Warm Air Rises: A Long and Winding Week

Hi All,
I know I know, I haven't posted in a week. I've also been really slack about returning phone calls and keeping everyone up to speed. However, I've had a good excuse. V2 has operated every day since last Monday (the outbreak event I previewed in my last post). While this has been great for the project and for science, it's been a very long week for the scientists in the field.

I'll take just a second to talk about my experience on Monday. If you followed the weather or national news at all you saw the results of the forecast I foreshadowed in my last post. A severe weather outbreak produced several large tornadoes in central Oklahoma, producing massive damage and claiming two lives. Matt and I (the NSSL2 crew) were essentially in the meat of the storms for most of the afternoon and evening. We got off 6-7 balloon launches but spent most of the day relocating southward dodging cell after cell of storms, each of which was showing significant rotation on the radar. I would be lying if I said it wasn't scary because it was. We were in a bad spot and if it weren't for the great communication we had with our team we could have been in serious trouble. In the end we came out unscathed. The same can't be said for residents of the region. On the way home that night we drove through several areas of damage including one long row of houses that were completely obliterated. We spent the night in a hotel without power. Just glimpsing some of the damage these storms caused made me appreciate even more just why V2 got funded and how valuable the science is we're doing.

Compared to the outbreak on Monday the rest of the week seemed fairly tame, but V2 operated every day. We traveled from Shawnee OK to Weatherford OK to Wichita Springs TX then south to Midland TX where we spent Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights (If you're ever in Midland go to Luigis for some really amazing Italian food). On Friday I saw my first tornado and NSSL2 had a amateur stalker that followed us around for 3-4 hours as we tried to stay ahead of a fierce squall line. Saturday the armada went on a long chase out to SE New Mexico where we saw a supercell form but produce no significant rotation. Today (Sunday) we trekked 90 miles N to Lubbock TX where we're spending the night and preparing to operate tomorrow in the Texas panhandle.

I'm exhausted from traveling and chasing every day and all that it entails. The food is crappy most of the time. Two days last week I had gotten two bites into my delicious and nutritious Subway sandwich when the FC (field coordinator) declared a target and I had to rush off and leave it uneaten. Staying in a different hotel room every night is getting old. I'm ready for my bed and my tv and my desk and my schedule. While I can whine for a paragraph I'm still really happy that the armada is having infinitely more success compared to last summer. We've intercepted a number of tornadic storms and collected some amazing data sets. The observations we're collecting will go a long way towards improving our understanding of these complex and amazing storms. I have no doubt being out here has been a very valuable experience as a scientist.

I'll leave you with a few snapshots I've collected along the way:

The Tornado Intercept Vehicle (TIV) at our hotel in Perry Oklahoma on the day of the outbreak in central OK.

NSSL1 and NSSl2 in western Oklahoma watching and waiting to see if the convection in front of us develops rotation.

Jen and Casey Classic attaching a sonde to a balloon in a pre-convective sounding in western Oklahoma.

I hope I can someday take Heather to The Palace Night Club in Elk City Oklahoma. Maybe we can even go on Wednesday when it's ladies night so I can get her some delicious beer for 50 cents.

A portion of the V2 armada returned to our hotel in Midland. The city experienced massive flooding on Friday making the trek back in rather complicated.

Mike Bettes from The Weather Channel setting up to do a live interview with Casey Classic and Tim which was to be broadcast during NBC's Nightly News on Saturday. The Japanese folks are making a documentary about V2 and are constantly filming us.