Storm Chasing Day 2 - The Chase is on....or is it....

Today we started out and it looked like we might get lucky and see some sort of severe weather. We would be in the NWS Moderate Risk area that showed a 45% chance of severe wind, 45% of hail greater than 2 inches, and 15% chance of tornados. We were hopeful we would see something.

We headed out of Pratt going south through Oklahoma and to Woodward, OK.

No we didn't see any of the damage from the Tornado that passed through there in April.  While we were eating lunch, a Tornado Watch was issued for our chase target area in Western Oklahoma and the Eastern Panhandle of Texas.

Leaving Woodward we got excited when we saw this on the radar:

We were pretty excited to see this but we were still a good hour away at this point in time. We were so excited that we all started to take pictures of the radar:

We ended up making a decision to follow a cell that developed behind the line above because it was isolated (discrete) from the rest would would give us a good view and we thought had the best chance of dropping a tornado.

It looked good and snapped these pictures as we were approaching it.

But that was the extent of it. As we turned on to a Texas dirt road to head south of it, radar was indicating that it was starting to dissipate.

I happened to have the bright idea during the briefing this morning that we should try to get a tour of the Storm Prediction Center in Oklahoma City for tomorrow morning. I got a hold of them while we were on the road and they set us up with a tour at 10am. So we had to make it to Oklahoma City to stop tonight to make the tour in the morning. Come to find out, the storms would end up chasing us and we would end the day with the passage of a gust front and some of us standing out front of our hotel looking up at the sky for lightning.

But alas, these storms moved off in another direction and didn't reach us.

In all, the first two days we have driven 1020 miles and we have learned a few things.

They grow huge beetles in Oklahoma. Seriously, these things are the size of VW Buses and fly right at you when you are sitting there trying to eat your food after a long day of chasing.

We happened to name the storm we chased and subsequently watched die in front of our eyes "Adrian." Watching the weather channel in the hotel, there was a tornado photographed in Adrian, TX. What a coincidence.

Ok enough of this blogging stuff, I need to get to my journal. Happy 21st birthday to fellow chaser Danielle Laflamme.

Storm Chasing 2012 - Day 1

Storm chasing started yesterday. I met the group at the Denver International Airport and hit the road to Pratt, KS, which is where we stayed last night.  We did not do any chasing yesterday and took the long drive from Denver to Pratt to set ourselves up to chase today.  Chances are decent today with the NWS saying there is a 45% chance of severe weather over Southern Kansas and Central Oklahoma.

The van ride was long but it gave all of us time to get to know each other....well....it gave us two outsiders (Me and Daniel) time to know everyone. Lots of laughs were had. I look forward to the rest of the trip with this group.

Hopefully further updates will be more thrilling than this. But for now, I leave you with a picture of Kaylee and Fuzzy Caterpillar Jr. at the "Welcome to Kansas" sign.  Yes, we forced Dr. Pereira to stop on the side of I-70 so we could take this picture.

PS: I am a terrible blogger.