End of Operations.

(Author's note: forgive the sub par prose of the following message, it was composed in a rush on a mere 4-5 hours of sleep per night these past couple of days.)

The last official day of Vortex2 has now come and gone.

On June 13, 2010, the V2 armada put in a good effort and chased some storms around northern Texas / the Oklahoma panhandle that sadly failed to produce much of note for the V2 scientists. We (with the exception of DOW5, who acquired a blown out tire) ended the night in Amarillo, Texas at the famous Big Texan, where, despite the urging of many, I did not endeavor to consume the Big Texan's monster 72 ounce steak dinner. In fact, I did not endeavor to consume steak at all; I'm a vegetarian (just in case you wanted to know).

On June 14, 2010, the V2 armada braved the floodwaters of northern Texas and called off operations after driving conditions became too dangerous because of the water collecting on the roads. The lovely little (big) storm system we were chasing went a-training (training refers to instances where storm systems do not pass over an area, drop water, and leave; but instead trek over a location in such a fashion that they continually give and give precipitation. Just like a train running over an unfortunate penny over and over as its wheels pass down the tracks. Poor penny). We sailed away and landed in Lubbock for food, photos, and camaraderie.

On June 15, 2010, the V2 armada started operations and quickly ended them after determining that the target areas for convection would not produce the storms needed. People left. Hugs were exchanged.

CSWR continues operations today, and travels back to CSWR home base tomorrow. I will miss many of the new people I've encountered on this trek terribly. They made this trip the fabulous time that it has been. Thank you all. (photo from Karen Kosiba at tornadoscientists.blogspot.com)

One Tornado, Two Tornado, Green Tornado, Blue Tornado...

June 10, 2010 started just as any other day on Vortex2 (have I used that phrase before here?). The masses woke up to a really poor hotel breakfast (yours truly picked up a Nutra Grain bar from a local gas station and was rather dissatisfied) and were rushed about to a luxurious parking lot for lunch, a good long while of waiting, and some Dairy Queen. Eventually, the PIs (otherwise known as the almighty People Incharge) and the FC (they spend time in an ugly looking truck and nowcast things) picked a target storm, and then another target storm, and maybe another target storm (there are so many travel and storm targets throughout the day that it is very easy to lose track). Copious amounts of driving across the northeast corner of the grand ol’ Colorado ensued and the Vortex2 armada subsequently settled near a quaint little town called Last Chance. (Hopefully this really wasn’t our last chance! That would be sad.)

Anywho, shortly after we parked at a certain spot on a certain road (there are so many certain spots and certain roads throughout the day that it is very easy to lose track), we saw it; we saw some strange fluid (probably coming from the radiator) leaking from the right front of the car. Really, I’m kidding. The radiator did appear to be leaking fluid, but our attention was detracted from any automobile malfunction by THE TORNADO!!!


How awesome is that? This is a picture I’ve been waiting the whole trip for! Yeah!

And then… then there was another TORNADO!!! (Random trivia: June 10, 2010 was a Thursday, which was named in English because it was considered sacred to the god Thor. Thor, as you may or may not know, was the Norse god of thunder. How about that?)


Can you see it? Unlike it’s earlier counterpart, this TORNADO was rain wrapped. For the Travis Lutzes of the world, a rain wrapped tornado is like a burrito, with a rain curtain tortilla shell and a soft, squishy tornado center (perhaps contrary to popular belief, tornadoes don’t actually coexist well with rain. While it is believed that the cold air generated by precipitation is necessary for the formation of many tornadoes, tornadoes are essentially areas of violently rotating, upward moving air. Rain and other precipitation cools the surrounding air, causing downward motion. As you may have already deduced, downward motion isn’t too conducive to upward motion, and so tornadoes in the immediate vicinity of rain don‘t usually fair too well… In any event, the rain wrapped tornado we saw did not last very long).

Sadly, both of these tornadoes occurred in the middle of what we like to call a road hole, and since Vortex2 vehicles have a great history of getting stuck in the mud when they so much as pull off the road and onto a wet grassy shoulder, the CSWR Pod People were unable to deploy any pods in the tornado’s path. Also sadly, the storm shortly thereafter turned into little more than another RCC (Really Cool Cloud)… very nice to look at, but not much of a tornado threat. Oh well, there are still a few days left, right?


Following the TORNADOes and subsequent RCC, on the way back to our sleeping establishment for the evening, we were treated by mother nature to a spectacular lightning show, complete with a couple very high based little funnel clouds:


Can you see those?

On June 11, 2010 (a Friday, named after and sacred to the Norse goddess Freya), we saw some more TORNADOes, but they were pretty weak and short lived. I was sitting in the back seat of Probe13 when those happened. No pictures ensued. I did, however, manage to catch this shot of a small herd of the ellusive Imaxis filmcrewia and their mobile dwelling at a Colorado watering hole. (Props to Mike (who is not looking at the camera), Darren (who is not looking at the camera), Jack (who is behind a camera and not looking at the camera), and Greg (who is actually looking in the general direction of the camera).)

The Search Continues…

Tornadogenesis failure. Two words that have plagued the Vortex2 armada this past weekend. All looks well, clouds are rotating, we think something might actually develop and then… nothing. Nothing at all. It makes us sad pandas. Very sad pandas…

The Vortex2 project has been operating under the “we will sacrifice sleep (and breakfast *sob*) for tornadoes!” mantra for the past couple of days, and with glorious results. We have seen fabulous RCCs (really cool clouds), and these RCCs really have looked like they might just become tornadic; but alas the weather has continually failed us. Yours truly has been largely breakfastless for the past couple of days as we’ve driven hours upon hours and chased mesocyclone after mesocyclone (I may be exaggerating, but only a little) only to find that our beautiful storms quickly become outflow dominant and just plain yucky (on radar) when we arrive to observe them. The tornadoes we like (ie not gustnadoes) don’t like outflow. Bummer.

On a plus note, these people with fancy cameras (I hear they’re filming for this thing called IMAX) asked Vortex2 if they could take some levitating airborne vehicle called a helicopter and film us as we were leaving Omaha, Nebraska this morning after I was mercilessly barred from completing my breakfast. It was pretty cool (the helicopter, not being forced to abandon my pineapple mid chew). I should’ve put my game face on…



The helicopter and NOXP, the super cool dual-polarization mobile radar home of one Dr. Don Burgess (he likes Dairy Queen), as seen from the bug splattered, cracked windshield of Probe 13.



RCC #2 of the day. Mesocyclone: to the left. Haze of dirty Probe 13 back seat driver’s side window: in the front. Tornado: nonexistent.



This bit in the middle that looks like it might be forming a tornado is indeed not a tornado. This sneaky little thing is a scud cloud. Scud clouds are IMPOSTERS. They only want to make you think they’re tornadoes. Like those non venomous red, black, and yellow banded snakes that look like other venomous red, black, and yellow banded snakes. Yeah, just like that. Those jerks.



Some whole wheat for a balanced diet.

An extra little note: Tornadogenesis failure data isn't all bad. Actually, one can say it's pretty good data to have. If we can figure out why tornadoes don't form when we think they will, that may bring us one step closer to figuring out why they form when they do. Hooray! Science rocks!

Have You Seen Our Tornadoes?

This has got to stop! (Bonus points if you get that reference.) Vortex2's stint of wait and miss continues. Our most recent blunder occurred on Monday, May 31. Yes folks, Memorial Day. While much of America was probably grilling out and getting corn on the cob stuck between their front teeth, Vortex2 was in North Platte, Nebraska, waiting for the call to either go chase or ferry to the next hotel. Chances of (good) convection seemed small and rather far away that day (much further than poor ol' DOW 5 could ever dream of going with the blown out tire and transmission it recently acquired), so we were directed to head to the next hotel early in the evening.

A gruesome sight awaited us at our destination hotel. Upon entering one Holiday Inn in Kearney, Nebraska (which was a very nice hotel, by the way), much of Vortex2 was forced to view a horrific scene playing on the Weather Channel in the hotel lobby... the day's tornado, streaming live onto a 42+ inch LCD television, taking place in southeastern Colorado (the far away place where a slight chance of convection was predicted). The shock. The horror. The meteorologists aghast and dismayed. Tears were shed (on the inside) and outcries were made (not so much on the inside). The disappointment had to be put to rest. We had to move on.

When morning came, a decision was made by the PIs (ie big important people in charge) that we ought to take more advantage of these slight chances of storms that we have (ie sleep will become less or a priority in the remaining days of this project). The PIs made good on this decision today, and had us chasing (or waiting in a gas station parking lot) for the better part of the daylight hours. Unfortunately, the weather refused to cooperate, and instead of making lovely little discrete supercells for our enjoyment and research pleasure, it produced storms that quickly combined and became a big blob of weather nastiness. These rainy monsters can give us RCCs (Really Cool Clouds), but rarely the kind of tornadoes we want (because they're too rainy!). Tomorrow is a new day, perhaps the weather will be more kind (I hope it will be, because I am not horribly keen on having my bags packed and ready to go by 8:30am).

SASSI turtle says "Cheer up, it's not so bad." Hah. What do you know, SASSI turtle?


Probe 12, drives by a classic RCC. Congratulations on not breaking down today, 12! We're so proud of you.


ZOMG tornado!! We did see some tornadoes today! Well, sort of. This spinny dusty thing is probably a gustnado, which forms on a storm's gust front (ie the place where a storm's outflow meets the warmer environmental air). If the winds are right, and the storm's outflow is strong enough, the wind shear across the gust front can create these little gustnado vorticies. Since they're in contact with the ground and are underneath a cumuliform cloud, they're technically considered tornadoes, but since they're not the kind of tornadoes capable of transporting Dorothy to Oz, they're not really what we're looking for right now...