TornadoPalooza

Well, I decided at the last minute I shouldn't go after putting 3,000 miles on my car, windshield destroyed by a baseball, low on cash, etc. I still don't regret it, I get terrified night chasing now.

Darin, his girlfriend and his mother chased and saw at least a half dozen, strong to violent tornadoes, two times from close range. I was sending Darin pics of GR2 analyst and nowcasting for a mapless, dataless, Jordan, Doug and Josh. Please donate $.25 so they don't call me every 5 minutes.

Stovepipes, fat cones, multi vortex's, elephant trunks, wedges, ropes.....don't think Darin mentioned a barrel! Will have to double check on that.

I had fun nowcasting for nearly 6 hours. I told Doug to head to Red Cloud at 1 p.m. and he made it to west of Hebron, where he lost cell phone coverage and tried to catch the Kearney storm. I told him he'd never catch it, and that a southerly 55 llj with major upper level divergence/support on its way by 1z for the at-first HP storms. It was money near Osborne, as a structure HP mothership, slowly transitioned into a more classic mode with stronger anvil SR winds.

We all talked last night about picking the target few would take, and all agreed on central ks...I dont think Darin saw many chasers till dusk, when a lot headed south.

Incredible night, congrats to Lexy, Darin's mother, Darin, Doug, Jordan, Josh and the others who witnessed the supercell of the year. SPC's downgrade from high to moderate surely clinched the fate of this cyclic long tracked monster.

Darin's last cone was the most photogenic he said, I'm eager to see the video as well as other chasers :) and Doug and Josh's direct hit from an elephant trunk with BOTH probes deployed successfully, while the mesonets recorded the pressure drops. Insanity.

What a day, I"m excited and I wasn't even there. I'm sure Darin's tornadopalooza will be up soon.

Yahoo out.

Edit: I took out those who were hit by the tornado who haven't posted about it, Chris Collura, Reed Timmer and Joel Taylor deployed their probe and another probe was launched I think by another known chaser. Two probes, one tornado! Mesonet cars measured the pressure drop, Chris Collura has pretty crazy photos, including IMO best structure shot of all time...posted on Stormtrack here.

Chris has seen just about every tornado there has been in the last 2 weeks, has to be a dream season for him, he's bagging tornadoes left and right, and had at least 2 very close calls now.

Still am not regretting my decision to sit this one out, 2 years ago I would be slamming a fifth of some Herra-Derra. Incredible storm, mesoanalysis is so much easier to monitor when you're relaxing with the AC on on broadband!

Amos apologized to the DOW's for pulling out in front of them...hilarious, since that's all I ever see them doing. Probably a huge rush for their caravan to do that and see how close one can come to causing an 18 car pileup in BFE Gove county. Thursday, drove away from a wall cloud in Dighton, Friday the TIV never saw the Quinter cone blasted west...hail core must have looked amazing or maybe they don't have side windows. Then, they scan a storm from 50 miles away and the cameraman act like it's 100 yards away getting those Hollywood shots from the shoulder lying face flat! Zoom-out, pan right is the new fad from ground level I take it.

Already a thread on the chasers getting hit...and the usual, "Hey, when the day comes and a chaser dies, I'll be crowned king of the "I told you so" post. A chaser WILL die someday from a tornado, and one will die in his sleep and another on his way to work. As will a scuba diver from a shark bite, or the diver who contracted meningitis. Or a cowboy who wants that mean bull for 8 seconds and another cowboy from an icicle in West Texas, or a NASCAR driver making the wrong split second decision, and one on his bike. You can't hand people common sense, and you can't teach old dogs new tricks.

The glory of being able to come back to an internet forum, and post the long-awaited "I told you it would happen" glory update as the gold medal is placed around your neck at the moron olympics, would probably be similar to predicting the next earthquake to hit in North Dakota. World-wide recognition and instant celeb status.

This shit just makes great humor and impersonations of others on the way to a chase or home from a chase.