Central Plains Severe Weather Symposium

Darin and I were generously invited by Jeremy Bower and Dr. Ken Dewey to the CPSWS in Lincoln on Saturday in hopes to try and sell the Storms of 2007 charity DVD's, which will be benefiting the NPO "Greensburg Greentown." Considering we didn't have any DVD's, we sure took a lot of orders for them and raised some more money to give to those folks. It gives me a great feeling, knowing that storm chasers have helped contribute to the funding in which future communities around the world will be constructed. Daniel Wallach, the director, is a heck of a nice guy and seems like he is pretty passionate about it. I'm sure each and every contributor on the SO 2007 DVD is excited in helping a local organization out...someone who needs the money--an organization made up of almost entirely Greensburg residents.

It was great meeting Mr. Bower and Dr. Dewey, and for their generosities they gave us both. It was good seeing Chris Novy, Ben Prusia and Mike Umscheid again, it seems like we see Mike every week now. I also finally met Dustin Wilcox and Jason McKitrick who were there. It was also great seeing Jon Davies and Shawna Helt who were there as well. Jon was feeling under the weather and he and Shawna took off in the afternoon. Mr. Davies is by far one of the nicest guys anyone will ever meet...Shawna, a very down-to-earth person as well. It's pretty cool, knowing you can sit next to a guy who is one of the top in his field, has been chasing for years on end, has a goldmine full of knowledge, and will just talk to you like you're his friend from grade school...unlike a guy from Boulder we all know, who missed the big one last year!! I guess that's just the way that some people are and will always be.

Here are a few pics of the event. I've never seen so many people who had an interest in weather, gathered in the same place at once! I think there were somewhere around 4,000 people this year. Jeremy and Ken made some amazing displays for not only Greensburg, but for the February 7th 2008 Atkins, AR tornado, as well as other events.












Brian Schodorf's documentary film about the Greensburg tornado should be airing on May 4th on PBS in Kansas and possibly Oklahoma. I believe he's still negotiating with other networks, but the first airing of it will be on the anniversary. Here is a link to his website, with a new trailer on there. In the first one there, that is Brian's uncle Bill Kurtis narrating towards the end. If you don't know who Bill Kurtis is, google him.

Darin and I will be representing the yahoo chasers in the documentary (lol). We were interviewed for it last July and some of our video will be in it as well. Anybody who knows me, knows I avoid cameras like the plague, but I guess this was the one and only exception. You can bet I'll look and sound like a fucking dumb ass, but I don't care.

Lastly, the video link posted in my previous entry has been taken down! I was talking to a producer with Ecotown on Monday night and mentioned I saw it on youtube, and it was gone today! I'm not sure where else you can preview it at, or where the person that had it in the first place even got it, but it's gone.

She also told me the new air date is either late May or early June, bumped up a couple of months from the "Fall" they had originally planned. You heard it first here on the Stacked Plates blog!!!

Thursday looks really good, but I'm low on cash, have school, and won't ever chase further south than Blackwell OK until the yahoos are dealt with down there. I get pissed off enough at the circus up here in Kansas, I'd likely lose it on someone down there and get into trouble! I just don't have that "urge" to drop everything and chase every setup any more. We've just hit April, if May starts to creep up soon and I haven't seen a supercell, I'll revert back to my old ways.