storm highway :: Dan's Blog

This is the Mobile Device version of this blog. To view the full version, click here.

Saturday, March 13, 2010 - 4:12PM CST

Week in pictures; 2 month mark

I'm a little past the 2 month mark of being moved in here in the St. Louis area, and everything is going well. The apartment and town is a quiet place (aside from the trains, which of course I'm OK with). In fact, I heard an ambulance last week, and realized I hadn't heard one siren since I got here in January! It feels great to make the even normally mundane errands surrounded by the huge sky and flat land that I love to see. For the most part, I haven't been able to venture outside much for leisure (thanks to the brutal winter), but that's about to change. This evening I'm heading to a bike shop to get 'slick' tires for my mountain bike, which will make it easier to ride on the roads. Once the weather allows, I plan to use my bike as a primary mode of transportation around town, as well as go on one or two-hour rides at least two or three times a week. Back at my WV house, a huge hill (in all directions) was a psychological barrier to riding regularly - the thought of having to come back up that mountain at the end of a ride was a motivation-killer. Now that I'm surrounded by flat land, I don't have an excuse to not get out and ride.

Changing the subject - here are a few photos from this past week that don't fit anywhere else and wouldn't typically warrant their own post otherwise:

Oklahoma/Kansas state line near Baxter Springs, KS on Wednesday. Being in these two states this week marks my 10th straight year of making it to the Plains region in the spring. Hopefully there will be many more to come.

click to enlarge

Not all of Kansas is flat! Yes, this is actually Kansas here - extreme southeast KS, near Baxter Springs. You might be suprised to learn that many parts of eastern OK and KS are like this. Though there are still flat areas around here, the 'classic' Great Plains landscape (flat, treeless prairie for as far as you can see) doesn't really start until you get to the I-35 corridor (around Oklahoma City and Wichita).

click to enlarge

I saw what I first thought was a contrail-distrail combination at the 'anvil cirrus' altitude near Springfield, MO on Wednesday. However, it looks like the black streak is from a separate exhaust, as the trails twist around each other.

click to enlarge

Morning rush hour in downtown St. Louis just before 7AM, on the way to a storm chase target on Wednesday. Inbound traffic is not too bad coming in from the east, the only backups I've seen are here at the Poplar Street bridge (the I-70/I-64 Mississippi crossing). Morning rush traffic seemed a lot worse on the other highways around the city - I-270 (on the west side of town) was pretty bad when I passed it.

click to enlarge

The 'walk in the woods' was one aspect of chasing that the movie "Twister" was right about. GPS sofware often doesn't make a distinction between paved/unpaved roads - or even passable/impassable, often to a chaser's chagrin. This is near Baxter Springs, Kansas on Wednesday. I wasn't stuck here, I just stopped to take a picture because I thought it was a classic storm chasing GPS moment. It's times like this that I'm thankful for the high ground clearance of a truck.

click to enlarge

Sunrise last Thursday near Mascoutah, with some blackbirds. The majority of our sunrises/sunsets have looked like this lately.

click to enlarge

Westbound Norfolk Southern train at the County Line Road crossing in New Baden, again with the ubiquitous blackbirds:

click to enlarge

Good pics; nice vignettes; and superb usage of "ubiquitous". Welcome to the great Midwest!
- Posted by Karisa

In regard to GPS software showing paved/unpaved roads properly, it is not intended to do so. It bases roads on whether they are federal, state, or locally maintained. Locally maintained roads, whether paved or not, will all show up as "local" roads.
- Posted by Scott

Scott, thanks for the info - never heard that before. Just a little weird that the gray lines can mean anything from a 70mph two-lane highway to a rutted path in the woods only passable via ATV.
- Posted by Dan R. from New Baden, IL

Thanks Karisa! I think that's the first time "vignettes" has been used here too!
- Posted by Dan Robinson from New Baden, IL

Thursday, March 11, 2010 - 12:33PM CST

March 10 chase photos and video

HD CHASE VIDEO: 3/10 storms in SW Missouri

While I crossed briefly into Kansas and Oklahoma yesterday, I spent the majority of my time in southwest Missouri. I didn't see much, a disappointment considering the potential this system had up until the morning of. Notwithstanding, it was great to get out into the warm air and be around storms again for the first time since the winter season began.

I planned for an initial morning target of Joplin, expecting to move west or southwest from there. The play of the day was supposed to have been the surface low that was developing and moving up from southwest Oklahoma, but early storms and rain prevented destabilization near the low. Stronger instability was developing to the east in Missouri, but low-level wind fields there were less favorable for tornadoes. Since the low play was looking shot and was another 2 hours or so west of Joplin, I chose the instability - and ended up following storms home the rest of the evening.

After struggling for most of the afternoon, storms finally begain intensifying after around 5PM. This is one storm near Carthage, just southeast of Joplin, MO. Despite being tornado-warned and looking ominous, it was blasting outflow and not visibly rotating. Chasers who were inside of this experienced a deluge of hail that covered the roads.

click to enlarge

Panorama:

click to enlarge

Lightning north of Mount Vernon, MO:

click to enlarge

I stayed with the storms all the way back home on I-44, stopping a few times to attempt lightning photography. For the most part, there was too much rain to set up cameras. When I arrived back in St. Louis, I set up at the television towers near Afton for upward lightning. One flash to one of the towers occured before I got parked and set up, but non occured afterward. I arrived back home just after 2AM.

nice shots did you come as far south as Neosho
- Posted by Danny Gordon from Granby MO

Thanks Danny, I was in Neosho for a few minutes yesterday. I came in from Wyandotte, OK and then went north on 71.
- Posted by Dan R. from New Baden, IL

Great shots Dan!
- Posted by Dann Cianca from Centennial (Greenwood Park), Colorado

Thanks Dann!
- Posted by Dan R. from New Baden, IL

Wednesday, March 10, 2010 - 5:37AM CDT

Day 1: Southwest Missouri/southeast Kansas

Update 2:05AM CDT Thursday: Home after 26 hours awake and 21 on the road. Possibly a chase tomorrow if I feel rested. Photos and video to come.

Update 5:37AM CDT Wednesday: Departing New Baden/STL and heading west on I-44 in the next few minutes. Preliminary target is Joplin, MO - will likely move west into KS or southwest into OK from there as data dictates. A little concerned from IR sat loop and latest RUC that the low may be tracking further south than expected.

Posted 12:08AM CDT Wednesday: I never imagined I'd be starting my 2010 Plains tornado season blog this early, but when a good opportunity arises, I have to take it! A potent tornado setup is shown by models taking place in the tri-state region of Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri on Wednesday afternoon. A combination of instability, moisture, upper support and a surface low will combine to create favorable conditions for supercells from mid-afternoon Wednesday into the overnight hours. The potential exists for several strong tornadoes if one or two supercells can remain isolated through the evening and after dark. As the night progresses, a strong squall line should develop and head northeast toward the St. Louis area.

Since this event falls well within my new extended home chase area, it's an easy decision to jump on it. I plan to leave at dawn with an arrival in my 'staging area' target of Joplin, MO by noon. This chase has the potential to lead me eastward through the night, with hopefully not much of a drive needed to get home after all is said and done. This is definitely a chase opportunity made possible by living in St. Louis - not one I'd be likely to try from WV. I will update this blog when I can, but I will put a greater priority on channeling updates through the Facebook and Twitter feeds.

Dan, maybe we will run into you this afternoon. My chase partner and I are about to head towards the eastern half of AR...going through the morning data as we speak...
- Posted by Clarence from Nashville

Monday, March 8, 2010 - 8:20PM CST

2010 season - here we go

UPDATES: stormhighway.com Facebook Page (more on this below)

An unexpectedly more active pattern than anticipated is upon us. Wednesday and Thursday are looking like not only thunderstorm days, but the first 'real' chase days of the season for the Midwest. Models show that instability, moisture, good upper support and a surface low pressure in the vicinity may be present, all ambient ingredients for possible severe thunderstorms and tornadoes. The details are yet to be resolved, but here are just a few quick NAM model images:

Dewpoints shown in the 50s up to St. Louis:

NAM dewpoints for Thursday

Instability:

NAM CAPE for Thursday

Upper support:

NAM 500mb winds for Thursday

Surface low and backed winds:

NAM surface for Thursday

Wednesday looks like a potential event to the west and south of here, which could also lead to a chase day. The best parameters may be in eastern Oklahoma, which is a little too far to drive considering an event may take place here at home the next day. Stay tuned!

Facebook Page

UPDATES: stormhighway.com Facebook Page

I've had a Facebook page set up for this site for some time now, and plan to start using it with higher frequency this season. If you have a Facebook account, you can join this page without actually having to be on my private friend list. The idea behind this is to keep weather-related updates in their own area, so that (1) non-Facebook friends can interact and (2) I don't impose too much weather content on my private Facebook page for non-chaser friends who may not care to read it.

I also set up the Facebook page to automatically simul-post to my Twitter account, in case you're a more frequent user of that service.

hi you are my biggest storm fan
- Posted by kevin from siouxlookout .ON

[ Full Blog ]