This is sorta a weather blog isn't it? It's about time I share a weather photo. For this week's photo of the week, my first tornado! This tornado was spotted near Groom, TX along Interstate 40 on a storm chase on April 22, 2010. This particular tornado was only on the ground for a few seconds, and was rated EF0 since it basically did not cause any damage.
Meteorology: A large cutoff low was noted on 500 mb analysis, with a surface dryline in place over the Texas Panhandle. The morning SPC convective outlook had a large Slight Risk area over much of the High Plains, including a 10% significant tornado probability over the Texas Panhandle. It should be noted that under today's SPC outlook conventions, this would have been an "Enhanced Risk". The outlook text noted that supercells capable of very large hail were likely to develop along the dryline, with the tornado risk increasing during the early evening hours as a low-level jet developed. At 2:35 p.m. CDT, SPC issued a Tornado Watch for the Texas Panhandle. At 3:00 p.m. CDT, SPC upgraded their outlook to a Moderate Risk with a 15% significant tornado probability. The first tornadoes (in Texas) were reported just after 5:00 p.m. CDT (including the one in the photo above). By the end of the day, there would be 12 preliminary tornado reports, with additional tornadoes reported in Colorado, Kansas, and Oklahoma.
500 mb analysis valid 1200 UTC (7:00 a.m. CDT) April 22, 2010
Preliminary storm reports for April 22, 2010
The Chase: At the time of this chase, I was in my sophomore year at the University of Oklahoma. The chase team included Stefan Rahimi (now a postdoctoral scholar at UCLA) and Curtis Riganti (now a climatologist at the National Drought Mitigation Center). We departed Norman around 1 p.m. (which was cutting it close!), and headed west on I-40. The initial target was Shamrock, TX. As we headed west, we monitored NOAA Weather Radio and what little we could get over cellular data networks. In 2010, cellular data networks was kinda just starting to be a thing, but it generally consisted of fairly slow 3G and AT&T "Edge" (ahh, those were the days!). We approached the first supercell right on I-40. A prominent wall cloud was noted, and multiple funnel clouds were spotted.
Wall cloud associated with the first supercell
Funnel cloud beneath the wall cloud
A few minutes later, the first tornado (photo at the top) occurred. By the end of the day, our team would see three tornadoes.
Tornado #2, partially wrapped in rain near McClellan Creek National Grassland
Tornado #3 north of I-40 near McLean, TX
It was quite awesome to see these first three tornadoes. Up until this point, I had only seen tornadoes in photos and videos. In fact, I had not even really seen a classic supercell in person. Growing up in South Louisiana, a true classic supercell was fairly rare. It was so cool to finally see what this looked like in person. Finally, below is a video taken by my friend Curtis, primarily of the first supercell and tornado.
For my inaugural post on this new blog, I will kick off my "Photo of the Week" series with the cover photo to the new website. This photo was taken on the ascent up Independence Pass, Colorado in June 2019. State Highway 82 traverses Independence Pass, and is the second highest paved mountain pass in the U.S., reaching an elevation of 12,095 at the Continental Divide. Only Trail Ridge Road (U.S. Highway 34) in Rocky Mountain National Park is higher. Independence Pass connects Aspen on the west to Twin Lakes on the east. Several prominent high 14ers are visible from the pass including Mount Elbert (the highest point in Colorado at 14,440 feet) and La Plata Peak (14,361 feet). The highway typically opens to traffic the Thursday heading into Memorial Day Weekend, but opened late in 2019 after one of the snowiest winters in recent memory. Even in late June, snow was abundant above the treeline. Entering Independence Pass from Twin Lakes (east of the Continental Divide) ...
For this week's installment of "Photo of the Week", I am featuring what is probably to date, my best Milky Way shot. This photo was taken last June from the South Rim Campground at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park , Montrose County, Colorado. The photo was taken using my Nikon D3300 DSLR equipped with a Tokina 11-18 mm wide-angle lens. I used a wide aperture (f/2.8), short focal length (11 mm), kicked the ISO up to 6400, and did a 20-second exposure. My advice to photographers attempting a similar shot: don't focus overly on what my settings were, or what someone else's were. While those settings may be a good starting point, some trial and error (and I mean, a lot of error) will be required. I think I initially started with a lower ISO, and kicked it up higher to really get the deep space objects in the shot. I should also point out that this photo was minimally post-processed, except for perhaps some slight adjustments to the exposure. Using Stell...
As of the 10 a.m. CDT advisory, Tropical Storm Barry has maximum sustained winds of 65 mph and minimum pressure of 998 mb. This represents an increase in winds of 15 mph, and a drop in pressure of 7 mb since this time yesterday. Manual surface analysis valid at 10 a.m. CDT Friday showing Tropical Storm Barry. The forecast has not changed that dramatically during the last 24 hours. The official forecast track continues to bring the center of Barry near the Louisiana coast in the vicinity of Morgan City on Saturday morning as a category one hurricane. After landfall, the center should track roughly along the U.S. 90 corridor, bringing it near or just east of Lafayette, then into Central Louisiana. Barry should weaken after making landfall. NHC Official Forecast Track issued at 10 a.m. CDT Friday. The main concern with Barry continues to be rainfall. The slow-moving nature of Barry, combined with already wet soil conditions and high rivers in South Louisiana will result in a v...
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