I had been watching these severe weather setups for a week or so, and was hoping they would verify, because they were right during my spring break, and I knew I would be able to get out and chase. The setup looked alright, except all the upper air support from the trough was still west of where the activity was to take place. A strong cap was also in place across much of the area, and the models were not in real good agreement of whether it was going to break or not. Nonetheless, I headed out, because I knew the next day would be promising as well.

There were two primary options on where to target. There was the triple point in extreme north eastern Kansas, or the warm front in north central, Missouri. I was split between the two, and favored more towards Maryville, MO near the triple point, but when I woke up in the morning, the models still had that area badly capped. The SPC had put out a 10% hatched area all along the Iowa, and Missouri border for tornadoes.

A rather interesting day yesterday in Oklahoma. Was not really expecting to see tornadoes, but nonetheless, mother nature pulled through to amaze us, and drop a fairly long tracked tornado. Chasers were out and about yesterday, and quite a few witnessed the tornadoes that ripped through Hammon, OK. Congratulations to those who bagged their first tornadoes of the 2010 season!

This is the 12z Amarillo, TX sounding, about 115 miles west of Hammon, OK. Some pretty steep lapse rates are shown in the low, and mid levels of the atmosphere. Also note the equilibrium level at about 8km, or 30k ft. Most storms usually push well into the 40-50k ft range, and this is why yesterdays storm was referred to as a "low topped" supercell.

Here is a graphic from the SPC Mesoanalysis site, which is overlaying dewpoint temps, along with H5-H7 lapse rates. Dewpoints were relatively low, at about 48-52 F, but steep lapse rates were in place over western Oklahoma.

A potentially big winter storm is headed our way late tonight through Wednesday. The possibility of 9-12" of accumulation has been forecasted by the NWS in Grand Rapids. Snow ratios are estimated to climb to 20:1, which means 20" of snow for every 1" or water. This correlates to light, fluffy snow. I'm gonna put a final estimate of snow in Battle Creek at 8-11" of accumulation.

Here is the 12z run of the GFS model, which shows snow accumulation in inches. As of this latest run, it is predicting 12-15" which might be overdoing it a little, although even the NAM and GFS profiles as seen through BUFKIT (below) show about 13-14" by Wednesday afternoon.

So tonight I braved the extreme cold (12 F), and went out and shot a few photos of the full moon tonight. Alongside the Moon was Mars, and the dusty red planet sure was a bright red color. Overall, the photo turned out decent, except the fact that I'm limited to the "kit" lens that came with the Nikon D40. Had a few problems with focusing, and the lens fogging up, so I probably have frostbite now from being out there so long. Anyways, the Moon was at perigee tonight, which means it is at its closest distance to the Earth, since its orbit is elliptical.

Here is the best image of the night, which is composed of two images overlayed (one of Mars, one of the Moon). Image taken with Nikon D40 ISO 200, f/10, and 1/400 sec.

While I'm on the subject of astronomy/space weather, I might as well post this star trail photo I took back in September. It was a pleasant night that night, and I sat out, and took 30 sec exposure with a Canon SD750 digital camera. overlayed all the photos in PS, and blurred the image a touch to remove gaps between the stars that occurred while transitioning from one 30 sec. exposure to the next.

2010 sure has started off with bang-as far as storms go. Spring like "systems" have been impacting the southern plains the last few days, with January 20th being the prime day for severe weather. Many tornadoes have already been confirmed in eastern Texas, and then a few tornadoes the day after in Alabama. If this is a hint of what 2010 has to offer in the spring time, 2010 may very well be interesting. Certain discussions are saying El Nino may be the cause, and since I'm no climatologist, I suppose its entirely possible.

We'll start with January 19, 2010, where California of all places experienced wild weather, including, tornadoes, waterspouts, and high winds. The image above show a "couplet" on storm relative velocity off shore, and north of Huntington Beach, CA.

This is an absolutely incredible radar signature of a supercell on the LA, TX border on January 20. This cell produced an EF3 tornado, with a path length of 15.6 miles, and 3/4 mile wide. It also produced quite a bit of damage in, and around Waskom, TX.

Well, I have finally gotten around to updating the website a little bit. I have changed the background color, but plan to possible mess around with the template some more, and make things look a little different. Thus far, I have added a few analytic tools, and a few social networking icons where you can find some of my videos, or keep up with what I'm doing. I have also changed the website to "fluid" width instead of a fixed width. This will fill the website to your screen according to your screen size. Also added are a few new images to the SPC Outlooks down at the bottom right (Days 4-8), and a short fuse composite map on the weather data page. My classes start today, so any further updates will be slower, but I still plan on making a logo for the front page, perfecting and adding to the photo gallery, and fill in some links/pages that are currently blank.

Hope you like the new changes, and if you have questions or comments, just leave a comment on this article.

I have finally scrounged enough money together to buy a RAM Laptop Mount. I had an older plexiglass mount that while it worked, it was too "permanent." To swivel or move the mount required the use of a giant pipe wrench which got annoying. This new mount can easily be swiveled, and moved around for passenger, or driver use. Here is a quick image I took of the mount in my car.

Well, it really has been a storm chasers Christmas for chasers in the southern plains, and even a little in the Upper Midwest. A potent storm system moved into Texas last night, and even dropped tornadoes in Longview, Texas.

Today Blizzard Warnings are in effect for most of the Northern Plains, and Winter Storm Warnings for most of Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin. On the SE side of the Low, Tornado Watches have been in effect all day, and earlier this morning, the SPC highlighted an area in Southern Louisiana as a Moderate Risk. This sure is a crazy storm. Its gives us chasers one last little glimpse of 2009.

Meanwhile, here in Michigan the story is a little freezing rain tonight, then mostly dry overnight, until the rain starts in the AM. Eventually tomorrow night, the rain will change to snow. Everyone stay safe, and be careful out on the slick roads. Also, everyone have a Merry Christmas, and Happy Holidays.