Yes, we HAD to visit Wakita…which chasing aficionados recognize as the town that was destroyed in the movie “Twister”.  The museum commemorating the movie wasn’t even open, but we took lots of pictures.  This one shows the anemometer on top…

We were at the right place…but no cigar.  Now for a few details:During our morning meeting yesterday we decided our target was somewhere near El Reno OK, and we wound up at a truck stop a couple of exits west of there on I-40 watching a bulge in…

This Storm Prediction Center graphic shows the storm reports from yesterday.   The cluster of reports – and yes, tornadoes – in northeastern Colorado was somewhat further north than our target yesterday, but all these reports were early eveni…

Today was a marginal setup at best, and this morning we completely shifted our target from Childress TX up to eastern Colorado based on some new model data plus the Storm Prediction Center putting up a small tornado probability for that area.  The…

We pushed hard today and wound up in Shamrock Texas, roughly 90 miles east of Amarillo in the Panhandle.  The conditions for storms aren’t great tomorrow since a big area of high pressure – following the low that is plaguing the East Coast with dr…

Kathryn Prociv has just graduated from Virginia Tech and is riding in my van as a returning VT storm chaser and assistant field instructor.  This article is a nice explanation of what she does and what her plans are.Today’s road trip involves a st…

Not a lot to report other than nearly 700 miles driven and spending the night in Forrest, Arkansas.  We’re heading toward an initial target Tuesday afternoon which may be in the Texas Panhandle, and it appears that Wednesday thru Friday may be ver…

Spent yesterday helping Dave Carroll (VT instructor and storm chase leader) “trick out” the chase vans with radio gear and this mesonet probe prototype:We will be testing this rig out during this year’s storm chase to help finalize the design for futur…

I will be heading westward this weekend as one of the van drivers for the May 2011 Virginia Tech Hokie storm chase team.  I’ll post thoughts, photos, and maybe a video or two here as time permits during the chase.  Meanwhile, here’s a photo o…

I posted this article over at the Fredericksburg Weather blog in hopes of stirring up some community interest in better severe weather coordination in the greater F’burg area.  Perhaps a mention of it in this blog will help rally the cause as well…