A moderate risk has been issued today (Thursday) for parts of Northeast Oklahoma and Southeast KS, for the risk of strong tornadoes and massive hail. The TornadoVideos.net team has been working 20 hour days this week to make sure all our equipment is in order, and we don't miss the first big tornado outbreak of the season. We'll be heading out in a few minutes for our target area of Northeast Oklahoma, so be sure to check out live streaming video from the storm chasing teams at the TVN Live Tracker Page . Check back for updates as this dangerous situation unfolds.
It's been a long time since my last update, so I thought I'd get back to posting on the blog since it's the morning of the first significant tornado outbreak of the year! During the winter, we've been working on several new tornado research projects, including the construction of the ultimate extreme tornado research vehicle - the TVN Dominator! The goal of this vehicle is to more efficiently deploy our tornado probe in the path of tornadoes with our new probe deployment tray (see pictures of the rear below), and to get extremely close to tornadoes and scan vertical wind velocities with our single beam radar (which will be mounted in the roof bracket in a week or so). Direct measurement of these vertical winds has never been done before, and we hope collection of this data will increase substantially our understanding of tornadoes, and the damage tornadic winds can cause. Further increasing our safety in strong tornadic winds is the state-of-the-art hydraulic system of the Dominator, allowing us to drop the entire frame to the ground when we deploy. The black rubber sheath around the base will prevent wind from getting under the vehicle and causing a potential roll, but in that event we also have an external roll cage and NASCAR style safety harnesses! As you will see on the show and in future blog updates, the color of the Dominator has been changed from the above bright red, to a much darker blood red as we don't want anyone to get alarmed when they see us blasting down the road! The goal is not to drive
into a tornado, but just to get extremely close to the funnel to
measure the vertical wind velocities around the tornado. The armor
around the Tahoe is to protect us from flying debris, and of course
we'll never have to worry about hail again! Considering all the wind
shields we lose during the season this thing should pay for itself by
the end of 2010! The goal with this vehicle was to not only increase
our safety when getting close to tornadoes, but also to INCREASE our
mobility in the field and on muddy farm roads. We drove it all around
today and it rides like a Cadillac, and has
even better visibility with slightly bigger windows. Here is video of the vehicle in action:
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