False Alarm

We woke up yesterday in the panhandle of the Sooner State, bright and early. Our goal was to head for western Kansas and head into eastern Colorado at the furthest. We figured that with the highest chance of our trip yet for tornadoes, at 10%, that there would be many other chase groups, and of course yahoos. Yahoos, not the website, rather inexperienced and dangerous locals who roach, or follow experienced chasers towards storms, can be hazardous to not only us, but they can give us, the experienced or student chasers a bad rep.
As we left Oklahoma, we passed into Kansas and after eating lunch in Colby, near the northwestern corner, we stopped at a local motel and borrowed their wireless internet services. We sat there, hoping for storms to form to our west and come in our direction. The "cap" prevented this from happening. Unfortunately for us, storms did fire in Wyoming, and Vortex 2 spotted a decent tornado that lasted 24 minutes. The same cell was tracking east, and with little choices to make in Kansas, we decided to head north, after wasting a vast amount of precious time sitting in that motel parking lot. To intercept, we would have to travel over three hours and flirt with the time zone that separates the mountain and central zones. Coming up on 5 o'clock, we hadn’t seen a rain shaft, few clouds with little or no vertical development, and basically, nothing in favor of us chasing. The day looked like it was going to be a waste of gas, miles, and a huge bust. But, defying all odds against us, we tracked north to the supercells that had a history of producing tornadoes in hopes they might give us, as well as Vortex 2, a chance to see a tornado.
After crossing through 3 states and across the time zone boundary several times, we finally ended up near the southwestern Nebraska border, in Julesburg, CO. The cells were north and west of our position in Bridgeport, NE, moving slow to the east south east. For a day that looked to be the best day possibly of our trip, things were looking bleak. It was nearing 6 and we were just beginning the chase on a storm, for all that we knew could fizzle out and die as we approached from the south.

We decided that our best plan of action was to head for Oshkosh and wait for the storm to come to us, because the road network would limit us to just a few areas to intercept. WE headed down a hilly, and winding country road with the storm, also carrying with it a tornado warning, above and in front of us. The mammatus clouds were crazy compared to what we had seen earlier in the week, and the contrast on the horizon with the low level clouds was phenomenal. Just then, as we headed over some hills, both vans caught sight of an ominous wall cloud in the distance, against an orange sky. VIEW VIDEO:

Within seconds, the cloud appeared to drop a funnel, and the energy level in the van skyrocketed. It was hard to judge the ground level with the hills we were going through, but a cone shaped cloud dropped towards the ground only 15 miles to our north. I had been recording on the video camera the telecommunications department had loaned me, but I also quickly grabbed a hold of my other camera which had video capability and caught the reaction of the van I was in when the cloud appeared to stir up dust on the ground below it. I will take some of the blame for calling it a tornado, but the vast majority of us believed the same thing. There were also 2 other funnel shaped clouds nearby that were dropping out of the low cloud base. Could there be a tornado dropping, or even more than one? We rounded a corner and spotted another girl sitting in a gravel lot near a communications tower, and we parked near her, being it held a great viewpoint over Oshkosh and to where our funnel had just began to vanish, along with all of our hopes. After asking her if she had seen a tornado, she said, “No, but it definitely looked like a funnel perhaps.” It was slightly disheartening, but it was one step closer to our ultimate goal.

We snapped great photos and videos from our vantage point, and also caught a great lightning show. The Vortex group also drove by as well as numerous other chasing groups and individuals. When we finally left our storm, late last night, we passed it seemed, 100 other cars parked along the same road as us, just watching and hoping that the storm would produce, but it did not. We ate dinner at Subway, for the God knows what time this trip at a gas station off of I-80 at 11 last night. The Vortex team, a chase group from Texas Tech, and another DOW from NBC stopped to refuel and wind down at the same station. After dinner, we waited out for the remnants of our storm to move east and away from the highway, because at that time it was dropping softball sized hail. If we wouldn’t have waited, our trip would have been quickly ended with the destruction of our vans. We did not pull into our hotel until half past one this morning, and didn’t get to sleep until somewhere in the neighborhood of 2.

This morning we woke up a bit late, for obvious reasons, and headed out to Lincoln for lunch and now we are camped out at a Phillips 66 gas station waiting for storms to pop up in the area. Vincennes University and the National Severe Storms Laboratory are also here, as well as many other groups here in Nebraska City, just south and east of Lincoln near the border of Missouri and Iowa. I’m going to try to add more videos to this page and other earlier posts. I forgot that you could do this, so now you can enjoy some real storm chasing action. Comments are always appreciated, and you can contact me at btmaushart@bsu.edu. Thanks for reading.

South Dakota - " Under God the People Rule" - Part II

Today, we again woke up in beautiful, boring Murdo, South Dakota. Our goal for the day was to intercept storms on the eastern half of South Dakota, with a pinpoint somewhere near Aberdeen, South Dakota, which is near the north east corner. It would be a somewhat easy drive to get there, and we weren't expecting storms to fire up until the mid to late afternoon. We enjoyed a somewhat laid back breakfast and our daily weather briefing and map analysis. We decided we would first stop by in Pierre to see the capital building and other local sites before jetting north and east to our predetermined target location.

After stopping for a quick photo session in South Dakota's capital, we were heading east when we saw storms beginning to fire on our on board laptop near the Nebraska and South Dakota border. We continued east, checked out models, used forecasting tools and plotted a route to Miller, SD, where we could then stop for a quick lunch and make any further decisions about the remainder of chasing today. Upon arriving in Miller, we at at Dairy Queen, which was the local hot spot apparently, and again looked at what the storms appeared to be doing. Today would be the best day we have had thus far for many reasons.

We ate as quickly as possible and made for the eastern fourth of South Dakota to finally get our chance to intercept some cells that began to pop up on radar and satellite images. We had put ourselves in the perfect position for these storms. When we finally got into the war zone, we cranked up the radio in van 2 and played the chasing favorite, Child in Time, by Deep Purple. It really got us into the chasing mentality as we approached building cumulonimbus clouds. We stopped once in an area near a field to view the building of a strong cell to our north and east. It was very impressive, with heavy precipitation and decibel readings on the radar. Unfortunately, we couldn't see much other than the underside so we made the choice to shoot south down some rough country roads in hopes to see more separated cells that we could see the towering tops of. We got lucky and pulled off a second time to witness a strong thunderstorm building with a clearly visible inflow tail, which had apparently not been seen before by a Ball State storm chasing class, and also many heavy rain bands. Still, we saw no real severe weather, and the storms were all eventually dissipating as they headed further north. We made our way east and made an emergency decision stop at a small ice cream parlor in the middle of nowhere. The locals seemed to be stressed upon our arrival in rain gear and fast exits from the vans. Upon further investigation, we found out that a few years back, the nearest town had been hit pretty bad by a tornado, so upon seeing us in chase mode, they feared the worst. We reassured them they appeared to only be in for heavy rain, and they relaxed just a bit. The storms were also weakening in the area and formed a squall line of sorts, so we made our way east to Mitchell, which was off of interstate 90 to hopefully enter a warm sector of air in hopes of finding more strong storms.

We got off the interstate and stopped in a Sinclair gas station where we would decide our next move. The choices were head north to continue with the gradually weaker storm systems, or just call it a day with great video footage and photographs. We all had seen enough, and decided to head back west towards Rapid City to stay the night, because the next few days or so would most likely be spent as tourists rather than chasers, and if we spent several days and came within 30 miles of seeing Mt. Rushmore and never visiting, that would just not seem right. So before leaving Mitchell, SD, I convinced everyone that we should check out their world famous "Corn Palace," just because it sounded like a really strange tourist destination, so why not. We arrived in the midst of a downpour with pea sized hail from the storms we chased earlier, and got a few photographs before leaving.

We stopped for dinner at "Al's Oasis," where for the second day in a row I decided to have the buffalo burger. It, again, tasted much like any other burger, but it is what it is. We soon departed after hopping onto some ceramic buffalo statues out front and made the last trek to Rapid City, South Dakota. That is where I am writing this tonight. We are staying at a very nice hotel with an indoor pool/slide that we tested out earlier this evening. Tomorrows plans are still up in the air, although I know almost for a guarantee that we will be visiting Mt. Rushmore and the Crazy Horse monument in progress. After that, the possibilities are endless. I thank you for taking the time to read and follow our storm chasing trip. Feel free to make comments, suggestions for tourist ideas, and whatnot. Thank you.

South Dakota - " Under God the People Rule" - Part I

I apologize for not blogging the other night, we just got back pretty late from Nebraska and Rapid City. I know, excuses are excuses, but after driving 500+ odd miles, it wears you out just a bit. Any who, lets get to the stories, pictures and action.

Sunday started out as usual, only this time in Murdo, South Dakota. Murdo is home to the Pioneer Auto Museum and The Rusty Spur Saloon, and other than that, not much. The day started off as just a sightseeing trip in western South Dakota, and ended up to be much more, well kinda.

Our first stop for the morning was the worlds famous Badlands National Park. If you have never seen, heard of or been to the Badlands, you should see them for yourself because they are nothing short of spectacular. We happened to see them on one of their only cloudy days of the year, as much of the morning was overcast and reasonably chilly, enough so that most of the team was wearing jeans, jackets and sweatshirts. We took many photos and also a reasonable amount of video of the park itself, and the fellow members of the class. After stopping at every possible pull off location, God only knows why, we had a brief stop for lunch at a local eatery and I had my first experience with buffalo. No, not the hot sauce, rather, a buffalo burger. Apparently, they are much more lean and healthy for you than its cousin, the hamburger. Now, I'm not going to tell you it was the most delicious thing I have ever eaten, because it wasn't. It didn't really have a distinct taste, in fact, it just tasted like a regular hamburger with none of the grease. Sorry to disappoint.

After the Badlands we headed west on I-90 en route to Rapid City. Our plans were to visit the popular tourist attractions and then move back east somewhat to position ourselves for tomorrows chasing chances in eastern South Dakota and Nebraska. Have I already talked about the part where the plans you make never actually pan out? Well, the skies south of us in central Nebraska had cleared out and daytime heating took place, setting up a chance for storms to explode over Colorado and Western Nebraska. We noticed these taking place when we were just outside of Rapid City, and our plans took a turn south and we again found ourselves crossing into the northern Nebraska border in an attempt to intercept some unorganized cells. Of course, with our luck two things went terribly wrong. While driving south, our magnet for van 2, my van thus far, got blown off the side by either a strong gust of wind, or from the gust off of a semi. Either way, we lost it, possibly for good. The second problem was that we failed to take in to account the colder air to the north which was pressing down. Although storms were firing strong in the warm sector, the moment the came into contact with the colder air, they then fizzled and died. This of course makes for terrible chasing, and in other words, basically a 4 hour detour.

So after snapping a few somewhat mediocre photos and videos, we headed back our same route, one, to look for our magnet, and two, to stop in Rapid City for a bite to eat. Unfortunately, our magnet was not to be found and upon entering Rapid City, we were met with quite a bit of rain, just in time to run into our restaurant, which was full so we then ran to another one a couple of blocks away and had an all you can eat pizza bar, which wasn't so hot, but food is food. We ended up leaving quite late and decided to book the same hotel in Murdo, about two and a half to three hours from where we were. After arrival, we were very tired for the most part, and we wanted to be well rested for the next day, which would be looking like the best day possibly all trip for chasing storms on the Great Plains.

In Class - Site Observation @ Ball Gym

In this in class assignment I have been asked to comb through my site observations at Ball Gym, where we have played most of our games in the West Side Basketball Association league, and filter the information into several categories, including sights, sounds, tastes shapes, etc.

SIGHT
The first thing you really see when you get to Ball Gymnasium is the exterior of the building itself. It has an older, somewhat castle like appearance. It is also surrounded by other campus buildings, and the many varieties of trees that the North Quad has to offer. There are steps leading up to the many sets of doors of the main entrance. When you go through this double set of doors, you find yourself looking at an entry way comprised of two sets of stairs on the far left and right of the entrance that both go up, and one larger and more centralized set of stairs that takes you down a level in the building. To get to the gym itself, the easiest route is taking the set of stairs on the far right, and then going to the doors straight ahead of you, and slightly to the right when you reach the top. The gym itself has many windows, all of which have been rigged up with protection against flying sports equipment. The bleachers are a blue plastic material, and rather uncomfortable if you ask me. The interior walls are a light yellow colored brick, but very smooth. The gym floor is a light tan wood, with a blue circle at mid-court, with a large white “B,” for Burris Laboratory School, in the middle of it. The gym itself appears to be worn an torn in its days of operation.

SOUND
The sounds of Ball Gym itself are much like the sounds you can find in any other gym here at Ball State, or in a high school in another town. During a game day, the sounds can be more interesting. You can hear fans clapping and cheering on their favorite teams, a ball bouncing on the hardwood, and many pairs of shuffling and squeaking tennis shoes. Every once and a while you can hear the ball either striking the rim, or tickling the interior of the net, causing a swooshing sound to emulate throughout the gym. On a day when there are no games taking place, you can find the gym to be dimly lit, mostly from the outside light pouring into the gated windows, and very little, if any sound resonating throughout the gym’s interior.

SMELL
The smells can vary from game to game, and day to day even. On a game day, you might smell the players, with their efforts on the court producing body odors, such as sweat, and deodorant being pushed to its limits. You can also smell the guy sitting next to you, with too much cologne, or the girl rooting on her boyfriend who is on the court playing, with clearly a bit too much Bath and Body spray for anyone to handle. You might smell the snack that the person 2 rows back decided to bring along to that particular days game. It all depends on the specific day that you are in attendance.

I hope I have given everyone a better grasp on what your surroundings and senses would be like if you were to ever attend a game at or even visit Ball Gymnasium. I have tried my best with my notes and personal experience to bring what I have collected to life, so even without ever being there, you can live it as well.

Post Superbowl Shenanigans

Well, the Arizona Cardinals, like our basketball team lost on Sunday. The Cardinals lost this evening, and Off Constantly lost the weekend prior.
This post is basically just an update to the season and new findings in the team itself. We are still in playoff contention with our 4th place standing in our division. If we maintain that for the next two games, or even move up in the division standings we will secure a playoff spot this year.

With only two games remaining in our schedule, winning becomes essential. If the players on the roster show up to play in our last two games, we should have no problem with putting a “W” in the win column.

Updates will continue to come through the semester on the team, and more pictures will soon come available from the games themselves.
I’m up for any suggestions for what you would like to hear more about, and what you guys would like to see picture wise, other than the cheesy pictures of your’s truly.

Brainstorming and Random Ideas for Paper Numero Uno

Locations: Elliott Hall, Ball Gym, The Bathroom on Floor 2, The Atrium, Noyer, The Lobby, etc...

People: Myself, Chip, Dave, Brennen, Nathan, Josh, Bob Saget, Maurice Harding, fans, etc...

Rituals: Tuesday "Unofficial" Practices, The Team Shower, Team Slang, Team Inside Jokes, Team Cookie, The Game Itself, etc...

Issues and Problems in the Subculture: Disagreements, Absences from Games, Technical Fouls, Paying for the Team Cookie, Shower Music CDs, etc...

Q: Reasons why I want to study this Subculture?
A: This is a very diverse group with all sorts of backgrounds, experience, majors, and future interests. Some people on the team played basketball in high school and one has played at the collegiate level, and many haven't had much experience at all. It is just a fun group to read about that people will hopefully find entertaining, humorous, and much more.

Over time I will venture further into these individual people, places and traditions to familiarize you and even make you feel as though you yourself are a part of our team.