February 21st through February 27th has been proclaimed Severe Weather Awareness Week by Rick Perry, Governor of Texas.  Each year, the Texas Division of Emergency Management, the National Weather Service, local Emergency Management Coordinators, and other local officials join together to recognize Severe Weather Awareness Week.

Every spring, dozens of Texans are injured or killed by hazardous weather associated with severe thunderstorms. Severe weather hazards include damaging winds, lightning, hail, flooding, and tornadoes. During the last week in May and the first week in June, more tornadoes occur on average on the Texas South Plains into the southern Panhandle than anywhere in the United States. 2010 is the 40th anniversary of the F5 Lubbock Tornado which killed 26 people and injured more than 1500 along its 8.5 mile track, while impacting approximately 15 square miles of the city of Lubbock.

The National Weather Service Office in Lubbock would like to take this opportunity to remind everyone to begin preparing now for severe weather that is inevitable each Spring and early Summer in West Texas.

As part of this campaign, the Lubbock National Weather Service will be hosting activities this week to increase awareness of severe weather hazards.

A Severe Weather Awareness Day sponsored by the Texas Tech Student Chapter of the American Meteorological Society and the Lubbock NWS Office will be held at the Science Spectrum in Lubbock on Saturday, February 27th. NewsChannel 11 will also be on hand to help program your weather radio, and I will have my chase vehicle on display as well.

This event will include educational sessions and hands on weather exhibits. The Lubbock NWS office will host an information booth, and conduct a Skywarn Spotter Training session. This class and the entire event are free and open to the public. For more information about this event, see the web link listed below.
http://www.sciencespectrum.org/new/publicevents.shtml

In things related to storm chasing, the year would have been poor for me, with a mostly unactive season in the local area, and even long distance chases proved to be difficult for many storm chasers to capture that elusive tornado.  I say would have been poor for me except for the one exceptional intercept in Floyd County, Texas on April 29th, when we intercepted at close range, not one but TWO tornadoes.  That event made my whole chase year!  If you haven’t seen it, here it is:

By the time June rolled around I had mostly written off storm chasing except for anything I needed to cover for KCBD.  I was burnt out and needed a break from weather.  So one day, on a day I wasn’t expecting to chase, a relatively decent supercell popped up just to my south and I got on it for the station.  Turned out to be a prolific hail producer and slow mover dropping copious amounts of hail for longer than an hour in the same location.  I thought that was pretty cool, but little did I know what was to come.

Later that night as the storm was dying and I had called off the chase, the storm gave one last punch of lighting which struck a tank battery and ignited a fire on the south side of Lamesa, TX.  The subsequent explosion that I capture on tape of course has now been seen all over the world and kept me busy for quite a while dealing with media stuff surrounding it.  It also of course was the end of my chase vehicle, and I ended up with a new one.  If you haven’t seen that incredible video yet, here it is :

**ADULT LANGUAGE ON VIDEO**

For the rest of the year, I took a big break from the storm chasing/weather stuff, and did a ton of work around my property that had been on my to-do list, including building 100′ of fence, a new storage shed, tearing down an old garage, and building an addition to the house!  At the beginning of 2009 I said I would be happy to get one of those things done.  It was a major accomplishment to get them all done!

I also like to take stock of my financial situation this time of year.  As some of you know, I have been working towards a debt free life.  I’m not quite where I could have been, only because I did do all that work, but it was productive nonetheless and improved life around here, so it’s ok with me.  Last year at this time I had planned to be completely debt free by now.  While I am much closer than I was, I didn’t make it, a big part is adding the new vehicle to replace the one damaged in the explosion.  However looking forward, I see no reason I shouldn’t be debt free by the end of 2010.  I can’t tell you how great it feels to get some of that paid off!

I also start looking ahead toward storm chasing season.  To-do lists have been written and many things need to be done by March 1st, my “official” start date to storm chasing season.  Hard to believe only a month and a half away.  Looks like I’ll also be working with KCBD again this year.  This will be the 6th year chasing for them.  Wow has time flown!

I’m also determined to get all the past chase accounts on the website.  This has been my yearly failed project for the last few years and I am determined to get that done! I am kicking myself for not keeping up with it, because as time passes, memory and details fade.  Any of you younger chasers reading this, this is some of the best advise I can give you: write logs for all your storm chases, promptly after the event!  One day you will be happy you did.

The other major storm chasing related project is to get my entire video library over the years archived digitally.  I recently purchased two 1TB hard drives for this purpose.  This will be major and tedious work, but I need to get it done.  A by product of that is that I am going to be posting all the good stuff on my YouTube channel for you to watch!  Maybe even a DVD or two in the future!

But first, I absolutely must get the Explosion DVD produced.  This has been put off too long and many people are waiting on it, so that is now top priority!

Of course mother nature knows this and seems to be working up a huge trof in the western US which may bring some severe weather to Texas by the end of this week.  More on that later…

How is your New Year starting out?

In what has become known to most as year that has had anything but typical weather, 2009 rounds out the year with nearly 2/3 of the U.S. covered in snow!

We seem to be in between two major storm systems, but that didn’t stop a shortwave trough from returning brisk cold air and a snow for the 3rd time in a week to the Southern Plains.  While the northeast is feeling the last of a departing storm system and the northwest is starting to feel the effects of the next one, things on the whole are rather tranquil in what has largely been an uneventful year weatherwise in the U.S.

From a storm chasing perspective, this was probably the worst year since 1988 for chasing tornadoes, it still provided a few events for those that were dedicated enough to stick it out and salvage something.  The highlight of the convective season was of course the tornado event in eastern Wyoming that was featured in the season finale of the Storm Chasers show on Discovery Channel.

While that was a nice tornado over open land that lasted a while, it was rather unnewsworthy as far as tornadoes go, except for the fact that it was surrounded by more photographers, meteorologists, probes, instruments and live cameras that any other tornado in history.  It was even sampled directly by both Sean Casey’s Tornado Intercept Vehicle and Reed Timmer’s Dominator, both instrumented vehicles.   The amount of data that had to be gathered on that tornado and storm is unprecedented! This, in my opinion, makes this the single biggest storm chasing day of the year.

There was also the Hurricane Season.  Rather the lack of a Hurricane Season.  While we had a few strong storms develop, they all stayed out to sea and the U.S. remained hurricane free this year except for a couple of minor tropical events.

But as we rolled into the winter months now, El Nino, perhaps one of the strongest in history, is really getting things cranked up, and storm systems, as typical in El Nino years, are starting to slam through the southern U.S. with regular frequency.  This is one of the wetter winters we have had in quite some time on the western edge of the Southern Plains.  The last couple of years at this time, we were fighting high winds and wildfires!

Just today, we had some minor snow, courtesy of a strong cold front and a short wave moving overhead.

Of course, as we often do in winter, storm chasers now start speculating on the coming season, and gaze into the crystal forecast ball looking for any clues on what we can expect for severe weather.

I’m going out on a limb here with my long range “forecast” and say that the southeast states will soon start seeing repeated severe weather events and tornadoes on a higher frequency than they often do in the late winter months.  As we approach, and move into March, I think things will light up early and last well into June for Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas.  I mostly base this forecast crystal ball-cast on two elements.  The El Nino, which may or may not be staring to wane as we move into spring, but otherwise should still be affecting our weather, and two, the moisture we already have had.

Typically it seems that on years we have very dry winter seasons in Texas and Oklahoma, especially in west Texas, the less active severe weather is west of the I35 corridor.  Mostly this is due to only shallow moisture being able to make it up from the Gulf of Mexico over parched land in drought conditions that likes to leech all it can get from the atmosphere, and the end result is a dryline that races east, leaving everything practically west of I35 in the dry air, and thus no thunderstorms.

This winter has been the complete opposite of that.  Instead of drought and fires we are decently wet right now.  El Nino should continue to provide the upper storm systems to kick off the rain/snow and eventually thunderstorms when things start warming up.  It’s all up to the mesoscale fine details at that point.

I got a little more in depth than I intended to their in my post to end out the year, so I’ll leave it at that and we’ll talk more about it a little later!

I hope everyone got accomplished what they wanted to in 2009, and get more accomplished in 2010!

If you would like to follow along, I am expecting to go live just after dark, around 6 pm Central Time or so, and will probably be going for 2 or 3 hours.  It could potentially be snowing too, and that will add to the treat!

This is for all you folks who love Christmas lights, and in particular, those that can’t get out and visit, and those in other countries that don’t participate in holiday light decorating, or maybe in the southern hemisphere where you are in summertime now!

Again, I expect to be live on the LIVE ChaseCam around 6pm Central Time in the US.

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.

Despite the chilly north winds yesterday, we had a large turnout for the 3rd Annual Severe Weather Awareness Day!  An estimated 1000 people showed up to check out all the equipment and various weather related science exhibits the Texas Tech AMS group were showing off, much to the delight of kids both young and old.

As I mentioned before, we brought our chase vehicles out to let people get an up close look and ask all the questions they wanted about storm chasing. Texas Tech brought out their new mobile radar, which is very nice, and while I listened several times to Jerry Guynes (the guy that built it) talk about all the technical details, I am still trying to let my brain digest it.  He’s an incredibly smart man when it comes to mobile radar, and his passion for what he does shows through.  I felt like I came away “an order of magnitude” (as he likes to say) smarter just being in his presence! He is a faculty member of the Texas Tech Wind Science and Engineering team.

Ian Giamanco was displaying the Texas Tech Severe Storm Research Team’s “sticknets” and mobile mesonet.  They have two trailers full of these things they can deploy in short order and take all the standard measurements.  One survived the onslaught of Hurricane Ike planted on the Bolivar Peninsula even.  All of these things are going to be a large part of Vortex 2 out this year.  Storms will be surrounded, interrogated, probed and infiltrated by more scientific devices that ever before in our history this year!

Inside things were a little less technical but still fun, especially for the kids.  The various simplified demonstrations of how weather works created a large crowd of big eyed kids.  One kid that came out to check out the chase vehicle not only knew what GRLevel3 was (a radar program we use), but he has a copy of it and GRLevel2AE, and he knows how to use them.  We had quite the discussion about placefiles and video streaming.  I believe in the future we will see him out on the road chasing storms!  Oh did I mention he was only about 10? (He didn’t tell me how old he was, I’m just guessing).  I was very impressed!

Demonstrations showed various things, like how a tornado vortex might form, how to identify various types of clouds, how light refracts in the atmosphere, and they even had a miniature version of their Debris Impact Simulator.  The South Plains Storm Spotting Team was on hand showing some great video from the big tornado day out here in 2007.  The National Weather Service of course had a big presence, being that they are in the same building, and were giving guided tours of their offices, as well as a storm spotter class.  The Red Cross was also on hand.

Last but not least, KCBD NewChannel 11 was of course there helping folks program their weather radios and answer questions about the new Digital TV switch, as well as John Robison, Steve Divine and Cary Allan, the meteorologists were there to talk to people and answer everyone’s questions about weather.  Kids always enjoy a chance to meet their favorite on-air meteorologists they watch on TV all the time. John was handing door prizes and my chaser friend Steve Miller Amarillo won a NOAA Weather Radio.

The old IMAX “Storm Chasers” movie was also being shown in the IMAX theater.  While it’s a bit outdated now, it was the first time I have seen it in an actual IMAX theater.  The whole theater rumbled when the tornado came on stage!  I noticed in one scene they were at an intersection only about 7 miles from my house!

What a great “weather weenie” day and it sure put me in the mood for severe weather season, which starts officially for me…TODAY!

I was able to get a number of interviews with various exhibitors at the Severe Weather Awareness Day, and have posted them on my YouTube Channel.  There are 7 videos from this even in total:

1) Introductions

2) Sunlight & Tornadoes

3) Debris & Lightning

4) Texas Tech Mobile Radar

5) Texas Tech Sticknets

6) National Weather Service

7) Wrapup with Steve Divine at KCBD

The NTSB has released their preliminary report of the FedEx plane crash I first told you about back on January 27th, 2008.

What follows is the content of their report:

NTSB Identification: CEN09MA142
Nonscheduled 14 CFR Part 121: Air Carrier operation of Empire Airlines
Accident occurred Tuesday, January 27, 2009 in Lubbock, TX
Aircraft: AEROSPATIALE ALENIA ATR 42-320, registration: N902FX
Injuries: 1 Serious, 1 Minor.

This is preliminary information, subject to change, and may contain errors. Any errors in this report will be corrected when the final report has been completed.

On January 27, 2009, approximately 0437 central standard time, N902FX, an Aerospatiale Alenia ATR-42-320, operating as Empire Airlines flight 8284, sustained substantial damage when it landed short of the runway threshold while executing the Instrument Landing System (ILS) RWY 17R approach at Lubbock Preston Smith International Airport (LBB), Lubbock, Texas. The airplane was registered to Federal Express Corporation, Memphis, Tennessee, and operated by Empire Airlines, Hayden, Idaho. The airline transport pilot rated captain was seriously injured and the commercial rated first officer sustained minor injuries. An instrument flight rules flight plan was filed for the flight that departed Fort Worth Alliance Airport (AFW), Fort Worth, Texas, approximately 0319. Night instrument meteorological conditions prevailed for the supplemental cargo flight operated under 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 121.

A preliminary review of air traffic control communications revealed that the captain contacted the Lubbock Air Traffic Control Tower (ATCT) at 0422, and reported that they were descending from an altitude of 10,000 feet down to 8,000 feet mean sea level (msl). A controller acknowledged the transmission and then provided the airport’s current weather information and a runway breaking-action advisory. In addition, he provided vectors for the ILS 17R approach.

At 0430, the controller instructed the airplane to descend and maintain an altitude of 5,000 feet msl. At 0432, the controller informed the flight crew that the wind had shifted 180 degrees from the north to the south between 5,000 and 6,000 feet msl. The captain responded and added that he also noted a drop in the outside air temperature of 8 degrees and concurred with the controller’s observation regarding the wind shift. The controller cleared the airplane for the ILS approach at 0433 and instructed the flight crew to contact Lubbock Control Tower. The captain acknowledged.

At 0434, the captain contacted the control tower and a controller cleared the airplane to land on runway 17R. The captain acknowledged the landing clearance and there were no further communications. Approximately three minutes later an airport maintenance employee contacted the tower and asked “what is that fire there at the end of the runway?” A controller responded, “it’s an airplane.” The controller had witnessed the accident and had activated the alarm for the airport rescue and fire fighting equipment to respond.

An on-scene examination of the wreckage revealed that the airplane landed short of the runway threshold and collided with the approach lighting system before it skidded off the right side of the runway into the grass. The airplane came to rest on a westerly heading perpendicular to the runway. A post-impact fire consumed a large portion of the fuselage and the right wing.

At 0415, the special weather report at LBB included wind from 350 degrees at 10 knots, visibility 2 miles, light freezing drizzle, mist, ceiling 500 feet overcast, temperature 46 degrees Fahrenheit, dew point 48 degrees Fahrenheit, and a barometric pressure setting of 30.02 inches of Mercury.

My favorites are of course the guys I work with all the time.

John Robison

Steve Devine

Cary Allen

John is the chief met and has been with KCBD since 1983, a year before I even started chasing, and is like the Dick Clark of weather, they guy just doesn’t age much. No matter how bad things get, even when we have had tornadoes about to plow through a town, he’s always kept a calm cool demeanor and never overplays a situation unlike some of the other stations here do with their “run for your live” reporting on thundershowers.

Steve is our morning guy and also has a very calm demeanor when sever weather is in progress and always enjoys long conversations in severe weather.

Cary has every bit as much of a storm chaser heart as I do, even if he can’t get out as much as he would like. He only recently returned to KCBD a couple years ago, he had been there before. He also still does stuff for a lot of central Texas radio stations remotely. We have lengthy conversations about chasing stories and the weather of the day.

While they are all colleagues, I am also pleased to call them friends. Although we are in a smaller market, I think they are as good of a team of weather guys you can find anywhere, which in do small amount contributes to why KCBD is #1 in our market by a HUGE margin. If you ever are in the area, or staying the night, you’ll get your best weather coverage right there on Ch. 11.

When svr wx is threatening, almost always all three of them are working together on it.

It was about midnight.  All normal folks have since drifted off in their cozy beds for dreams of far off lands and wild adventures.  And was now the time The Killer could do its best work!  The Killer has been threatening to do its work for a couple of weeks now, but this time it knew it was going to succeed in the dastardly doings, sneaking from town to town, killing freely while everyone slept and few knew about its work, and even they were powerless to stop it, despite their earlier warnings The Killer would be on the loose tonight.

As the wee hours wore on, The Killer slowly slipped southeastward, taking everything in its deadly grip as it went.  Nothing would be spared it thought!  Suddenly, a glint of light began to peak in the eastern horizon and The Killer knew its time was up.  It would soon have to retreat into hiding.  But tomorrow night…  Yes, tomorrow night.  Things will again be perfect and The Killer can once again roam the area and finish the grand work it had begun this night.

Yes, last night was the first killing freeze this fall for the South Plains area. At least parts of it. Mostly the northwest half of the South Plains and most of the Texas Panhandle.  It was early for some folks, as much as two weeks early.  Just about on time for others.  Temps as low as 26F were recorded by the West Texas mesonet last night.

It had begun to look like a second spring, with the recent abundance of rain about a week ago and the more recent warm days.  Everything had really greened up and had a growth spurt.   It all looks dull today.  The rest of the leaves on the annual trees should go ahead and fall off, and the grasses will be turning yellow now.  I guess the good side is one more mowing and I can put it away for the winter.

It’s not over yet.  While the days look to be darn right outstanding for the next week, it’s going to be hiney freezing chilly at night. It may turn out to be even colder tonight than last, and freeze warnings are in effect tonight for the entire area.

Yes indeed. Winter is just around the corner.