Chasing Today

We are leaving a little late but Im sure we can make Northern Oklahoma well before dark. We will drop south from Hays, Ks and see if we can get some OFBs working for us. After the chase, we will head to Norman, Ok. where we will spend the next 10 days prepping Jon's vehicle before the madness begins. Stay tuned!

Meh...

April 26th, 2009 will go down in my mind as a failure, despite seeing a tornado. Our targeting was good and we got on the Roger Mills County storm to see the first tornado. We should have continued north to see the next, larger, tornado form near the Canadien river, but we decided to blast South to more discreet cells coming up from the Red River. My photos simply suck and are horribly underexposed but here is a few anyway. I will post a report and better pix from the non-tornadic storms on the 25th when I get more time.

Big Time Tornado Potential!

Sitting in Amarillo and after a nice lunch at Chili's will head to the Shamrock Tx area. Today is looking impressive with huge helicity values and higher dewpoints than forecast. Upper and mid level winds look to favor manigable storm motions! Check for twitter updates.

Chasing Saturday and Sunday

Im heading to Amarillo, Tx tonight for a couple of nice looking chase days. The GFS and NAM still differ regarding the placement of surface features, so I will go with a blend of the two, which looks like the Eastern Texas panhandle, into Western Oklahoma. Im alittle unsure about the target for Sunday, but I imagine it may be slightly further south than than Saturday. Stay tuned and watch my twitter for updates.

Candlelight Vigil for Columbine

Photo by SEAN MULLINS/smullins.photo@gmail.com
LITTLETON, CO - Hundreds of people gathered Sunday, on the 10th anniversary of the Columbine shooting, to mourn the loss of the 13 students and faculty who were killed in the attack.


Photo by SEAN MULLINS/smullins.photo@gmail.com
LITTLETON, CO - The family of Dave Sanders gather to celebrate his life during a candlelight vigil at the Columbine Memorial on Sunday, April 19, 2009. Sanders, a faculty member at Columbine, was killed during the attack on April 20, 1999.


Photo by SEAN MULLINS/smullins.photo@gmail.com
LITTLETON, CO - Mourners gather at the top of the Columbine Memorial during a candlelight vigil on Sunday, April 19, 2009.


Photo by SEAN MULLINS/smullins.photo@gmail.com
LITTLETON, CO - Maggie and Elizabeth Hickman mourn the deaths of the 13 Columbine students and faculty during a candlelight vigil on Sunday, April 19, 2009. One day before the 10th anniversary of the deadly shooting.


Photo by SEAN MULLINS/smullins.photo@gmail.com
LITTLETON, CO - A candlelight vigil was held on Sunday, April 19, 2009. At the Columbine Memorial, to remember the 13 students and faculty who perished during the school shooting.

Opinionated Discussion: This was one of the more emotional stories I have covered. The Columbine massacre happened shortly after my family moved to Colorado from Oregon, and only a year after "Kip" Kinkel went on a rampage at Thurston High School, in Springfield Oregon. These unfortunate events had my family taking a second look at inserting me into the public curriculum here in Littleton. It was very important for me to get out and document this event, and I feel it is necessary for everyone to be reminded of what took place here, not only for safety awareness but for the families that continue to suffer from their losses. My thoughts are with all who suffered in this tragedy. You will never be forgotten!

Self Critique: I have become quite rusty with the PJ stuff over the past few months. Gosh, the last thing I covered was the MLK Parade. Anyway, it was a pretty tough setting. Emotions were running high and the amount of PJs was clearly upsetting some people. Its our job to tell these stories and every PJ at the event was quite respectful, even when the Sanders family asked a few PJs to stop taking pictures. My frames are just ok with the exception of the Hill shot which I really like because of the layering. It was my first candlelight vigil so I did learn quite a bit. I was able to get away with 1600 ISO, which was good, and I didn't even have to put the 50 on like I planned. If I could do it again, a wide, fast prime like a 24mm 1.4 would be perfect. I feel my pictures lack that identifiable Columbine aspect, such as someone wearing a Columbine shirt with a candle or the school in the background or something to that effect. lessons learned and will nail it next time.

Sean

Preliminary Target For Thursday

Kit Carson County is my pick for an isolated supercell around 21Z, on the nose of what appears to be a small dry-punch feature. Only a brief window of opportunity will exist for tornadic potential as heating and instability will obviously be quite limited. I'm encouraged by an STP of 5 and and dews approaching 50, which is doable by high plains standards, especially considering the low LCLs created by small Temp/Dp spreads. Anyway, it should make for a great lightshow at least.