HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

I had some fun at work today by dressing up as my favorite monster. Yep, I'll never grow up. :-) A funny moment this morning before heading out was my cat's reaction when I came out of the room after putting everything on. Any feline therapists out there?


Here, a couple of co-workers pose for an Adams Family photo opportunity. I'm the hairy uncle from London...Wolford Adams complete with a British accent. :-) You'll receive bonus points if you get it. We took third place for best team!

October 17th Tornado

A rare tornado event occurred around midnight on 10/17 in the Texas Panhandle S and SE of Canyon. Check out the NWS-AMA report and damage survey for some interesting details. Below is a radar image I captured at the time the tornado was on the ground. That is what I call a "scorpion tail" echo.

Back From The Beyond

Man, talk about a blogging hiatus, eh? A combination of work, a terrible cold followed up with a sinus infection, a weekend full of chasing, and my new toy completely eroded my freetime to do any proper blogging. And yes, I did see the Patriots whip the 'Boys. However, to those out there needling me about leaving that last blog entry up for so long, they did play the Pats pretty darned good for 2.5 quarters and beter than any other team that has faced the New England steamroller. :-)

I've got a few pics to post. This is a nice LP that formed out around Hereford awhile back. As you can see here, the Stevoid is taking effect and killing the storm. It would soon die after this pic.


Last Saturday, Jay McCoy and I were heading up towards the Oklahoma Panhandle in a futile attempt to catch an isolated supercell when we encountered this. As we drove by, Jay stated that he thought he saw smoke from the back of the truck. No sooner did we turn around that flames were erupting from the bed of the truck. When we pulled up, the entire contents including a mattress was on fire. Despite our best attempts along with a couple of other bystanders to knock it down with an extinguisher and drag the mattress out of the truck, we just weren't able to save the guy's truck. The heat was too intense to get close enough to do so and some aerosol cans were popping/exploding.

All we could do is keep the elderly gentleman from returning to his truck trying to save it and put the fire out. He was in a state of shock to say the least. At one point, I had to gently but firmly restrain him from going back. The Fire Department quickly showed up and doused the fire, but the truck was a total loss. He did have insurance, fortunately, but the sad part is that all of the contents in the back were his grand daughter's who was moving from New Mexico. It was pretty much everything she owned.

All of this from a tossed cigarette according to the driver. Fortunately, despite a minor burn to his right hand which Jay treated, everybody was ok. Scary stuff...especially in how rapidly it erupted with the stout 20-30mph winds.


The next day, this past Sunday, we chased the "storms" in SW OK. It wasn't a bad chase and it was fun running co-pilot with Jay. And, Kanani, I took good care of that seat and didn't change a thing. It's all still in place there for ya. However, you might find a french fry or two somewhere :-)


Here is Jay pondering the storm along with his infamous blue and red lights that, as I understand it, have some chasers' panties twisted up in a wad. Jay is part of the Amarillo Emergency Services as one of their trained and certified volunteers. He donates alot of his freetime in assisting the city in many different ways. It is 100% legal to have those lights mounted on there as part of his duties and to use them as authorized in the state as well as some surrounding states under mutual aid agreements. Get over it. I'm sure Jay will expand on my comments.


Here is the "tornado". In my opinion, the best I can classify this spinup was a "hybrid". It started out as what appeared to be RFD and then as it moved under the updraft, got stretched and rotated pretty darned good with rotation noted in the cloud base above it. This is about as exciting as it got.


A couple of parting shots as the storms become severely outflow dominated.




And, here is my new toy which has preoccupied alot of my time. I was going to get the Roland V-Drum TD-12 kit. But, with a killer rebate this month and finding a great price on them, I was able to get the elite TD-20 kit. I got an extra CY-15 cymbal and with the rebate, another PD-105 (tom) and PD8 (trigger pad...need more cowbell! Ha!) are on the way. This kit is entirely electronic and very quiet....perfect for an apartment. With my Beyerdynamic DT 770 headphones, this kit sounds absolutely incredible and realistic. You program any part of the kit with one of thousands of different sounds. You can even make your own sounds on your computer and import it. It's almost unlimited what you can do with it. I'll have alot of fun this winter mastering all of the nuances of it. As you can see, the apartment is getting pretty cramped. I think a move is my near future.

5-0

How 'bout dem Cowboys?

In one of the most bizarre, ugly and exciting games I've ever seen on Monday Night Football, tonight's ranks right up there at the top. I thought Buffalo had won it right up to the second attempt at the last-second 53 yard field goal. I guess I got accustomed to Cowboy seasons of the past. :-) In fact, shame on Buffalo for losing it. They had an abundance of gifts courtesy of Romo (some not entirely his fault) to make at more than 30 points. I actually thought he was confused on the jersey colors (psssst....we are the guys in white, Tony!). They could have run out the clock with another first down. They could have recovered the onside kick which Dallas recovered and set up the winning FG. There were many reasons that they should have won. In fact, I thought the images in my post below were more appropriate for tonight's game on both sides. ;-)

But, I'm not going to take away Dallas' incredible fighting spirit to duke it out to the last second. To score 25 points after turning it over to your opponent 6 times and taking it away only once is a pretty good accomplishment. To hold your opponent to 17 points after all of those turnovers is an incredible and admirable feat for ANY defense out there (7 points were scored on a kick-off return so that doesn't count). The bottom line is that this team overcame unrealistic odds and in the end won the game. The old Cowboys would have given up somewhere in the third quarter and started packing their bags for the flight home. Nope. They showed the type of character and attitude I haven't seen since the Jimmy Johnson days. I'm happy to once again be excited about a Dallas Cowboys season.

Not to dis the Big Tuna (Parcells) as I think he is a brilliant coach, but I disagreed with alot of the play calling last season as I considered it too conservative and "playing not to lose". Of course, how much interference there was from Jerry Jones is up to speculation, but I suspect there was some. Despite all of that, the team this year seems to be having more fun and showing more confidence. I also love the play calling now and my hats off to former back-up quarterback now the offensive coordinator Jason Garrett. He really is a pretty sharp guy. The offense has ALOT more depth and a gameplan that really keeps the opposing defense more on their heels....keeping in mind that this is their first full season all together. They continue to get stronger with each game. They "play to win".

This game ended in perfect fashion to sum up all four quarters. While number 9 was giving the game away, the inverse of his jersey number, number 6 Nick Folk, won the game. Not only did he punch it through once, but twice after the Bills pulled a fast one and called time out a nanosecond before the first attempt. To split the uprights twice in a row at 53 yards under THAT kind of pressure is amazing to me. He's a BIG hero in Big D tonight. Romo should put Folk at the top of his Christmas list this year. Still though, the one thing I admired about Romo tonight was as bad as he performed, he didn't give up either. That 2-point conversion attempt at the end was close to making up for some of his errors had Owens came down with it. He did a good job in the last remaining seconds to get the ball into FG range.

Although I think this was a major test they passed, the big one will be next weekend against New England. I'm sure the Pats, without the help of secret surveillance video tapes, will be carefully analyzing the Buffalo defensive strategy which I thought was brilliant on all fronts for most of the game. It seemed like they always had an extra guy or two on the field. They finally developed a formula to frazzle the Dallas offense. Of course, I think the 12th man factor had alot to do with it too. The Buffalo fans were bizerk and very loud. That had to help rattle a young Romo. But, at least he can chalk this one up to experience and I hope he learns from it. I'm just glad he wasn't on my fantasy team this week. LOL!!

I just found out that tonight is the first time in 7 years that a team with a -5 turnover deficit ended up winning the game. Wow.

Oh....and how 'bout them Yankees? ROFL!!

Ok, back to the boring, tranquil weather. It was beautiful today with highs in the lower 70's and crystal clear blue skies. Time to think of some camping trips again. I gotta get over a bad cold right now though. The NyQuil is kicking in.......night all.....zzzzzzzzz.

Pfffffffttttt.....

That's the sound of the hopes and expectations for a big chase day deflating before us. Since my last post, the evolution if this current system didn't pan out as the models were starting to converge on a couple of days ago. Such is the life of a stormchaser.

I still think there will be some decent storms for a local chase today around Amarillo. A well defined quasi-stationary boundary always makes things a bit interesting for this part of the country. But, meager instability and dynamics don't offer much prospect for anything exciting.

Octoberfest!

The model runs in the past two days have been amusing to watch. As is typical with vigorous storm systems approaching the left coast, they almost always end up being slower and deeper as they reach the Rockies than the early advertisements. The GFS jumped on this first defying it's peer pressure. It's such a wild and crazy model. ;-) The rest of the gang is catching on to the GFS idea. All of them continue to slow and dig this upper system (I dig it too...ha!) with each consecutive run.

Based on this evening's model consensus, Sunday is looking like a pretty significant severe weather episode for the plains. The most impressive feature is the forecast 500mb profile. As Sunday presses on into the late afternoon, the compact upper trough begins to crank up and lift out taking on a slight negative tilt. The diffluence out over the panhandles into SW Kansas is quite impressive and pretty powerful. The resultant surface reaction is to bomb a surface low somewhere around the W/SW KS area. A stout dryline will sharpen and punch across the area of mid level difflence. Moisture and instability will not be a problem and will be pretty good for October.

This is a classic signature for some pretty vicious storms. With that much energy and linear forcing, we would see a rapid evolution into a very nasty squall line. The southern fringe of everything down into the TX PH into W OK would be best for a tail-end charlie setup and something remaining more discreet for a longer period of time.

But, it's too early to start plotting a target area and dreams of tornadoes on the caprock. :-) As is usual, the models are certain to change. Will the upper system slow even further? Speed up? Deeper? Head to Mexico and dissipate in fear of the Stevoid®? ;-)

Stay tuned!

Recent Pics, Chase Ahoy!, Drums!

Here are a few pics I shot last week. The first set is the Cadillac Ranch on the western outskirts of Amarillo on I-40. The guy who did this, Stanley Marsh III, is quite a well known eccentric around Amarillo who also happens to be a millionaire by making helium. He also erects quite a few whimsical "artsy" diamond-shaped signs around town with quite an ecclectic variety of musings, quotes, whimsy, etc. He and/or his "support staff" also drive odd vehicles around town. One is a Suburban plastered with American Flag decals and loudspeakers on top. Another one that I saw in front of the building where I work had a stuffed chicken with a stuffed fox posed to attack it. I personally like that one best...in part because the chicken's feet were wired to the luggage rack. He certainly keeps Amarillo a pretty interesting place to live. :-)

More info on Cadillac Ranch:

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/TXAMAcadillac.html

http://www.libertysoftware.be/cml/cadillacranch/crmain.htm

Some pics:


I made my mark at the Cadillac Ranch. Yes, everybody spray paints the cars and there are cans of it all over the place at the ready. Think about it....it keeps them from rusting. :-) And of course, it's "art".





Here are the remnants of the severe storm that prompted a tornado warning near Cotton Center because of a landspout tornado. I missed that, but was treated to a fantastic Texas Panhandle sunset!





The fall weather pattern continues it's abnormal wave pattern with large persitant troughiness out west and a stubborn blocking ridge entrenched in the eastern states. It's an unusual pattern for October to be certain. It looks more like early summer. As a result, abnormally warm temperatures are baking west Texas with highs tomorrow perhaps in the low 90's.

The models are coming into good agreement concerning a stout shortwave to crash into the plains this weekend. Right now, it looks like Saturday will be the big day for these parts. I like the TX PH being on the southern fringe of the strong upper air dynamics and related linear forcing. With a dryline in place and modest instability along with a roaring LLJ, it certainly appears that some serious chasing is in the cards. However, as usual for this time of year, the mid levels are warmer than what we see in the spring, so steep mid level lapse rates, lifted indices and CAPE struggle. More in this event as it approaches.

On the vehicle front, I'm putting that off for a little while. Instead, I've rewarded myself for enduring 2007 by purchasing an electronic drum kit. It's the Roland TD-12S with an extra ride cymbal. I'll add another "tom" in the near future. It should be here by Friday. I've wanted one of these for quite a long time. I can now play in the apartment and nobody will know. Plus, with all of the incredible features and sounds the module offers, it opens up an entire world of possibilities for recording projects I've had on the back burner for a couple of years. I finally have enough freetime to pursue this now. :-)

Plus, it's not near the pain-in-the-ass to mic and balance like an acoustic kit...no more constant tuning of both drum heads...no more worrying about unwanted sound bouncing back into the mics....no more excruciating effects and mixing of the drums after you record with EQ, reverb, etc. Now, I just jump on the kit, play and I'm pretty much done except for final mix on the volume/compression. This will save untold hours now so that I can focus on other musical parts and composition/mixing.

I also have hundreds of thousands of different sounds to choose from as well as customizing my own!!! The possibilities are endless. It's a great way to endure the long winter that lies ahead as well as good overall FUN excercise. It beats a treadmill anyday. ;-) I can play for hours...although I'll have to build up to that endurance level again...along with the pain of buidling up those callouses. I can't wait to get my groove on! :-) Who knows? Maybe I can pick up a couple of local recording side gigs next year when I shake the 2-year rust off. We'll see.