Roadgeeks and Weatherfans

[MDOTFanFB]

I'm part of this club also. My passion is severe thunderstorms, in particular tornadoes. I do play Simcity 4 too, but I play a bit wierdly. I build multiples of the same reward and when my city has been developed I create a disaster.

[froggie]

As some of you know, there's been a spate of tornadoes in the Deep South today.  Here's an impressive video of one of the tornadoes crossing I-20 at Springridge Rd (Exit 36) in Clinton, MS.

[hobsini2]

I have been storm chasing now for 11 years and have now seen, as of this past Sunday, 23 tornados and 1 land spout.  He is my break downs for ya:
TX - 3 (2 in May 2002 near Happy TX, Patricia in 2006, Landspout in 2008 on TX 70 south of Palo Duro Canyon)
OK - 2 (Edmond and Peidmont in May 2004)
KS - 12 (11 on May 7, 2002 between Mullinville and Pratt including the first one to hit Greenburg.  Greenburg would be hit again 2 more times since.  The other one was southeast of Hoxie in 2007)
IL - 4 (Plainfield on Aug 28, 1990 although this i did not chase, i did see it.  It was 2 miles from my house at the time and i was a freshman in HS.  Greenville in 2000, Utica and Joliet in 2004)
WI - 1 (Arkdale, April 10, 2011.  Closest i have ever been (and ever want to, prefer no closer than 1/2 mi) to a tornado, 1/8 mi)
Manitoba - 1 (2007 near Oakville, although our team, College of DuPage, was on the south side of the tornado about a mile away, Reed Timer got this video from the otherside of it. http://www.boreme.com/posting.php?id=16786  .  The first 30 seconds of the video is the way we saw it from our angle.)

I also went back to find some of my other photos.  Here are some of the best that i took back in 2006.  Look under Dan "BWER".  My best lightning pic is in there with the Texas flag near Breckinridge TX
http://weather.cod.edu/chasing/chasing.2006.html

In the pic of 7 of us at the Ft Worth Stockyards, I am the one in the Cubs jersey.
There is also my best pic of mammatus taken near Seminole TX.

[berberry]

As some of you know, there's been a spate of tornadoes in the Deep South today.  Here's an impressive video of one of the tornadoes crossing I-20 at Springridge Rd (Exit 36) in Clinton, MS.

I waited until now to watch this, and my god it's incredible!  I didn't want to watch it right away because I thought I might have a hard time with it.  I enjoy watching storm-chasing videos, but except for rare cases where a storm crosses an interstate I've driven down, the images are always of places I don't precisely recognize.  This one I recognize very well - it's my home - and viewing it is a little difficult.

I've got a little experience with tornadoes.  One day when I was a kid my mother took me and one of my sisters with her on an errand run, which included getting her hair done at a beauty parlor in Candlestick Park shopping center.  We were there when one of the worst tornadoes in Mississippi history struck.  Some woman in the back of the store suddenly let out this blood-curdling scream.  We looked out the door and saw it coming.  I remember a lot of screaming and crying, and my mother trying to physically cover me and my sister with her body and that apron-like thing they put on you at beauty parlors.  Then suddenly the building just exploded.  Something hit me in the head and gave me a good scratch, but something much worse hit my mother; her head began bleeding profusely.  She managed to find a towel or two and wrapped her head in them.

I remember seeing bodies lying all around and my mother telling me they'd probably been knocked out by the storm.  Some man with a pick-up truck took us to the hospital - me, my sister and some other kids in the cab, adults in the bed of the truck.  I remember screaming as I watched my mother in the back of that truck, the rain pouring down and those towels around her head getting redder and redder.

In the end we were all okay, but my mother had to spend a day or two in hospital.  But to this day I can't stand tornadic weather.  When a storm seems to be seriously threatening, I turn to liquid.  I absolutely hate it because it scares the hell out of me!

[rickmastfan67]

Just heard about this on Twitter.  Joplin, MO has been devastated by a possible EF4 or EF5 twister.

http://www.nbcactionnews.com/dpp/weather/weather_news/joplin-hit-hard-by-major-tornado-
http://www.blippitt.com/joplin-missouri-tornado-town-is-a-war-zone-after-direct-hit-video/

Their local hospital is on fire with gas leaks in the building and they think it might EXPLODE!

The twister was supposedly 3/4 miles to a mile wide.

[US71]

St Johns is being evacuated. All the windows blew out and one wing was heavily damaged.

Wal-Mart & Home Depot got crushed as did several nearby businesses and many homes near the hospital. At least 24 fatalities, I-44 is closed due to semis blown off the road.

I've been in contact with some SCA friends up there and it's really bad. 

[Scott5114]

Meanwhile Oklahoma is under a moderate risk of severe weather for tonight so we may have tornadoes here tonight as well.

[PAHighways]

SPC is calling for a 5% chance of tornadoes for most of Pennsylvania.

[triplemultiplex]

Did some unintentional storm chasing on my way back to Milwaukee Sunday afternoon.  And by storm chasing, I mean the storms were chasing me.  I stayed about 20 minutes ahead of some pretty nasty storms including one that was tornado warned northwest of Oshkosh.  In listening to the radio, warnings kept coming up for towns I was driving through, but for 15 - 20 minutes later.  Good thing I left when I did.

[Scott5114]

Tornadoes have just hit central Oklahoma. At time of posting 4 dead in Canadian County, 3 to 5 dead in Cleveland County. My parents' house in Goldsby is mostly okay but their roof was damaged and there is a building in their yard.

I may take a trip around the metro to see the damage tomorrow and take pictures.

[berberry]

...In listening to the radio, warnings kept coming up for towns I was driving through, but for 15 - 20 minutes later.  Good thing I left when I did.

Wow!  Over the years, I've dreamed and/or imagined more tornado scenarios than I could ever count, and this is one of the more enigmatic of them:  finding myself on the road in bad weather as reality sets in that a tornado is in the area and apparently behind me.  It's never actually happened to me, and I wonder whether my instinct would be to find a shelter or to try and outrun it. 

I've literally had nightmares wondering about that.

[allniter89]

...In listening to the radio, warnings kept coming up for towns I was driving through, but for 15 - 20 minutes later.  Good thing I left when I did.

Wow!  Over the years, I've dreamed and/or imagined more tornado scenarios than I could ever count, and this is one of the more enigmatic of them:  finding myself on the road in bad weather as reality sets in that a tornado is in the area and apparently behind me.  It's never actually happened to me, and I wonder whether my instinct would be to find a shelter or to try and outrun it. 

I've literally had nightmares wondering about that.

Back when I drove a 18 wheeler I had tornados following me a few times.
Southbound on I 55 in central Illinois I stopped at a truck stop to catch power nap, I had just laid down when the tornado warning alerted on my weatherband radio, I checked my map for where the tornado was and I looked to be a sitting duck in 20 mins, so I grabbed a gear and headed on south into "Misery". It was an interreesting evening listening to the reports of tornados behind me as I drove south. I never heard of any reports of damage tho.
Another time while southbound on I 95 in NC I heard reports of tornados behind and encountered some very violent storms, I mean "traffic at a dead stop on I 95 cuz it was raining and blowing so hard you could'nt see the end of your hood!
I also watched a water spout in the Gulf of Mexico while traveling US 98 east of Panama City, FL. That sucker held together for at least 20 mins, running parallel to me 4-5 miles south over the open Gulf, amaazing!!
I've also witnessed the destruction tornados cause, I came thru Newton & Clinton(?) MS shortly after they were hit by tornados and a tornado demolished my home in Little Heaven, DE in the 1970s, luckilly I wasnt home at the time.

[Hot Rod Hootenanny]

Did some unintentional storm chasing on my way back to Milwaukee Sunday afternoon.  And by storm chasing, I mean the storms were chasing me.  I stayed about 20 minutes ahead of some pretty nasty storms including one that was tornado warned northwest of Oshkosh.  In listening to the radio, warnings kept coming up for towns I was driving through, but for 15 - 20 minutes later.  Good thing I left when I did.

One time I was driving from C-bus to Baton Rouge, I found myself caught in a series of severe thunderstorms (and possible tornados) from Tuscaloosa through Meridian. It was after dark and I was going to continue south towards New Orleans on I-59, but I found the rain too heavy to see and with tornado warnings around me, I decided to double back to Meridian (I was only 10 miles south) and spend the night there instead of taking my chances driving in unfavorable conditions.

[hobsini2]

I leave officially for my "orginazed" storm chase tomarrow.  Wheels up at 1030 am for anywhere from Peoria to Des Moines depending on the 12z maps.  I will be out until the 13th.  Early synopsis looks to be Iowa/W IL for Sat, a very small shot Sun (might just be a drive day) in Nebr/S SD, Mon looks like a down day, Tue could be Bismarck-Aberdeen SD area, Wed looks like maybe Manitoba.  All that being said, I have little confidence beyond Sunday.  GFS NAM and the Euro are all quite different (Damn Computers).  Anyway, hopefully going to get some good storms in the middle of nowhere.  But it will be nice to get 4g data in the sandhills of Nebr and see some beautiful landscape.

[jgb191]

We didn't get as much rain from Tropical Storm Don as we initially hoped.  We weren't expecting a drought-buster, just a few inches of rain to at least marginally reduce the deficit.  It did provide us a bit of a relief from the heat and kept it below normal for a couple of days as highs last weekend failed to reach 100 here in South Texas, which didn't last very long.

[jgb191]

We are on pace to set a record.

I think the record (during my lifetime) number of days in the triple-digits in a calendar year here in South Texas was set back in 2009, when we saw 124 total days, including a string of 108 consective days in the triple digits.  I'll have to look it up and see if 2009 was a record or not.....not sure if we've seen any other year with more days.

Already this year 2011, we are at 122 days of triple-digits and summer is still far from over, so a couple more days and we'll break the 2009 mark.  On a typical calendar year, we see about 80 days of 100+ degrees; it's possible we might approach double that number by the end of this year.

During the peak of summer in my part of South Texas, our normal high is only supposed to be 104 F (40 C), yet we saw days in the 110s as early as April this year.

[Scott5114]

We tied the same record in Oklahoma City. I'll let NWS Norman do the explaining:

RECORD EVENT REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NORMAN OK
516 PM CDT SAT AUG 20 2011

...RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE TIED AT OKLAHOMA CITY...
...TIED RECORD NUMBER OF 100 DEGREE DAYS AT OKLAHOMA CITY...

THIS AFTERNOON AT WILL ROGERS WORLD AIRPORT... THE TEMPERATURE
WARMED TO A HIGH OF 105 DEGREES. THIS TIES THE RECORD HIGH FOR
THIS DATE... LAST SET IN 1911.

ALSO... TODAY MARKS THE 50TH DAY THAT THE OKLAHOMA CITY THERMOMETER
HAS REACHED OR EXCEEDED 100 DEGREES. THIS TIES THE RECORD FOR THE
MOST DAYS IN A YEAR THAT THE HIGH TEMPERATURE WAS AT LEAST 100
DEGREES. THE INFAMOUS HOT SUMMER OF 1980 WAS THE OTHER OCCURRENCE.
THE RECORD WILL LIKELY BE BROKEN SOME TIME OVER THE NEXT SEVERAL
DAYS... AS THE FORECAST TEMPERATURE THROUGH MID WEEK IS RIGHT AROUND
100 DEGREES.

TEMPERATURE RECORDS FOR OKLAHOMA CITY DATE BACK TO 1891.

So it got up to 105 today... and the power promptly went out, and was out for a few hours. Mercifully I was asleep, but it remains over 90 inside my apartment.

[Lightning Strike]

I found a topic I can attach to , i as well graduated with a B.S. Meteorology from Valparaiso Univ. and work in Chicago now...Florida looks to be line for Irene, but we'll see, it's still 6/7 days out, anything can happen. Though late Aug and So. Florida  , it's gonna be hectic trying to get people out of most of the cities if they need to evacuate.

[Brandon]

I have been storm chasing now for 11 years and have now seen, as of this past Sunday, 23 tornados and 1 land spout.  He is my break downs for ya:

IL - 4 (Plainfield on Aug 28, 1990 although this i did not chase, i did see it.  It was 2 miles from my house at the time and i was a freshman in HS.  Greenville in 2000, Utica and Joliet in 2004)

Got to see this one from the tail end.  A nice head-on view of the monster.  Lived about a mile down path of where it left the ground and it went over the house.     Took a few shingles with it as well on its way to Indiana.  I wrote a good portion of the Wiki article on it.

The Utica outbreak spawned one in the Cathedral Area and along Jefferson, less than 30 minutes after I picked up a pizza from the Pizza Hut along Jefferson.

[jgb191]

For the first time since May 9 we have failed to hit 100 degrees, effectively halting a streak of 119 consecutive days of triple digits here in South Texas.  Overall for 2011, we're going on 140 triple-digit days and still counting.  After a brief cool down in the mid 90s, we'll begin a new streak above the century mark tomorrow.

[jgb191]

Saturday, October 1st will mark the 160th day of triple digit heat for us in South Texas in this year 2011, which is double the number we normally average in a year.

We're only supposed to see about 80 days of 100+ degrees in a typical year -- from mid-May to mid-September.  This has been a record year at least during my lifetime.  I don't know if this is an all-time record for us, but certainly as far as I can remember.

Interestingly enough, our hottest day of the year came in NOT June, nor July nor August.........it came in the middle of April (a high of 116 degrees), in fact all eleven of our days in the 110s came in April and May.

[jgb191]

Still pretty warm here in South Texas.  Looking at 98 degrees tomorrow (with heat index again in the triple-digits), and we're only supposed to be mid 80s for this time of the year on average.

[triplemultiplex]

The combination of roadgeeking and weatherfandom is part of the appeal of Discovery Channel's show Storm Chasers.  It's fun to have an atlas handy to see where these guys are chasing twisters.  And due to the amount of travel, there are plenty of shots of highway travel and quick glimpses of signs that serve as an ongoing mental quiz for roadgeeks.

[jgb191]

We're going to have to get used to this, but it is quite warm here.  Looking at an overnight low of 76 degrees and a high tomorrow near 90 degrees.  It's going to be like for a long while, through the holidays, here in South Texas.

[codyg1985]

I have been interested in weather as long as I have been interested in roads. I almost got a degree in Meteorology instead of Civil Engineering. There seems to be a correlation here.

Now if I can convince my weather friends to become roadgeeks.