Everything just might be BIGGER in Texas

I haven't posted a new blog for days now, and again I apologize. The days are seeming to blend together the longer we are out here and the past few days, except for today, have been nothing short of exciting, long lasting, and full of firsts. Lets begin with Monday, as best as I can recall it. It has been a while.

This Monday, we began our day in Grand Island, NE, or so I think we did, like I said, it has been a long time, and a lot of good stuff has happened since then. We found that our great chase location was just to the south, and we went into Kansas to monitor building clouds and storms in Belleville. Just over the border to the south of Nebraska. We were only in the town itself for a short time because the storms rapidly exploded on radar, and of course in real life just over our heads. As they moved slightly north east, they picked up in intensity and thunderstorm warnings were placed for neighboring counties. We obligated to travel back north across the border and back into Nebraska, to somewhere around Beatrice to be specific, as we monitored the severe weather just outside of our windows. Of course, this would be the time that WIBC in Indianapolis called my cell phone asking for an interview. I couldn't refuse their offer, and I gave a short 5-10 minute interview with Steve Simpson about our journey and what we were up to. After finally being able to tell him we were chasing storms, he said several times that he wish he had a voice like mine and he thought broadcasting would be a great route for me to go out of college. That made me feel great after spending endless hours couped up in our chase vans.

This turned out to be a great day for chasing as we spent every minute from about noon until the late afternoon. We saw our first bit of storm rotation, as spotted by yours truly, just overhead of the vans on Monday. It wasn't as scary as it was a great video taking opportunity. This eventually went to turn into a mesocyclone, or a precursor to a wall cloud and then a tornado, just to be blunt. There is much more involved, but I'd rather keep you awake to keep reading on. Anywho, seeing a mesocyclone for the first time on the trip was a great accomplishment compared to previous garbage weather we had been experiencing the previous days. Other than a lot of cloud to ground lightning, one bolt of which struck directly across the road from us and our first mesocyclone, we didn't see much in the way of photogenic weather phenomena. But it was a great afternoon nevertheless. After heading south and east to Topeka for dinner, we pushed on into darkness to Emporia, Kansas to sleep for the night, unknowing of the "super" day that would be coming in the morning.

We woke up in Emporia, most of us, before 6 am. This was early, since most of us hadn't gotten to sleep until 2 am that morning. It was my day, as well as another younger student's day to come up with a "game plan" so to say at our morning weather briefing. This was to include where we should shoot for, what we were to expect, the probabilities, etc. I don't think we could have done any better. My target zone, as crazy and impossible as it sounded on Tuesday morning, was somewhere between Childress and Wichita Falls, both of which are in Texas. Being two state lines away in south central Kansas, many of the students and even the faculty were hesitant of pressing that far south for storms which hadn't even show up on radar or visible satellite. But we headed south anyway, for better indices for severe weather and the hope for being able to chase it.

We soon crossed into Oklahoma for the first time, my 7th new state on this trip, via US 35 South. After looking again at the indices on our on board laptops, I still thought that Texas looked the best, although many other students were thinking storms would pop up in the panhandle of Oklahoma. So instead of taking the originally planned, fast exit lunch, someone insisted that we sit down and eat. And naturally, we did, and left Perry Oklahoma at around 1pm. This is when things started to get exciting.

We got back on US 35 South and planned to stop again in Oklahoma City to revamp our game plan, but just before we got there, two discrete cells popped up as light rain showers on our radar just east of Lubbock, Texas, over 350 miles away from where we were. So we kept our eyes on them, and soon enough, like I had predicted, they looked very much like the radar signature of a classic "supercell." They also contained vast amounts of moisture and shear, both of which are needed for tornadoes to form. The chase was on.

After speeding out of Oklahoma City, we headed south west on 44 towards Wichita Falls, TX. The supercellular structures were exploding off of the charts and it would be a race against time to reach them before they turned into rather unchaseable squall lines. We got passed by a three car caravan of storm chasers, but Dr. Call has a competitive side when it comes to chasing, and we followed them very closely for about 75 miles until they eventually had to turn off for gas, at which point he muttered, "Suckers...,"at which point our van erupted in laughter, because this side of Dr. Call comes out only so often. In the mid afternoon, we crossed into the "Lone Star State," my 8th new state since leaving on the 22nd, and speed towards the slow moving and ever growing cells, due east of Lubbock. A third cell had just started to form and grow extremely rapidly in the high levels of CAPE and favorable air. This was our new target, because the other two supercells had conjoined and created more of a high precipitation blob than a favorable, and slightly more predictable discrete cell. We were quickly losing track of time and distance, and we honestly didn't care, because at this point we were headed directly for our cell that was south and east of Abeline, TX. At about 100 miles out, we began to view the outflow of the storm, which consisted of a seemingly flat layer of stratus clouds, rounded and appeared as though to be a piece of paper suspended in the sky. This just went to show how intense the storm would be when we finally got within chasing distance.

I got lost in the back roads and small towns of Texas, but I do remember a lot of our chasing, video taping and photography was within a 20 mile radius of the small town of Comanche, TX. This was our first real taste of what the Great Plains had to offer us weather wise. I'll try to keep the summary short, because most of the afternoon and late evening was chaotic to say the least. This was because as close as we were, we had to avoid getting run over by the freight train of precipitation in the forms of heavy rain and hail that this cell was producing. One slip up and our vans windows could have been shattered and destroyed by 2 inch hail, or that similar to the size of an egg or lime that our cell was capable of producing. The great things we witnessed were many rotating clouds, or mesocyclones, good signs of shear on varying levels, great mammatus clouds, which were the sign of strong updrafts, and a lot of lightning. All these, and also the long lasting nature of the storm, allowed us to categorize it as a supercell. We did have one close run in after watching a rotating mesocyclone that I would like to tell you about. We were watching it from the side of a country road, near a cow farm. Just after we pulled off to get a better view, almost everyone saw a large cloud of dust start to kick up. Normally this would be very exciting, except for the fact that this could of dust, for all we know that could have been the base of a forming tornado, was only a mere 50 yards tops across a field from our vans. Most of us were very excited, but we all knew we had to get a move on very quickly. Fortunately we weren't harmed in any way, but there was also no tornado. Either way, it was very exciting. We made our last play on the south end of the storm, near Comanche, where shear had been picked up in a mesocyclone. This had lowered itself to a very respectable level, but of course, nothing ever came of it. We darted back through town just before the bulk of the storm moved through, prompting a flood warning in that county, as we were heading north, out of its path. We decided to call it a day, and booked a hotel outside of Ft. Worth, Texas. In just this one day, we set a record for traveling over 700 miles. If we would have traveled the same distance, only eastward, we could have made it back, with a few miles to spare, to Muncie.

We woke up this morning in Ft. Worth, after the cells we were chasing the previous day had expanded into a squall line and smashed into the area over night. Contrary to popular belief, it was actually a relaxing sound to sleep with. Our plans for today were to sleep in a bit and catch up on necessary sleep, as well as to get the oil changed in our vans, since we have booked 5000+ miles already, and to sight see in downtown Dallas.

We stopped in Ft. Worth for Wal-Mart and lunch, and then headed east to Dallas. Our first stop was the new Cowboys Stadium, in the community of Arlington, just between Dallas and Ft. Worth. The word to describe it is, well there is no real good word worthy of its description. The stadium itself if state of the art, like you would expect for a stadium that cost over $2.2 billion from what I had heard. It is just absolutely enormous, with a 60 yard long, HD replay screen, retractable roof and side walls, and loads of parking lots. One of our classmates also got interviewed by a Dallas news station about what he thought about the stadium. That segment was supposed to air sometime tonight in Dallas. After finally getting to beautiful downtown Dallas, or next stop was the "6th Floor Museum" in Daley Plaza. This was the site of the infamous JFK Assassination. We took an audio tour that lasted over an hour and a half, and took several pictures outside and I even met a man that claimed he was there, only a little boy at the time, that JFK was assassinated, and even had a picture of himself as the motorcade passed in front of him, exactly 24 seconds prior to the horrific event. After leaving the museum, we headed out of downtown and north towards our dinner and lodging city for the night, Wichita Falls. We ate at an amazing steakhouse, and I can honestly say I spent too much, but the food was well worth it. We might end up living on fast food for the next few days anyway, the way the weather is looking. This is where I am writing this now, from a Best Western in downtown Wichita Falls. Tomorrow's weather is looking good for another busy day of chasing, and our luck has been getting better and better every day, so I hope it continues into tomorrow. I better leave you for now, because its getting late, and we have an early morning ahead of us. I appriciate comments or suggestions, and you can contact me by email at btmaushart@bsu.edu and as always, thank you for keeping up with my travels and enjoy reading.

Bust

Bust, by definition, means simply "a woman's breasts. " In meteorological terms however, a bust is something that we, as chasers, never wish to experience. A bust for us, by definition, is basically the equivalent of a build up of excitement shortly followed by mass amounts of stress and disappointment. More on that later, as for now, lets start the story from this morning.

I woke up at 7:30 CDT, or one hour behind Indiana (EDT), so in essence, we all got an extra hour of sleep. After showering and doing my regular morning business, I headed to the lobby for my complimentary breakfast. Unfortunately that consisted of only cereal and bagels, but something is better than nothing in my eyes. The daily morning briefing followed breakfast, and we made the decision to move further west yet towards our initial goal of Rapid City, SD. If I will learn anything from this trip, it will be that plans never go as they were initially planned.

From Waverly, Iowa, our home for the prior evening, we headed south to hit I-20 in Waterloo that would eventually take us to Sioux City, IA on our way to Rapid City. I feel now is a good time to throw in some weather information, which has been lacking I know. Basically, there is a complex answer as to why chasing right now is basically "garbage." In complex theory, there is a "Hudson-Low" centered over, you guessed it, Hudson Bay in Canada. You might ask yourself what this has to do with the Great Plains eh? Well, I will do my best to explain. This interrupts the flow of the jet stream, reducing winds and jet streaks on the plains. In addition this helps to create what is known as a "Death-Ridge" that lies right over the central plains, bringing great birthday party weather, but that isn't what we are here for obviously. In other words, less wind, less lift, less moisture and less divergence equals less chance of favorable storm chasing opportunities. If I have put you to sleep I apologize.

Other rumors that have been circulating include the "VORTEX Curse." This first VORTEX program took place in the mid 90's, and when they first went out to study the storms that usually flourished on the plains, the storms suddenly vanished in their first year of the study. They recall 1994 as being a complete "bust" year. This is ironic because this year, the second VORTEX program, cleverly named "VORTEX 2," started their new round of studies on May 10th, and will be in the field until somewhere around the 13th of June. Much like the 90's, this year is proving to be a slow year to say the least. Basically, they say that when a VORTEX study takes place, the severe weather diminishes, and chasing becomes sightseeing. This is much the case right now, well for the most part.

Back to the less scientific, and possibly more entertaining storyline. On our way to Sioux City, be passed through a wide array of scenery, from flat plains like one would expect, farms, and even a few gentle rolling hills. But most of the excitement in the vans came when we drove through the small towns. We made our first bathroom and snack stop in the small town of Rockwell City, Iowa, "The Golden Belt Buckle of the Corn Belt." We enjoy making humor out of anything possible, and today the gas station was our first source of jokes. Whomever named the station must not have thought it over for very long. The "Kum & Go" was not only great for a bathroom stop, but a great photo op. and souvenir shop. I will admit I personally splurged on a Kum & Go t-shirt, as did 3 other students that I know of off hand. After taking pictures, mingling with the locals, and getting in a few bits of laughter, we continued our trek west.

The few towns west of Rockwell City is yet another sexual innuendo, none other than Sac City, Iowa. It turned out to be another good round of walkie-talkie jokes and photo opportunities. But laughter soon turned to awe over a new sight to many of us. A few miles more to the west on I-20 was something we were not accustomed to seeing in Indiana, wind turbines. I had heard of their hige size before, but you really don't understand until you see them first on the far horizon, and then drive less than 100 yards from them. They really are a modern marvel and they are almost an artistic feature on the otherwise featureless plains. But we soon passed by and left them spinning in our rear view mirrors.

Finally after another hour or so of quality time in our vans, we made it to Siuox City, Iowa. We decided that 2p.m. was a good time for lunch and we couldn't have picked a better location to eat. Today we chose Famous Dave's BBQ, which is quite possibly some of the best BBQ one can consume at such an affordable price. The service was great, especially since we had 12 guests and it happened to be the server's first day. I'm no food critic so I will move on and leave you with a last remark, it was awesome. We held a special mid-day briefing in the back room of Famous Dave's because we had noticed while driving that a few storms were surprisingly gaining enough energy to intensify over south west Nebraska. So, we talked over possible options that changed in the morning from just strictly heading north to Rapid City, which now would include heading south to as close to Texas as we could get by nightfall, or staying in Kansas to be located in a more centralized location.

We were pretty set on just heading for the northernmost option when a pop-up window appeared on Dr. Call's laptop, which delivered a warning issued by one of the programs we use to track and predict storms while out here on the Great Plains. We were all shocked by the tornado-warning that was issued by a law enforcement officer outside of Lincoln, Nebraska. Our plans now took a drastic turn, as we went from sightseeing, and mostly relaxed mode to full blown chase-mode in a matter of minutes. It reminded me of the scene in Twister where they are just relaxing in the field near someones farm and then a warning is issued over the weather radio and they all rush out of the field in their convoy led by Rusty's mini bus sound system that is blaring the solo-section of Deep Purple's, Child in Time. I kid you not, it felt and seemed very similar to that.

So, as we drove out of SiouxCity, we decided a possible intercept point would be northeastern Nebraska, somewhere near Pierce or Norfolk. Remember how I said plans never go according to plans? Well here is another great example of this as we watched the storms flourish over southern Nebraska, with one possible tornado report and also radar indicated hail of anywhere between half an inch to golfball sized stones. Things were looking great until the storms continued north. They proved to be especially difficult to track, because directions continued to change and the three or so cells we tracked were moving in different directions and at one point, two of the cells merged with one another. We ended up forgetting to take into context the air in northern cornhusker country that had recently been cooled dramatically by a cold front from earlier in the day which met with the storms we were en-route to and basically killed them off. I'll leave off other factors and scientific reasoning that led to their demise to save you from any more feelings of drowsiness, but in lamemans terms, it turned out to be a bust. Are you seeing a trend to all of this? So we soon after made the descision to keep on trucking north, towards Rapid City.

This is where I type this entry tonight, well not quite Rapid City, rather Murdo, South Dakota, home to our Best Weatern Hotel, the Rusty Spur Bar and Grill, and the Pioneer Auto Museum. Tomorrow, I would make an assumption on where we are headed, but if there is a second life lesson I will take from this trip, it will be to not make assumptions, just because. Possibly the Mt. Rushmore National Monument, or the Badlands National Park, both of which are an hour or so from our stay tonight, but there are other odd choices in South Dakota which include a Minuteman-II missle silo, recently declassified and turned into a tour stop, and or Mitchell's Corn Palace, aka a giant castle shindig made out of corn which reopens tomorrow. Like I said, something could come up and for all I know we might end up in Denver, or Vegas... well not Vegas, but that would be crazy. I'm going to try to get some quality sleep here in Murdo, and have some more great experiences out here on the Plains tomorrow as we continue to chase the dream. Yea, that was cheesy, but it works. Thank you again, as always for reading.