Ok, I’m still at home sick and going to get checked out on Monday to make sure this is nothing worse like walking pneumonia. All I know is it sure feels like the last time I had it walking pneumonia and my lungs are taking a beating from the coughing.
Alright, enough about me being sick. Here are some shots of the storms that rolled through the Burnsville area tonight. They look a lot worse than they really are because this is pretty much Virga dropping down and with the sun back lighting the storms it looks like something else.
Ugh, the bug that Neva had that she got from her family that I ended
up getting is still kicking my ass. Virtually nothing is getting done
here while I sleep and sleep and sleep some more. With sparing the
nasty details, I feel like shit and I’m going back to bed.
I’m pretty much shutting the phone off and having some undisturbed me time to rest before I go chasing in a few days.
Yes, I had to wait until I knew Neva was coming home so I would not ruin the surprise. She thought I was kidding when I told her I was going to bake her a cake for her birthday. Happy Birthday Neva
Today is Neva’s big birthday and I know she does not want to make too much of a fuss about it, but I just wanted to let everyone know. And as strange luck as it, it is also Tom’s Birthday. Yeah, I can call him Tommy because he is still my little nephew.
So while we were trying to go out with some friends for dinner, I think it might be put on hold for a BBQ later in the month because Neva has the flu and I really want her to relax and rest.
But also as luck would have it, today is another huge milestone in the history of BNVN because we cracked a code last night in the video display process that is going to change everything.
Everyone asks, why don’t I have this done or why is the site not ready or what is the delay on this part of the project. Well it is simple, unless each custom built part of the project is not working and fitting just right, it’s just a waste of time to do anything because it will only have to be fixed later. And I don’t feel like having to go back and redo a billion lines of code when I can do it right the first time!!!
Code, it’s all about the code and now what is the code? Sorry, you will just have to wait about another 8-15 days for me to do a little more sql work and then… well were not competing with the storm chasers anymore, were going after the networks 🙂
Neva took me to the Twins Game last night and it was fun but I still don’t like baseball that much. Sorry, I just don’t see the thrill in it just like some people look at storm chasing and say “It’s Just The Weather”.
Well the seats were next to where the pitchers warm up and we were in the front row right next to where they were throwing from mound. I don’t think they liked it when I said “I have stood in faster winds in a hurricane, I want to see at least Cat 3 or faster!” Neva said they heard me from the look she got.
At the MN Twins game in the Metro Dome.
Here is a photo from the game. It was fun but Baseball, it’s just not my thing I guess. I’ll go again because I get to relax and veg a little with Neva but to compare Storm Chasing to Baseball, it’s like sitting out in the middle of a field in Kansas waiting for the cap to break and then it never does, just hour of watching your chase partners goof off.
Just working from home today and was hoping to get a much needed brain dead time to sit back and veg and go work out but that’s not going to happen today. The forecast for tonight in Minnesota is for a chance of snow now. And I thought we were done but I guess the snow is caused by this global warming stuff, oh wait, snow is cold… Oh well, it’s just another tax on us poor people.
Wow this is going to get chilly up here for the next few days per the GFS forecast.
Ok, off to try and make it to the gym to work out.
This week has been pretty insane. I had a lot of work to do with paperwork that I was hoping to get a jump start on last weekend but could not and then on Monday just when I thought I was going to get a chance to sit down at my desk and get caught up, Bill calls and said that Jesse caught the VA tornadoes.
Chesapeake, VA Tornado – 4/28/2008
Wow, well that was pretty insane as this was the top story for the world on Monday and I was dealing with all the networks for Jesse to make sure his copyrights was protected while still making sure he was able to get paid for the video.
That was a lot of work and then on top of that I had more DEE DEE DEE chaser drama to deal with.
Sometimes it amazes me at how stupid people are. Well at least the
clock as struck 15:01 as in your fifteen minutes are over, please go
away now.
Well, I did put that fire out and today I actually got some sleep and then was able to finish up my stack of paperwork.
Now it’s time to relax and see what tomorrow will bring with the forecast. Looks like a possible chase day on hand, but then again, it also looks kind of hyped. Etherway, I’m going to get a rare full nights sleep at a normal time for once.
I just got back to Neva’s after a pretty interesting evening and
night chasing the blizzard warned storm up by Fergus Falls MN. The
winds were strong but not as insane or intense as the last blizzard that
I chase 15 days ago up in Duluth but the snow pack was insane and the
amount of snow was intense. It is a now five days before the month of
May and you could go and “Snow Mobile” around Fergus Falls MN if you
wanted to this weekend.
Ok, time to call it a night and get some sleep.
Here is the video blog from the chase. Check out the very first shot. That snow pile is HUGE and this is not the lite fluffy snow but the stuff that is like concrete. At least it will be gone in a week but then comes the flooding.
Last night was interesting. I went to Iowa to storm chase and have some bugs to work out with the severe storm chasing with some new gear setups. Data, well the data was kind of an issue in Iowa but it has always been in issue along I35 in Iowa.
But my forecast area that I went over with Tony with the new computer model data he got his hands on and let me in on, it totally worked out. And people wondered what the BNVN secret was, it’s just better forecasting.
My target was for just south of Mason City around the Dow’s area around sunset.
Sure enough, this is what fired up.
BULLETIN – EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED TORNADO WARNING NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DES MOINES IA 835 PM CDT THU APR 24 2008
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN DES MOINES HAS ISSUED A
* TORNADO WARNING FOR… NORTHEASTERN HAMILTON COUNTY IN CENTRAL IOWA… NORTHWESTERN HARDIN COUNTY IN CENTRAL IOWA… SOUTHWESTERN FRANKLIN COUNTY IN NORTH CENTRAL IOWA… SOUTHEASTERN WRIGHT COUNTY IN NORTH CENTRAL IOWA…
* UNTIL 915 PM CDT.
* AT 832 PM CDT…NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM CAPABLE OF PRODUCING A TORNADO 9 MILES SOUTHWEST OF DOWS…OR 28 MILES EAST OF FORT DODGE…MOVING EAST AT 23 MPH.
* THE TORNADO WILL BE NEAR… DOWS BY 850 PM CDT… POPEJOY BY 900 PM CDT…
THIS TORNADO WARNING REPLACES THE SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING THAT WAS IN EFFECT FOR THE SAME AREA. GO TO A BASEMENT OR SMALL INTERIOR ROOM ON THE LOWEST FLOOR!
Sure enough, the forecast verified and I was sitting under this beast as it when the tornado warning was issued. I’m not sure since the visibility sucked but I think I got hit by some strong RFD winds that slammed my truck while I was watching what looked like a funnel back-lit by the lightning about a half mile or so away. But I can’t confirm it since this was a mega heavy rain beast, so as they say on the show Myth Busters, this was a “Plausible” tornado intercept since it was tornado chasing after dark. Plausible since I think I saw a funnel back lit and I got cored with hail, high winds and a ton of heavy rain at night when it’s the most dangerous time to chase.
Here are some screen caps from this chase. The main problem with this chase was that it really was not that photogenic.
Here is a vid cap from the dash camera of the lightning. Most of the lightning I saw was in the clouds so you could not see much for cloud to ground blots. Also there is some lowering I saw on the way to the chase near Albert Lea MN. It looked cool for about a minute then it just looked like crap and I was back to my target area in Iowa.
This was from the first wave of storms to hit the Dows Iowa area. This is a vid cap I did since I was spending most of my time looking around to make sure I was not going to die from Baseball sized hail that the radar was reporting. Below are more screen caps from the chase.
Ok, now it is time for me to get some sleep then wake up around noon and drive up to the US / Canada Boarder area to chase the winter storm. Looks like over a foot of snow up north and I want to be able to chase a tornado or tornadic warned storm one day and then a major winter storm the next. Nothing is more insane or intense then being able to get right into the mix of all of the different types of weather.
Just wondering, with the price of everything going up, what have you cut back on buying in the last few months?
Me, two years ago, you could find me at a Starbucks blowing $5 a day on coffee, everyday. Now, No way will I go in unless I’m having a caffeine withdrawal while on the road.
I did not give up on my coffee, I just buy it in bulk and brew my own
a coffee and make a mean cup at home now for $10 a pound which lasts
about a week.
So at with the Starbucks cut out, I don’t spend $1825 (est) per year on coffee.
Yeah that’s a lot of coffee.
Also, watch ABC 20/20 tonight because they are doing a tornado myth
show and they picked up a ton of footage from BNVN for their show
tonight.
Well, I’m off to get a nap in before I head up north for the weekend with Neva.
There was a great show on ABC 2020 tonight about weather myths.
It was cut a little short due to the stuff happening in Texas
with the Polygamy news story but that was no surprise to me since I got a
call this afternoon from one of the producers saying that there going
to air some other footage later in the year with another story because
of the Polygamy scandal story taking up a big chunk of the first part of
the show.
Otherwise, I’m just busting ass with working on stuff here and
got a ton of stuff off my to-do list. It feels good to get this stuff
done after working on it for six months. Soon the new site will be
launched and I’ll have the new home for BNVN up and running.
