tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54595890733718624682024-03-05T03:32:45.869-06:00MidwestchaserCovering Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and WisconsinMidwestchaserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15029730861995418666noreply@blogger.comBlogger101125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5459589073371862468.post-38983424197633406212011-09-03T01:01:00.003-05:002011-09-03T01:29:43.350-05:00A few thoughtsIt has been a loooong time since I wrote a blog. But out of boredom tonight I did some random searches on Google for various chasing stuff. One thing I happened to stumble upon was a Minnesota storm chaser names Alex Sahlberg. He was about 4 years older than me, but passed away from natural causes in April 2005 at the age of 18. I ended up on an old thread at Stormtrack that was in memory of Alex. He wasn't real well known in the chasing community since he was just starting out, but in the local community people really knew him, and those that knew him had nothing but good things to say about him. From what I can gather, Alex never saw "the big one", didn't have pictures of 1000 different tornadoes to show off to everyone, and didn't even have his license. Instead, he had the genuine passion for weather, didnt matter if it was just large waves crashing on to shore on Lake Superior, or lightning from late night storms, because it was weather, and he loved it. He didnt seek out the glory so many of us do today. And this has really got me thinking, and honestly a little embarrassed. As hard as it is to admit, I do like some of the glory that comes with getting great tornado video, or cool structure shots, and I think a lot (if not most of us) enjoy some of that glory. I'm not saying that is why I chase, watching mother nature's power is something I hope never bores me. But over the 6 years I have been chasing, it has become more about getting the cool shot that everyone will ooh and ahh about, instead of just enjoying what I saw, regardless of whether it was a tornado or not. Today's chasing world is so wrapped up in trying to outdo the next person that over time we forget why we're out there. It's not about the fame or glory from the pics or video we're gotten, or what channels have shown our footage, or who we know, or the drama that goes on, it's about our passion and desire to watch the storms, or at least it should be. I can tell that since I started up my chasing facebook profile my ego has gotten bigger, and I don't like it. This is also not the first time I've noticed it. On a couple separate occasions it has nearly pushed me to the point of closing the profile and just going offline and under the radar for a while, and knock myself down a peg or two. The thing is, no matter how much my ego makes me think I'm better than someone like Alex because I have more tornado video or the people I know, I know I'm lying to myself because I can tell he truly touched people and had that determination to get better and smarter. It's a shame his life ended so young. If he were still alive maybe he would be a role model for some of us to remember why we are out there and not get caught up in the hype and glory and that we don't need to be on Discovery to get recognized. I dunno, maybe going offline would still do me some good...we'll see. In the mean time, RIP Alex, even though you are no longer with us, maybe you can still be that role model for a few us.Midwestchaserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15029730861995418666noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5459589073371862468.post-73157103590545917152010-12-17T08:34:00.002-06:002010-12-17T08:39:30.935-06:00It's been a whileIt's only been 7 months since my last update...Busy chase season and crazy busy semester at school haven't given me much time to have a life over the last 7 months. But with finals now done I figured I would resurrect the blog before I completely forget about it. Anyways, a recap for my storm season: 23 chases, 19,000 miles, 5 tornadoes, 7 states, and my fair share of busts. Lots of cool pics as well. I'll try to get some of them uploaded here over the next few weeks because I'm too lazy to upload them all right now. Also, we've had a ton of snow so far this winter. Only about 1/4 of the way through our winter but we already have 3/4 of our yearly average. Anyways, next semester won't be nearly as busy so be sure to check back as I will try to update this blog more often!Midwestchaserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15029730861995418666noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5459589073371862468.post-27467043377472927192010-05-21T22:52:00.003-05:002010-05-21T23:00:35.614-05:005/23/2010 FCSTI will be starting my 5 day chase trip on Sunday. Not gonna go real in depth right now because I'm frickin tired and to be honest I dont have the best idea of what's going to happen on Sunday. However, there will be some sort of boundary slowly moving across Nebraska. While this same boundary may affect SD/MN/IA, the best shear looks to be farther to the southwest and a very juicy atmosphere with MLCAPE values nearing 4000 j/kg across south centra/southeast Nebraska as per the WRF. Another problem farther to the north/northeast is that surface winds will be running more parallel to the boundary. Not completely sure what kind of boundary we are talking about, looks like a slow moving warm front but who knows. Anyways, the only real problem is the cap. I think the new WRF might be a bad run in terms of CINH as it breaks it down rather weird IMO. Also, I personally think earlier models may also have been a little aggressive in breaking down the inhibition with a large swath of no CINH across NE in to KS. Another strike is the upper winds are not ideal, but with decent helicities and strong to extreme instability, I think it could be a fun day. Models are still going back and forth about where exactly the boundary will end up but that will be a chase day call anyway. Regardless, I will out Sunday across south central Nebraska or north central KS. Be sure to watch my stream at tornadovideos.net and wish me luck on my first "chasecation"! Will be out chasing Sunday thru Thursday.Midwestchaserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15029730861995418666noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5459589073371862468.post-41495240404772878272010-05-08T18:36:00.011-05:002010-05-08T20:01:50.460-05:004/29/2010 Chaselog: KSFinally have some time to write this up. Left Wednesday night to get a couple hour head start on Thursday's drive. Was thinking I would stay in Iowa for the chase but wanted to leave Kansas open and I did not want to make that drive in one day. Stopped off at a rest stop for the night Wednesday night about 40 miles north of Des Moines. Got back on the road at about 6 am Thursday morning. Surface winds were REALLY strong, made for a difficult drive. Grabbed some breakfast at Perkins in Des Moines, got back on the road towards Omaha. Got to Council Bluffs, IA (the east side of the river from Omaha) and looked over data. Sat around, trying to figure out what to do. Finally decided to get south to Nebraska City, NE. Grabbed some lunch, looked over more data, the more I thought about it the more I really didnt think Kansas was going to go. Had a Cu field starting to build over me, although they had hardly anything to them. Continued to sit in Nebraska City and watch the Cu. At about 3:00 I read on ST that towers were starting to go up west of Salina, KS (Salina was my prelim target 2-3 days before the event, but like I said I really didnt think KS would go) and get a text from Brad Nelson with a pic of the Cu they are watching. Turn my GR over to Topeka and I see echo tops starting to show up. They weren't impressive but it was obvious that the cap was eroding and storms would go soon. Now that I knew KS was gonna happen I bolted south. However, while I was sitting in Nebraska City I somehow switched off my power strip. So while I'm on my was to KS I notice that my computer battery is at 49%, and I think WTF!?!?! No, no no no no, I know I didnt pop a fuse, espcially since I had no extra ones. I go in to switch fuses (can't remember what fuse I took out to replace the cigarette lighter), and still nothing. On top of this, at the same time my computer decicided to freeze up and had to reboot everything. The switched fuse didn't do anything (keep in mind the fuses in my car are a PAIN IN THE ASS to change), I start thinking I should just head home, cut my losses. Must've been out of desperation I flip the switch on the power strip and whaddya know, it's working again. I still have no idea how I turned it off, but was just extremely happy I got everything figured out. So after this little debacle I continue south. The first storm looked good on radar for a while, even had a couplet on velocity for a couple scans. Plan was to intercept it near Marysville, KS. After I got to Marysville the storm didnt look good visually and didnt look good on radar. Even still, tracked it north for a few miles. Got a view of the base, a little wall cloud, sucked up scud but the scud didnt get pulled up very far. Chased it a couple more miles, ran in to fellow Minnesota chase Jacob Thumberger on a random back road yet again (same thing happened on April 5th in northwest Missouri). The storm puked out, saw another storm to the southwest, nothing else in the area, decided to go after it and try to intercept it near Washington, KS. That's exactly what ended up happening. A nice hill gave me a nice view of the base when I was approaching the storm, but too far away to tell exactly what was happening. Surprisingly the terrain in that area is kinda crappy. Kept going on highway 36 (I think it's 36) to a mile or two west of Washington. A nice feature was hanging on ground to the right, with another area to the left. The area to the right reminded me of a couple of Hollingshead's pics, except no tornado. Still not exactly sure what it was, it looked detached from the base, but I don't know for sure. Watched it for a while, got some video, watched it die out, started to focus my attention to the area to the left as it was came obvious this was the new inflow area. Didn't really have much to it when I was west of Washington, but not long after I started to head back east it REALLY ramped up. Once I got east of Washington, it really started spinning. A large wall cloud with probably the most incredible structure I've ever seen. No rain or hail wrapping around to cut off my view, just incredible. Quite a few trees just off the highway, so had to find an area where there were few trees and I could get a good view of the ground in the distance, which was surprisingly hard to do. Finally found a spot to pull over and got some more video and some pics. Watched it for about 6 or 7 minutes, then had to get back east. Chased it east and north a little bit, watched it puke out too. Apparently a little spinup was reported north of Washington, but I never saw it, then again I wasn't real close. Let that storm go and dove back southwest to try to catch another tornado warned. This third storm looked good on radar but didn't have a view of the base. Can't remember exactly what road it was, but the only road I had to get to the north-south highway I wanted was a northwest-southeast road. It ended up being ok because on my way to the north-south oriented road I was just east of the base of a storm that got tor-warned while I was heading to the storm to the south. This storm also had a nice base and what I think was a wall cloud but it could've been the start of the soon to be very impressive shelf cloud. Either way it was pretty cool. Eventually got to the north-south highway in time to watch the storms line out. I was definitely not dissapointed though, the shelf was simply increible. Didn't get in front of it long enough to setup the tripod, but did get to snap a pic or two of it. Ran in to the only hail of the day while trying to get south of the shelf cloud and even then it was only a little pea size hail. All in all a very good chase, and definitely glad I didnt turn around after my little equipment malfunction. I think the pics do a better job explaining the day than this writeup so I'll let them speak for me.<br /><br />The first storm north of Marysville, KS:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibJtPSxJuhJbgdgKrVfw3UrDKsIXt4qme7UQHNWfn0Dqi5Jqwmbh-Dw8C0e_cQHCTtxu45hMfnG19nALTtuSOEfs7fCUywoWphDKcqKlYwIM0RsogsYne05MoAkU2yEP2IUeUbbnlg1Jw/s1600/_4292015.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibJtPSxJuhJbgdgKrVfw3UrDKsIXt4qme7UQHNWfn0Dqi5Jqwmbh-Dw8C0e_cQHCTtxu45hMfnG19nALTtuSOEfs7fCUywoWphDKcqKlYwIM0RsogsYne05MoAkU2yEP2IUeUbbnlg1Jw/s320/_4292015.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469061062641482290" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj49zIIHZ2erj1HcYTiiemmUiedee1414elwndI8idrzriNIaO3B2oJy8jtIkjxnBVYbpB51jgjnTu-jHGjp_busTFRtKzgaZ8A_th0P4wD8bubRodO_wNMYOdaBWXXc_PMmiNVR-QT1rs/s1600/_4292032.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj49zIIHZ2erj1HcYTiiemmUiedee1414elwndI8idrzriNIaO3B2oJy8jtIkjxnBVYbpB51jgjnTu-jHGjp_busTFRtKzgaZ8A_th0P4wD8bubRodO_wNMYOdaBWXXc_PMmiNVR-QT1rs/s320/_4292032.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469061060529301506" /></a><br /><br />Second storm near Washington, KS. The feature to the right is the one I was saying I don't know what it is, and sorta resembles a couple of Hollingshead's pics (not sure what day they were from):<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaz5WCJZea4VKPn9m5ZzaWZcm06uDZRsyv7ypHzhM-oZ4KGSTxWPIFBKrlg9igAfvePvl4dVD4TpPXGDgzbWZJurQmf_JYjRtMola-w-rd0OSXYFPLMmJpI7DgxwPC0qyWj0aoUwEygVw/s1600/_4292034.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaz5WCJZea4VKPn9m5ZzaWZcm06uDZRsyv7ypHzhM-oZ4KGSTxWPIFBKrlg9igAfvePvl4dVD4TpPXGDgzbWZJurQmf_JYjRtMola-w-rd0OSXYFPLMmJpI7DgxwPC0qyWj0aoUwEygVw/s320/_4292034.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469062122784973746" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsWYdVBPqIsxoP4Ia0NKEbR388rKgg6jy_dTLeoNa7rlaTWVopNMVz4Te3Yx-FK9-K36sCeQawJBCMRC9DxLCq5-v2wfiYEsQKCuY61H9V_uKHQ-ZXow_J5yQbJEjB9_O-YbK6_5U0L_o/s1600/_4292035.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsWYdVBPqIsxoP4Ia0NKEbR388rKgg6jy_dTLeoNa7rlaTWVopNMVz4Te3Yx-FK9-K36sCeQawJBCMRC9DxLCq5-v2wfiYEsQKCuY61H9V_uKHQ-ZXow_J5yQbJEjB9_O-YbK6_5U0L_o/s320/_4292035.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469062110402543330" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj6Io3cH696nRsxDiq53LKCXbegDebyZVpJXYUxjDAGxzQbJqEkeacuI3TyBje9_u9Bj20nLqKj0E9G_Ag20UlaFNhYRDZIhAt1Ar54SyubYkTfxUMzol-H9TP7vXoqcvI234kSxlGCTc/s1600/_4292037.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj6Io3cH696nRsxDiq53LKCXbegDebyZVpJXYUxjDAGxzQbJqEkeacuI3TyBje9_u9Bj20nLqKj0E9G_Ag20UlaFNhYRDZIhAt1Ar54SyubYkTfxUMzol-H9TP7vXoqcvI234kSxlGCTc/s320/_4292037.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469062108744271426" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW4tKLGu7KSLIUmLnyUZB3wsyYz3_3oliSi_A3h3MgmC5FeCKzoJEQNW9qx2po27ig6Nld9rGW0QIhPOmhtI7xrddA0JzORek7BIsxwAdJ73zHRA5ZBm0X9EBtLtUABcuTr8VbmPNJ1S4/s1600/_4292040.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW4tKLGu7KSLIUmLnyUZB3wsyYz3_3oliSi_A3h3MgmC5FeCKzoJEQNW9qx2po27ig6Nld9rGW0QIhPOmhtI7xrddA0JzORek7BIsxwAdJ73zHRA5ZBm0X9EBtLtUABcuTr8VbmPNJ1S4/s320/_4292040.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469062096728453922" /></a><br /><br />Same storm, new action area. Still west of Washington:<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMPwTm2mLL-JV40SR7XGUVqFObxJJMkX8DTibZfdmWxwIa9h41lZLKidH_lXKlYVXzDR1zwTy4GXFw_EjfrNnqxvXQNZyKvK2i-qN1PdeWmF1HVYoyEyRJeK0lWZXPKQ61eMuF4xUEqtk/s1600/_4292045.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMPwTm2mLL-JV40SR7XGUVqFObxJJMkX8DTibZfdmWxwIa9h41lZLKidH_lXKlYVXzDR1zwTy4GXFw_EjfrNnqxvXQNZyKvK2i-qN1PdeWmF1HVYoyEyRJeK0lWZXPKQ61eMuF4xUEqtk/s320/_4292045.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469062992029277282" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9kmcIDRrOG5q_AEYzOVuBkRe9YRdmX_0Y1p5M2KkWCOwcKLXYfKNhVvqbkHW-6bJO9bJ93o1S5kSsoe73gExIt6MttzicCMQUQiuRSdc1XgxAG80D1jx2yTLG8PLiO4i2CcLBqH_5TkA/s1600/_4292047.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9kmcIDRrOG5q_AEYzOVuBkRe9YRdmX_0Y1p5M2KkWCOwcKLXYfKNhVvqbkHW-6bJO9bJ93o1S5kSsoe73gExIt6MttzicCMQUQiuRSdc1XgxAG80D1jx2yTLG8PLiO4i2CcLBqH_5TkA/s320/_4292047.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469062987081052482" /></a><br /><br />Storm east of Washington:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPRZ18fw1LIakf3WGrMxdy6TxtglzgWGtNS7g2aMLxJFcMr7BzjrQHjD6pD86TAMpnjfylbLkBhEgX4EhQ4DcWkpXjNOe_Pv9UUU79Ql4h-CYpL8k-T7YRN3wGX7QEOUd46ewWKUSOy7Y/s1600/_4292048.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPRZ18fw1LIakf3WGrMxdy6TxtglzgWGtNS7g2aMLxJFcMr7BzjrQHjD6pD86TAMpnjfylbLkBhEgX4EhQ4DcWkpXjNOe_Pv9UUU79Ql4h-CYpL8k-T7YRN3wGX7QEOUd46ewWKUSOy7Y/s320/_4292048.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469064608429894530" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicD9_z6kv0mTudCdcnpKztbNddindC84UcvrUZx22iKEGdMzE9ZrCiYcnruFHMPPaU9h5AfktGnK3ZTkOhriRhml3QUeo6dT-RT0oNPsR3hy1AJhF8xG6MDcI3Pop1k0_Ra2plgMVihO8/s1600/_4292049.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicD9_z6kv0mTudCdcnpKztbNddindC84UcvrUZx22iKEGdMzE9ZrCiYcnruFHMPPaU9h5AfktGnK3ZTkOhriRhml3QUeo6dT-RT0oNPsR3hy1AJhF8xG6MDcI3Pop1k0_Ra2plgMVihO8/s320/_4292049.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469064597556110178" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdW0YE4gW9eBnmRSkWnVBsYvRF6F5rAKWjGsv1V6syoSiKjPyEoLPK-74i-kuZY-wJbG1ofhbFvplOznJ5hUfiPcryYX-5WZ8mo1Pa6-bZsAHCwbAIi6veR-RBncygRlrDS42K6dE7abE/s1600/_4292051.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdW0YE4gW9eBnmRSkWnVBsYvRF6F5rAKWjGsv1V6syoSiKjPyEoLPK-74i-kuZY-wJbG1ofhbFvplOznJ5hUfiPcryYX-5WZ8mo1Pa6-bZsAHCwbAIi6veR-RBncygRlrDS42K6dE7abE/s320/_4292051.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469064274459605714" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6saVe9yDr7acqc99CmWr7y6qxB884wo0pgUNCo-p3__3IqTI-g4J4Ph0xQ6c5Ld960ERGCjpGKxX75HAUVDaYb0Ks_eMP_0sBjmD2MD9ET7W8DRo64_Wxc5aWYLWEt8w96gO-7E8P6ws/s1600/_4292052.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6saVe9yDr7acqc99CmWr7y6qxB884wo0pgUNCo-p3__3IqTI-g4J4Ph0xQ6c5Ld960ERGCjpGKxX75HAUVDaYb0Ks_eMP_0sBjmD2MD9ET7W8DRo64_Wxc5aWYLWEt8w96gO-7E8P6ws/s320/_4292052.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469064268289378578" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaOeN_gc3HW9kj01fl_FuAda4xk6tf8SmmPgVvhmqLUjqTA8svTCB9-Dz7pnU1IAWpLFke28TzfRNCzYiXTSoMPcAYu99qKWru8w_IAcvwU5POwjMd4MkqtYBzEOrUAdwcwNgJgn2jfPg/s1600/_4292053.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaOeN_gc3HW9kj01fl_FuAda4xk6tf8SmmPgVvhmqLUjqTA8svTCB9-Dz7pnU1IAWpLFke28TzfRNCzYiXTSoMPcAYu99qKWru8w_IAcvwU5POwjMd4MkqtYBzEOrUAdwcwNgJgn2jfPg/s320/_4292053.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469064257385042338" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqlAPs6mpneMHtmNLBF0bOx6NaV_r-XJhrrEXoIoCOi6O16ANJbB4wg1tGXdaJ7rCVL2KADTt_Rd8whZrZQaZbQGf6nK7vOlpRBmQoGgTpL0LEZX7dQqjIwQvpLk57ScF8IC4zQWmZQrk/s1600/_4292054.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 154px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqlAPs6mpneMHtmNLBF0bOx6NaV_r-XJhrrEXoIoCOi6O16ANJbB4wg1tGXdaJ7rCVL2KADTt_Rd8whZrZQaZbQGf6nK7vOlpRBmQoGgTpL0LEZX7dQqjIwQvpLk57ScF8IC4zQWmZQrk/s320/_4292054.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469064250972369042" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVS8yp8CgLY9hIegrHo1BwfvlFZ8vTSW7BPntvQpxwL9WfK18seiZPwUI5eVCctt0r7XY5s5TPCD6fN7Hg8qOiOe_Yve-kps36E2Rov-1Wk6rqWX9CcuVmYfS2-qzFDTqa5iHdZOlFhrA/s1600/_4292055.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVS8yp8CgLY9hIegrHo1BwfvlFZ8vTSW7BPntvQpxwL9WfK18seiZPwUI5eVCctt0r7XY5s5TPCD6fN7Hg8qOiOe_Yve-kps36E2Rov-1Wk6rqWX9CcuVmYfS2-qzFDTqa5iHdZOlFhrA/s320/_4292055.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469064245896289586" /></a><br /><br />Shelf about 10 miles northwest of Washington:<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6RHPuuobPXyQZYUgsKL9ojWJ_bGyqDw1IuOTipXLkRedDt51YOobhFEwVXoIRVLz5UxLg4lie6vfXbvLgEVWn1b2Zk8wziV-Q7GCR2J51REQNOTSZJcsfaMrCmMmyj2XLrf6efo-i3YI/s1600/_4292059.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6RHPuuobPXyQZYUgsKL9ojWJ_bGyqDw1IuOTipXLkRedDt51YOobhFEwVXoIRVLz5UxLg4lie6vfXbvLgEVWn1b2Zk8wziV-Q7GCR2J51REQNOTSZJcsfaMrCmMmyj2XLrf6efo-i3YI/s320/_4292059.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469065140335471666" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVrLdSFIQg6CopYDh3Nh1d5ZxZy-oph4Kfli8ge28dN3ymoUJgGhf91LYxr7RdkVeTn5doE740gkkshg0qJe6zBO4FPkoZM0qF7nxfo7vIyjkwiYyey5fFcWYEzCFYWQm0998IH2kS-XM/s1600/_4292061.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVrLdSFIQg6CopYDh3Nh1d5ZxZy-oph4Kfli8ge28dN3ymoUJgGhf91LYxr7RdkVeTn5doE740gkkshg0qJe6zBO4FPkoZM0qF7nxfo7vIyjkwiYyey5fFcWYEzCFYWQm0998IH2kS-XM/s320/_4292061.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469065135498082434" /></a><br /><br />Possible tornado, although I can NOT confirm:<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAnGwI8c-cf1UcyQusZCAFa0RRokRRiw3YARgAlP7pr7R3-aTLBZ9z_0qr-vwwFjIFq5wqgTlSsdhvOtzByuR8Rt2fFb3BE_foUbpg4AqncG6AWhI_FlzOHKaEm7xP1xkSFjWa8fiu09A/s1600/possible+tornado+-+Copy.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 173px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAnGwI8c-cf1UcyQusZCAFa0RRokRRiw3YARgAlP7pr7R3-aTLBZ9z_0qr-vwwFjIFq5wqgTlSsdhvOtzByuR8Rt2fFb3BE_foUbpg4AqncG6AWhI_FlzOHKaEm7xP1xkSFjWa8fiu09A/s320/possible+tornado+-+Copy.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469065540517635954" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC1UKVqhlhTS1-oDGZtL1P7FgeLIxxL3HuMbwAbhrQTmlKdnUnhn5BPcc3z6WezmakXdzGF-sRYJYZZYVo1peAucrSMjwVnZ5qn6JsQpWhXrB2qvENilSFyo2o8gOPVTZ4i5OhWKLV_Zs/s1600/possible+tornado.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 222px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC1UKVqhlhTS1-oDGZtL1P7FgeLIxxL3HuMbwAbhrQTmlKdnUnhn5BPcc3z6WezmakXdzGF-sRYJYZZYVo1peAucrSMjwVnZ5qn6JsQpWhXrB2qvENilSFyo2o8gOPVTZ4i5OhWKLV_Zs/s320/possible+tornado.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469065529369156370" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBtNJDRg8lIoPIesNZwtlde55t1wqZn8qiaL_xLlWYErIlwT_mS4vATG2QOTLNDSzkCBJ4koVlhT5je7AUbBaGpDwy-8fC-FlwiRdlVaByNh4_p4DWacJ3NtNg8WdCX-4C8mNCPJQp-Hg/s1600/enhanced+possible+tornado.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 154px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBtNJDRg8lIoPIesNZwtlde55t1wqZn8qiaL_xLlWYErIlwT_mS4vATG2QOTLNDSzkCBJ4koVlhT5je7AUbBaGpDwy-8fC-FlwiRdlVaByNh4_p4DWacJ3NtNg8WdCX-4C8mNCPJQp-Hg/s320/enhanced+possible+tornado.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469065527567751250" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/dean681#p/a/u/0/6OnjozSlxxY">CLICK HERE FOR THE TIMELAPSE OF THE STORM NEAR WASHINGTON, KS</a><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/dean681#p/a/u/1/DrCd4wItiDQ">CLICK HERE FOR THE COMPILATION OF THE CHASE NEAR WASHINGTON, KS</a>Midwestchaserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15029730861995418666noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5459589073371862468.post-78614291363809905772010-05-02T19:53:00.004-05:002010-05-02T20:20:20.297-05:00About as close as you can get to producing without actually doing it. Informal chaselog 4/29/2010I still have pics and video to go through from the Washington, KS area from Thursday so I'm not going to make a big chaselog about this day yet but I will soon. I just wanted to show some pics I took that appear to show a funnel trying to extend to the ground. A very brief, weak tornado was reported in about the same area at about the same time but Topeka's write-up about it said a condensation never reached down when the TOR was reported. The pics that I have show SOMETHING just to the left (west) of a large wall cloud under the same parent meso. Everything was spinning like crazy but unfortunately I was a bit too far away to see the little dust spinup that was reported and a nice pair of trees block the view of my video camera just as the funnel was coming down. I didn't even notice this during the chase, and even when I got home and looked through the pics I didn't notice it right away. Eventually I did notice something hanging off a feature to the right of the main wall cloud. Still hard to say what it was, could be scud for all I know but my timelapse of the area showed this feature rapidly rotating with good rising motion. Anyways, here's the pic and link to the timelapse video. Let me know what you think!<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUo4Zfy3L3HAGRyGbMdVljFRf3hbjYWdh3TtlzBWmypsFHti_y4_RztycPob73pBF88dMVyaZCKJ_ZPydYKoUxD2Y1OVTH-sWVBzHkdlUN3cZwd2w18aqvdp1K-HiU0yraj3k9qqyLdW8/s1600/possible+tornado.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 222px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUo4Zfy3L3HAGRyGbMdVljFRf3hbjYWdh3TtlzBWmypsFHti_y4_RztycPob73pBF88dMVyaZCKJ_ZPydYKoUxD2Y1OVTH-sWVBzHkdlUN3cZwd2w18aqvdp1K-HiU0yraj3k9qqyLdW8/s320/possible+tornado.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5466845113195873426" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyZdzj7VuHqhlhfVTmgO2CaIYNIeAKc-C1aq_Nt7fx1xNNFYHIWzf1L69vqCu9pARgztSH3Io8VieJrNcNNYNXuQU2FTcDMgXj2bi17qlPg7Xof_XANLlN0VQQUo23kR_lOHuDYb14vg4/s1600/enhanced+possible+tornado.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 154px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyZdzj7VuHqhlhfVTmgO2CaIYNIeAKc-C1aq_Nt7fx1xNNFYHIWzf1L69vqCu9pARgztSH3Io8VieJrNcNNYNXuQU2FTcDMgXj2bi17qlPg7Xof_XANLlN0VQQUo23kR_lOHuDYb14vg4/s320/enhanced+possible+tornado.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5466845107112329490" /></a><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OnjozSlxxY">CLICK HERE TO SEE THE TIMELAPSE</a>Midwestchaserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15029730861995418666noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5459589073371862468.post-84983325930678775712010-04-17T19:03:00.003-05:002010-04-17T19:22:20.733-05:00First try at star trails and, well, I dunno.............Headed out last night after work to get some pics of the cool crescent moon. Apparently moonset was much quicker than I was expecting so instead I headed up a couple miles north of Stacy, MN to do my first try at star trails. Pretty clear night, figured why not since I was ready to take pics and didnt want to go home empty handed. I did this forgetting that my E520 is an entry level DSLR, I forgot that I have to hold the shutter release button down when on bulb setting, unlike my Nikon N65 film SLR which I press once, come back and press it open to end the exposure, and dont have to sit there holding it the entire time. Anyway, I managed. I think my max exposure time even for bulb is 480 sec. (8 minutes). Not sure if that is the norm or not, but would've liked to get some 15 minute exposures. Not sure whether that would be good on the camera/lens or not though. A little chilly, nearly froze my hands off holding the shutter button down. Got one decent pic for my first try after a decent times post-processing. <br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-1Ey02ayRV4-iipzfyEsMrWAYumqa9Rvm8fTO24smm0zNq_UBXT0KQ66Hj2P3byVICbSXFHHdqNM2zJBQDf6De3ifO8y-i04hRb8fEosuGNdYLkmYpFrrQm4S5DqP485jwaEVkylcj8A/s1600/_4172006.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 226px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-1Ey02ayRV4-iipzfyEsMrWAYumqa9Rvm8fTO24smm0zNq_UBXT0KQ66Hj2P3byVICbSXFHHdqNM2zJBQDf6De3ifO8y-i04hRb8fEosuGNdYLkmYpFrrQm4S5DqP485jwaEVkylcj8A/s320/_4172006.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461264500067038354" /></a><br /><br />On a different note, wanted to go back to a couple things in my last entry. Not gonna beat a dead horse...Just want to apologize to Rich and everyone at F5 for anything that has come up the last couple days. I still do not regret what I did, but yes there was a better way to do it. I just gotta remember you only get caught up in as much chaser drama as you let yourself get in to. I'd rather shut up and keep F5 around than do anything like that again and lose it.Midwestchaserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15029730861995418666noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5459589073371862468.post-26456687692910510112010-04-15T14:19:00.002-05:002010-04-15T14:54:54.063-05:00The connotations that come with TVNArrggg, I really don't want to write this with it being the beginning of storm season. I would rather focus my time and energy on that than sit here and get pissed off while writing this entry but I feel it is necessary to clear the air on somethings. So...<br />As I wrote here on my blog about a month ago I am now streaming for tornadovideos.net. Right off the bat, I want to make one thing clear: TVN contacted ME, I did not beg to stream or be associated with them (don't get me wrong, I'm very happy to be with TVN). Prior to them contacting me about streaming through them this year I had no desired to stream. I was not begging them to let me become a part of their organization, and I in NO WAY joined because of Reed's involvement with them. I joined them because after hearing what they offer it sounded like a good deicision. Now that I have joined TVN it seems that people think that anything I argue about is because I have magically gained this huge ego simply because I stream for TVN. If I dont stream for TVN, no ego, but now that I stream for TVN, I have an ego. No TVN, no ego; TVN, HUGE ego. I do not get that. While I dont have any specific examples and no one has explicitly said anything like that, I can't help but get the sense that is what people are thinking. Maybe they don't think that specifically about me, but I know there are at least a few people who think that about TVN streamers in general, and that now includes me. Most of this lately has been happening at F5, which is weird because the majority of the people there know me personally or have at least seen me post enough to know that I am not that kind of a person. Have I gotten a bigger ego since I started chasing? Sure. Who doesn't. It comes with being more confident about what you're doing, and needless to say I feel that I am certainly a much better chaser now than when I started. You want to consider that a huge ego and think the only reason I am with TVN or chase now is because of Reed and money, go for it. If that's what you think you're not the person I want to associate myself with anyway. <br />Also, there have been a couple other issues that have come up this week that I want to clear the air about. I bit my tounge at F5, I dont want to be the person to piss all over the forum. Instead, it came out on FB. I do not regret a single word I said. The reason I said what I said is simple. A chaser (out of respect for their privacy we will call them chaser A) felt the need to hold everyone's hand and try to get them to all be nice. While this is fine, what this person said is common knowledge, but continued to overstate the obvious. On Monay Chaser A posted tips on how to communicate better and how to report better in light of some things that happened earlier on Monday. This was a long post that 99% of the people on F5 know and is stuff that is taught in Skywarn classes or posted in the "Rules" section at F5. These kinds of posts continued until yesterday with Chaser A overstating the obvious, and I felt that it was keeping the experienced chasers from posting and bringing down the quality of the forum. On top of that it was pissing me off having a new chaser trying to teach me how to chase and acting like he was saving the day. We'll just say that kind of crap pisses me off to no end. So a different chaser posts a status update yesterday. I post a couple of comments on it semi mocking chaser A. Chaser A then posts a comment with, and I quote "... I felt the reporting piece was needed so we don't have a bitchfest everytime there's a questionable report whether it's from JDH or someone else." Maybe it's just me and I apologize if it is, but to me that sounds like "You're welcome I came in and saved the day." Nah ah, nope, that crap DOES NOT fly with me. If you actually did something to help out, I would be grateful. But nothing posted by Chaser A was of any real value and certainly nothing that no everyone at F5 doesn't already know. So I comment back with, and I quote "Yes (Chaser A) you saved the day. I applaud you for your heroism." I won't go in to what others said since it's not really relevant to this entry. Instead, I want to explain that I did not say this because I am now streaming for TVN and I want to reinforce the statement that I have no bigger ego now that I did before I agreed to stream with TVN. I would feel the same about Chaser A regardless of whether I decided to stream with TVN or not. Lets not forget a couple months ago when I was battling MIDSCAR. That was an arguement, and guess what?!? I WAS NOT WITH TVN THEN!! Nobody had any problem with what I was doing, in fact people were AGREEING with me. Now I get in to an arguement AFTER I SIGN UP WITH TVN and people have a problem with me arguing with someone? I do not get that. Like I said my opinion about Chaser A would be the same whether or not I was with TVN. I'm going to stop writing, I'm getting too pissed off thinking that people actually think my personality has all of a sudden changed now that I'm with TVN. Come on people, you know me better than that.Midwestchaserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15029730861995418666noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5459589073371862468.post-2426567912594616832010-04-04T21:08:00.004-05:002010-04-05T07:33:30.993-05:00It's that season again! 4/5/10 Chase FCSTFinally a real setup. Models have been all over the place with the system that is expected to come through the plains tomorrow. However, I'm taking the latest run more to heart. The GFS and WRF have finally come to somewhat of an agreement for tomorrow afternoon. While neither models completely erode CINH before 00z, both show a large of significantly weakened inhibition over southeast Nebraska, southwest Iowa, and northwest Missouri. Everything looks to be in place for a decent setup IF (and I stress IF) we can get precip/clouds to clear out of the target area soon enough allowing sufficient destablization during the day. Models show at least 1500 j/kg of MLCAPE across the area mentioned above with a great amount of shear along and north of a warm front that is expected to move north in to southern/central Iowa tomorrow afternoon. Gonna want to stay close to that front as I dont know what the triggering mechanism will be further south. Since Iowa/Nebraska are closer than Missouri I'm content with just playing the warm front action. The downside if the storms fire is they will be hauling ass. Storms today were moving at 45-50 mph and I expect those same speeds tomorrow. For now the current target is Clarinda, IA.<br /><br />EDIT: Didnt feel it was worth writing up a new post. Target is still Clarinda, IA. Also wanted let everyone know I will be streaming later today. Be sure to check it out at tornadovideos.net/liveMidwestchaserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15029730861995418666noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5459589073371862468.post-30174894626824979202010-03-15T08:00:00.003-06:002010-03-15T15:04:41.609-06:00Some big news and a new picIt's official. I'm happy to say I will be streaming my chases live through tornadovideos.net and also have them market my video to news stations. It will be nice to get a little $$ back for my chasing. I'm not exactly sure how they have their website setup for getting to the streams, but I will figure it out and post it. Make sure to check it out as the more viewers I get on my stream and the longer they stay on it the more money I get. Really looking forward to 2010 and it can't come soon enough! Thanks to Heidi Farrar for helping me out with all the info and also to Andrew Butler for giving them my name and also the info! <br /><br />Now for the pic. I went down to downtown Minneapolis after work on Friday night hoping to get some cool shots with all the fog around. The fog right at the surface wasn't cooperating but just above the surface it got very dense. Anyways, here's the one pic I was proud of:<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcfAZa5zI7Ax12J1svg9JsWKn2T8LD5wBgdh8tK_hl_LtuQo00o9S-vGNllA3b6oF7ar35EsJ_i8NPuC8mkgk2WirHHHzgszLlSsvwJpGM45NS3G7hxjFHmkB5Vlj4N4bK6dwbMJEahh0/s1600-h/_3131990.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 174px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcfAZa5zI7Ax12J1svg9JsWKn2T8LD5wBgdh8tK_hl_LtuQo00o9S-vGNllA3b6oF7ar35EsJ_i8NPuC8mkgk2WirHHHzgszLlSsvwJpGM45NS3G7hxjFHmkB5Vlj4N4bK6dwbMJEahh0/s320/_3131990.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5448969334803968562" /></a>Midwestchaserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15029730861995418666noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5459589073371862468.post-24906997788110988512010-03-08T21:02:00.004-06:002010-03-08T22:22:54.046-06:00First WTF?!? day of the seasonSo as most weather nerds know already there was a long track tornado in western Oklahoma today. Andy Gabrielson of Luverne, MN who I have chased with a few times caught some great footage of the tornado near Hammon, OK in the later afternoon. Bart Comstock also got some great video and both have some of their footage playing on TWC so congrats to both on bagging the tornado and getting the footage on several news outlets. This was a day that noone really expected, and the chasers that did go for it were pretty skeptical. Temps barely breaking 60, dewpoints barely breaking 50, and models showing far less than par helicities over the area that had the tornado. For some chasers and wx nerds here in Minnesota and Wisconsin this might sound somewhat familiar. August 19th, 2009 had SOMEWHAT of a same setup. Relatively cool temps and low instability. While there were many differences between 8/19/09 and today, cool core nature and low instability dynamics are obviously major factors. MLCAPE values were ~500-750 j/kg (8/19 here in MN MLCAPE were around 200-300). The forecast models were showing the helicity today being pretty low, definitely not what you would expect for a long track tornado. The forecasted helicities for 8/19 in MN were pretty big. While I can't be 100% sure about this since I am no expert but I'm guessing that for today the models were neglecting to pick up on on the localized shear just to the east/northeast of the center of the low which is where the tornado touched down. I don't know how strong this low was since I wasn't really paying attention, but regardless the shear will be maximized in the area mentioned above. Couple strong shear (eventhough no one knew it was there) with just enough instability and you get what we had today. There was someone at ST who said they drove though 1.5" hail in the core of the storm so it's possible a brief tornado would've touched down with even less instability, but nothing like what actually happened. Another amazing thing is how good the visibility was today given that it was a cold core event. Days like today are the reason we chasers go out on days that don't look good because every once in a while it will really pay off. Also just goes to prove that there doesn't need to be a tornado watch or even warning (severe t-storm warning for that matter) before you get a tornado. It is also very important to note that this storm did not look good at all on any level or any scan. There was no way to know what it was about to do because it was so far away from any radar site and at that distance you can't see the lower levels of the storm. It had no couplet on velocity, no hook, no organization all on radar, and tops only ~30k ft. Nothing about this setup looked good except the storm itself, which is ultimately the most important thing. I think it was great listening to TWC and listening to them talk about how big of a role Spotter Network played in getting the warning out. I'll definitely have to keep these kinds of days in mind for the future. Congrats again to Andy, Bart, and everyone else who got the tor today!Midwestchaserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15029730861995418666noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5459589073371862468.post-31115654304470075392010-02-28T23:23:00.005-06:002010-02-28T23:53:26.433-06:00I need a longer lensHa, I knew I'd get more than one entry here in February, albeit it 25 days apart but whatever. Headed down to Red Wing last Monday around 1:00 to see if the eagles were out. They were, but my kit 80-300mm just doesn't cut it. There was an incredible photo op as a lone eagle did two laps around the boats in the bay at Colvill park. Thing is is that it happened right after I pulled in and my camera settings were still set from low lights shots and didn't have to time adjust them and get setup before the big boy was gone. FUCK! Spent the rest of the day trying to take pics of eagles and hawks that are way too far away for my crappy kit lens. Still pretty fun though, pics dont break a trip that's main goal was just to get away for the afternoon. Good pics would've just been a bonus. After I got home and realized my pics turned out like shit I went on BH to look at new lenses and teleconverters. Unfortunately Olympus isn't like Nikon or Canon and doesn't offer a huge variety of lenses, but I think I found a decent lens for a decent price, a hell of a lot better than the one I have now. Won't be getting it until next offseason but I definitely want to get in to bird photography. The lens is an Olympus 70-300mm (equiv. 140-600mm due to the 4/3 system).<br />http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/504906-REG/Olympus_261057_70_300mm_f_4_5_6_Zuiko_ED.html#reviews<br />Combine that with a 2x teleconverter and we're talking some serious zoom. Probably have to pick up a monopod for it, but that will likely be my big purchase next offseason, unless another telephoto lens comes out for a decent price. <br />Anyways, here's the proof that I desperately need a better lens:<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkbvdrSS9UP6bZ6BuoY4v_KPsFnnCV7tLbHruAgJxHAZOlRmv2QFsV5cMDsRtjVmTez_X14htZSvbPAhqAtdeFwf3wWJJQ7G5g4_z2cN5zWfVLS3BiIGNOlmNilJhZEk3G7kpEE3Xh1Yc/s1600-h/_2221882.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 186px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkbvdrSS9UP6bZ6BuoY4v_KPsFnnCV7tLbHruAgJxHAZOlRmv2QFsV5cMDsRtjVmTez_X14htZSvbPAhqAtdeFwf3wWJJQ7G5g4_z2cN5zWfVLS3BiIGNOlmNilJhZEk3G7kpEE3Xh1Yc/s320/_2221882.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5443539101595078194" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJPdWTKtCz0MNy0LGhQHPVS5EMEML6l4NtJ4rGa_Ibo1ML23KLsU6_EaZP9pEtlGuo_Y9pAglsal91eIhHMP-QBe5LOYDmIav3eVcORCr9CSRn9dOgtX1GI-2r5PAeKMMqN0yssyCCNrM/s1600-h/_2221881.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJPdWTKtCz0MNy0LGhQHPVS5EMEML6l4NtJ4rGa_Ibo1ML23KLsU6_EaZP9pEtlGuo_Y9pAglsal91eIhHMP-QBe5LOYDmIav3eVcORCr9CSRn9dOgtX1GI-2r5PAeKMMqN0yssyCCNrM/s320/_2221881.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5443539095609970178" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhehzWZW6dGTc87fbZjQkIpNuIIUlvfegKvznYhMtOy72D7lWPPG9cVVE7GY3Om9s5QfIeufue0IGyxVQyIbz7oqJ30RH1F7AO95MYeaU8VzNNg35ZBBk7FAwRC6rh_kPa0n6XYvzFMcKg/s1600-h/_2221880.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhehzWZW6dGTc87fbZjQkIpNuIIUlvfegKvznYhMtOy72D7lWPPG9cVVE7GY3Om9s5QfIeufue0IGyxVQyIbz7oqJ30RH1F7AO95MYeaU8VzNNg35ZBBk7FAwRC6rh_kPa0n6XYvzFMcKg/s320/_2221880.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5443539085801734978" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh3ko7RjVufTeIycX-KYUKOTHGgQ07gkkGc06bSmCQlD7A0ooZyGFMXDAWPdTv9EguIvKGQX59_68MJj-xOxsmPs_UgCzncQxgFJR1KEgKHQN-qX7TnNX2102DnBafGsffo1pDiJAXqWU/s1600-h/_2221874.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh3ko7RjVufTeIycX-KYUKOTHGgQ07gkkGc06bSmCQlD7A0ooZyGFMXDAWPdTv9EguIvKGQX59_68MJj-xOxsmPs_UgCzncQxgFJR1KEgKHQN-qX7TnNX2102DnBafGsffo1pDiJAXqWU/s320/_2221874.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5443539084155722994" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNz_j_PLbyfcvk_eZF5ZOOcB9pRlTjiGfmrxfrTPVDVO-NXm0jRhXBk_MqlAytFOSLRUzUDOiXCb4obsbxWlMVtpugvmhr3suXmkMfArqe38QHZgpWqFmfKiS-KsIgRGBvWALb1HB5MFc/s1600-h/_2221911.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNz_j_PLbyfcvk_eZF5ZOOcB9pRlTjiGfmrxfrTPVDVO-NXm0jRhXBk_MqlAytFOSLRUzUDOiXCb4obsbxWlMVtpugvmhr3suXmkMfArqe38QHZgpWqFmfKiS-KsIgRGBvWALb1HB5MFc/s320/_2221911.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5443539376712514674" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNiA7D7tfvfDcilotVndaoA5SjwP-zWGRUZI9j1zmN4bxjdsUjFudDfUwGc4WKe2zF-CWhLWncFTJdO4-KJhymvHvqktmtSDSKP9TSKo-z8HoSxihZs2eU3Ixt-BKZZPs3TlrRm-XUUJ8/s1600-h/_2221907.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNiA7D7tfvfDcilotVndaoA5SjwP-zWGRUZI9j1zmN4bxjdsUjFudDfUwGc4WKe2zF-CWhLWncFTJdO4-KJhymvHvqktmtSDSKP9TSKo-z8HoSxihZs2eU3Ixt-BKZZPs3TlrRm-XUUJ8/s320/_2221907.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5443539373119116098" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5h81MiW_IA9JF8zU6yRw8SK9_nn-zDQ_qEGMOkaolRdJ6cTpV4sQelYyKppLIQhJdjqHTC2U6If39KT4B-uKUinJA-yyh6Ecq1sJcW9VRMJBVSBwilBoEhEvqAIC7lhxj4Ljlxqzz_BY/s1600-h/_2221900.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 192px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5h81MiW_IA9JF8zU6yRw8SK9_nn-zDQ_qEGMOkaolRdJ6cTpV4sQelYyKppLIQhJdjqHTC2U6If39KT4B-uKUinJA-yyh6Ecq1sJcW9VRMJBVSBwilBoEhEvqAIC7lhxj4Ljlxqzz_BY/s320/_2221900.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5443539366349890866" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLE0fMxNH1Z9P3rWhqUXOhpg7rqg8OL2ZcTHoDR0TkH6mpxipP_4bCQ7pMzb2rxGcvNS8yIKFD7hjuHM5B5W_lVXzlS7cQLo_h6VjoD4XYlNNcCIA8YXzbXb0WYccWMXeWXM3We7u7Lok/s1600-h/_2221896.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 304px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLE0fMxNH1Z9P3rWhqUXOhpg7rqg8OL2ZcTHoDR0TkH6mpxipP_4bCQ7pMzb2rxGcvNS8yIKFD7hjuHM5B5W_lVXzlS7cQLo_h6VjoD4XYlNNcCIA8YXzbXb0WYccWMXeWXM3We7u7Lok/s320/_2221896.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5443539361810698210" /></a>Midwestchaserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15029730861995418666noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5459589073371862468.post-20687092693872566642010-02-03T22:47:00.007-06:002010-02-03T23:09:18.617-06:00Moon pics. SDS is getting real badJeez I've gotten some SDS real bad and didnt even realize it. It wasn't until Scott W. called me out at ST to make me realize how big of a douche I was being and how far I was taking it. Pointless bitching that ended up going nowhere. Not that I still dont feel the issue was worth discussing, but admittedly it was a bit much. Anyways, thanks to Scott for getting me to realize it. I need to find something else to fill my time during the winter. I guess the working out, hockey, school, work, and photography still somehow don't fill it up. I've become the exact thing I was mocking at the beginning of the winter. Epic fail.<br /><br />Sooo... couple days ago I tried out some moon photography. Never done it before so it took me a little bit to figure it out. Some high cloud didn't help the situation, but eventually I was able to get some decent exposures. Wish I had a longer lens or I had gone out while the moon was a little closer but even still it was cool to try it out. One weird thing did happen to me. Thanks to F5 and ST (yes, ST) I think it's safe to assume what I saw was a pair of contrails move between me and the moon, effectively blocking out part of the moon while it moved from roughly SW to NE. Never seen anything like it before and probably wont see it again for a while. Either way it was cool/weird to see. Anyways, here's a few pics. Nothing great, but not bad.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN0zZprv7QEU35yu4eIq1Qi_FdeOt5LORF6MY3I98KczXcEciD9z7dBJe0DhrlxIsRINqFMlKvSjm5xYgpZruBuZSFEF30CHkP7sIIAdssMlvjYEtvuF-mRMFb4CQ9Om88EdC2dB851B8/s1600-h/_1311663.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 246px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN0zZprv7QEU35yu4eIq1Qi_FdeOt5LORF6MY3I98KczXcEciD9z7dBJe0DhrlxIsRINqFMlKvSjm5xYgpZruBuZSFEF30CHkP7sIIAdssMlvjYEtvuF-mRMFb4CQ9Om88EdC2dB851B8/s320/_1311663.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5434249569311556690" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTOc1WzGjGl_fMR1ZgMW57mlvbjTXt52XGMtYHq-329-e50mtNJZ5o3DsVgAa1jfbhsgDz8XcTgYl-dqY3IoHev5BCpog8xqvoVPpLut4QUdjeBZu6fVufkUwJhhjvZ3PiCqJi0apwqjU/s1600-h/_1311678.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTOc1WzGjGl_fMR1ZgMW57mlvbjTXt52XGMtYHq-329-e50mtNJZ5o3DsVgAa1jfbhsgDz8XcTgYl-dqY3IoHev5BCpog8xqvoVPpLut4QUdjeBZu6fVufkUwJhhjvZ3PiCqJi0apwqjU/s320/_1311678.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5434249945033336290" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4VfRJN9Xd56fe_r4vCSWR0oWbFgDMXS-3kw12Hx5AW0jk7F67EMqY-9Fm7jdffS0ki5cX-7MIiI6w44iHFbxPuIxEKyLGjX2inTIxjHSsf3Giv1xjGMPNk576VGJtfI-xh8dJHcxCxic/s1600-h/_1311664.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 205px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4VfRJN9Xd56fe_r4vCSWR0oWbFgDMXS-3kw12Hx5AW0jk7F67EMqY-9Fm7jdffS0ki5cX-7MIiI6w44iHFbxPuIxEKyLGjX2inTIxjHSsf3Giv1xjGMPNk576VGJtfI-xh8dJHcxCxic/s320/_1311664.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5434249938956198210" /></a><br /><br />The following pics are onces of the contrail just after it moved across the face of the moon (relative to my position). Unfortunately as it moved right in front I was waiting for a 25 second exposure to process on my camera. But was still able to manage these:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0kEhxJoWeTpnxBd1b4-YT-IXP6gQiGUtIbzzi5v-o3zQToWNSyiNA4MlPGV36DLlO6doco40AsJbKrESrn13fADvuelEzuPZoLpQl-w9NNdgBt56MoRnjw0tM-oHVtuhzA-kKAFZMu6c/s1600-h/uncropped.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0kEhxJoWeTpnxBd1b4-YT-IXP6gQiGUtIbzzi5v-o3zQToWNSyiNA4MlPGV36DLlO6doco40AsJbKrESrn13fADvuelEzuPZoLpQl-w9NNdgBt56MoRnjw0tM-oHVtuhzA-kKAFZMu6c/s320/uncropped.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5434250755145935746" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh557Ok6g75nwLQVyVzB5ulDdw03A8zZpbT1jVsqunv22TSxNcKVnRkEMxvrepus4p0u9gvsKkrNAwYzXL4ld3a83vAWKxzB8P4r3FGZxl9_jGR9SuEO36_VbL7nfGDRDh1h9hZtXglrR0/s1600-h/_1311691.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh557Ok6g75nwLQVyVzB5ulDdw03A8zZpbT1jVsqunv22TSxNcKVnRkEMxvrepus4p0u9gvsKkrNAwYzXL4ld3a83vAWKxzB8P4r3FGZxl9_jGR9SuEO36_VbL7nfGDRDh1h9hZtXglrR0/s320/_1311691.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5434250750675935186" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPUU8_jek8z_Ow81RtFWJoO3WU0bzNjPxmx9qfOwCYL8ILaBpKQGlgkvIzeI6jcWESq6lbdhbEliIzjEGC9jlunkSMkF-xCigyZJonW8x5EpYCy9Pv2QA3RvqxE1UgZwoztzh9nAzfI9s/s1600-h/_1311690.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 222px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPUU8_jek8z_Ow81RtFWJoO3WU0bzNjPxmx9qfOwCYL8ILaBpKQGlgkvIzeI6jcWESq6lbdhbEliIzjEGC9jlunkSMkF-xCigyZJonW8x5EpYCy9Pv2QA3RvqxE1UgZwoztzh9nAzfI9s/s320/_1311690.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5434250745669559122" /></a>Midwestchaserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15029730861995418666noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5459589073371862468.post-69832028438348834242010-01-23T00:02:00.002-06:002010-01-23T00:15:07.380-06:001/23/09-1/25/09 Slush storm and a picI don't have much to say about the storm coming through this weekend except that it is going to make a huge mess. And we really wont even get much in return (i.e. snow). Freezing rain tonight, a couple tenths of a inch at most but that may make for some good pics in the morning, although with gray skies and winds gusting to 25+ mph we'll see. Either way I'm going to wake up earlier to see if I can find anything. Rain tomorrow...turning everything to crap. Hopefully the cities continue to flood the outdoor hockey rinks after this storm, it would REALLY suck to have that season over already. Rain changing to snow Sunday..."Little or no accumulation." To be honest, I didn't know about this storm or the one in Iowa a couple days ago until I saw it on the news. Warm temps=rain or ice=boring. But with the warmer temps lately the Mississippi has opened up. Hoping to get down to Red Wing next week (probably Wednesday) before it freezes over again with the next surge of arctic air. Not sure if the eagles will be out, but it's worth a shot. If not, Red Wing is a pretty photogenic city and I know the area pretty well.<br /><br />Here's a pic I took a couple days ago. The bottom of the icicle is a bit out of focus. The manual focus on my camera can be a real pain in the ass to deal with some times and as much as I hate to do it, I use auto focus quite a bit for that reason. Anyways, edited the tone curve. Lots of different things you can do with that, I think this turned out pretty good.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdaeZ3TnvWd4sRmG-bgrWpScwa2NVMaH9G6XUiLIAuBD2v7aCllDT75MjDKSLfi7SdgIrfVkwJVQ5yIT5Giypr83tX7lsfPUEDdQEdN610aLgvma0HSCAdqGPuUiEn5KANfhrgW56WeAc/s1600-h/_1181623.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdaeZ3TnvWd4sRmG-bgrWpScwa2NVMaH9G6XUiLIAuBD2v7aCllDT75MjDKSLfi7SdgIrfVkwJVQ5yIT5Giypr83tX7lsfPUEDdQEdN610aLgvma0HSCAdqGPuUiEn5KANfhrgW56WeAc/s320/_1181623.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5429814838587003890" /></a>Midwestchaserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15029730861995418666noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5459589073371862468.post-74152786648273843012010-01-01T21:42:00.002-06:002010-01-01T21:47:43.412-06:00A little fun...LOL, only one post in December...that's pretty pathetic I'll admit. But just never felt real motivated to keep posting updates on the Christmas storm since it was pretty well covered by the media. Anyways, came across a Facebook group that pretty much makes fun of all the stupid crap that gets posted on Stormtrack. Looking at some of the pics uploaded to the group I decided to make one of my own. Hey, every once in a while I have a creative spark. ;) That's pretty much all I have to say right now...Enjoy!<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHIBDXwcSGzW6u4iLgabuiUGb9PNwERNM1wxS9nrJi2xH0Cot8k_dU8ryaHQC6fSzVSX3UnDmtNDpjy0Zs8XdjLWZxGS90pCLcYyil4X9gI7MAtgu9Na0lzCnq1mJXoQvcF463YOgSWFA/s1600-h/stormtrack.bmp"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 257px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHIBDXwcSGzW6u4iLgabuiUGb9PNwERNM1wxS9nrJi2xH0Cot8k_dU8ryaHQC6fSzVSX3UnDmtNDpjy0Zs8XdjLWZxGS90pCLcYyil4X9gI7MAtgu9Na0lzCnq1mJXoQvcF463YOgSWFA/s320/stormtrack.bmp" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5421983931318249122" /></a>Midwestchaserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15029730861995418666noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5459589073371862468.post-47955144771370486562009-12-07T22:45:00.002-06:002009-12-07T22:58:05.380-06:0012/08/09-12/09/09 Winter StormWinter storm will bring snow to most of the Midwest between now and Thursday, affecting Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin mostly Tuesday and Wednesday. Snow has already developed over northern Missouri and will continue to expand in coverage. My winter forecasting skills are nearly non-existant so for the most part I will just repeat what the NWS is thinking. Winter Storm Warnings for southern MN, most of Iowa, and a large part (if not all) of Wisconsin. Snowfall amounts will vary depending on where you are, so I will just give a broad prediction. The Twin Cities should see between 4-8", southern Minnesota between 6-12", southern Wisconsin, depending on where you are, up to a foot and a half. Southwestern Wisconsin should take the brunt of the storm. Totals start to fall off as you move in to Illinois and northwest of the Twin Cities, which tells you how big the storm is with such a wide path of snow. Snow should start Tuesday afternoon and linger in to Wednesday afternoon. Winds will increase as we get in to Wednesday and with the NWS thinking the snow will be pretty grainy, blowing snow is a major concern. Blizzard warnings in efffect for parts of southern MN and northern IA. Even farther to the north here in the Twin Cities we could see occasional wideout conditions as winds are expected to be between 20-30 mph with occasional gusts to about 35 mph. Models are showing PWAT values around .4" which would amount to about 4 inches of snow, but many people including the NWS are thinking totals will be higher, and 10" is not out of the question for the cities, but not necessarily likely. I know that stuff has something to do with the liquid ratios so I quess we'll just have to wait and see. I'll post my measurements throughout the storm and may even try to shoot a little video. Hopefully I can get some accurate measurements even with the wind.Midwestchaserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15029730861995418666noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5459589073371862468.post-51233078678995100542009-11-24T22:36:00.004-06:002009-11-24T23:22:05.287-06:00New thoughts on MIDSCARThe last couple of days have been filled with a lot of arguing back and forth between me, Michael Stanga, Dan Fruechte, a supposed met student from SCSU, and a member of MIDSCAR. Lots of arguing and bashing back and forth, but eventually someone got through to the kid from MIDSCAR. Sounds like Mike Scantlin was the one to get the kid to realize the way he was coming off to people and is now taking steps to get his reputation back. That won't happen overnight, but he took a huge step in the right direction when he joined Stormtrack to confront everyone and apologize for the way he acted. He has a lot of passion for weather and chasing, and with the big amount of knowledge he will get from ST, no doubt he will have a good season in 2010. Good luck Chris!<br />So, the MIDSCAR issue has blown over, but the other person I was going after on Youtube still hasn't come around and I highly doubt he ever will. Apparently he is a second year met. student at St Cloud State but you wouldn't know that by watching his videos. The MIDSCAR team asked him to come on board as a severe wx forecaster, but after Chris (the guy from MIDSCAR I was talking about above) came around he realized that this other kid wasn't someone they wanted on their team. All I'll say is that the met. kid really doesn't know anything about weather or chasing but still tries to tell real chasers that they are dumber than him at chasing eventhough he has never chased a day a in his life. <br /><br />Anyways, glad that this has all gotten worked out for the most part. Before anyone comes on here saying I'm playing the chaser police card, realize that I was just trying to get Chris to realize how he was coming off and that there is a better to approach chasing. As for the other kid, well I just enjoy pissing him off.<br /><br />Anyways, I've done some work to my website getting a couple of chaselogs including getting part of May 20th, July 13th, and all of July 14th done. I still have to finish the rest of the chaselogs but hoping to get a lot more done this weekend. If you want to check it out and even give some feedback check it:<br /><a href="http://midwestchaser.com/">MIDWESTCHASER.COM</a><br /><br />If you want to give any feedback feel free to leave a comment!Midwestchaserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15029730861995418666noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5459589073371862468.post-23187192928313712732009-11-18T18:45:00.004-06:002009-11-18T19:30:35.448-06:00Another TIV project (MIDSCAR and the TIV4)So I told myself I was going to be done with or atleast cut down on the posts where I bitch about pointless stuff. But I think this is worth bringing up. Over the last couple of years as we all know a couple of research groups have come together. This elite (yes elite, whether we like to admit it or not these groups would blow the rest of us chasers out of the water)group includes TWISTEX, VORTEX (1 and 2), and even Reed Timmer and his dominator. In my opinion there isn't much room left for more research groups. However, a group from southern Illinois is gonna try to join. This post was inspired by a thread over at ST and other info I've gathered from Youtube and Facebook.<br />Alright, so first off over at good 'ole StormTrack, in one of the threads someone posted a link to a couple of Youtube videos from this group wanting to build their own TIV(I think this would make TIV4) and they have their own group called "Midwest Storm Chasers and Researchers" a.k.a. MIDSCAR. Now this sounds like a good idea however the following videos show us the people who are in this group. Aside from the extremely annoying and ignorant narrator, they don't seem to know a ton about chasing. We've all been there and that's not the reason I'm posting this on here. The reason I'm posting is the fact that none of us tried to build our own tornado intercept and research group and TIV while knowing this little about chasing. Note the lightbar ;) :<br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k724Jlsh8Zw">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k724Jlsh8Zw</a><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MI7oA_mGZpQ&feature=related">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MI7oA_mGZpQ&feature=related</a><br /><br />So after seeing how these people acted I looked at their profile on Youtube to see what this group was about. Looking through their Youtube and Facebook profiles it sounds like their ultimate goal which they are expecting to accomplish within the not so distant future is to intercept a tornado with their own TIV. Aside from their lack of knowledge about chasing, the big question I have is how is a 17 year old going to know how to or have the resources to analyze the data that would come from a tornado interecept? Show me a teen who can do that and I'll shut up. Or maybe they aren't trying to collect data at all, but then why even try to interecept a tornado? What's the point? Risking your life for....well I cant think of anything that would be worth risking my life intercepting a tornado unless it was for research. And even still I would give that responsibility to the professional research groups who are out there doing it, and this is not one of those pro groups. I'm not knocking this group for chasing, we all started out naive but then again, like I said earlier, none of us tried to start our own tornado research group when we were just starting out either. There's a lot more to the research of tornadoes than driving a half-assed version of Mr. Casey's design in to a tornado. And I doubt these guys have any idea what it would take to accomplish their goal. Anyways, I dont care that they're chasing tornadoes with little to no experience. As Mr. Doms puts it, "Darwin, table for one please." For some reason it just really pisses me off that these people are trying to act like such know-it-alls when they really don't know shit. <End Rant>.Midwestchaserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15029730861995418666noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5459589073371862468.post-11927814610843377452009-11-10T11:04:00.005-06:002009-11-10T11:16:37.403-06:00Mother Nature Rage & Grace II Trailer and a couple video grabsFinally finished my Mother Nature Rage & Grace II trailer. It's amazing how much work goes in to a 4 minute video. Anyways, it's done and work on the full movie will start pretty soon here. Again, still getting used to my new video editing program but I'm getting more comfortable with it. Hoping to have the video done in early December and it will be available by trade only (but you could probably talk me in to sending you a video without trade if you want, just send me an email at midwestchaser@yahoo.com). Hoping the video will be between 45-60 minutes, which shouldn't be real hard. Anyways, here's the link to the video:<br /><a href="http://www.vimeo.com/7529726">CLICK HERE FOR THE VIDEO!</a><br /><br />Also I figured out how to get video grabs so here's a few I got:<br />This is the large wall cloud that passed over my town of New Brighton, MN on 8/8/09. Kinda crappy quality but had to adjust a bunch of stuff to get the wall cloud to show up since the lightning wasnt really cooperating.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXKjydTM6rib8iC29snUbHE_yuWxVhH4cJiF8qRkapk-LJCxERqY0itCDOlBbO47zEBA-_IKMHGf5lhMqgGSaL87jVG72S3TpcymT1B1KSpzb_ey0HfODbBLpFnSiwwG5bnNP5AnU36ZM/s1600-h/Record3.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 160px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXKjydTM6rib8iC29snUbHE_yuWxVhH4cJiF8qRkapk-LJCxERqY0itCDOlBbO47zEBA-_IKMHGf5lhMqgGSaL87jVG72S3TpcymT1B1KSpzb_ey0HfODbBLpFnSiwwG5bnNP5AnU36ZM/s320/Record3.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5402523570734738402" /></a><br /><br />Here's another one from 8/2/09 on a tornado warned storm in southwest Minnesota. Had there been some daylight this would've been a VERY photogenic storm. <br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOaTQPiJWN_7wTnmWG3C8bWMS8SJq8RNw30hi9b_zHT7G8iUv9dOaomsyfrVss0yazJqGs1wgyvQzxN-iCPeI5gLR4-_PPW_kJYQMUNoM5ZmynXepOkH8oaiOJ1LrSOFAyfgvvUJUpJtE/s1600-h/Record1.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOaTQPiJWN_7wTnmWG3C8bWMS8SJq8RNw30hi9b_zHT7G8iUv9dOaomsyfrVss0yazJqGs1wgyvQzxN-iCPeI5gLR4-_PPW_kJYQMUNoM5ZmynXepOkH8oaiOJ1LrSOFAyfgvvUJUpJtE/s320/Record1.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5402524266493156354" /></a><br /><br />And one last one of a distant wall cloud that was close to the ground on 7/13/09 It looked good from my vantage point but Mike Hollingshead was a lot closer than I was and it definitely didn't look like it was going to produce a tornado from where he was, which was right under the base. Still a cool storm.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht26DJVlZUIlBTVsDg1wFOUoBs6nMAGCFsgYIz0Uiezbw37CLMbirTgCHtmXobHjl_fSudxRikKfp1ULvkau19tK4gT4-YIwAXimz0dY0eCXWcURiRU_ARX82PR1zNIv6LzPnL2WR3i5w/s1600-h/Record4.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht26DJVlZUIlBTVsDg1wFOUoBs6nMAGCFsgYIz0Uiezbw37CLMbirTgCHtmXobHjl_fSudxRikKfp1ULvkau19tK4gT4-YIwAXimz0dY0eCXWcURiRU_ARX82PR1zNIv6LzPnL2WR3i5w/s320/Record4.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5402525000866619378" /></a>Midwestchaserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15029730861995418666noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5459589073371862468.post-37365045893594391162009-11-04T21:02:00.002-06:002009-11-04T21:29:30.495-06:00Definitely InconclusiveFinally getting some time to go through some night time video of a couple of tor warned storms this past year. The first one I looked at was the August 8th sup. that passed just north of where I live (the large wall cloud would've been clearly visible from our house). Going through the video frame by frame proved nothing but the fact that there was a large wall cloud. If there was a tornado in there it would not have been photogenic although the wall cloud would've been a beauty. Possible maybe longshot funnel but it is next to impossible to confirm with the shaky video and uncooperative lightning. But even still it was cool to have such a strong storm pass so close to my house. I've been thinking about it since Aug. 8th and I'm wondering if I would've been able to see the west metro tornado had I stayed home instead of been out in the Lake Minnetonka area. There is a nice hill just west of the house that has a nice view to the west/southwest. Considering that the tornado was about 10 miles to the southwest of the hill, I really wonder if I would've been able to see the tornado from there. I know for sure I would've had an incredible view of the wall cloud. The reason I looked so hard at this video is one it was so close to home but also there were some damage reports from the area the meso passed over. NWS was unable to confirm it was a tornado as the damage was so sparse but if it was from a tornado, I'd probably be able to see atleast a funnel in my video. As far as I can tell, there was no funnel. Weird thing about this storm was the RFD winds were really localized. Nothing like 9/21/05 where the RFD damaged a path like 15 miles wide (from about Andover south to New Brighton)and did more damage than a couple of tornadoes it produced. That was a fun storm.<br /><br />The second video I'm looking at is the video I got on August 2nd out near Marshall, MN. There was a TON of lightning with that storm, but in order to pick up the lightning on my video camera I had to slow the shutter speed down so I dont have as many frames to help my cause. Even still, with the amount of lightning there was I still get some **decent** views of the base. I haven't gotten through all the video but after the point in the video I'm at right now I think the storm starts to crap out so if there was a tornado I would've already seen it. Plus, the storm started to speed up as the chase went on and we got further and further behind the storm hence a worse and worse view of the base. Either way, this would've been an ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL storm with a little daylight. As far as I know there was no wind damage from this storm so my guess is that there wasnt one. Or if there was, again it would've been brief, weak, and not photogenic (sounds familiar, right? cough2009cankissmyasscough). Anyways, a cool storm and fun chase regardless of no tornado.<br /><br />Also, I talked to Todd K. a couple days ago. Talked for a little bit about 8/8/09 and the tornado north of Burkhardt, WI. Official NWS damage survey said that the tornado was 1/4 mile wide which is a good sized tornado. While talking to Todd he said that it may have been closer to 1/2 mile wide, and was widest right as or right after it touched down. Weird....Usually its the other way around with it getting bigger the longer its on the ground. Surprisingly the RFD damage was fairly localized in this area as well. Another thing to note is that no powerlines or poles were broken in the tornado damage area even though the tornado caused significant roof and garage damage and was rated an EF1. On August 19th when I came across the tornado damage in North Branch, MN there were some powerlines and poles down, but it was only rated an EF0. Are the powerlines and poles engineered differently or something in different states? Anyways, just a couple things to chew on.<br /><br />Lastly, I'm starting production on my 2009 chase DVD. Actually came up with a name for this year so it will be "Mother Nature Rage and Grace II: Two Thousand and None". Will have a trailer up sometime this week hopefully. Right now hoping to get it done by early December but it may take a little longer to finish as I am still getting used to my new video editing software. Also, I'll try to get some video grabs of the 8/8/09 wall cloud and 8/2/09 storm. Any suggestions on how to get video grabs? Do you do it in the video software?Midwestchaserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15029730861995418666noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5459589073371862468.post-33031667848140432142009-10-21T19:01:00.006-05:002009-10-21T20:22:00.732-05:00Some more pics<div>Blah, a real lack of ANYTHING to talk about lately hence the lack of blog posts. But figured I'd update with some more pics I never got posted during the chase season. Here's a few, will post more throughout the winter in an attempt to keep myself sane until next season. Not the greatest of pics but enjoy!<br /><br /><br />June 17th in southern Minnesota:<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp8XwMuHk7hVkohefox3e4tYmi6nxSUDUMjLAaqI2QZfCo-DVtdPO9fLlq3PkyyE3TNx1BXEd8I5uCBKFxZQCbkav45dDM-AoH3fxs8rJdNwIPSzutt687kkgo-7o3RE2XKXS0Cd8-Sfc/s1600-h/_6170816.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5395208490839792514" style="WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp8XwMuHk7hVkohefox3e4tYmi6nxSUDUMjLAaqI2QZfCo-DVtdPO9fLlq3PkyyE3TNx1BXEd8I5uCBKFxZQCbkav45dDM-AoH3fxs8rJdNwIPSzutt687kkgo-7o3RE2XKXS0Cd8-Sfc/s320/_6170816.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><br />These are from July 27th in southwest Wisconsin (yes, southwest Wisconsin, the epitimy of horrible chase terrain in the central US)<br />It was a frustrating chase as I started out behind the storms and didn't get out in front of them until they had merged together and started to line out. But there is something interesting in this first pic, this was taken shortly after the tornado was reported near Mount Sterling. The base is obviously very unorganized and to be honest I'm not even sure this is the same storm. There was a bunch of little crap going up all around the main storm I was trying to get on so this may have been one of those. Anyways, a little knub with some scud in what appeared to be the right area for the updraft. Feel free to leave a comment as to what you think it is.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg895SXWsSWhc_OD261s_AhwhyphenhyphenIDQ8BR-W2WEpeuXhMrQtUbyO-j8uuQRn31JQUUP28V4PfsTTgbpexndl_WlSkGmzqJzM-ACWpZTe-i4NcnltQ2xLZh4Oav8guxRf1vgxQmoOig51v7zY/s1600-h/_7271145.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5395211138348016578" style="WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg895SXWsSWhc_OD261s_AhwhyphenhyphenIDQ8BR-W2WEpeuXhMrQtUbyO-j8uuQRn31JQUUP28V4PfsTTgbpexndl_WlSkGmzqJzM-ACWpZTe-i4NcnltQ2xLZh4Oav8guxRf1vgxQmoOig51v7zY/s320/_7271145.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Lastly, gotta love chasing in Wisconsin. And to think this was about the best view I had of anything all day. As things are lining out:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVRxkTtz-PglLjUlSanVS-C4shqQ7hdr7h97ud2SiUtUOfKT3i6gZwKNRR1dFJYG_7mvqnymUXJaht8rdg6yN7lLXSOIIuJlZJB5CDpLlfsoH3YIPpDZH_yXZJKqUuXAQVLTOBZXW4xBQ/s1600-h/_7271153.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5395211646317501922" style="WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVRxkTtz-PglLjUlSanVS-C4shqQ7hdr7h97ud2SiUtUOfKT3i6gZwKNRR1dFJYG_7mvqnymUXJaht8rdg6yN7lLXSOIIuJlZJB5CDpLlfsoH3YIPpDZH_yXZJKqUuXAQVLTOBZXW4xBQ/s320/_7271153.jpg" border="0" /></a></div><br /><div></div><br /><div>July 14th out in southwest Minnesota just outside of Pipestone. Shelf cloud on a line while tornadic storms are raging about 90 minutes west of my house. Bill Doms is getting a nice, close up view of the shelf...and rain/wind (according to his report).</div><br /><div></div><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigXR7uOUBLLnaEWYRcpQmZ__QMOGmGXMrbfQfU6V0T0E3Q6ztmZDDdTGywVH33zny9VBWctwU5O1QZB0NPmusslDkxfQUvt3Q_y818F_MWQq_v3T6B7003vsBiSq_yE5MHCCe158jTEE8/s1600-h/_7141009.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5395228347940737346" style="WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigXR7uOUBLLnaEWYRcpQmZ__QMOGmGXMrbfQfU6V0T0E3Q6ztmZDDdTGywVH33zny9VBWctwU5O1QZB0NPmusslDkxfQUvt3Q_y818F_MWQq_v3T6B7003vsBiSq_yE5MHCCe158jTEE8/s320/_7141009.JPG" border="0" /></a>Midwestchaserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15029730861995418666noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5459589073371862468.post-21775517820570732102009-10-08T22:31:00.003-05:002009-10-08T22:47:48.974-05:00Marking my calendar and an unexpected rant about STWith the lack of any weather to talk about lately and no exciting weather to talk about in the foreseeable future thought I would update with some other things.<br />Number one is for the first time in probably 3-4 years I will be going to a Minnesota Wild game! Marking my calendar for Feb. 10. We already got the tickets so we dont have to wait and hope some tickets open up. Section 215 against the Coyotes! And as a bonus it's the end of the rink the Wild shoot at twice. Section 215 is the upper corner but there is not a bad seat anywhere at the Xcel so I don't really care where we sit. Going with a couple of friends for my birthday as well as my friend's girlfriend who coincidently has the exact same bday as I do. So really looking forward to that!<br /><br />Also looking forward to the F5 get together in Big Lake on Oct. 17th. Should be a great time with some great people. Still have to make my 5 minute movie for it but that shouldn't be a problem since even colleges give us MEA break so I will have time to do it next week.<br /><br />I'm also writing an english paper on chasing. It's a division/classification paper and is a bit of a satire so I will post that when I get it done and my grade back on it.<br /><br />And lastly, people over at ST still really have their panties in a bunch for some reason. It's been over a week of bitching about content posted their. Admittadely there was a pretty retarded thread started there a day or two ago that I couldnt believe someone actually posted, but all this bitching started way before that thread was posted. So, TO ALL PEOPLE WHO HAVE THEIR PANTIES IN A GIGANTIC WAD AT ST: <span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>STFU!</strong></span><br />The motto "If you dont like it then dont read it" works great for me, I dont see how so many other people have such an incredibly hard time with it. And even if it's that tough for you then just forget about it! Are we REALLY gonna bitch and moan for every thread that we dont like? C'mon people, we're bigger than that. I thought last winter was bad, this winter is gonna be even worse hands down at this rate. I just do not get people sometimes.<br /><br />Anyways, didn't mean to get in to a rant, just wanted to share the news about the Wild game and look at what ST ended up doing to me. Whatever, Feb.10, I know where I'm gonna be!Midwestchaserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15029730861995418666noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5459589073371862468.post-71062475893876492052009-09-29T22:45:00.002-05:002009-09-29T23:14:59.018-05:00Entertainment at StormtrackWow what a fun couple of days it's been over at Stormtrack. It seems SDS has already taken over a majority of the members with an effect of a series of flame wars. It started last night in a topic about Reed Timmer and people who were on both sides of liking him. Unfortunately, I didn't see it until the mods had gone through and gotten rid of the worst posts but there still some amusing ones in there. A lot of history and bad blood in that thread which I have no clue about so I'll stop here about that thread.<br /><br />This morning Bob Hartig posted a thread about civility since the flame war on Monday night got so out of hand, and it was FAR from the first one, but also FAR from the last. It didn't take long for this thread to go down the exact same road as the thread on Monday night. This time, IMO, it's even more heated than last night's war. I lost some respect for some people but then again maybe that proves how little I knew them. Even still, you'd hope people would be bigger than some of them were in these threads. But for the rest of us it's fun to kick back and watch everything unfold. Hopefully the mods don't lock it soon since it'll be entertaining.<br /><br />One thing I do have to say is that Tim and the mods at ST don't deserve to have to put up with this shit, but then again what did they expect when they took on that responsibility? Funny how the mods let these threads go sometimes too. It's gonna be a long and interesting winter.Midwestchaserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15029730861995418666noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5459589073371862468.post-34871389895291789622009-09-19T10:36:00.002-05:002009-09-21T19:22:24.458-05:00North Shore PicsHere's 4 pics I got from the North Shore on Wednesday. I didnt have as much time as I would've liked thanks to a traffic backup in which I went 3 miles in 50 minutes. Anyways I made it to Gooseberry and Tetagouche. Had to stop in Duluth to pick up a new memory card so didnt want to drive back south to Jay Cooke just to head back north. So I've taken too long getting these pics up so here they are:<br /><br />Gooseberry:<br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFCedfOBRuO6DIp0E0312hVesO2WmD47an2IEmumhHaVddUYs6Ws-GMaKcBRbOU2eDsSVTVD5P4l_EQ5hdMpEUD8LPHsxxUCG_e70295Fc55yaqPV1xK2d4AbXhQm7I-3Va6wAlZ7eIFo/s1600-h/_9161258.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384078437275839010" style="WIDTH: 240px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFCedfOBRuO6DIp0E0312hVesO2WmD47an2IEmumhHaVddUYs6Ws-GMaKcBRbOU2eDsSVTVD5P4l_EQ5hdMpEUD8LPHsxxUCG_e70295Fc55yaqPV1xK2d4AbXhQm7I-3Va6wAlZ7eIFo/s320/_9161258.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEkgxejEa9s8rERH0CxoqgUfdiYNFryIMxwsOOq8sR-W0eN1hsZmxT5N-gfjwH9fS4lVk2BVufZx0HzjEB7EOHxnVwIp_FFfqEjY6RpY6OgJQj97D-z0luk17lOjDVOHHsOnyVyve_kIw/s1600-h/_9161267.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384079119872846610" style="WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEkgxejEa9s8rERH0CxoqgUfdiYNFryIMxwsOOq8sR-W0eN1hsZmxT5N-gfjwH9fS4lVk2BVufZx0HzjEB7EOHxnVwIp_FFfqEjY6RpY6OgJQj97D-z0luk17lOjDVOHHsOnyVyve_kIw/s320/_9161267.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Tetagouche:<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrYpZjwkxotSVLaLbxOuJXShYhNWsXUnMJR0dhB7fo2IWLUSUVwOJZV-Y9-rHPEk2vB4vY4NPNkNWJ3rXNoALSmFL1Z65tEYVMDmP780g2bydkIUJ8_wImJu9iQshBPR-dXkRTUFO7AcY/s1600-h/_9161494.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384079393577484898" style="WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrYpZjwkxotSVLaLbxOuJXShYhNWsXUnMJR0dhB7fo2IWLUSUVwOJZV-Y9-rHPEk2vB4vY4NPNkNWJ3rXNoALSmFL1Z65tEYVMDmP780g2bydkIUJ8_wImJu9iQshBPR-dXkRTUFO7AcY/s320/_9161494.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiicKh92GrEvYjudgn9UJg7soWH-mq_8-LHHGtpghNGtPtZdgCI3tXgo1xLJ6NebVUXN_5MxdkCw4nJaSlFUV564MTq9sXB2vPs7paGwaqYCNUC9cPl7r2HQxPQUk47vxjuEN4-2k5AgQc/s1600-h/_9161484.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384080160554821970" style="WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 216px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiicKh92GrEvYjudgn9UJg7soWH-mq_8-LHHGtpghNGtPtZdgCI3tXgo1xLJ6NebVUXN_5MxdkCw4nJaSlFUV564MTq9sXB2vPs7paGwaqYCNUC9cPl7r2HQxPQUk47vxjuEN4-2k5AgQc/s320/_9161484.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br />I have more pics to go through and will post them when I get time, probably on Wednesday. But maybe not, its supposed to be nice again this Wednesday so I may head out somewhere again. We'll see.Midwestchaserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15029730861995418666noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5459589073371862468.post-28401763755621170452009-09-15T12:27:00.002-05:002009-09-15T12:30:45.796-05:00North Shore Day Trip WednesdayPlanning on heading up to the North Shore tomorrow after class to get some of the early fall colors. I know that the colors are only getting going but with the forecast looking so good I can't say no to a trip. Gonna hit Gooseberry for sure, try and get Tetagouche too or maybe head up to Lutsen or Grand Marais. I dont get out of class till 10:50 so I wont get up there till after 12:00 but should still have plenty of time to mess around up there. I also want to head out next Wednesday if the forecast is good, not sure if it will be to the North Shore again or somewhere else. Anyone have suggestions for other nice state/national parks around Minnesota? Preferably ones with rivers/streams/waterfalls or overlooks?Midwestchaserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15029730861995418666noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5459589073371862468.post-82793244918651982272009-09-02T23:04:00.005-05:002009-09-02T23:16:02.447-05:00Update...I guessHaven't posted much lately, but then again there hasnt been much to talk about. No storms, haven't done much photography. One thing to note is I have started work on Mother Nature Rage and Grace Vol. II now that 2009 is pretty much officially over. Not a bad season, I think I made the best of what was given. 11 chases, over 8000 miles, lots of tornado warnings, only a couple brief tornadoes, but that seems like what everyone else is saying about this season. Not a ton else to say, gonna try to make a trip to the arrowhead/north shore of Lake Superior here in a couple weeks to get some pics of the fall colors. Hopefully the weather cooperates and I can get up there. Otherwise will have to stick around here, which has worked out the last couple years. Still a lot of work to do on my website midwestchaser.com but that'll come together this winter. So, to have something that is actually of interest to anyone reading this here is a couple of pictures from chase season 2009 that I never posted. Enjoy!<br /><br />Shelf cloud trying to overtake me on July 14th just outside of Pipestone, MN.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9LiTOnafSa-D7XGURQq1Jtej5k0GbyCwBz8gqSZZBHbgqyixd6rJpAVb_TPlriRe2_LM8AJX-fsm1huOodl6GOzn5bxKJxgS_PYa4UAvCJPcPbLCVH58B8aUF1cd2ea7SseMzi-SV4Z8/s1600-h/_7141014.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5377088974805899586" style="WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9LiTOnafSa-D7XGURQq1Jtej5k0GbyCwBz8gqSZZBHbgqyixd6rJpAVb_TPlriRe2_LM8AJX-fsm1huOodl6GOzn5bxKJxgS_PYa4UAvCJPcPbLCVH58B8aUF1cd2ea7SseMzi-SV4Z8/s320/_7141014.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Incredible mammatus show on the way home on July 14th down near Worthington, MN. Just another example of why I need a superwide angle lens.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXArIYKQ_AJMPe_1Ede1AwZX659V2bGebumuJqs-GHqM9P4pUwoYwdy6x3PnNN9PgXLzBlWanalQdzzryoEcKxdVLwvchsVPuH8I3V5uQtK1iB6EjGc6FD0K76Z9ZnmQuqH8xs4r2P_WM/s1600-h/_7141073.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5377089730326147186" style="WIDTH: 240px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXArIYKQ_AJMPe_1Ede1AwZX659V2bGebumuJqs-GHqM9P4pUwoYwdy6x3PnNN9PgXLzBlWanalQdzzryoEcKxdVLwvchsVPuH8I3V5uQtK1iB6EjGc6FD0K76Z9ZnmQuqH8xs4r2P_WM/s320/_7141073.JPG" border="0" /></a>Midwestchaserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15029730861995418666noreply@blogger.com1