancy, but if you want to send emails or chasing stories you can do so through that site. http://www.myspace.com/thebyronfever

I'd like to hear stories of the TIV stopping in your town and the sort of excitement it caused. Maybe I'll post a few with your permission.

Thanks for reading.

Byron

Meet TIV Support, the Doghouse!

Byron here again. We are finishing the season with nonstop chases! It's already exhausting, so we'll be on autopilot for the new week or so. Just keep moving forward. Get up and chase. Day to day necessities like showers and actual meals become some of life's luxuries. I'm going to post as often as possible, and might have a real treat in store for you all coming up. As in exclamation mark worthy. But I'll save that punctuation for the appropriate time.

Today, we learn about the vehicle known as Doghouse. The TIV support vehicle. Doghouse follows closely shooting TIV for the show, and thus travels much MUCH closer to the danger areas than the rest of the caravan. It's OK though, they only SOMETIMES get caught in the tornado with TIV. And only SOMETIMES a crew member or three may be outside shooting and holding on for dear life (BTW Keith nailed that sweet shot from last season in the final episode of the tornado coming at us).

Driving is Brian Gany, the show's AD. He is in charge of controlling the chaos of the TV show while negotiating the chaos of chasing. Not much is known about the man known as Gany, except that he loves his mother and used to have a full head of hair before he was introduced to this band of misfits.

Navigating is Gabe Garfield. Tall, handsome, and possesses a keen sense for storms. He provides Sean with additional information about wall clouds and locations of interests while Josh is busy directing Probes and Scout and scanning with his radar dish. We still rely on Josh, but Gabe's focus solely on us and our mission to intercept is invaluable.

Shooting out of Doghouse is the famed Jade Sandberg. He's shot the Iditarod and some other stuff that I cannot remember at this time. His main goal is to get the shot of TIV getting “the shot”. He'll often jump out and shoot TIV during rain and hail and lightning, and really, it's not a smart thing to do. But he does it, and he does it well. I saw some of his footage of TIV and was amazed. Don't tell him, though, we don't want to inflate his ego too much. He also keeps Kyle and I stocked with batteries and tapes and for that I am eternally thankful to this kind soul.

After studying the damage survey of the Kearney tornado, which was a weak EF0-EF1 from what I was last told, Doghouse was determined to have actually been IN the main circulation. You could look at data to figure this out, or you could notice the WINDOW that was SHATTERED by debris. Pretty cool. Our medic, Marcus, patched it up thankfully.

These guys are probably the second coolest group of people on our crew, next to the TIV folks, of course.

Got something BIG coming up. Need to double check clearance first...

Stay safe!
B

PS It was awesome to meet Erik out of Lincoln the other day. Very cool rail truck!