SDS Inflammation

WARNING: The SDS Surgeon General has determined that viewing may be hazardous to those afflicted with SDS. Proceed with caution!

Check out the video from a tornado that rampaged through Cape Coral, Florida. Be sure you are seated with seatbelts firmly secured as viewing may cause dizziness and loss of balance. Keep your hands inside the car at all times. :-)

youtube.com

brightcove.tv

And a few "Pics Of The Week". This is from May 1, 2006 around Breckenridge, Texas. It was a bit of a surprise as storms earlier were about fizzled out. But, a slug of rich moisture came charging in like the cavalry to save a bust chase and turn it into quite a spectacle. There was an extended long version of the "Forbidden Sacred Dance Of Chaser Merriment".

The mothership coming in for a landing. Where is Will Smith in his fighter jet? ;-)


An ominous wall cloud developed rapidly under the updraft. I kept expecting a spinup, but never saw anything. I lucked out too with the sun being at the perfect angle.


Anybody think this looks like some blades in a big blender? Mmmmm....Margaritas.




You can see two hook echoes on radar with my position as the white circle. Dig that groovy, curved outflow boundary arching back into the notch. The western one is in the pics. I could see the eastern one too with a tiered wedding cake appearance....but compared to big sister to the west, it wasn't too great.


One of my personal favorites. Imagine having a windshield full of this view all of the time. :-)


The following two pics are pure luck and the best of about 30 I took. I did not have a tripod with me, so I was balancing it on my car hood.

Approach Of Autumn

In just a few days, the Fall season will be here. Looking at the models, the atmosphere appears to be taking it's cue. The upper ridge begins to fade away as the upper air pattern starts taking on the appearance more of spring with a big, powerful west coast cyclone rather than the typical broad east coast trough. In fact, here is a very interesting article talking about the left coast storm being more typical of April.

Indeed! This could be the vanguard of a more active fall severe weather season. We should see abit of that later this week and weekend as the big upper low opens up and kicks out. However, large troughiness will remain in it's place. This is advertised to stay in place through the next 10 days and beyond. The result in the moisture machine continuing to pump GOM air into tornado alley with surface fronts, troughs and drylines meandering around waiting for the next disturbance ina long parade of such to help spark things off.

This is in stark contrast to the typical fall pattern with a parade of strong, dry cool fronts shutting down the moisture machine and scouring the tropical airmass to Fidel Castro's doorstep. That's not too bad because it makes for some awesome weather for outdoor activities. :-)

Instability this time of year is always tough because of the mid levels being warmed all season long by convection. But, enough should be in place related to the abundant low level moisture to provide severe weather opportunities throughout the plains for the foreseeable future. I'm grinding out a Sept 28 deadline at work, so I can't chase beyond my backyard until October.

Last weekend was a blast with the camping and fishing trip with David Drummond and Jay McCoy. It was great to endure a few gut-busting laugh riots! The fishing wasn't all that great and it was hot and humid. That kind of took the fun out of it because I don't have a boat yet. Still, it was alot of fun and I look forward to more trips when the weather is abit cooler and the fish start getting stirred up in the fall. We definitely have all of the gear though.

Here are a few pics...nothing really special, but worthy of a look.

The big flag towards the damn.


This is looking down into the water. I should have used a polarizer filter, but still gives you and idea of how clear it is. The weeds are pretty deep....about 10 feet in this pic. How many baby bass do you see?


Camp Tailchaser! :-) That purple glow over my head is the Aura Of Awesomeness! LOL!! Seriously, it's from the fishing dock with about a 5 second exposure at ISO400 f4.


The heavens above. There is practically no light contamination at Lake Alan Henry. You can see everything.....


...including the Milky Way. The exposure was longer which caused the stars to appear to streak because of the earth's rotation. I hope to get a better low-light lens soon to really do this sky scene justice. I forgot just how many stars there really are in the night sky as it was truly a blanket of a million points of light.

Watch As I Pull A Hurricane Out Of My Hat.

Hurricane Humberto should have been named Hurricane Houdini. He was a cluster of thunderstorms one day and PRESTO!! ALLAKAZAM! A serious hurricane the next! In 18 hours, he went from a tropical depression with 35mph winds to a category 1 hurricane topping out at 85mph sustained winds. Never before has a tropical system intensified so rapidly according to senior hurricane specialist James Franklin of the National Hurricane Center. Yowsa!! Step right up folks to the tropical system sideshow! And we thought Felix pulled a fast one on us.

I was able to watch the incredible progress of Humberto on radar and satellite. It seemed as if everything was being fast forwarded. No sooner would the NHC issue an advisory or forecast discussion than the storm would ratchet up another notch....almost with each radar scan or satellite image. It was simply stunning. Texas and Lousiana is quite fortunate he didn't spend another 24 hours over water. He could have easily achieved category 2 or possibly 3 status and literally caught everybody with their pants down. It could have been a fantasy Hollywood plot come to life.

Hmmmm....we might want to take that preposterously absurd movie "Night Of The Twisters" more seriously. LOL!!! I hear that Al Gore is trying to track down the remnants of Humberto to perform a personal interview for his next global warming propaganda movie with regards to the the storm's extraordinary intensification. I understand that Gore is going to look him straight in the "eye" too. But, Humberto maybe suffering too much from "tropical depression" since he is now just a "remnant" of his former self. ROFL! I crack myself up sometimes. ;-)

That's it for me for a few days. David Drummond, Jay McCoy and myself will be descending on Lake Alan Henry starting tomorrow evening for a weekend filled with camping, fishing (and hopefully some catching!), campfires, roasting marshmellows and hot dogs, sunburn, bug bites and bikini observation activities. :-)

(PS - Don't tell anybody, but I'm going to put a fake rattlesnake in their tents to wake up to in the morning!)

Breaking The Ball And Chain

UPDATE: Check out this ABC News piece about unscrupulous mortgage lenders.

As of today, I'm officially an ex-homeowner. I never thought I would be so relieved to say that since being a homeowner is supposed to be a wise investment. It is if your timing is right with regards to the market. When I made the decision to flee to Amarillo, the market up until that time was great and favored sellers. But, as my typical bad luck would have it, as soon as it hits the market, everything takes a serious nosedive thanks in large part to greedy and stupid mortgage companies (refer to my previous rants about large corporate entities and their inherent ineptness, stupidity and disconnect from reality). There is also a glut of new homes and builders desperate to move inventory which drives prices down and buyer incentives through the roof....pardon the pun.

So, the bottom line is that my house value depreciated significantly from a year ago and with the now lopsided, upside-down market favoring buyers, you have to chip in up to 3% for buyers' closing costs. After seven years of home ownership and the hard work that went along with that, I ended up in the red. The bottom line financially is that I would have been MUCH better off renting an apartment the entire time. Of course, if I would have put the house on the market even a couple of months sooner, I likely would have beaten the market crash and made a decent chunk of change.

But, coulda/woulda/shoulda aside, I'm happy to have to cut my losses and run before it gets any worse. After severing the last ball and chain tying me back to the festering armpit called DFW, I'm now 100% Amarillian. ;-) Even looking at the hit I'm taking, it really is a price I was willing to pay to get out of DFW and making a healthier, positive life change. So in the end, I have no regrets. In fact, I'm a pretty happy camper right now. :-)

Now I can watch my bank account balance reverse course into the black. That will lead to some other things I'm wanting to both in the near term as well as longer term ambitions. I'll have both the time and the finances to accomplish both. The first thing I'll be doing is getting a new vehicle. I've already been shopping and narrowing down choices to six cylinder 4WD SUVs with towing capacities of at least 3000 pounds and of course relatively good gas mileage...in anticipation of getting a decent used bass boat in less than 12 months. There are some pretty enticing model year closeout deals and rebates. Hopefully the new car market will suffer some collateral damage from the mortgage industry fiasco thereby creating some better-than-usual deals out there for us little ol' consumers. I think I deserve it. :-)

Oh my...I see TS Humberto has popped up just off the TX coast and looking impressive on the latest satellite images. Another TD has formed out in the Atlantic and is looking decent too. The global warming alarmists are undoubtedly hyperventilating at this very moment and stockpiling 20-year supplies for the impending armageddon. I can't wait to get my SUV and annoy one of those liberals. ;-)

On a more somber yet positive note concerning the untimely passing of Eric Nguyen, a website has been established to organize a gathering to honor his memory as well as submitting donations to fund a future endowed scholorship in his name at the University Of Oklahoma. The wesbsite is EricNguyenGathering.com

Eric Michael Nguyen 1978-2007

A shadow crossed the hearts of stormchasers and severe weather enthusiests around the world yesterday as the news of Eric Nguyen's passing was made public. For anybody out there that didn't know Eric, please read the Stormtrack thread honoring his memory. Take some time to peruse his website and outstanding photography.

Myself, the news at first was shocking and one of total disbelief. I used to be friends with him for several years and got to know him pretty well. His passion for life and in particular meteorology was contagious and inspiring. When I first met him back in 1999, he was a kid driving around his small white sedan with weather instrumentation on top. It didn't take long for his passion and enthusiasm for all things related to severe storms to radiate with great intensity. But, what impressed me most was his humble and kind spirit. He had no ego...just the love and fascination of the weather.

I remember all of the fun times back then with Eric. From being parked on the side of the road gawking and drooling at storms...to general silly weather weeniness...to enjoying a great post-chaser dinner recounting the day's chase...to the SDS sessions...to the side-splitting 2-meter chat on that made those long trips back home down I-35 or Hwy 287 more tolerable. His sense of humor was enormous.

I had the opportunity to watch him rapidly blossom from a kid with a small instrument cluster on top of his car to not only one of the best (if not the best) chasers and photographers out there, but a talented meteorologist with a bright future ahead of him. I remember reading some of his white papers and in particular the one about the Mulvane event. It was crystal clear to me that one day, we would refer to him as the esteemed Dr. Eric Nguyen. It seems a great injustice to know that will not happen now.

There wasn't even a suggestion of a hint that his life would come to such an abrupt, tragic and senseless end as it has. Hearing that he had tried to end his own life filled me with shock and disbelief. It really defied everything I thought I knew about Eric. Not only would that have been the last thing I would have guessed if asked how he would depart this plane of existance, it would have never even been considered. I certainly have a deeper despise for such a sinister disease as depression is. I'm also feeling abit angry because he apparently was under medical supervision. this could have been prevented and eventually contained or even cured. But, this is not the time or place for that rant. I'm sure there will be for his friends and family down the road.

I'll close now in offering my prayers and thoughts to his devestated friends and family as they grieve their loss. I truly hope that they will someday soon be able to reflect back fondly on his life and how he lived it and replace the deep sorrow, grief and broken hearts they are enduring at this moment.

At least now Eric will always be in the target zone. I hope that everyday for him from now on will be a PDS red box filled with raging, majestic tornadic supercells and hail to the size of grapefruits. Chase on, Eric.

Lake Alan Henry

(I got lots of pics below if you want to skip the long-winded summary)

I woke up Saturday morning and spontaneously decided on a trip to check out Lake Alan Henry which is just SE of Post, TX near Justiceburg, TX (about 175 miles from my place) or 50 miles SE of Lubbock. When on the road, I phoned David Drummond and asked if he'd like to go along. He did, so we met up at the gate entrance to the only boat ramp and public area open on the lake.

A quick side note here is that the lake is entirely owned by the city of Lubbock. There are no state facilities whatsoever. The campsites are primitive with only porta-johns available...and nothing else. However, the boat ramp and parking areas are pretty nice. There is a pretty nice fishing barge too. A little cafe/bait shop place by the gate entrance is about the only civilization out there...which is a good thing in my opinion. :-)

The lake was pretty busy being a 3-day weekend. But, everybody was well behaved and relaxed for the most part which is a polar opposite of what you experience with the lakes around Dallas. In fact, the place didn't even get trashed up as they do back in my old stomping grounds.

After David and I explored some of the camping areas and discovered some good bank fishing spots, we started chunking some spinnerbaits and twitch baits and catching a few big warmouth perch and a couple of bass. The water was absoltely pristine and crystal clear...almost a tropical characteristic. It was pretty cool being able to see so deeply and watch the fish fight in the water. This would be an awesome lake to scuba dive in.

Nightfall came and we setup on the fishing barge with some stink bait and nightcrawlers. David chummed the water by taking his shoes off and sticking his feet in the water. LOL!! Unfortunately, even that wasn't enough to get the fish to bite. ;-) Nobody was catching anything and these idiots kept throwing nets in the water to catch baitfish. That certainly didn't help matters. With such clear water and favorable structure near the bank (50 foot water rapidly coming up to a flat with lots of pond weed), I chunked a black spinnerbait in hopes of snagging a couple of good-sized bass moving in night to feed along that drop-off and weed line. Nope....nada. So, we called it a night and headed back to the cabin at the cafe/bait place and crashed.

The next day was kind of nuts as alot of people showed up. I was able to snag a couple of pretty nice, chunky bass in that same spot I mentioned above on some red shad worms along the edges of the pond weed. We found another quieter spot down the bank a ways where I deployed my belly boat (fishing float tube). I paddled out a ways working that same red shad worm along the drop offs on a couple of points and working it through the tops of th submereged mesquite trees in about 20 foot of water. I was able to catch a couple of decent bass doing that and lost a much bigger one as he bulldozed into one of those submerged trees and got away. Soon, our fishing spot got noisy as more people showed up, so we spent the rest the day doing some hiking and exploring. We headed home in the late afternoon.

All in all, a VERY relaxing and enjoyable weekend for me. I haven't had one of those in a very long time. The lake is absolutely beautiful and pristine. I was very impressed with the quality of the fishery aspect of it as well as the incredible views. Since I love to bass fish so much, this is a real dream lake. It is definitely a "Lake Fork of the West". The lake record is just over 15 pounds and I saw plenty of pictures of 10-plus pound bass on the wall as well as the quality of the ones I caught. I saw a couple of pictures of humongous crappie too that looked like bass! They were really some monsters.

With the lake experiencing a great deal less fishing pressure than Lake Fork has experienced over the years, it should continue to get even better and possibly rival Fork. I know that this sounds like sacrilege to my bass-fishing bretheren out there, but mark my words, it will. It's got all of the ingredients for it. With the deep, clear fertile water, it has some characteristics of the western US lakes that produce monster largemouth.

Besides, does Lake Fork have smallmouth bass? Nope. But Lake Alan Henry does! TP&W stocked about 150,000 fingerlings in 1993/1994. I have caught these little ferocious monsters before and pound-for-pound, they fight harder than any other game fish. They have different habits than largemouth and require unique techniques to catch them. I'm looking forward to that!!

Speaking of stockings, TP&W stocked about 150,000 Florida largemouth bass fingerlings in 1993/1994 with about 2,000 in 2004. It is going to be an incredible bass fishery for many years to come. It's also oriented E-W and being a narrow canyon lake, most all of it is well protected from the wind and free from monster waves on strong, windy days.

Needless to say, my fever to get another bass boat is very high right now. LOL!! I got to get a tow vehicle first and make sure my financial/job situation is stable by next summer. By then, if everything is cool, I'll take the plunge and get a good bass boat. One thing is for sure, it WILL happen. :-)

Ok, SOME PICS!!

As David and I drove around, we saw this dude on one of the trails. I couldn't get out of the van soon enough to get a good pic! He's got about 10 rattles...a pretty mature rattlesnake. How cool is that?

As I try to get closer for a better picture, he reacts to me and coils up. I didn't advance much further and gave him his space. He slowly backed up into the grass and disappeared. I was pretty darned excited to finally get to see a rattlesnake this close in the open and with a good camera in hand.


Not sure what kind of catcus this is, but they were fairly common. I'll nickname it a "Texas Hat Tree". :-)

From one of the campsites closest to the dam. The Texas flag is illlumintaed at night. Check out those large houses up there. If I could only win the lottery.... ;-) I'll be trying for a much better shot of this in the future.


A morning view from another campsite.


A future meal for a rattlesnake.


A cluster of cactus with alot of prickly pears.


Another great view from one of the hiking trails.


A pretty interesting rock formation which we think is caused by both wind and rain.


Some interesting rocks shaped by wind and rain around the formation in the pic above..


Another one.


A few more. What struck me was thinking of how long it took to make this. We were very careful not to disturb anything.


David contemplates an attempt to fly like a buzzard.


Another incredible view....without our daredevil above.


One last unusual rock formation.


My attempt at some inspirational photography. I thought it cool that this lone flower was growing on this rock 200 feet up in the air.


Another great view.


David was standing on that rock earlier.


THE END.