Here we go…details and applications for the 2010 chase are ready!

Most of the initial planning is now complete for the 2010 storm chase, and we are ready to accept applications for the trip.  You will find the updated application and trip information in the attachment below.  If you are considering applying for a position with the 2010 chase crew, please keep these things in mind:

a) This trip is NOT for everyone…only those with a true passion for severe thunderstorms and tornadoes should apply.  It is a long and arduous journey, and if you are not committed to the study of severe storms, then you may well feel as if YOU should be “committed” by trip’s end!

b) Keep in mind the nature of the trip:  it is an academic exercise…not a vacation.  Every crew member will serve various duties on the trip, and full cooperation is not only desirable, it is mandatory.  When entering a severe weather set-up, everyone must be “dialed in” for efficiency as well as for the safety of the entire crew.

c) Expect some “down time” between storms.  It is impossible to forecast what type of pattern we may see any given year, but most years we do experience a lull in the action which may last for a day or two…or maybe a week.  Patience is a prerequisite for this trip.

d) If you fear storms, please do not apply, and don’t undertake this trip for therapeutic reasons!  On most chase trips we typically experience “intense” moments to some degree, and you need to be prepared for this potential scenario should it unfold.

So, if  you are certain the storm chase is for you, fill out the application form and either drop it by 101 Major Williams, or send it via e-mail to carrolld@vt.edu.

The actual selection of the 2010 chase crew will be made as soon as the students enrolled in the second semester Severe Weather course are notified of the application’s availability (probably just after the spring course request period ends in October).  Applicants will be selected based upon their response to the application question (why do you want to join the chase?), and background coursework in meteorology.  If you lack the background courses, those interested are still encouraged to apply, as the primary prerequisite is a driving passion for severe weather.

NOTE:  A MANDATORY INFORMATIONAL MEETING WILL TAKE PLACE ON CAMPUS SOON (probably early November).  THIS WILL BE ANNOUNCED HERE AND ALSO E-MAILED TO ANYONE SUBMITTING AN APPLICATION.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me carrolld@vt.edu,  or stop by 101 Major Williams,  or call 231-5469.  I look forward to meeting this year’s edition of the VT Storm Chasers!

-Dave Carroll

VT Storm Chase Application

Looking toward the 2010 stormchase and a new crew…

It is hard to believe that planning is already underway for the 2010 storm chase!

We are now looking for crew members for the 2010 trip.

The primary prerequisite for joining the storm chase is a passion for severe weather.  This is NOT a trip for those with just a passing interest in severe thunderstorms and tornadoes.  Chasers must be willing to immerse themselves in the study of forecasting, on-the-road analysis, and interception of severe storms for the duration of the trip (2-3 weeks).  It involves long hours on the road each day, and sometimes enduring long periods of inactive weather.  Quite simply, storms dictate where we go and what we do.

If you are interested in joining the crew for the 2010 trip, contact me (Dave Carroll) via e-mail (carrolld@vt.edu), phone (231-5469), or stop by my office (101 Major Williams in the Department of Geography).  We are looking to begin filling positions early this fall, and also to provide complete trip details (dates, cost, etc.) by October.  The limited number of positions(8-10) fill quickly.

I’m still working with some of the ‘09 photos, so I will end this post with a couple of shots from the ‘08 trip.   -Dave

Our eerie evening May 22 tornado intercept near Wakeeney Kansas…

Observing new wall cloud development at close range after an RFD occlusion/tornado near Quinter KS…

Kansas Storm Pictures

The VT chase van with the now outflow-dominant storm bearing down…  -Dave

hey y’all, here are some more pics………-Maria.

Vermillion IL/IN storm video.

A short set of video clips from the eastern IL/western IN tornadic supercell intercept.  The first few clips show the tornado-warned storm as we travel along with it from Illinois into Indiana.  The night clip covers the intense squall line with imbedded supercells moving into western Indiana.  Twenty miles of Interstate 74 were tornado-warned with an imbedded supercell in this line.  The lightning highlights the cloud lowering associated with the warnings along the interstate.

More storm images…

Below is a photo of the incredible mammatus field under the anvil of the KS/NE supercell.  Here we have stopped for a quick photo before diving southward to intercept the storm.

Storm images and thoughts…

Redemption of sorts on Friday, June 19…in a very murky forecast situation, we made the right calls and intercepted two separate supercell thunderstorms in Illinois.  The first produced a very nice wall cloud and forced a quick exit as it approached in an effort to avoid an intense hail shaft with golfball-size hail.

The second supercell was the storm of the day, perhaps the best storm in the country this day, as we intercepted it in Vermillion County Illinois.  Tornado-warnings were issued multiple times as the storm cycled its way into western Indiana.  At times we were extremely close to the wall cloud as it began to whirl precipitation around the low-level rotation.  At one point we were forced to detour southbound for .5 miles as the intense rain and hail curtains threatened to overtake our course on the rural roads of Illinois and Indiana.

The residents of the areas near this supercell were certainly aware of the storm…perhaps more aware than anyplace I can recently remember…all eyes were on the storm whether from front porches, or parking lots at local eateries.

At one point the storm seemed to begin morphing into an HP (high-precipitation) supercell, with rain nearly obscuring the entire region of low-level rotation.  During the next RFD cycle however, the new wall cloud maintained its distance from the wrapping precipitation.  There were numerous features that appeared to be potential funnel clouds/possible tornadoes extending from the very low wall cloud, but nothing that we could definitely confirm with circulation on the ground.

After a very frustrating year of poor weather patterns, this storm provided some welcome relief.  On our way eastbound, we played tag with a severe squall line with imbedded tornado warnings.  I will try to post some of the nighttime lightning/tornado sirens/lightning-highlighted lowerings from this intense line of storms.

Our Kansas storm:

As Maria Floyd and Samantha Huddleston film he tornadic storm just south of Danville IL…precipitation is almost entirely wrapping the wall cloud.  Note the edge of the low-hanging wall cloud peeking to the right of the gray rain curtain.  Storms that wrap the low-level rotation are especially dangerous to spotters, as tornadoes may not be visible due to heavy precipitation.

The next cycle on the IL/IN storm, as the new wall cloud becomes established further east, Samantha Huddleston and Maria Floyd observe the storm up close.

The APRS tracker showing our position on the storm, just south of Danville Illinois.

Chasing is a chess match.  This day, we won.   -Dave

From Agony to Ecstasy

We woke up yesterday to wet pavement from a squall line that had just blasted through the Cedar Rapids, Iowa area with very strong winds. We were still reeling from the epic letdown in Iowa the day before. A day with CAPE (Convective Available Potential Energy) of over 6000, which is HUGE, went to absolute waste. So we looked ahead at what we could get out of the day. All the SPC talked about was a squall line forming and sweeping right across the Ohio Valley, with the slight chance of some more discrete storms forming ahead of it. So we headed east toward Bloomington, IL in hopes of catching these discrete storms before they became linear or got swallowed by the squall line.

Around mid-afternoon storms began firing towards Piatt County, IL, a spot that has proven magical for the chase team in years past. So we dove east. About the same time, more impressive storms began firing back towards Peoria, IL. With the Piatt county storms looking less impressive, we did a 180 and headed back west.

Good call.

We sat just to the northwest of Bloomington watching the storm come towards us. We could see a slight wall cloud with the Severe warned storm, heading for us but still a little ways away. We dropped south just a hare to the west of Bloomington and the storm came right to us with a very impressive wall cloud.

Wall cloud to the west of us in Bloomington, IL

A local cop came up to us seeming concerned over the lowering. Realizing we were going to get trapped by the wall cloud by Bloomington, we ran as fast as we could southeast, beating the hail core by minutes through town. About this time, we saw another storm firing just to the southeast of us. The Bloomington storm was starting to weaken, so we streaked SE for the new one.

This was a more difficult storm to approach because, once again, we got screwed up by an urban area, this time Champaign, IL. Coming in from the Northwest isn’t the best approach either, but it’s all we could do. We had to wait to get though Champaign because traffic on I-74 was crawling due to very heavy precip. We finally ducked south and then turned east on some local roads. Right as we did, the weather radio went off, and a Tornado Warning was issued. We could just barely see the wall cloud from where we were to the SW, so we continued east to try and get in front of it. As we did, we watched from the left as heavy precip and wind was blowing in from the north from the storms RFD, or Rear Flank Downdraft, a precursor for tornadoes. We had to bail south to avoid being hooked for the 2^nd year in a row, possibly causing us to miss a view of a tornado. We got corrected and continued east, with spectacular visuals of the wall cloud now. Warnings were constantly being issued with funnel clouds spotted, but we weren’t seeing them. Nonetheless, we were looking at a spectacular sight.

We chased the storm onward into Indiana, where it eventually weakened. However we did get a spectacular lightning show out of it.

Looking north at the wall cloud in Cayuga, IN

Lightning streaks above us in Indiana

Just behind us, the aforementioned squall line was rolling in. We pushed east to get us back on the interstate. As we did, Tornado warnings were being issued for the squall line just behind us. We pulled off the interstate about 15 miles west of Indianapolis and looked back west, and saw a spectacular sight. Non-stop lightning was lighting up the storm, showing off the shelf cloud of the squall line, and near the horizon, we could make out a well defined wall cloud. Just to our south, a tornado siren was blaring, adding to the eeriness of the situation. We stayed there as long as we could and blasted east again, flirting with the gust front from the storm as we navigated through Indianapolis. The line weakened fortunately as it passed over us, but we still got a spectacular lightning show out of it.

While the agony of what could have happened in Iowa will plague our conscious for a while, so will the three wall clouds and spectacular lightning from yesterday. We still didn’t get our tornado for the year, but we certainly improved on what we saw earlier in May by a long shot. This is Andrew Smith, coming to you from the hills of West Virginia along the Kanawha River on our way back to Blacksburg.

Cap Bust.

Extreme instability, strong shear, lots of moisture…all ingredients were in place over northern Iowa yesterday. The SPC put up a moderate risk in the area, including a 15% hatched area for EF2-EF5 tornadoes. Nothing came of it. A layer of warm air aloft prevented the development of thunderstorms. In fact, not even so much as a rainshower popped up before dark in the region. A good forecasting day, but the atmosphere simply had other plans for the day. All part of the frustration that has characterized chase season 2009. We look eastward today, and the picture is very muddy. We face a very, very long drive through very stormy weather…not the isolated supercells we strive to intercept, but clusters and lines that produce high winds and heavy rain instead. We will play tag with some on our route eastbound today and tonight.

KS/NE Storms

Initially targeted Grand Island Nebraska, but was lured early southward to the KS border by early convection firing on a warm front. The move proved both good and bad, as we did intercept a tornado-warned storm (that had previously produced a tornado)…a pretty storm, but no tornado this time. The bad part of the equation: our original target area produced an evening tornado near Aurora Nebraska…which would have been easilty accessible had we waited for convection to fire there. The chess match continues today, as we are in central Iowa. The potential for some significant tornadic supercells exists today, but figuring exactly where in a large area will be the challenge. More later… -Dave