SunDog Pictures

I've seen better, but I had my camera with me yesterday......oh and my new 17-40 L :)

Hi Spaceweather.com

Hi Spaceweather.com

Scroll on down for the Aurora Borealis pictures. Thanks for visiting!

Our Storm Chasing DVD

Over 20 tornadoes!



If anyone wants to trade or purchase, just contact Darin at TornadoLive

Northern Lights......KC Christmas Style

Absolutely stunning yesterday. I was on my way home from taking a final, and low-and-behold, there were northern lights. (Of course I have been compulsively following this stuff for over a year now) I took one (of myself), like one of Mike Hollingshead's from Nov 04. Mike has always helped me out with post-processing photos (as well as forecasting storms), and I probably would suck 100 x more than I already do now, if it weren't for him assisting me. I'm slowly learning this photography thing.

Taken at ~7:30 P.M. CDT

Family

My sister is back in town with her fiance. What a cute baby she has, and she looks exactly like her daddy!

On a scary note, my father has lost about 20-30 pounds, at the age of 54, he possibly has emphysema due to chronic smoking. I am thinking of quitting myself, I can't imagine losing my father this soon, as he did with his father....

Snow

Haven't checked in a very long time.....but last I measured was around 5 inches. (At around 5 pm.)

Amazing hardly any snow accumulations to the north or west of Olathe. I live about 3 miles west of the K-7/Santa Fe intersection.

Here is a pic, more to come tomorrow.....

DVD is Done

Preview coming really soon, and it should be available for sale HERE very soon. Darin has put a lot of time into this thing, and I think people will be pleased with the overall production. Well over 20 tornadoes from 2003-2006, nearly 80 minutes long.

Darin and I are working on doing a live camera next year via that website or possibly another, along with a GPS tracker, etc. It's still in the early stages, but I think it should work out.

Here are my favorite 5 photographs I took in 2006 in no particular order.

I've been busy going to school and working more lately, and my laptop's motherboard has collapsed. The winter will be focused on buying more equipment for the 07 season I might not be able to chase.

On the List:

Garmin GPS376C
Canon 17-40 L lens
2 laptop mounts
3 window mounts

Just bought a new laptop, so that will set me back a little, but I'm working about 10-12 hours more a week now (double shifts) so I can get this stuff I don't really need. Rebel XT sent out for repair, and just got my new hard drive (after the other external FRIED).

Rolling the Dice

I should be doing homework/DVD stuff tomorrow. But I can not resist tomorrow's potential surprise. Depending on the WRF that is just now coming out, I would anticipate departure at 7 am. Heading for my hometown of Garden City KS. This is all preliminary! Problems: Cloud cover/instability. I don't care, nothing is ever set in stone. I'll update this thing on the road if we decide to go. I'm 75 percent sure we will.

Quick Little Video

Of the cold-core chase on 9/21/06.

No touchdowns, but it was still a little fun chase.

My Newest Purchase

Just purchased this (Canon GL2) last Sunday, for a GREAT price. Thanks to my buddy Andrew for the hook up.

Just got done watching Scott Currens' 11/27/05 footage. My jaw is still on the floor. He is within FEET of one of the tornadoes. I have watched it about 8 times now, and getting ready to head to Darin's to work on our part of the Storms Of 2006 DVD . The DVD is worth it on Scott's footage alone. (Also his amazing footage from 9/16/06 in South Dakota!)

Between work and school, my girlfriend, and working on two DVD's, I am busy seven days a week. Looks like there is a small chance at some chasing this week on Monday, Tuesday and perhaps Wednesday. Several things could go wrong (and models having very tough time handling the wave) with the system on Monday and Tuesday, but it is still a ways out. If it pans, we'll be there.

Coming Soon

Quick Update

I recently bought www.tornadofarm.com and should be working on it this winter. My focus shifts to next weekend as a potential chase seems possible. If there is such a chase, then I will be updating this thing on the road.

I let my parents borrow my video camera to film the baby for their week stay in Colorado, when I get it back, I will post some video of the cold-core action last Thursday. (just bought a new external HD for this purpose).

ALSO, coming very soon, a DVD to be released by Matt Jacobs , Darin Brunin, and I.

Still thinking of a title, but we have got it nailed down to a few. I'm almost done with the cover. Here are a few random photos from the last couple of weeks.

I'm an Uncle!

As of 8:22 p.m. last night, my little baby sister Brianne had a 6 lb 2 oz baby girl. She named it Kiera Emery! I can't wait to see her, as I will be posting pictures of her as soon as I do.

Darin Brunin and I chased NC KS last Thursday, and got a couple of funnels, but no tornadoes. We refined our target to Hays KS in the early morning, and got there at about 12:30. Followed our first storm of the day, and missed the Russell storm due to our storm arghhh. By the time we got on the Russell storm, it produced a funnel half-way to the ground, but never would touch. We jumped on a couple more tornado-warned cells that failed, before getting on one near Culver, KS. It was then we ran into Jon Davies and watched a funnel which refused to touch. I called it in, and SPC has it listed as a tornado, but to the best of our knowledge, it wasn't. When I have some time (I am nearly busy from 9 am to 9 pm every day now) I will post some pictures.

This is why I chase

Busts don't seem so hard when you have a day like yesterday. I will be posting more pictures.

Sunset

My girlfriend and I witnessed a beautiful sunset last night at Gardner Lake south of Olathe. A picture really can't capture the beauty one sees. I purchased the 50 mm lens from Canon today, for the price (about 75) the sharpness is amazing, especially in low light.

Friday's Chase and Today

From the other day:









Well, it was more than I was expecting given the environment the storms fired in. We managed to catch a pair of storms in SE KS. I also noticed that my Rebel XT is not focusing in RAW (auto) but it works fine in JPEG. I can only assume this is a lens problem, after searching forums. I missed some weak tornadoes in KC area today, one day that I ignore the weather. Oh well, I had a wonderful weekend with my girlfriend, and being a storm addict, I was pretty agitated I couldn't go after this particular storm. My friend, Jordan Wrecke, who happens to be Darin Brunin's roommate, was on it, and I guided him to this freak storm, where he witnessed a brief tornado south of Buckner. Evan Bookbinder pm'd me on Stormtrack and I gave him what information I could. Oh well.

8/25 Chase Day

Darin and I intercepted a nice supercell in Southeast KS. I am pooped right now, but I'll be posting pictures soon. Very nice striated updraft near Buffalo KS before it collapsed soon after.

Fourth of July

7/26 Convection

Took this tonight about 30 miles south of Olathe. Couldn't have been more pleased for summertime, although I did overexpose a few, sigh. Also did a timelapse of it, see how that turns out. Darin and I should be getting to work on the DVD this weekend.

Chaser Party Yesterday

"Rainfoot/Hailshaft Beatrice NE, July 13th 06


Shawna Helt held a chaser party yesterday, where I was fortunate enough to meet new chasers and see some of the ones I haven't seen in awhile. Met Brian Stertz, Doug Nelson, Kevin Polston, Aaron Blauser for the first time. Shawna, Jon Davies, Rick Schmidt, Fred Plowman, and Darin Brunin were also there, and it was good to see them again. (and Shawna's friend can't remember her name :( ) Shawna treated us to some infamous KC Smokehouse BBQ as well as TONS of other food! We chatted for awhile, and it was great hearing stories, old and new, and hearing and seeing the different vantage points on storms I was on. Brian Stertz showed us his insane 5/3/99 OKC area outbreak footage, along with Rick Schmidts footage from this year, and his crazy footage from his early years. Fred's crazy Beatrice footage from 4/15 of this year's was also a site to see. I really had a good time, and am going to have to swap or purchase some of that footage. I'll try and post a pic up sometime this week of it.

Pulse storm over Olathe.

The DVD project

Well, I haven't chased since May 23rd, and it looks like 2006 will be a disappointing season for most. As for me, it was a very rewarding season in many aspects. Chased around 20 times and logged over 9,000 miles. From the panhandle of Texas to Nebraska over into Illinois, we managed to find 9 tornadoes. Absolutely none in the months of May or June, which I would have figured to be the most prime. Successful days include March 12th, March 30th, April 6th, and April 15th.

The DVD should feature 2005 and 2006....not entirely sure what is going on there yet as it is still in the beginning stages. It will be Darin Brunin and myself's collections.

Some of the dates I know fore sure will be on there.....

June 9th 2005, North West KS(I wasn't there, but Darin Brunin's video will be on there) Numerous tornadoes.

June 29th, 2005 North Central Iowa, Southern Minnesota tornado-warned storms.

June 30th, 2005, South Central KS Followed tornado-warned cell through 6 counties.

July 3rd 2005 South Central KS "Street-sweeping" shelf, close call lightning strike.

November 27th 2005 Cold-Core tornado fest Central KS

March 12th 2006 4 night-time tornadoes observed in Central Missouri.

April 6th 2006 (Featured above) 3 tornadoes observed in North-central KS.

Many more days going to be featured, but as of now, these are "for sure" in.

My Hero

Game On

Preparing for a chase in Nebraska tomorrow. Gotta get an oil change, wiper blades and misc stuff today. Going to be chasing with Darin Brunin, Doug Mitchell, Andrew Ashley, Owen Shieh and Jesal Patel. I believe Owen has a week to chase before he interns at the NSSL....might be a good week. :D

Been awhile

Too lazy to post on this thing lol. Haven't had much luck chasing lately. Didn't even shoot one photograph. Doug and his friend Andrew are up in Lawrence at Darin's awaiting Mother Nature's next shot at severe weather. Poor Andy made his flight from England on Thursday. Hopefully we can all witness some convection before his departure on the 27th.

On a side note, getting bored with these blogs, forums, discussion things lately, same shit different day. If I feel the need to post something, I guess I will. Could care less to argue about or contribute anything at this point, no matter the topic.

Good luck to everyone chasing the rest of May/June!!! I will continue to update this blog occasionally. (If I ever see another supercell!!!))


P.S. I want to wish my mother a happy mother's day!!! (She'll never read this lol) And my sister and girlfriend on graduating from the University of Kansas. I'm so proud of you both! Devin, you beat the odds. I wish you both success after graduation, and am blessed to have you both in my lives. You both have contributed to shaping me into the person I am today. (Still working on it Devin!)

Even if the mist will never let the shine through (in the next month), I want to let you both know that I love you. :)

Dick

Heading for the Border

Of Oklahoma/Kansas. Will be meeting up with Darin Brunin and Mike Shively soon and will decide on a target in a bit. Enid looks good. Hope storms don't get undercut by stupid cold front. Either way, should be interesting. This will be the second time this month I venture to Oklahoma. Good luck to everyone out there, be safe.

Will try and update this thing on the road.

Decided against chasing today

Shit for shear, questionable dewpoints, and a "surface trough" way the hell out in my old stomping grounds.(Which Neal Rasmussen corrected me) It's not a dryline.

SPC just downgraded to 2 percent, but that's not stopping Shane Adams from chasing. Shane pulled a marathon chase the other day, that was pretty hardcore!

Plus, your "weekend warriors" from TX, OK, CO , will be all painted up with warpaint, craving maybe their first tornadic storm of the year (and lack of in the state of). I've been lucky, it's been all relatively close for me. KC is such a good location.


Looking at tomorrow for a possible chase. You've just gotta go for these SE KS chases, (last I looked) it's a magnet. Good luck to everyone, it's almost freaking May.

Couple of Pics

Don't have much to say other than I have enjoyed my last couple of chases and I'm sure most of you have read the reports so I'll toss up a couple of pics. Last chase near Chilicothe MO, was indeed fun, storm moving so slow, we played in the hail, and watched rotation over our heads. Treated to an "Ice Cream scoop sky." ;-) at sunset. Photos are as is, too lazy to photoshop and I accidentally shot the ice cream sky in jpeg whoops.

4/6/06's Account

Tornado #2 immediately to our west



Darin Brunin, Eric B' Hymer and Jordan Wrecke departed Lawrence around noon and headed west to Topeka. There we checked data and proceeded to go to Junction City, where we again checked data. It was decided that the storm in Reno county, could be the player of the day, so we darted after it. Intercepting it south of Salina, KS, the storm looked crap visually, so we decided for our secondary target, SE KS. Well, I'm glad we didn't. We all noted, the strong shift in backing surface winds (which were strong Southwest before), and turned around on I-135 in McPherson County. Long story short, we followed it to Salina, where it started to show some weak rotation. On I-70, the interstate was covered in hail, semi's flipped, making it difficult to catch up with the storm. Construction was coming up, so we pulled off on a county road (that was headed to Manchester KS) and booked it straight north. We found ourselves in the bear's cage quick, and I was PRETTY nervous. Rotation was observed everywhere above us, north, south, east, west. Lonely on this county road, we kept heading north, when out of the precip curtain to our northeast no more than 1.5 miles, I yell "Stovepipe!" A beautiful stovepipe emerged. Almost immediately to our west, a new wall cloud was rotating, and put out a smaller tornado which was short-lived, but CLOSER. We booked it east as the tornado was roping out on County Road 422 heading towards K-15. We then raced north to stay ahead of the storm which was approaching Clay Center. Darin did a live call-in to WIBW about the storm, and as we reached Clay Center, noticeable RFD pflumes were about 100 yards to our west. The storm had developed a huge meso. Hard to see anything at this point, as it was buried in precip. We headed east on 24 to get the hell out of Clay Center, thinking it was going to get hit, and noticing strong winds in the city itself. We jotted north on a highway I can't remember now. Decided against chasing this one and headed for a new torn-warned storms near junction city, watching about 5-6 chasers fly north to catch this thing. Wish we would have stuck with it as Mike Hollingshead and others grabbed another very nice tube near KS/NE border.

A few video captures, had no time for stills...

A Second Look at Buffalo KS torns

As we heard the report of a tornado over the wx radio near La Harpe touchdown, we assumed it was bullshit since we were just south of that location. Mike Hollingshead emailed Darin and I and showed us what we now believe is a second tornado just to our north buried in precip. It resembles a carrot and debris appears to be under the fully condensed funnel as we passed east of Iola. Hopefully Mike will add it back up on the his page at some point. And now to Thursday..........let the fun begin!

I've decided to apologize to Steve Miller for our recent, pointless arguing, as he made a good point that the storm chaser community is dividing, and the blog wars really get us nowhere. We all share that passion, and not once have I met a storm chaser I haven't liked, and I'm sure Steve would be no exception.

Thursday's setup has a shot at being a high risk. I posted my (what i call) "shit" forecast here . Still a couple days out, and my mind will change all the way up until we leave or are leaving. Either way a significant event is unfolding, and I do not feel like chasing storms moving fast into MO, it's a deathwish. I pray that no loss of life or property comes with this system, and wish good luck to everyone chasing out there on Thursday. Report everything! As storms will be moving fast, and 1 extra minute of warning could be the difference between life and death.

Dick

Pictured above is one of the cold-core tornadoes we grabbed on 11/27/05. I just redid it to enhance the structure and tube more. Very proud of this image with the house in the background. Not as good as Eric Nguyen's mulvane/house shot, but for an amateur like me, I'll take it.

From TX to Illannoyed

In two days of chasing. 00000 tornadoes. Here are some pics of Saturday near Elk City OK. Sunday I chased also, nothing like elevated, outflow dominant pieces of crap, that turn tornado warned after you ditch them, and lay down some nice tubes after that. Oh well, we're just getting started, and Thursday looks like another floor it, pilot-license only chase. So used to these fast moving storms, was shocked on saturday, when we actually could ENJOY the storm!

First image is of Buffalo KS storm structure where we shortly after scored a black snake tube (Still grabbing a pic off of video SD card is acting up). This is the hill where Mike Hollingshead showed up out of nowhere, and within 10 mins was gone again. Roger Edwards, Rich Thompson have some great photos of the Buffalo tornado, while we decided to play in the hail and catch the ass end of the tube.



:)