Happy New Year's

Heading to St. Louis tomorrow.

We're gonna party like it's 1999. Great videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch.php?v=zLElfJ9YCh0

"You can call us Aaron Burr by the way we're droppin hamilton's!"

Parnell's face in the store at the end is classic.

and a lost classic:


http://www.youtube.com/watch.php?v=n6Y6mGjK0Y0&search=CKY%20chinese%20rap

If it doesn't work type in CKY chinese rap :)

Big 12 Now 4-1.......Now it's time for UT to step up to the plate. My friend Chris is no doubt nervous about the game as he was on Sept. 10th :D. See you on Jan. 4th, hopefully. Here's a pic of him an Tara as we watched a close game, he was so excited at the end that he punched me in the face, resulting in a bloody nose. Gotcha!

What people don't realize about UT is the speed of their D. I certainly hope Leinart can pass, cause Reggie is getting shut down. UT 38- USC 24. Oh and did i mention special teams. They make the difference.

Nothing lasts forever.....

Except the cold December rain. Juneau ran off again, she doesn't mind any more. I have neglected her too much I guess. Roxie, my other dog is currently freaking out wondering where she is. She'll come back for the food. I hope. I'm getting waxed in Fantasy Football today by a fellow storm chase partner Eric B Hymer. At least the Chiefs won, but playoff hopes are pretty much shot. KU won big last night making the Big 12 1 for 1. Merry Christmas all.

Dick

Merry Christmas

For the second time in my life, I will be alone for Christmas. My sister is in the hospital with kidney stones. (Ha, I had one when i was seven years old) and my parents are leaving tomorrow for Colorado to pick her up and I don't think they will be back before then. So i choose to stay here. I hope she feels better, because I remember the excruciating pain, even when I was seven. LOL, I remember in 2000, we all went to Texas to see my grandfather, and I had food poisoning on Christmas day, from eating a hotdog from a convenience store. Didn't even get to eat my favorite Whataburger!

Wish my sister the best of recovery and hope to see her on Christmas day. Merry Christmas to all of you and your families. Here's where I want to be right now!

Oh and remember kids:

So I was just browsing.....

I googled for Tornado Count 2005 *Yeah I know where to look, but was just curious*. And on the second page I find this. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/11/28/national/main1075860.shtml

Most video I've seen of that day of us. Yes I get excited and so does Darin. So what? We yell for maybe a minute, then it's over. Who doesn't get excited. Keep in mind, this was late late November, and the speed of this tube forming was phenomenal, and from what we could tell it wasn't going to hit anythingor anyone. Anyone who doesn't get excited when they see a tornado is a liar. I'll do cartwheels in front of a tornado if I choose, maybe some back flips.

Crappy quality of the video, and they show the sequence of the tornadoes wrong, and I make a fatal mistake by getting in the video, thinking I was out of it's range. Darin's on his way up here so we can go to Desperate Housewife City, KS to get his ham radio. Living in the 3rd richest county is as close to hell as I ever want to be.

Pictures are of shelf forming NW of Fort Dodge IA on July 25th then the complete aftermath as we race away from it somewhere near Ames. 1 tornado reported less than 20 miles from us (Think it was this storm). Red box bust, fun trying to outrun this sucker, should have let it blow over us, strange bugs biting us in the rain!

Lawrence Fire

I received a phone call from the Lawrence Police Department concerning my video of the fire. If this is news to you, back in October there was an arson which took the lives of 3 people in a Lawrence Kansas apartment complex. The detective was very pleased with the video, and jotted down some information from me. He also thanked Darin and I for our contributions and the video might be used as evidence in the case against the scum that killed those innocent people. He said the video displayed a lot of emotion (especially from myself), and I assume that will be a dagger against him. Glad to know I could assist in helping someone be punished for such a horrendous crime against life and property. Hope God writes this down in his book of many circumstances where I have helped to save lives. (I helped a kid that fell four stories from the KU dorms stay awake while paramedics arrived 4 years ago.) I seem to always be in the right place (or the wrong place) at the right time. In one week in 99, I saw three people die right in front of me on 3 consecutive days. Death is something I'm no stranger too.

When that piece of paper is read to me in a couple of months, friends will know already know the outcome and my thoughts. I can't wait for Spring, that's if it ever makes it here.

More snow

And I express the topic as in "I'm not amused." I think here in Olathe we received 2-3 inches. Enough to cause some minor wrecks, ice the highways, and dirty up the ride. It was a very peaceful snow however, and I enjoyed watching it fall. Don't have any pictures up yet, left the cam at Darin's. argghhhh. On Friday, I witnessed a rather large sundog as sunset approached, and once again, I was without the camera. I tried to call Darin and Mike Peregrine to inform them of the situation, but no luck. Such a relaxing sight on my way to Lawrence, and it helped relax the nerves of the ridiculous traffic. It's almost Christmas, and the next thing you know it's March, and the chase season begins (maybe), and I will savor the day we get back out on the open road.

Here is a photo I shot with the old camera on June 12th near Hamlin Texas. Missed the tornado-fest by an hour, but we still had a great time, and what beautiful structure it exhibited.

November 27th's Tornadoes

Just pictures and a detailed map (Map Credit Darin Brunin www.shadowoftheanvil.com ). (From the best that we could recall) We had a little KS map, no radar,no GPS,no hams, just a cellphone and EXCELLENT nowcasters. After they got us to the storm, service was out and we went visual.

Yesterday's Summary.

I'll sum it up short. We analyzed SPC's mesoanalysis page at around 11 a.m. A decision was made for Topeka, KS. About an hour later we received a call from Nick Grillo giving his thoughts and sharing with us his observations. Thanks for that Nick. Darin then called Roger Schwartz of WIBW in Topeka, KS, and thought Emporia might be a better idea. So off we went. Soon after we received a call from Eric B' Hymer that an Mesoscale Discussion was up and a tornado watch would be issued soon. Minutes later it was for much of Eastern KS. At about the time we were about 20 miles from Emporia on the turnpike, Darin called Stewart Manning for an update. There was an impressive cell near the Butler Sedgwick County line, and we calculated the time to intercept and felt this was the cell we wanted to be on. We went west on highway 50 then turned onto 150 highway where a base was visible. We drove a little further north to stay on southern edge of this new mesocyclone. Here are some pictures from beginning to end starting bottom to the top: First Picture base, and at this point we turn around seeing a new storm starting to seed ours. So we drive back south but just for about 2 minutes. I look back and say "Oh man it's getting it's act together." A small funnel emerges, we reposition back, and I began to shoot these first photos. Timeframe from meso to funnel cloud, I would say 3 minutes tops, and notice how fast the RFD cuts in and the meso wraps around.

I will post the other tornadoes later, gotta run for now.

Long story short saw 3 tornadoes. Will post more photos than were on stormtrack tomorrow. Very exhausted but very pleased. Thank you Jesus, I love Jesus.

Slight Risk for Olathe

After glancing at the ETA and GFS last night an initial target of Emporia was made for Sunday. Each run deepens the low, slowing it down and I think enough instability can make this a Cold core type set up. ;) 50 knots of vertical shear should do the trick, so I am hopeful for a chase at the moment.

Just got done watching a scary Texas vs. Texas A&M game, which Texas pulled off at College Station 40-29. Vince Young played like crap, it's good we have other talent on the field for his lack of, today.

Fall Picture:

More Severe WX?

It has been brought to my attention that we may have yet another round of severe wx breaking out across parts of the U.S. Looks like I might get one more in for 2005, but I am not getting my hopes up. If nothing else, I expect maybe some sleet/snow by sunday night into Monday morning per GFS/UKMET. I am ready for 2006, 2005 was hard to come by for tornadoes, hit and miss days.

I had been wanting to take this photo for months and finally took the time to do it. Enjoy.

Test Test Test

Ladies and Gentleman, I unveil my new blog.