I’ll be out at the Science Spectrum in Lubbock tomorrow with the chase vehicle on display and talking to people about storm chasing and severe weather. Come on out and join us!  At the end of this post is a video on YouTube that is the beginning of a 9 part series from last year’s event, so you can see what kind of weather enthusiast fun you’ll miss out on if you don’t come!  It’s also a great chance to get storm spotter training and a tour of the Lubbock NWS office.  The event is free (except for the IMAX movie).

Sat., February 26th (11:00am to 5:00pm)

The Student Chapter of the American Meteorological Society at Texas Tech University along with the Science Spectrum, KCBD News Channel 11 and the National Weather Service will be hosting Lubbock’s Fifth Annual Severe Weather Awareness Day on Saturday February 26th, from 11:00am to 5:00pm at the Science Spectrum & OMNI Theater.

Activities will include hands-on weather experiments for kids of all ages, live weather demonstrations with a tornado simulator, information on severe weather preparedness, and door prizes.  Storm Chasing vehicles, weather instrumentation from Texas Tech’s Severe Storm Research Team as well as a mobile Doppler radar will be on-site and open for all to see.

The national Weather Service, whose regional offices are located in the Science Spectrum building, will also be providing a certified Storm Spotter Training seminar and guided tours of their offices to the general public.

Additionally, special OMNI Theater screenings of the film, Storm Chasers will also be featured in celebration of the day’s events.  Storm Chasers lets audiences get closer to real tornadoes, hurricanes and other severe storms than most would ever dare!

Come out and meet John Robison and the whole KCBD weather crew for a weather-filled day of fun! This is a *FREE event for the general public and will be located in the Science Spectrum’s Exhibit Hall .

*Regular OMNI Theater ticket rates apply for all films.

Showtimes for Storm Chasers on Sat., Feb. 26th will be at 2:00 and 4:00pm.
General Admission Ticket Prices for OMNI films:
$8.00 Adults
$6.50 Seniors (60+)
$6.50 Children (ages 3-12) ?

My apologies for the lack of posts lately.  The difficult chase season this year, combined with the explosion, destruction of the old chase vehicle, building of the new one, etc etc etc  finally wore me down and I had to disconnect a little while and do some other things.

I wanted to post an update about the status of the explosion video for those that inquired about getting a copy.

First, because of a contractual arrangement with a production company, I can’t release it until a certain program airs, so that is the reason I haven’t had it available as fast as I thought I would. It will be as soon as it airs. (No, I can’t say which one yet either).

Secondly, the cost of getting a copy…

I had full intentions of making this freely available on a DVD for any official fire department who wanted it.  What I didn’t take into account and completely underestimated was the sheer amount of requests I would receive.  Well over 500 at this point.  This basically makes it economically impossible for me to give them away free of charge.

My alternative is a minimal charge that covers cost to produce them and shipping. With that in mind, that is the best I can hope to do and still be able to get a copy to everyone that wanted one.  I don’t have the final cost yet, but it will be very minimal and should easily be within reach of anyone (think less than $10). My apologies now that I am unable to do a free one are in order, but as you can see, the postage alone would be a significant amount.  This wasn’t a decision I wanted to make or take lightly.  But it had to be done nonetheless.

Once I am able to release it I will make a big deal about it here and do my best to let everyone know that emailed about it that it is available.  The fire departments that were involved in the fire still will get free copies.

I finished up the roof work yesteday on the van.  Everything up there is mounted, wiring brought down to where things will be hooked up, and the headliner is back in (quite a chore in itself, seriously Chrysler!)  So we’ll call that phase 1 complete.  Attention now turns to getting the new console build where a lot of things will come together.

As you can see, the process can be quite a mess.  Amazingly enough, it’s all organized to me!

Mother natures is also starting to get my attention on some severe weather potential upcoming.  There could be some stuff roll in to our area from eastern New Mexico late this evening, but there is potential for the cap to suppress convection.  We could use the rain but I need the outdoor work time, so I am hoping the cap holds this time.  Even if stuff does develop, nothing too serious expected.  Perhaps some marginal severe hail and winds.

Sunday actually holds better potential for severe weather across western Texas, with a dryline taking shape near the New Mexico state line.  Again, the cap is an issue here as well, but there should be better moisture to work with.  As such, a bit more intense severe weather is a possibility for Sunday, and even again on Monday.

Beyond that, models are still having trouble getting a firm take on what appears to be a favorable pattern change for severe weather on the plains.  While they have gone back and forth on the details, it appears some form of a trough will set up in the western part of the US, and this usually has implications for severe weather somewhere on the plains.  I always say mother nature will eventually balance things out, and this could be one of those times, after an unusually inactive May.  We’ll see what happens, but it definitely needs to be keep a close eye on for storm chasing potential, perhaps even several consecutive days of it.  I gotta get this vehicle finished!

My blog has been void of weather discussion of late. Ever since that last storm (the night of the explosion), the plains have been under the influence of a summer like high pressure ridge in the upper air that has effectively put us into late June/July like weather instead of the usual stormy May. There have been some very isolated and very marginal severe events, but not much to write home about.

For me however. this could not have come at a better time. As you read in my last blog entries, the other chase vehicle was significantly damaged by debris from a tank battery explosion. I’ve spend the last week and a half working out the details of all that. In the end, the trucking company that owned the facility offered to pay the vehicle damage estimate. Evidently they are a great company from what I have been hearing from all the employees and even the fire department there in Lamesa.

Been also busy dealing with production companies.  Looks like the explosion story will be on a couple of cable networks in the near future as well.  More details on that when they are finalized.

The place I was buying the vehicle from let me pay them the damage, and they rolled me into a 2008 Town and Country, and transferred what I had paid so far over to the new one! So after gathering supplies the last couple days, I started converting it over to a chase vehicle today. This new van is awesome and very high tech.

This will be the most high tech and safe chase vehicle I have ever owned.  5 star front and side crash rating, with not only dual front airbags, but full length side curtain airbags as well.  All of the rear seats fold down into the floor which I love and when they are up the wells make huge storage space for things like tripods and whatnot.  The van abounds with little storage spots all over it which will be quite handy.

All of the interior lights are LED and it has indirect theater style lighting as well that is pretty cool.  The in dash stereo is one of the new MyGig units that has a touch screen, built in hard drive to load your MP3s on, a DVD system, backup camera, Sirius Satellite radio…the list just goes on.  There is even a built in 110v power inverter in the back!

The gas tank isn’t quite as large as the one on my previous vehicle, so I won’t get quite the range, but it’s supposed to get better mileage though.

I started gutting it today to prepare to get everything installed.  These pics will probably disturb some people to see a new vehicle disassembled and half the interior parts in a pile!

I’m taking this opportunity to upgrade most of the equipment as well. I’ll try to do more updates and progress continues.

I have had an overwhelming number of requests for the video that I said I would make available for free to any official Fire Departments. I have received all your emails, I just haven’t had time to respond to all of them yet, but I have read them. I will respond to all as time allows, I promise I am not ignoring them. Remember I am also in the middle of changing out chase vehicles here as well since the old one was damaged in the explosion.

I’m not expecting to have the DVD available for fire departments completed for about 3 weeks. I’ll post updates here on the blog as I have them. It will be approximately an hour long and includes some aftermath video I shot a couple days later.

Again, I am making this available for free to OFFICIAL Fire Departments only! For control purposes, I am asking you either email requests to me from your official department email, or by regular postal mail on department letterhead.

For the rest of you who asked for one, I’ll be making a different version of the DVD available for purchase after I get all the fire department folks taken care of! As this video has the potential to save many lives through training, that takes priority right now.

I just wanted to make this update since I haven’t had time to personally respond the the overwhelming number of requests. Some have been from as far away as Alaska and Canada, and as big as DFW Airport and Washington DC Fire and Rescue and New York State Fire!

Media and commercial interests can contact me to obtain licensing for your uses.

I posted a new video of some of the aftermath footage of the explosion I posted the other day. This includes a walkthrough of where I was during the explosion.

The other videos of the explosion in case you haven’t seen them yet:

And in slow motion:

I have put together a slow motion clip of the incredible tank battery explosion I posted yesteday from Lamesa, TX that you no doubt have seen all over the news.

I have received some requests from various fire personel from all over asking for a copy of the video for training.  I am going to be putting this on a DVD for that very purpose.  I will be happy to freely give one to any official fire department that wants it for training purposes.  All I as is that you either contact me through email from an official government email address, or you can email me and get my mailing address and send me a request on department letterhead.  I have over an hour of video of this fire.

Just a follow up on the vehicle condition as some have been asking.  I got the estimates today and the damage was even worse than I thought.  Many of the structural members beneath the skin were damaged and have to be replaced, and it’s most likely going to be a total loss for the chase vehicle.

***MAY NOT BE WORK/KID SAFE for bad language***

After chasing a wicked hail storm last night in Dawson County (it hailed for an hour and 15 minutes straight!) I heard the call go out for a tank battery fire that was most likely started by lightning.  I thought it might make for some good news footage, but little did I know what was in store!

About 45 minutes into shooting the event, Lamesa and Andrews firefighters appeared almost have the blaze out, when a relief valve appears to pop off, ignite, and quickly the tank and nearby tanks exploded in a spectacular fireball!

I was 200 yards away and a piece of 4″ pipe about a foot and a half long with a cutoff valve on it came through the air like a missile in a high enough arc that it cleared the power lines next to me in impact the front of my vehicle, causing extensive damage!  I was standing 4 feet from the impact point!  I could hear other debris raining down around me, and if you listen for it, you can hear it hit my vehicle and the other stuff falling around me.

This has aired on all the networks today, but the video above is an extended, uncut version.  My apologies for the language, but I left it in as I felt it helped convey the shock and emotion of the moment of being there.

Incredibly all of the firefighters, even some that were right next to it when it exploded, made it out uninjured!  Fine job all those guys did last night, most of them doing it for FREE as volunteers.  People don’t often realize just how even volunteers put their live on the line for us every day!  Please feel free to contact the Lamesa and Andrews Fire Departments and send them your appreciations and maybe even a donation as volunteer departments often operate on very slim budgets and can always use some more or better equipment!

I’ll add the contact info for them here later when I can get it.

As I mentioned before, I’ve had issues with hail breaking my plastic front grills.  After this last storm, which smashed them up pretty good, I decided to take my first steps toward some hail guards.  Who knows, I might do something like this over all the vulnerable parts of the vehicle.  Sounds like a fall/winter project.

Here is what it looked like before, after the storm. Sorry it’s so dirty, with all of the sandstorms lately I haven’t really had a decent day to wash it:

Here was the test fit of the new one before painting.

And here is the final product after painting and installing them:

I’m probably biased, but I think they actually look better than the factory ones.  One thing is for sure, I won’t have any hail penetrating those.  They are made from stretched steel!  Thus my underlying expensive a/c condensor will be safe.

As some of you know, I shoot other newsworthy stuff besides just weather.  Today I had a little excitement as we had a rollover accident nearby and I went to shoot that for the news.  No one was hurt unbelievably.  Driver was heading eastbound when a truck in the other lane changed lanes in front of her and she swerved, hit the median, and rolled into the oncoming traffic lanes.  That could have been MUCH worse than what it was.