Blog

09 Apr

April 9, 2011 – Mapleton, Iowa

Given the header to this post, you can imagine where this is going.  The day, however, began much more benign than it would end.  Being under the weather, I left Friday to get out to western Iowa so I wouldn’t have to get up early and make a marathon run.  This allowed me to get up at a leisurely time and be rested for the day.  I spent the night in Atlantic, Iowa. Saturday morning, I awoke and visited some relatives (I’m originally from there) and as the day wore on, it started to become clear that I was going to want to head west a bit, but stay on the Iowa side of the Missouri.  Eventually, I made the decision to head west towards Council Bluffs and see if anyone else was hanging out in the area.

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31 Dec

December 31, 2010 – Illinois

It’s not often you get an opportunity to chase on New Year’s Eve, so I took a shot with this setup.  I had just got back from Christmas with family in Iowa on the 28th and the forecast models and chatter was indicating a possible severe weather outbreak for the 31st.  I kept my eye on it for the next two days and the only thing I was hesitant about was the amount of instability that would be available to the area I would most likely chase.  This event presented two target areas, the first was the obvious one down along the Gulf Coast and Arklatex area where moisture return would be a piece of cake and the cold front would slam into the warm sector.  The other was the triple point near the surface low which was going to be in eastern Iowa on the 31st.

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26 Oct

October 26, 2010 – Indiana/Ohio

The epic storm of 2010, Bombogenesis 2010, whatever you want to call it.  The storm that was winding up over the northern plains was going to be epic as it strengthened and moved off to the northeast.  My decision was stay in Michigan and wait out the squall line that was expected to blow through, or head south where supercells might pop in front of the line.

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24 Oct

October 23-24, 2010 – Iowa / Illinois

So, with chase season winding down and an opportunity for that “one last chase” of the year, the setup in Iowa on Saturday the 23rd seemed worth a shot.   A warm front was expected to retreat into the area, CAPE was supposed to edge up to 2,000 and surface winds were backed.  The only real concern is that it was Iowa, which, traditionally gives storm chasers a difficult time.

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16 Sep

September 16, 2010 – Ohio

Kind of an impromptu chase, not prepared at all and it’d show as I failed to catch the main show southeast of Columbus that day.  Anyway, left work at noon and drove down US 23 into Ohio and storms were already firing on the Indiana/Ohio border.  When I left work, I had planned to drive to Columbus, but instead got distracted by the shiny objects on radar and decided to hang around Northwest Ohio.  The cell I got on looked good from the beginning.  It was the first one to go severe warned.  It presented a nice wall cloud for a bit, but eventually went linear.  Shortly after that I convinced myself that everything was going to linear, so I pretty much gave up.  I regretted it later as I crossed back into Michigan and the tornado warnings went off southeast of Columbus.  Live and learn, I suppose.  Attached gallery of the initial cell I was on before giving up on the day.

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