September 2006 Blogs

9/29/2006 RUSH RUSH RUSH, always rushing for last minute stuff. Today I got a call back from a production company in Los Angeles about a production they are working on and wanted it dubbed and sent within the hour but its past the cut off for the Fedex time.  Oh well…

9/28/2006 Back to working on stuff on the website.

9/27/2006 Last night I was out shooting some bad ass lightning footage and playing Weather Channel photographer in the middle of the thunderstorms. Finally a freaking thunderstorm that I can have some fun with shooting video and getting stills. I have waited all season for a storm like this and probably wont see one until next year. This season has sucked!!!

9/24/2006 I was out shooting some auroras tonight in northern Minnesota.  It was a weak setup but worth going out after just to have some fun.

9/16/2006 I was in South Dakota chasing and got on a severe storm, or the severe storm got on me. Below is a stitched image of several photos to show you the full scale of the storm I was on and how close I was.

9/11/2006 7:45 PM – Looks like Hurricane Florence is now long gone from Bermuda and the worst of Florence missed Bermuda by over 50 miles off shore. From my stand point, if I was chasing this, it would have been a bust. Yes some of Bermuda got damaged but it was at best a strong tropical storm event for Bermuda. Now there is Tropical Storm Gordon out in the Atlantic and another tropical wave coming off of Africa. Looking at the various different forecast models, it looks as if all of the future systems coming off Africa will just curve back out to sea and pretty much do nothing. This hurricane season looks pretty dead so now I’m working on trying finish everything up on the web and get it automated in the next few weeks.

9/10/2006 11:00 PM – Watching Hurricane Florence and wow, that storms sucks ass. Where is it? It is a cyclone but where the hell is the storm? There is almost no precipitation with this storm on radar around the eye. This storm is a joke, it won’t be the big storm that everyone is talking about in the media. The eye is 175 KM Southwest of Bermuda and there is not much of the storm that is going to hit Bermuda. I am really feeling good now about not going to Bermuda. Florence would have to take a hard turn to a heading of 035 to hit the Island but that is almost impossible now. Florence is a bust for anyone who chased it to Bermuda as the worst of Florence wont come within 75 KM of the island. And now TD7 has just formed in the wake of Florence.

But I was busy today working on the still photography stuff and here is a 8 photo stitched image of some photographs I took this summer in Devils Tower WY. Click on the image below to get full size image.

9/10/2006 11:50 AM – Five years ago today I received my commercial pilot test sign off to go and take my flight tests. Little did I know that the next day, September 11th would happen and the aviation industry would go down the toilet and the world would be at war. This morning I woke up and saw that Florence was now a weak hurricane but it looks like it will be going west of Bermuda. If this is the case, most of the worst of the storm will miss Bermuda but it all depends on when the storm takes the turn. I may be kicking myself for not going to Bermuda if this thing does take a direct hit but it was too big of a risk to take if this storm missed. Plus based on the last storm I worked for another stringer with Fabian in 2003, most of the US networks really don’t care about the storm. If it is not hitting a major area of the USA, they just don’t care unless it kills a lot of people. The old saying, if it bleeds it leads… Here is a link to the radar from Bermuda. http://einstein.atmos.colostate.edu/~mcnoldy/tropics/florence06/Florence… In other news, another reason I will wear an extra coat in the winter if it is cold and won’t live down south. There was a Earthquake in the Gulf of Mexico. The following is a release by the United States Geological Survey, National Earthquake Information Center: A strong earthquake occurred about 250 miles (405 km) south-southwest of Apalachicola, Florida at 8:56 AM MDT, Sep 10, 2006 (10:56 AM EDT in Florida). The magnitude and location may be revised when additional data and further analysis results are available. This earthquake was felt in parts of Florida, Georgia and Alabama. No reports of damage or casualties have been received at this time.
Earthquake Details: Magnitude 6.0 (Strong)
Date-Time Sunday, September 10, 2006 at 14:56:07 (UTC)
Sunday, September 10, 2006 at 8:56:07 AM Local
Location 26.339°N, 86.568°W Depth 10 km (6.2 miles) set by location program Region GULF OF MEXICO Distances 402 km (250 miles) WSW (252°) from Anna Maria, FL 403 km (251 miles) WSW (252°) from Holmes Beach, FL 404 km (251 miles) WSW (253°) from Bradenton Beach, FL 418 km (260 miles) WSW (245°) from Clearwater, FL 529 km (329 miles) SE (139°) from New Orleans, LA Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 4 km (2.5 miles); depth fixed by location program Parameters Nst=196, Nph=196, Dmin=545 km, Rmss=1.04 sec, Gp=119°, M-type=moment magnitude (Mw), Version=7 Source USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
Event ID usslav
This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.

Well, I need to get back to work on the site and sorting out all the photos and working on the projects at hand.

9/9/2006 6:00 AM – It looks like Bermuda will get some of tropical storm Florence but the storm is just not all that together. I am not going to risk blowing several thousand to go to Bermuda for a storm that may or may not hit the area. Bermuda is only 20 kilometers long so if it is not a direct hit, then it will be a total bust. I have already been asked by several networks if I was going and I told them no unless they want to pay for me to go even if the area did not get hit and they then said well, we were hoping you would go so we would not have to pay for anyone to go in case it missed the island. The storm is not even a hurricane as of yet. Here are a couple of the forecasts from the National Hurricane Center. The first one is from last Tuesday and it shows that Florence was suppose to be a hurricane by 8PM on Thursday. It is now 7AM EDT on Saturday (see second image) and Florence is still a tropical storm.

I know, some people will say “But Doug, your just saying that because your not going to Bermuda to chase the storm…” Um yeah sure, if you want to say that go for it but do me a favor first and learn how to forecast. That is in part how I got to where I am today but I did not go to college for it (note my commercial aviation student loans… I can fly just about any airplane if I wanted too…) So let’s look at the facts why it would be a waste of time to go. Here is a surface map pretty much right now as I write this. Look in the Atlantic and check out that Red and Blue line. That is a FRONT and it is in the way of Florence and as soon as Florence hits that front it is going to race off to towards the North and East and fall apart. The storm has not yet pulled it self together and it is about at it’s last chance to do anything before hitting the front. If you look at the next hours of forecasts from UCAR, it kind of makes me say hmmmm, anything is possible but my gut tells me that this will glance Bermuda as a weak hurricane at best or a strong tropical storm. Ether way, Bermuda is built to take the hits from strong storms so it won’t be like Katrina or Charley.

9/8/2006 8:00 PM – Just working on some stuff here for the photo section. I found this photo on my camera and I thought I would share it. I took this off my bedroom deck looking west yesterday. Even though I have to put up with a lot of bull shit, life goes on and you can always enjoy a good sun set.

Life goes on

9/8/2006 Was up early this morning to shoot video of the American Idol try out lines in downtown Minneapolis. I got down there and it was a total waste of time. They opened the doors up early and the only people who were outside were the freaks looking for their 10 seconds of fame on local TV.

I have a long list of B-Roll stuff I have to shoot so went over to the airport and shot some video of the new changes for a project regarding the 9/11 five year anniversary. The Airport Police and the TSA were cool with me but the airport employees, oh yeah, they were all over me for having the camera and tripod out. There are not just some eyes on you at the airport, at the Minneapolis International, everyone is watching everything!

9/7/2006 5:00 PM – Today I was out scuba diving with a new dive buddy that I met on line. We dove in Calhoun and it was pretty decent for Calhoun.

9/7/2006 5:00 AM – I did not get much sleep last night, ok, I was up all night but about to crash out for a while then go scuba diving with some new divers I met on line yesterday. This should be interesting. Anyway, I got a lot of stuff done behind the scenes on the site last night. Now I only have to work on the Winter Weather Video and general weather video pages and then all of the video will be up on line. Then the next pain in the ass project will be the still photography and the hurricane blogs. The hurricane blogs won’t be that big of a head ache as they are pretty much the same thing I had on the old Lightningboy.com site but I just have to bring them over to this site. The real pain in the ass will be the still photography stuff as I will have to go through every Fn Photo I have ever taken in the last 10 years and then pick which photos I want to include on the website and then kick the rest to the archive. Yeah it will be a serious pain in the ass but hey, at least then the site will be up to date… Well, almost… I have a pile of tapes to go through from the last 4 months, then it will be up to date. Maybe if I bust ass and the hurricanes hold off for a couple more weeks, I can have everything done in time for a major storm.

9/5/2006 2:00 PM – Well the story of my life, “this need’s to be done yesterday” should be the title of it. I just got a call from a film festival that want’s me to submit the Katrina documentary but their past the deadline and they want me to shorten it up some from the DVD. I have 6 hours of work to do in 2 to get everything to Fed Ex on time. Oh well, I better get working because I need to start getting ready for Hurricane or Tropical Storm Florence.

9/4/2006 5:00 PM – Well it looks like TD6 is still out there and it could be the next hurricane but it won’t be until next week if at all. There is also something else brewing that I have been watching but just watching now. I have got a lot of work done on the site today. A lot of the video catalogs are now on line which is about damn time. Good news, I was starting to clean the office which needs it bad. The rest of my place is pretty much spotless since I hate having crap all over the place. I grew up with crap all over the place and I hate it. I only let my office get bad now and the rest of my home is nil. I don’t even own a dining room table, that area is EMPTY the way I like it. Minimal. Anyway, while I was cleaning the office, I found my U F Off The Best Of The Orb CD. I thought I lost that a long time ago and was bummed. The Orb is a cross between Pink Floyd and Techno House Music. It is really it’s own style and I could listen to them all day long because it is the kind of music that you can dance to but yet have on in the back ground to get a shit load of work done. And today I got a shit load of work done and hope by the time I crash out tonight that I will have most of the catalogs done.

9/3/2006 7:00 PM – Wow, yesterday was a long day!!! I ended up sleeping until noon today to get caught up on my sleep and just enjoying a nice day of relaxing and doing not much of anything for a while, until the phone rang. Yesterday I was out playing Weather Channel Photographer in the rain that moved in last night.

But before I caught the rain they wanted in Minneapolis last night, I was out chasing after the cold air funnels and thunderstorms just southwest of the metro.

The Cold air funnels would spin up and then be gone in 60 seconds. It was totally now you see it, now you don’t and if you were not in the right place at the right time you saw nothing! Now the focus is back on the tropics and the next system coming on shore. TD6 or Tropical Depression 6 has just formed in the Atlantic and I’m already on standby to cover this system if it makes landfall in the USA.

9/2/2006 6:40 AM – Ok, the sleep schedule is just Fd up now, been up all morning working on the site and watching some DVD’s. Finally watched a movie that was good. I watched Inside Man and I have to say that it was one of the better movies I have seen in years. Not too predictable and kept me from hitting fast forward so I rate it 4.5 our of 5 stars. Why not 5 for 5? If I said why, it would ruin the ending for you… Anyway, I got the stock video request form up and running and a lot of ASP stuff working on the site. It is pretty cool because now when people request footage from me, they have to fill out the stock video request forms. No more beating around the bush and trying to buy or sell a used car. It is straight forward paperwork where you take out the B.S. of trying to sell stock footage.

In other news, just looking at the latest forecasts from Dr. Gray and Colorado State. Ok, I am laughing my ass off at all of the forecasters and weather geek’s and freaks. Just about everyone was freaking out about the hurricane season from hell and were suppose to get all of these massive storms that are going to end up killing everyone due to global warming. Um, yeah, the forecast went back to being pretty much normal from Dr. Gray. Um, yeah, um were going to need to have a talk about your TPS Reports… http://typhoon.atmos.colostate.edu/forecasts/2006/sep2006/ With the rate this current hurricane season is going, we may have a below average year now. If it is a below average year then a lot of weather guessers are going to have a lot of explaining to do because last May they all scared the crap out of everyone.

9/2/2006 2:30 AM – DAMN, I just woke up after a marathon day of stuff yesterday. I thought I was going to go to bed late in the morning then wake up and take care of some stuff around noon. Well, no, one thing led to another, and another and the next thing I knew it was noon and then it was 2pm then it was 6pm and I passed out on the couch watching The Weather Channel. I did not even make it to the bed because I was so damn fried from working. At least this was a good warm up for the next tropical storm or hurricane that I’m going to go out on. I got so many ideas now about different ways to do things that it will make people say WTF where did he come up with that idea. The best part about working to coordinate and produce all the stuff from the BNVN crew on Ernesto, BNVN is know as the ones to go to who get the shots because were the real deal. Speaking of the next tropical system, the GFDL and the other computer models now have a new system forming in the Atlantic next week. Looks like September hurricane season is kicking into high speed.

9/1/2006 6:00 AM – UGH, wow what a crazy 18 hours this has been. I stayed home for Ernesto because I did not think it would be that good when it hit North Carolina. BUT, the BNVN crew was there and we got some Fn Kick Ass Footage. Dan, Bill and Matt were on the case on the chase and kicked ass!!! The footage is all over The Weather Channel this morning. CNN has also picked up some of the footage and in the middle of working out some stuff with Associated Press London and then I’m off to bed. I did not get to chase the tropical storm but I did get to work on the production side of my gig which I love to do. I don’t care about being on TV or fame, yes it is fun but I love the production side of the biz. Getting all the deals in place and seeing the work on TV, that is what I love to do.