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Since I didn't know what the "Jest Stream" actually is, anything about it's formation, etc,  I assumed I'm not the only person that doesn't know the technical meaning,  so I looked it up and this is the encyclopedia definition.

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

I'll come back and read that tomorrow. What started out as a good day, has now turned into a freakin' migraine..... gawd, I hate these things. But reading and trying to comprehend, is more than I can handle at the moment..... I did read it, but it's failing to make sense right now.

Maybe I'll learn something though. Weather- and its causes- is just something I never took the time to learn or care about. Dunno why, but it might prove interesting to learn some stuff.

.

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♥ Laugh your heart out, dance in the rain. Cherish the memories, ignore the pain. Love and learn, forget and forgive. Because you only have one life to live. ♥

Yep,   I formed this thread so *I* can learn stuff in this area too.  With volcanos, tornados, hurricanes, Tidal waves, wild-fires, earthquaked killing people,  I'd like to know something about such phenomenon.  My interest in this ominous type activity began a few years back with the Mt St. Helens Cam.  Since that time,  it's been a stormy year or so, and even prior to that hurricanes did damage and started taking a different path up the gulf as opposed to hitting the continental US between Georgia and Delaware which was the usual pattern.  Since we have a few in here that are grounded in meteorology, and this type phenomenon,  I can learn all sorts of stuff.

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

Hey all, how've you all been doing? Yup I survived my Friday the 13th chase  LOL . I am a bit superstitious so I thought about the wisdom of that, but hey a chase is a chase. Turns out the bad luck was missing a big wedge tornado by just a few miles from inside the hook. I wrote up a big case study on the whole days scenario to try and analyze the situation. I also have some video from that chase on that page.

Probably the best chase so far this year was April 21st. Caught a few and was close to them. I was practically in the first one, but we were unaware of this - it was a weak F0 tornado. It was an exciting chase though, had to cross downed power lines and the tornado had blown roofs off nearby houses - then the night tornado that caught us by surprise.

Here is the link to my 2007 chases: http://www.tornadoxtreme.com/Chases_By_ ... hases.html
Just click on one of the pictures or the text link.

This time of the year chasing takes up a lot of my time - so that's why not on the karaoke forum as much. I am on other forums related to chasing and meteorology too that I spend a lot of time on. Sometimes all the driving does get a bit old.

Sorry to hear about the big hail near your house Sharon. That could have been a big day but I believe the front undercut all the storms and that helped DFW. I was far west of there.

Charmin / Steven thanks for keeping the thread alive and thinking about me. I haven't read all this stuff....so long. Steven you sure have a lot of questions.  LMAO

I've been trying to have some fun locally too instead of just chasing. Been playing some disc golf and even got out to karaoke a couple of times - once on my own. Actually last night Jeff (Jeffieoke) met for some karaoke and we got to do a lot of songs...it was fun.

Today is another Slight risk of severe in Tx with a 5% chance of torns, although I don't think conditions are all that favorable (as a guess). However I still haven't done my forecast yet and am behind the curve (hence on this forum). Some more days coming up soon could be strong severe days with possible torns - such as Friday / Saturday. Hmmm..... more driving.

Oh, check out the website update too from the main page, etc. I kind of redesigned the look and feel a bit and restructured the layout of the site:

http://www.tornadoxtreme.com/index.html

Y'all take care...Talk to you as time allows.

Bill

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The Truth Is Out There

Wow Bill.. That last pic you have in Swisher county is actually beautifull in all it's fury...Man there have been some close clals for me.. The tornadoes on friday 13 were about 2 or 3 miles from my house.. I can tell you it hasn't been fun for me...Nothing like 5 full grown people being in a very small bathroom.  listening to the sorms go thru and hoping it does hit you...

And this week I had lightening strike  a fairly large plum tree in my front yard. Displaced a Dove and her 2 eggs... I transplanted them to another tree, but I am not sure the eggs will make it....

BE SAFE BILL!! I am always thinking about you when there are storms around....

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Will sing or fish for food!!I'm not quite right!!

Thanks Isis. That's really what I am trying to do - take good pictures that bring out the beauty in all this. There is such raw beauty in nature, and some amazing things to see. It is a challenge to take good photos chasing though as lighting situations are often very different (often dark), and there usually isn't much time to compose a picture. This time I was the driver so I could only snap off shots whenever possible, and it was a rat race keeping up with the 45+mph storm / tornado. I keep trying to become a better photographer...



Hoping it hits....me? I know what you mean. That's 'doesn't hit you'. But yes, I don't like tornadoes around my house. It's also difficult to run from them in suburban / urban areas due to traffic, lights, and weird road networks. Sorry to hear about the torns so close. I don't think it was that strong but even an EF2 can ruin your day.  :|  How did you sprain your arm with hail? Was it more of a bruise injury than a sprain? I had something similar May 12th 2005 when my vehicle was getting hit with softball hail. One broke through the windshield and hit me on the arm. Ouch! It left a big bruise / welt.



Oh that's sad I hope all the little birdies are ok.  :(

 

Really?  :swg: That's sweet Sharon. You never PM me anymore so I didn't think you loved me anymore.  :oh yeah:  :dancin:

Well, looks like tomorrow is up in Kansas / Nebraska. Not sure if I am up for the drive tonight / tomorrow. I may pass on this one, but it may be a big event. Saturday maybe in eastern Tx panhandle western Ok and north of there. A little closer but still a drive. It might be more fun if you were along for the ride Sharon.

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The Truth Is Out There

Welcome back Bill,  Glad to see you are still with us !!  

I need to check out your photo's,  as I recall that thursday and friday were a turbulent two days !

I need to get used to this new scale  EF2   I'm not good with such changes, I still think liquor comes in pint and quart bottles..  Have a tough time understanding 5th and litre.   Yeah,  That Hail Sharon posted is massive, and that was 1/2 hour after that bowling ball landed


In the April 21st Lamb, Hale, Swisher Counties, it appears that there's an extremely long bridge-span in the background.  What bridge is that ?

In this particular photo middle-right


Is that an ultralight ?

I'm looking at the hillburn/Tulia photo's.  It's tough to gage distance on a flat plane.  Trying to figure out how many miles that tornado is. IE..  Blue sky behind elephant trunk..  Tough to tell if that's 4 or even 20 miles in the distance

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

Steven that first thing you mention isn't a bridge, it's some type of field irrigation rig. I forget what they call them.

The second thing you mention as 'ultralight' I think you mean object on the ground, and I'm not sure what that is. It isn't an ultralight aircraft, I think it is something like a tractor, or another part of the irrigation rigs which are everywhere.

As for distance, that's really hard to say and hard to remember. I think it was perhaps 4 miles or so. Maybe not that far. I think I was using a 24mm lens at first on a digital camera so multiply by 1.6 for film camera to digital conversion. Later I was using the 55 mm.

Didn't chase the big outbreak in KS this weekend. Just too tired and didn't want to do the drive alone. May go out during next few days if conditions a bit closer to Tx warrant.

Tornado near Greensburg (where I would have gone) ended up being 1.4 miles wide and rated EF5. It occurred near 10pm CDT. It appeared to be a monster on radar, and I was watching commenting on it with others at home at the time.

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The Truth Is Out There

WOW,  That's a friggin monster.   Sounds like a candidate for one of the worst ever in terms of potential to do damage !   Massive twister !  I need to look that one up.

Bill, I have a photo of that twister *as I'm sure you do as well*.   On the FLICKRRRR video site, a poster that goes by "Osprey" posted that massive tornado.

He stated the pictured storm went on to level the town of Greensburg.  I'll post it.

It's already in wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greensburg ... o_Outbreak

Are you kicking yourself for missing this one ????
http://www.flickr.com/photos/52994365@N ... 174505557/


Aerials of the Damage in Greensburg
http://www.kansas.com/static/slides/050 ... doaerials/

http://www.flickr.com/groups/stormchase ... 0181091242

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

Actually they are saying 1.7 miles wide now I believe! 95% of the town destroyed. They keep talking about it on TWC.

Here's a chaser video of the event. You can find a lot of these things by searches on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRm4yu2MI-c

Am I kicking myself for not going?  Actually I couldn't go. Early Thurs evening I went out into my driveway and tried to run an errand in my Tahoe, but it wouldn't start. Thought it was the starter. Messed around with it for a few hours into the dark, but couldn't resolve it. Had a tow truck pick it up early Friday morning and tow to shop, and got it back about 1pm. Pretty much too late for a Kansas trip for daytime chasing. Normally you plan to chase during the day. Sometimes if conditions are right you may follow in darkness and continue. Some nights I've gone on until wee hours of the morning.

So I couldn't go, but I wasn't very much up for it either. Guess I'm a bit tired from the other long haul chases of late, and all my local chase partners aren't available to go at the moment. Guess I need to hook up with some other chasers. It gets expensive too with gas so high. After the vehicle was fixed I contemplated going for a Saturday chase in same area but just wasn't that motivated.  I may be ready for some more local (Texas) chases this week or perhaps a bit further. I used to go all over even to North Dakota / Minnesota but it's tough. I prefer the weather pattern to stay south.

This is a historic event though. First F5 rated using the new scale, and the first since May 3rd '99. First tornado fatalies in Greensburg too I believe. Very sad, and humbling event.

Some chasers I heard about came upon destroyed homes and farmsteads right after the tornado passed. A lot of these guys stopped and helped families out of the rubble - house after house. That got me to thinking that as chasers we can help out by calling in warnings, but may also be the first responders and the only people nearby with vehicles for emergency transport. Considering that makes me think perhaps I should have been there to help out. I have a lot of night tornado chasing experience, - probably more than 90% to 95% of chasers out there.

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The Truth Is Out There

It really was a MASSIVE OMINOUS event !    and True Bill,  You folks that know the conditions, especially in dark conditions really are (or can be) an amazing first-aid, or first response group in these situations. Right up to the final minutes.  Who else follows such monsters this closely ?   I hide under the bed after looking at the photos  LOL,  really scary.

Given gas prices too.   It's a luxury to be able to drive all over the place chasing these storms.  It's costly, and the returns besides thrills and writing material are really what ?   Granted educational, but for every true learning experience how many miles are driven chasing more of the same ?  or even less ?

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

Different types of man vs nature challenges.   Something most don't experience is this type of driving.


http://www.slideshare.net/rado_fun/driv ... ivia-14171

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

Wow, picture number 19 is amazing. Guess it would be ok if you wore a parachute and are prepared to jump and kick away from the vehicle as it falls.

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The Truth Is Out There

Agreed Bill,  as are 14 and 16.  At some points there's sheer dropoff points of over 4000 feet.  The road also is the only means of vehicles getting from La Paz to Caroica and there is (on average) a couple fatalities every two weeks.  There are water falls dropping into the road, and it's ONE lane to accomodate both directions of traffic... Somebody usually needs to pull over at some point during the route.

This gives a clearer perspective of the upper portion of the cliff





In Kathmandu heading to Mt Everest second scariest gorge road exists.  And it exists by the name "Gorge Road"..

You can get a perspective of the double decker white bus towards the right center of the road

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

Can anyone here honestly say,  "Yeah I'd do that in a heartbeat, looks like fun, no sweat" ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0-n6lg5rQ4


What's with these thrill-seekers ?  How the $(#_ ???????



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJI6uV6B6Rg

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

This road is just like the road in Zion Park Utah..

I've heard that Zion is supposedly one of the scariest of the Canyons for those that get heightsick.  Apparently there are narrow peninsula's with sheer drop-offs of over 1000 feet that are VERY visible.




Here's some amazing up-close Tornado chase footage.

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=TornadoVideosdotnet

F2 hits Fort Worth 2000
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WECdzIib47o

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

Kappy google trail ridge road....



For stellar roof-of-the-Rockies views, hit Trail Ridge Road, America's highest continuous highway. Traversing Rocky Mountain National Park from east to west, the route rises some 4,000 feet in a matter of minutes, passing from montane forests of aspen and ponderosa pine to thick subalpine forests of fir and spruce. At timberline, the last stunted, wind-battered trees yield to the alpine tundra.

After winding its way between glacier-sculpted peaks for 50 miles, the road drops into the Kawuneeche Valley, where the north fork of the Colorado River flows. Trail Ridge Road travels for 11 miles above 11,000 feet and for four miles above 12,000 feet. The road's highest point—a lung-busting 12,183 feet above sea level—occurs between Lava Cliffs and Gore Range.

As you drive skyward, be sure take in the views at Rainbow Curve, Many Parks Curve, and at Forest Canyon Overlook. The vistas sweep north to Wyoming, east across the Front Range cities and Great Plains, and south and west into the heart of the mountains.

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I'm doing that right now Ollie.


Check out this massive dust-devil that hit Burning man.  It's tough to believe that this is a dustdevil given it's duration.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQLCJFbA ... ed&search=

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

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