5/13/08 Chase Account: MO/KS
Started off the day less than impressed with the setup, but decided that May may make some magic happen so I decided to target the area right around Clinton, MO. Storms fired up in KS, and I headed W to intercept one in between Ft Scott and Mound City. I intercepted the storm right at the KS/MO st. line. They were less than impressive, and I quickly decided to drop South to Intercept the only Tornado warned storm at that time, which I intercepted right at Lamar. When I got into town, there was a report that there was a funnel cloud 1 mile South of Lamar. I was being core’d at the time and wasn’t able to see anything, but when I emerged from all the rain (no hail at all, btw) I saw nothing that impressed me at all. Did manage to see several close lightning bolts, and some winds that were rocking the car, but other than that, There wasn’t a whole lot to it.
The main excitement of the day was when I was about 8 miles from home at about 3 AM or so and hit a deer, causing some damage to the front passenger side quarter panel. As seen below:
Here’s the most interesting thing I saw all day:
This was taken just west of butler, MO on the KS/MO st. line. There was rapidly rising condensation along the leading edge of the gust front.
To summarize, I should have just stayed home.
Updating this Blog & other stuff
Well, It looks like I have been a little negligent in updating this thing. I don’t really know why I have been neglecting to do this, It’s not like I have a lot of stuff to do here at work.
For those of you that don’t really know me, I work as a 911 communications officer in the tiny community of Lancaster, MO. In the tiny county of Schuyler. This is where I grew up, and this is probably where I will be buried when I die. However, due to the very low pay that is plaugeing me, well to be fair, not just me, but the whole community, I must leave here to find a better paying job. In fact I will be interviewing at a place in Nebraska next week. In a way, I kind of hope that I do not get the job. I know it is better pay, but I will be at least 4 hours away from people that I know. On the other hand, I will be able to afford better things for the family, not to mention better equipment for storm chasing ;).
My wife Is also not to thrilled about the idea either. She knows what is coming, however, and see’s the fate. It’s basically down to either move and make more money, or stay put and see our lives unravel before our eyes. Either way it’s kind of a crappy deal. I know she’s stressing over it, alot more than I do, but I’m usually the calm and collected one. I’ve been in worse situations than this, Albeit while I was single and didn’t have to worry about a family. It’s quite a bit different now. You have to worry about schools, day care, and other things, before you even apply for a job. There are several jobs out there, in my field, just at the wrong locations. At any rate, no where is going to feel like “home”.
I guess I really told anybody that my first replacement to the old minivan died. (99 zx2) The clutch went out of it and it would have cost more to replace than what I bought it for, so it went to the junk yard. I was really sad to see it go, as it got around 33 mpg or so. Great for those long-range chases from North East Missouri. I am *hoping* to have a replacement to that vehicle here in the next couple of weeks or so. Doesn’t mean I will, I am just hoping. To top that off, I backed into a pole a couple of weeks back with my taurus, so it has rear passenger side damage that will cost about $1,400.00 to repair. I guess I should have got full coverage on it, but figured that If I damaged something that bad, I would just junk it… too bad I don’t have enough money to do that, lol.
As I sit here in my little office typing this, going over computer models, it looks like there may be a system coming through the plain states this coming week, in the 4+ day time period. It looks kinda decent, but… Im not holding my breath, after all, it is 2008, and this year has not been to kind to me, as a chaser, or otherwise. I’ll take a look as this all unfolds later, but given the fact I am on day 2 of a 9 day stretch here at work, I may be pretty tired by the time the chase day, (if there is one) rolls around. Heck, Im having a helluva time trying to get 1 day off to go interview for the job in NE.
I suppose I should wrap this up, since it’s a pretty long post…(especially for me). BTW. here is a picture of my brother-in-law at his prom: (he is in the middle)
Also, at the same event. I bet you wont see at any other prom…
Someone decided it would be fun to take a sheriff’s office car to the prom…. Not only that, but look at the demolition derby car behing the Sheriff’s Office crusier. (also take a look at the expression the the girls face.) Only in Mercer Co., MO will you find something like that.
If it’s going to do anything, looks like May 2nd may be the day… but that remains to be seen, Im not very hopeful.
4/21/08…Chasing Possibility?
actually think today may stand a half-way decent chance of producing…something.
Looks like the NAM is wanting to break out precip between 00Z and 06Z. (This forecast is basically for the northern area, as thats where I would be chasing) As the LLJ kicks in around sunset, it appears that all the severe indicies go up for the northern target. There may be a hour or two that tornadic storms maybe able to form…provided the CF doest decided to undercut them.
*IF* I decided to go out, (due to work, I am kind of limited on range), I would prefer to hang out S and SW of KC. Since this is not a option for me, I will likely just head West to the Princeton/Trenton MO area and hope for something. At this point, even just a nice supercell, slowly moving, would be nice, given the last setup I chased on 4/10.