May 14th Texas Tornadoes

Vortex 2 had an amazingly succesful day in West Texas, intercepting at least 3 tornadoes south of Notrees Texas. The initial tornado was a large stovepipe from our view, followed by a large cone that never fully condensed, occuring simultainiously, followed by a thin tube that also did not condense fully, despite an obvious ground contact.

Lets start with tornado #3, considering its the only decent picture of a tornado I got all day.

Tornado #1 in progress with #2 forming to the left, starting as a cone.

Tornadoes #1 and #2 on the ground simultaniously.

Tornado #2 at mature stage.

Outflow dominant storm near Douro Texas on I-20.


We were well northeast of the first 2 tornadoes but had a very nice intercept on #3. Looking forward to going over the data. It was also a very scary day for Midland Texas, with several tornado warnings in the area and massive flooding.

May 10th Tornado Outbreak Report

Vortex 2 deployed on destructive tornadic supercells monday. We started the day with a plan of intercepting the storms as they moved E/NE from the I-35 urban corridor. We spent most of the day in Stroud Oklahoma, just Northeast of OKC. Storms fired and we dropped Southeast, ending up East of Seminole Oklahoma. Probe 8 intercepted a large tornado just north of the Highway 56/9 intersection. 22 tornadoes have been confirmed with widespread damage to several counties in Oklahoma and Kansas. 2 deaths were reported from this outbreak.

Paul Markowski, Associate Professor of Meteorology at Penn State briefs Vortex 2 participants about the action plan of the day.

Last minute repairs and modifications shortly before the chase.

The Vortex 2 Probe team awaiting initiation in Stroud Oklahoma.

Large tornado about to cross highway 56, just north of highway 9, East of Seminole.

Outflow dominant storm. This was the 2nd target storm of the day for V2.

Tornado damage on the north side of Seminole.


Monday was simply crazy, terrifying, and horrible, especially for the residents who were affected by these storms. Extremely fast storm motions and unfavorable terrain made a very difficult deployment for V2. Hopefully, our data collection efforts will prove valuable and further the cause to improve warning times and accuracy for the general public.

I have several more chase reports upcoming...

April 22 Eads Colorado Tornadoes

Jon Merage and I got a late start out of Denver and blasted Southeast through Limon to just North of the Eads Colorado area. We had no data so I called Dan Cianca who told me a tornado warned storm was coming up from the South. Thanks Dude! We peaked a hill to see an elongated looking storm with several tornadoes on the ground!





We will have to do some video analysis to see how many different tornadoes we actually recorded. LCLs were very low and it was almost impossible to pick out separate mesocyclonic features. These tornadoes were occurring in an environment characterized by a 54/54 temp/dewpoint with incredible shear. We observed several multivortex tornadoes with assorted cones, trunks, and ropes, followed by a wedge. The storm seemed to die after the wedge so we headed into Southwest Kansas and caught a large tornado from a distance looking North from just West of Garden City Kansas.

Deer Creek Shooting, Here We Go Again

Two schools, 11 years. Who would have thought it could happen again, let alone in the same neighborhood.


Jefferson County Sheriff's officers set up a roadblock near Deer Creek Middle School, where an unidentified man shot two students Tuesday. Photo by Sean Mullins . smullin5@mscd.edu


Mackenzie Owens, a Deer Creek student, is comforted by her mother shortly after the shooting. Owens said "I saw the shooting. We only heard one shot." Photo by Sean Mullins . smullin5@mscd.edu


Ashley Marcon, a Deer Creek Student, is comforted by her family shortly after the shooting at Deer Creek Middle School. Ashley's mother said "she saw the victims come into the room after the shooting." Photo by Sean Mullins . smullin5@mscd.edu

I was in 8th grade at Dear Creek during the Columbine shootings. Today is a jarring reminder that these things can happen anywhere, anytime.

Things to Come!

Spring cant get here sooner!

Best of San Francisco 2009

This is pretty belated but oh well. Some keepers from my San Francisco trip last Fall.