New Mexico Storm Chase

HDR Photography

2012-01-28T23:08:00.000-08:00

I've been toying with HDR photography for some time, but I could never quite get it to work. Recently I found some new software and have had some spectacular results. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

This coming season I plan to do more HDR photography and perhaps some time lapse HDR work.

Terrain Following Coordinates

2012-01-23T17:22:00.001-08:00

In previous posts I have mentioned a density current simulation. I have modified the code substantially, and have begun introducing terrain following coordinates. In the video you should see the cool bubble (this time red) fall because of its over density. Once reaching the surface it spreads out and a density current begins to travel along the surface. Notice how the density current slows before cresting the hill. This is the same reason a ball rolling up a surface would slow down. As the current comes down the other side of the mountain hill you can see it accelerates and produces additional sheer with the atmosphere above.

Why terrain following coordinates? Weather models don't like coordinates that don't follow terrain. They can produces waves/modes in the model that are hard to damp. Terrain also influences the atmosphere significantly. My research mainly focuses on the ability of terrain to produce waves. While storm chasing terrain can influence the generation of a thunder storm by lifting air, or can induce 'mesoscale' circulations (like the infamous palmer divide).

Wind Storms in the News

2011-12-01T17:34:00.000-08:00

Wind storms in California have produced damage, and recently have made headlines:

Link to Article in LA Times
Link to Article in SF Chronicle

In New Mexico we're also experiencing some strong winds. While not exactly analogous to this event, it reminded me of other wind storm events in the lee of the Organ Mountains, which are to the east of Las Cruces.

While many factors helped to bring about these mountain winds, a factor that can often assist in the strengthening of mountain winds, is the reflection of internal buoyancy waves. Internal buoyancy waves occur in regions of connectively stable air, and arise because vertically displaced (i.e. moved) air parcels will 'feel' a buoyancy force against this displacement. This force will cause air to oscillate vertically about this displacement. Mountains can produce this vertical displacement of air, and thus can induce internal buoyancy waves.

Certain changes in the background wind profile or temperature structure can result in reflections of these waves. Changes in the temperature structure can act like walls and reflect waves, similar to how sound reflects at boundaries. Below is an image of a model I produced, showing how air traveling over the Organ mountains will be vertically displaced (assuming the air is traveling left to right in the image). Notice how the lines become 'bunched' together in the lee of the ridge, this 'bunching' of the lines essentially means its windier on that side of the mountain. The model assumes a change in the vertical temperature structure a few kilometers above the surface. Notice the repeated oscillation of the lines (the little waves in the lines) in the lee of the mountain, this can only arise in this model because of reflecting buoyancy waves. Certain changes in the temperature structure can amplify this effect and strengthen the wind in the lee of the ridge.

Fun with Lagrangian Vortex Modeling

2011-10-31T18:46:00.000-07:00

Lagrangian vortex modeling is essentially a method where the model follows the fluid. I've been playing with vortex models attempting to arrive at a 'stable' configuration with a multivortex tornado. This is like in the 2d applet on the right, except this is in 3d. A large issue I'm running into is that when the vortex lines become concentrated, that is when the vortex strengthens, this causes the lines of vorticity to tilt above. The tilt induces a down draft which eventually dissipates the strengthening at the surface. The tilt I believe is similar to the complex affect of vortex break down. For example, in dust devils it is sometimes observed that there is a down draft at the top of the dust devil where the concentrated rotation dissipates.

Below are some examples of simulations I have produced. The lines represent locations where vorticity is concentrated.

Back to Modeling

2011-08-30T22:07:00.001-07:00

I have been back to modeling again. I'm using Ames Mars General Circulation Model (GCM) computational model to research a possible connection to gravity waves either triggering or assisting in the development of global dust storms. Below is a movie showing the average temperature from this model through the course of a few years. The y-axis can generally be thought of pressure decreasing upwards, the x-axis is latitude. Red is warmer, blue is colder, and the "blank blue" region at the bottom are pressures not reached by the surface. Notice how the surface pressure changes through the year. Mars transfers mass between the polar icecaps and results in meridional flow unique when compared to Earth.

In future posts I will likely be sharing some video of a 3d model recently developed from the past 2d model presented previously here. I am also working on adding some terrain following coordinates for the code (will explain more later). For fun I also added a magnetic field to one version of the code, and I am exploring some "wacky" behavior caused by magnetohydrodynamics!

New Mexico Monsoon Begins

2011-07-12T15:18:00.001-07:00

The New Mexico monsoon season is about to begin. While these storms are not tornadic (due to the lack of dynamics), they can be quite beautiful on their own. Photographed above was a weak storm over the Chama, NM valley. While I was not chasing, I thought it would still be nice to share here. I will be keeping my eye out for a short fall season this year. As noted in the blog last year, as the jetstream begins to work back south, New Mexico can occasionally produce a few tornado warned storms in the October timeframe. However, these would not be during the "monsoon season" specifically.

Composite Photo of Tornado

2011-06-27T15:55:00.000-07:00

This is a composite photograph I made in photoshop over the weekend of the Mule Creek Junction, WY tornado. Click on the photo to see the the version with times listed for each funnel/tornado.

More Photos of the Mule Creek Junction Tornado

2011-06-13T12:54:00.001-07:00

Here is a touched up photo of the Mule Creek Junction tornado from yesterday. Full sequence of photos showing its development can be found at this [LINK]. Again, will edit and expand more back at home in a few days.

WY/SD Magic!

2011-06-12T21:39:00.001-07:00

Captured a beautiful tornado today in northeast WY! Still haven't gotten to our hotel, so this will be brief for the moment. We watched for several minutes as this small funnel slowly extended to the surface. It briefly touched, and we were eventually forced to move away from the storm due to hail and poor road options (it's WY!). We crossed into SD, and had a possible gustnado touch a few hundred yards away. We moved away quickly just to be cautious.

I will touch up the images more within the next few days, and post again...

Oh yea, combined with yesterday's landspout, this truly assures 100% of my customers have seen tornadoes!!!

CO Storm Chasing

2011-06-11T23:23:00.000-07:00

Briefly caught the reported tornado south of La Junta, CO. Since the tornado/landspout was very weak and since we arrived on the storm basically as it was occurring, we were unsure of what it was until reports from others closer to its location appeared on SN. Should have an image of it up in a few days. While I my self didn't photograph it, my customer captured it with his camcorder.

May 30 Hail

2011-05-31T09:48:00.000-07:00

While we didn't see the supposed tornadoes yesterday. We did get to find some amazing hail! We narrowly missed this hail from falling on us, but returned to the area after the storm passed. Here are some photos of the spiky hail. The sizes of the hail when falling was reported to be ~3-4 inches. We came across them after ~45 mins and they still were >2.5 inches in size.

2011-05-28T19:11:00.000-07:00

The news segment shows amazing footage of the tornado a customer and I witnessed. Fortunately the trucker survived. Latest damage survey shows this was the power of only an EF-2!

May 22 Supercell in IR

2011-05-25T13:14:00.000-07:00

Now that I have a little time, I thought now would be good to add a few more photos from the last 3 days. For the latest tornado we have observed refer to the post before this one.

Recently used my [near] IR camera while storm chasing. I solely use it for artistic purposes, no science from it. To the eye the structure was a bit hard to see because of some strong 'haze'. However, the IR filtering seemed to cut through the haze better. Below are the results, notice in one image how the trees are 'white'. The storm did not produce a tornado, but was quite beautiful none the less.

May 24 Storms

2011-05-24T20:43:00.000-07:00

Just got settled into the hotel. Today was a crazy day, we initially intercepted a storm in NW OK. We unfortunately fell behind it within a few minutes of it producing a reported wedge tornado. We instead came across some 1-2 inch hail stones scattered along the side of the road. Once we were behind the storm, we kept jumping south to different supercells in an attempt to get repositioned east of the line. This took us through some damaged areas near El Reno, OK. It was surreal, homes were destroyed, trucks overturned. We could even see smoke off in the distance. With emergency personnel already in place, we continued and passed between two storms finally getting to the east of the line again. We finally intercepted a tornado near Shawnee, OK. While it is amazing to see, we were certainly reminded of the unfortunate part of severe weather.

May Storms

2011-05-23T21:45:00.001-07:00

Still continuing the 100% tornado intercept success rate for my customers, and it is only day 2 for the tour. Observed a brief tornado SW of Enid, OK. Chased in the Red River Texas area the day before. We intercepted some high based supercells. Didn't chase near Joplin for two reasons. Generally avoid southern MO because of trees and hills. Also, leaving from Albuquerque, would have been difficult to reach for the first day. Very unfortunate, thoughts go out to those affected by the tornado. Did keep my eye on the weather in that direction for that day since I have family in the area, fortunately all are safe.

Tomorrow looks another like a potent setup, probably even more dangerous than today. Will post photos later in the week when there are a few down days.

Dust on Mars

2011-05-19T18:34:00.001-07:00

Between tours I have been conducting some research. I was asked to pull out information about Mars dust from some data I have access to. Below is a movie which shows how dust has varied in the Martian atmosphere for approximately half an earth decade.

The axes are Latitude for the x axis, and layer (or height) for the y axis. The color closely represents how much dust is present in the atmosphere for every kilogram of air. No dust or missing data is represented by blue.

Preparing for Tours

2011-05-19T18:22:00.000-07:00

I have begun preparing my bags and equipment for the tours I will be conducting this May and June. The usual batteries need to be charged, and clothes packed. The tours scheduled have so far had excellent timing. Since April 27 there have been minimal chasing opportunities west of I-35. This looks like it will change for at least a few days shortly. Starting Saturday I will be meeting my returning guest in Albuquerque, and we will be traveling to Texas. This is in preparation for possible chasing on Sunday, but more likely some bigger 'events' will occur Monday, Tuesday, with perhaps a Wednesday chase opportunity.

The next few weeks should be lots of fun. The great part about storm chasing is that beyond Wednesday, I am uncertain where we will be headed. That unknown and mystery about where we may end up is really freeing and exciting.

Wild Dangerous April Storms

2011-05-01T16:06:00.000-07:00

I'm writing this presently between tours. During the last tour, I chased with my tour group for the 4 days leading up to the deadly April 27th outbreak. Every day we were able to intercept tornado warned storms, within an hour of my initial targets. We ended up catching a nice rope tornado on the 25th about an hour south of Dallas, TX (seen below). We also observed several funnels, and experienced some incredible RFD (Rear Flank Downdraft) winds.

The tour ended the day before April 27th, a mixed blessing. While we would have been apart of an incredible outbreak of tornadoes, I would not have enjoyed the devastation, or terrain available for storm chasing.

2011-04-14T17:28:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately, I have been unable to make it out on the Great Plains to go storm chasing yet. However, much of the chaseable weather has been in terrain that, while is possible to chase in, is not exactly the most desirable. I have also been working feverishly on some Pluto atmosphere data I recently received. Below is a plot, of my model in (blue), compared to stellar occultation data which probed Pluto's atmosphere. I'm excited because my model may be a way to constrain wind speeds, and possibly topography on Pluto. Much of which is largely unknown.

2011-02-24T13:06:00.001-08:00

Moderate risk for tornadoes in the southeastern US today. Anything that can develop ahead of the squall line has the possibility of producing a tornado. If this was April and I was conducting tours I would certainly jump on this. However, since the chase terrain is not favorable for chasing (i.e. trees, mountains, and not a great road network) combined with the storm speeds being forecast into the 40mph range, I opted a few days ago to stay home and watch this one develop. Presently a tornado warning is occurring east of Memphis, and has nice velocity couplet.

It's nice to see storm season starting to warm up!

Horseshoe Vortex

2011-02-19T21:21:00.001-08:00

Observed a horseshoe vortex near Las Cruces today. Below is an example of one from storm chasing while in Oklahoma during 2008.

We occasionally will observe these cloud features while storm chasing. This is because these cloud features form in sheered environments (that is winds changing with height). So, usually this can be a good sign for the day. Indeed a tornado was produced near to where we had observed this horseshoe earlier in the day. However, because of the dry air and other environmental factors needed for severe storms not being present today in NM, there was no need to prepare for a local storm chase.

2011-01-06T17:29:00.000-08:00

I’m looking forward to a new year of storm chasing in 2011. Last year was a lot of fun, and I am grateful toward all my customers past, present, and future that have and will be allowing me to guide them to some of the most amazing weather in the Great Plains. It has been exiting to see the enthusiasm for the tours, and look forward to providing more in this New Year.

I forgot to mention stormchaseguide.com has been mentioned in some travel magazines. In particular the tours were mentioned in Columbus Magazine (http://www.columbusmagazine.nl/), a Dutch travel guide. I was quite surprised seeing that on the next page was an Iraq tour service. Hopefully my past customers feel that the tours, while exciting, are perhaps not as dangerous.

2010-11-10T19:53:00.000-08:00

I thought I might share some of my research efforts again. A larger portion of my research these days is on Martian gravity waves. Earth has gravity waves, and they’re often produced by wind flow over mountains. Downwind of a mountain is where we usually see these waves. Sometimes you can notice these waves by seeing periodic cloud features downwind of a mountain.

Below I have attempted to reproduce Martian gravity waves. The image below is a vertical slice of the Martian atmosphere. Wind is moving the air from left to right. The small mountain is imposed at the center and at the bottom of the image. The whole image is 120 km across and 30 km tall. The image shows the deviation of the atmosphere in temperature from its stable state.

The initial atmosphere is all traveling at 30 m/s. Perhaps unwisely I quickly impose the mountain, setting off a shock that eventually dissipates (after reflecting off the boundaries a few times). However, you quickly will also notice the wind that initially encounters the wall is lifted, and thus adiabatically cools. This rising air will then fall, warming, producing the warmer feature behind. This process repeats, and further perturbs the atmosphere downwind (creating the repeating pattern of cool and warm air). This repeating feature are the gravity waves I intended to produce in the model.

Why do we care about gravity waves? They have the ability to alter jets and warm the atmosphere above. In the long run this helps to produce better models of the Martian atmosphere which further help with missions to Mars that use aerobraking.

October Supercells

2010-10-22T17:32:00.001-07:00

Had a rare storm chase near where I live, Las Cruces, NM. While eastern New Mexico is in the western edge of 'tornado alley', it's a little less frequent to have supercells in my part of the state. This beautiful storm, shown below as photographed by my friend Jillian Bornak, became tornado warned and produced >1" sized hail. I caught up to the storm near sunset, and encountered enough hail on the road that it was like driving through snow.

I always keep my eye on the weather this time of year for the short live 'fall season'. This time of year we can get setups that mimic the conditions of spring. Hopefully, this will hold me over till 2011.

Bigger Vortex Simulation

2010-09-18T13:34:00.000-07:00

I was able to get access to a big computer at the department I work at. The computer has 64 gigs of ram and 16 CPUs I believe. I'm presently running a 10,000 point vortex simulation. To ensure the time stepping didn't get bogged down, I needed to add a sort of 'force/velocity softening' term, that I've used in N-body problems. I have run, and will continue to do, some checks to ensure the results are reasonable. Here is a 'snap shot' of the simulation that will be done in ~2 weeks (that's how long it will take to process).

Also the website for my Storm Chase Guide services can now be accessed also at www.stormchasingtour.com

Improved Vortex Model

2010-09-13T09:34:00.000-07:00

I have made an improved version of my vortex model. The model is a 2d point vortex model. Notice how small perturbations quickly grow. Eventually four vorticies develop, a more stable configuration. This is similar to what is seen with tornadoes. There are usually multiple vorticies in a single tornado. Note, the frames were smoothed. This was run off my home computer. Improvements in the model include a better finite differencing scheme, and it now takes advantage of multi-threading. I eventually intend to get this running on a faster computer. The model presented here used 1000 vorticies, I believe I could get this up to at least 20,000 on some computers I might have access to.

Recent Mars Atmosphere Work

2010-09-08T12:49:00.000-07:00

When I haven't been working on new radiative transfer schemes for a general circulation model or preparing for storm chasing in 2011 (yes I have already started), I've been working on a new project involving gravity waves. On Earth a 'signature' of gravity waves (buoyancy waves) can be observed by noticing horizontally repeating clouds for example in the wake of a mountain. Often gravity waves are produced by the influence of terrain. While we typically think of them as horizontal waves, their 'signature' can also be noticed vertically in temperature profiles. Like on Earth, the Martian atmosphere exhibits gravity waves too. My project this summer has been to develop software that retrieves and analyzes the 'signature' of gravity waves in temperature profiles.

Above in the left most plot are model temperature profiles. The profiles have long and short wavelength perturbations. The software I have developed is designed to remove the overall temperature structure and longer wavelength features. The software has worked fairly well, notice how the retrieved temperature perturbations match fairly closely with the original wave. The software has since been run on temperature data from the Mars Climate Sounder. I will be presenting this work in October at the American Astronomical Society, Division of Planetary Science meeting in Pasadena, CA.

While this work has been with Mars, Earth exhibits similar physical processes. It's again a reminder of how terrain can have an important influence on the atmosphere (and storms).

Bowdle Photo

2010-08-03T20:29:00.000-07:00

I never got a photo of the first tornado I saw while conducting tours this season. I was busy navigating and finding road options. However, another storm chaser just so happened to snap a photo with the vehicle my guests and I were in while chasing, with the tornado in the background. We're in the Jeep to the left of the tornado.

Note: Photo used with permission from http://www.perezmedia.net.

First IR Lightning

2010-07-20T21:23:00.001-07:00

Finally had a chance to get some lightning photos with the IR camera. Hey and yes, lightning does come out in IR! Hopefully will get the chance for some better photos, but this was a good first try. Also, note Venus at the top of the photo.

On a some what unrelated note. I have begun a new project in my graduate studies. I am now investigating gravity (buoyancy) waves in the Martian atmosphere. Their 'signature' can be spotted in temperature profiles of the atmosphere, as captured by an orbiting satellite.

IR Photography

2010-07-11T21:59:00.000-07:00

I know people don't visit this blog for the 'art' photography. However, I just started playing with IR photography. I converted my old D70, which I wasn't using, into an IR camera. I've liked how the photos have been coming out. With monsoon season in NM starting up, I'm hoping to get some lightning photos in IR here soon. Curious how they'll come out. Hopefully a tornado in IR might add an extra twist to a photo too.

Bowdle, SD Animation

2010-07-06T23:05:00.000-07:00

I'm not as much into taking video as other storm chasers. However, this sequence of images was calling to be turned into an animation. I think it really gives a good sense of the motion in a storm. Images were aligned and enhanced to make the animation 'smoother'.

Higher resolution version available through [Link].

Even higher resolution version available through [Link], recommend saving and running from computer.

Photo Editing

2010-07-05T15:44:00.000-07:00

Significant work goes into cleaning up the photos.

I reworked a B/W photo that can be found in the gallery and like the results.

Storm Chasing 2010 Gallery

2010-06-21T18:25:00.000-07:00

I have edited many of the pictures I have. Out of them I have selected so far 18 that I like enough to put into a gallery.

I hope you enjoy the photos:

http://stormchaseguide.com/gallery.html

Season 2010 coming to a close...

2010-06-14T21:40:00.000-07:00

My storm chasing for 2010 is mainly coming to a close after today (minus monsoon season). I look forward to going home, but am sad to leave the plains. With many accomplishments this year while chasing, I am very happy. In the coming few weeks I will be fixing up the thousands of pictures I have taken, and will be putting the select few into a gallery to view here.

I finished the season not with a tornado today. However, it was fun none the less. Played the gust front of a storm and saw several 'gustnado-ish' things going off around us (very weak). Once leaving the storm we came around the back of the developing MCS to finish the day off with some wonderful mammatus. While this meant we skipped some of the tornado warned action, the photographer who came along with me was very happy since he was desperate to get in a few more shots of mammatus before he goes home.

Slapout, OK Tornado

2010-06-13T23:00:00.000-07:00

We saw the Slapout, OK tornado today (confirmed in combination with other accounts). We were looking south at the tornado. It was a great day in terms of targeting and positioning on the storm. Note, the picture was contrast enhanced due to it being rain wrapped.

Storm Near Dumas, TX

2010-06-13T08:12:00.000-07:00

Very happy with my target. We literally watched a storm, which would eventually become tornado warned, develop from the cumulus field only a few miles away. The storm did produced a tornado, however I believe the only way for us to have seen it would have required us to potentially have large hails stones (i.e. >2") fall on us. We did find some some 2" hail stones in the grass after the storm's passage, however the reports of 4-6" hail stones make the ones we found seem kinda puny.

Hail in La Junta

2010-06-11T22:43:00.000-07:00

Chased a tornado warned storm near La Junta. Only saw some funnels. However, came across some hail that was at least 1.5" in size even after it had fallen a few minutes after the storm's passage.

June 10 Tornadoes northwest of Limon, CO

2010-06-11T08:07:00.001-07:00

Here is a photo of one of the two tornadoes that developed northwest of Limon, CO. Initially target Holyoke, CO. When I saw nothing was developing I rushed south to the nearest storm developing (East of Limon). The storm 'died' so we continued toward the other severe/tornado warned storms closer to Denver. Arrived in position just in time to watch 2 tornadoes develop to our west ~10 miles. We had a great view despite the distance, watched from a nice hill over looking the area. My guest spotted the second tornado as I was distracted by radar. Overall, got lucky, we fortunately didn't have to wait long at construction, which from others accounts typically added 30 min delays.

Start of Next 2 Weeks

2010-06-02T23:02:00.000-07:00

I will be on the road starting again tomorrow. I hope to end this season with at least another tornado (or two). However, the start of the week is not too encouraging. Overall there will be zonal flow in the jet stream, with any deep troughs holding out probably till the last week. This means for at least the foreseeable future (next few days), that I will just have to take storm chasing day by day. There will be some chances for severe weather, but nothing is screaming tornado. Could get lucky, the are some nice dynamics, but appear to be strongly capped over areas of interest on some of the following days.

Mammatus

2010-05-28T15:31:00.001-07:00

This was a picture of mammatus in Nebraska on Monday. It was quite spectacular, and I am looking forward to touching up some of the other photos when the season is over.

Rest

2010-05-27T18:32:00.001-07:00

I just arrived back in Albuquerque. Until my next tour, I'm pretty much going to be catching up on some rest. Probably, going to miss a good chase day on Saturday. However, looking forward to seeing my better half. A little weird though, after traveling for the last few weeks it's just odd sitting around. Only been about an hour since arriving, but everything just feels a bit slow.

May 22nd

2010-05-26T10:44:00.000-07:00

Preliminary damage report shows we chased an EF4 tornado in SD. It was able to toss cars over a hundred yards. I think I would be happy not seeing an EF5, that was certainly large and strong enough. Back to chasing today, will most likely be trying a target in CO.

No Chasing Today

2010-05-25T20:44:00.001-07:00

Monday, possibly saw a cone in SD. However, we were a bit far to confirm, although it coincided with other reports quite closely. Saw some beautiful mammatus after the line segment passed over us. Didn't chase today due to some vehicle issues that needed resolving. Unfortunately, this forced us to miss today's action. Should be out chasing tomorrow.

SD Tornado Photos

2010-05-23T14:19:00.001-07:00

Here are some photos. Will touch up more at home. Quite a bit of fun. Had an antenna knocked over while chasing when we got into the RFD. Last few days have been fun too.

So far the list of place I slept in order is Lubbock, TX, Roswell, NM, Amarillo, TX, Oklahoma City, OK, Kearney, NE, Ogallala, NE, & Watertown, SD. I have seen numerous funnels and supercells (this week), but this made the 3K + miles of traveling well worth it.

SD Tornadoes

2010-05-23T11:18:00.000-07:00

My guests and I saw ~5 tornadoes in northeast SD. Will post more pictures soon. There was a wedge, and several nice cones. Not chasing today, repositioning for Monday.

2010-05-16T20:40:00.000-07:00

Met my guests today in Albuquerque, and will be chasing tomorrow. Looks like each day will be progressively be getting better until Wednesday. Also, looks like we'll be hanging around NM/TX/OK for the next few days.

2010-05-13T09:54:00.000-07:00

Chased in OK on Monday and Tuesday. Saw some lowerings, possible funnels, but unfortunately still struck out. Monday I ended up on a storm that died, and continued to watch the convection try to build to the north until it finally took hold. Tuesday started out near the border with KS. Watched several severe warned storms. When I realized everything I was watching was sitting in a cool northerly wind, I started working my way south. Ended up on the two tornado warned cells. However, one produced a tornado before I arrived, and another towards dark, so wasn't able to clearly distinguish the tornado. Still had fun, had to out run a wall of rain/hail that I could see coming towards me, and was so thick it literally blocked me from seeing the trees on the other side of the field. Sitting in Amarillo, debating chasing south of here tomorrow.

2010-05-11T12:06:00.001-07:00

Sitting in West Oklahoma today near I-40, after coming from Wichita, KS this morning. Optimistic for today's severe weather. While an 'outbreak' like yesterday will not occur, the storm motions should at least be slower.

2010-05-10T18:18:00.000-07:00

I caught the storm near Medford, OK (I believe the same storm that produced the multi-vortex tornado). I saw numerous funnels, however I wasn't able to identify any of them touching the ground. After getting caught up in the road network, I mistakenly allowed the storm to get ahead of me. Once falling behind the storm I was on, it became difficult to keep up, since it was traveling at ~50 mph. While attempting to catch up to the storm, it appeared quite impressive on radar. It's quite possible it produced tornadoes, but was unable to see them, if they occurred, since they would have been obscured from my position just a few miles away.

While traveling on the interstate I encountered trees, and several overturned 18 wheel trucks. There were also downed power lines next to some of the roads while I was trying to catch up. On a side note, I once again saw the TIV and 'Dominator'. Every time I encountered them they were traveling quite quickly, passing me each time.

Also, today I was storm chasing on my own. While I enjoy the freedom, I do miss the help of a good partner, and found managing the computer, car, etc. quite difficult especially with the fast moving storms.

Will now be forecasting for tomorrow.

Unfortunately this was just a part of what occurred today.

Road options...

2010-05-10T07:00:00.000-07:00

With the fast storm motions, I'm trying to plan my chase appropriately. I don't like the road options over most of where I'm considering chasing today. With little road options I don't want to become the chased. I also don't like it being overcast, however as plenty have noted a rather historical outbreak occurred with the conditions being overcast in the morning.

Made it to OK

2010-05-09T22:04:00.000-07:00

Sitting in a town just outside Oklahoma City. It was ~11 hours of driving today. There was thick fog in TX just as I was coming off the cap rock.

Will probably pick my target in the morning. I like southern OK, because the storms will be more isolated, and hopefully a bit slower. Where the opposite will be true to the north, but the question of storms developing is more of a certainty to the north. Either way, there's allot to suggest tomorrow IS a tornado day. The models can only tell me so much, so I will wait to see what the observations/radar/satellite show before finally picking.

Preparing to leave...

2010-05-08T21:07:00.000-07:00

Will be leaving Sunday for storm chasing on Monday. There will probably be several days following that will also be chase-able. Haven't picked my target yet, best I can say is OK, KS. Models differ enough is the reason I haven't decided yet. Will pick tomorrow sometime and adjust accordingly. For now packing...

2010-05-05T09:52:00.000-07:00

For the next month and half I am just now free to go storm chasing. I will have to return to Albuquerque, to meet some of my tours guests (which I am excited about having along while storm chasing). There appears to be a setup on Thursday, but given that I am not excited about chasing east of I-35, and there are some ifs about the setup, I am probably not going to rush out to this. To make it there I would have to drive for ~16 hrs in a day and a half(hey but its storm chasing) for a one day chase. Instead, a few days later there there appears to a much more impressive setup that I will be leaving for. It will also be hopefully closer.

4/22/2010 Texas Tornadoes

2010-04-23T22:02:00.000-07:00

These tornadoes were seen south east of Amarillo. I traveled with Jeff Passner, local Las Cruces and long time storm chaser. Several tornadoes were seen, with one being a long track tornado which lasted ~20 mins on the ground.

With the season starting up, and this being my second chase of the year, I am looking forward to the rest of 2010.

2010-04-22T16:37:00.001-07:00

At least 2 tornadoes seen today, more info and pics soon.

2010-04-17T19:48:00.000-07:00

This has been a slow April, in terms of the number of tornadoes. This does not mean May will be slow, and I would much rather have April be slow than May or June. There does appear to be hope that this slow trend will soon break. There is the possibility of storm chasing on Thursday. While there appears there will be enough instability, and while there is upper level winds to support storms, I am not to thrilled by the lack of veering with vertical height (as I could see from the GFS a few hours ago). This will still be something I will keep my eye on for the future.

Also, I am have been keeping a close eye on the events involving the volcano in Iceland. I really hope that air travel in northern Europe may resume shortly so that my tour guests arriving in May are not effected by this issue. I am aware that there is some irony, I am hoping for one natural disaster to stop, so that my guests and I can experience another natural disaster.

At Home

2010-04-05T20:56:00.000-07:00

Sitting at home today. Didn't chase today because I felt the cap was going to hold. Still watched the day unfold on pins and needles. Fortunately (for me), I didn't miss out on anything. All of the severe weather in 'chase-able' terrain didn't fire until after dark.

Will be keeping my eye on some more upcoming opportunities to go chasing. Until May I still have work obligations that will keep me from being out on the plains, except for the weekends. Speaking of which, tomorrow I need to track down a bug in a Mars atmosphere model I've been working with.

4/2: Bust

2010-04-02T21:00:00.000-07:00

While not a clear sky bust, it wasn't all that much worth chasing. Nothing became warned, nor did a watch develop, understandably so. The day was dominated by line segments, and it was overcast for much of the target area. From the reports it appears farther north at least experienced some hail. Will decide in the morning whether I am going home, or whether I will be hanging around on the plains until a possible event Monday.

Leaving on a good note, all the equipment has been put through its paces, and was working well. Small modifications I made to the setup will make this season go much more smoothly.

2010-04-01T13:40:00.000-07:00

I will be leaving soon for east TX. Mixed feelings about the setup. Follow on twitter. My ID on twitter is stormchaseguide .

'Dusting' off the equipment

2010-02-27T20:01:00.000-08:00

With storm season right around the corner, I've begun 'dusting' off the equipment. Every year it takes a little bit of time to make sure everything is working the way you'll want it to for the upcoming season. I've already begun to make sure all of the software is up to date, since there always seems to be some new required software updates. I'll also be making some minor upgrades. Naturally, the first test will be the first chase of the season, which I am patiently waiting to occur. Most likely this will be in late March, or April.

2010-01-17T13:45:00.001-08:00

I really like these simulations, it's like vortex art. I ran the simulation backwards in time so that there were no lines abruptly ending. From the math perspective you could almost think anticyclonic vortexes are just cyclonic vortexes moving backwards in time. Of course they're not but, it's a neat thought I had.

2010-01-16T21:31:00.001-08:00

Vortex modeling success! I've was able to build the simple model, which creates quite beautiful vortex paths. Below are images of the path of vortexes (same image colored differently). What's really neat is the vortexes pair, as is usually seen in nature.

Edit: Added colors

The dark lines are oppositely rotating vortexes than the white lines. I will certainly be adding to this model, and I am excited about exploring this technique.

New Directions

2010-01-15T17:57:00.000-08:00

I've recently been introduced to a modeling technique in fluid mechanics which I believe is very 'powerful' yet surprisingly old. However, it is not to my knowledge widely used in atmospheric modeling. This is because there are understandable simplifications that can not usually be applied. However, its strong suite, I believe, is to dramatically reduce computation times. Thus, I will soon be developing a new model, which uses this method I have recently come across, and exploring potential cases where the technique may not be too simplifying. While it potentially could provide meaningless results, I will be exploring the capabilities none the less and optimistic that I could be surprised.

Fortunately, there is much research in this modeling technique outside of weather modeling. So, I may be able to 'stand on the shoulders of giants'. Yes google uses that quote for its google scholar search page, good line.

With relation to the 3d photos recently mentioned. I recently found a printing service that may allow me to produced 3d photos without the aid of glasses. I will be posting soon whether it will work for my photographic needs.

Thinking 3D

2010-01-06T13:36:00.001-08:00

I'm thinking of taking my storm chase photography this season to 3D. It would be an interesting new direction for me and my photography. I've been playing with some old vacation photos that just so happened to work for 3d photos. Unfortunately, most of my old storm chasing photos do not lend its self to this. I'm currently playing around to see how feasible this might be for this upcoming storm season.

Above are photos that I made 3d. If you have something that might work as a red or blue (cyan is best) filter, place the blue to your right eye, and the red to your left, and hopefully the picture will appear 3d. Also, click on the image to make larger.

2009-12-25T13:25:00.000-08:00

Prints of photos are now available for purchase at nmstormchasestore.blogspot.com, prints are presently available in 9"x6" with a 12"x9" Mat. More prints will soon be coming, and you are always welcome to request a print and/or size not presently available.

Also, Merry Christmas!

2009-12-11T11:06:00.000-08:00

It is still a long time till the spring of 2010, the time when storm chasing will resume. In the mean time I have been working on some computer models, for work and fun. Recently I have had some success simulating a density current. The density current modeled here is comparable to the outflow created by a down burst, and analogous to say cold air falling out of your freezer when you open it. The movie below shows the temperature perturbation in the simulation changing over time, a total of 900 seconds. The blue represents cooler air, on the order of ten degrees Celsius cooler.

While there are a few minor corrections that might need to be added, I am very happy with the results. Perhaps I will be able to apply this model to the class I will be taking next year, Vortex Dynamics.

Also, I will note to you, this blog since its inception has had little attention from me, but this might change this year. This is because another website which I was maintaining has now closed.