Today was the sixth full day of ROTATE 2012. It was also the sixth full day of ROTATE 2012 with virtually no “interesting” weather anywhere in the ROTATE 2012 domain. And since there also appears to be virtually no “interesting” weather anywhere in the ROTATE 2012 domain for the near future, a CSWR colleague at the National Weather Service has chosen to reassign the ROTATE acronym to a different phrase, namely the “Ridge Over Tornado Alley and Tanning Experiment.” At least when times get rough you know you can count on your friends!
Fortunately for the project (but unfortunately for yours truly, who must leave ROTATE early), this unfavorable weather comes at a good time. A trip to Sioux City, Iowa on Day One revealed several problems with our vehicles and instruments, and some down time has actually been needed to address and fix the issues. Another plus of having this time is that *surprise!* we actually got a chance to do a practice deployment before we missed any chances with the weather. Now, you may ask “how exactly does one do a practice deployment for a fully nomadic three DOW, six probe/scout, twenty two tornado pod project?” Well, the answer is quite simple, really: We deploy generally as we normally would in the presence of a tornado, except we switch the tornado out for a burgundy SUV. And thus a carnado is born.
The dynamics of carnadogenesis have remained a mystery to atmospheric scientists since the first major thunderstorm and tornado-related field campaigns took place. It can happen suddenly and may or may not occur at a predetermined location. There is little consensus as to which vehicles are most likely to produce carnadoes, so this phenomena is not yet well warned by any local or national agencies. It is, however, thought that most carnadoes that occur in the Boulder, Colorado area do indeed originate from Subaru SUV or crossover vehicles (a similar van-nado is believed to be born from white Enterprise rental cargo vans). More data are necessary. Any other questions are beyond the scope of this research.
In any event, our first practice deployment went as well as could be expected in the present situation. The observed carnado spun along at a leisurely 20mph, and most of our scientists did manage to deploy their instruments and get out of its way and into safety in ample time to avoid damage. Carnado dynamics will not remain a mystery for much longer…
New Scout3 / old Probe11 and DOW8 (the rapid scan / old DOW5) await deployment instructions
This is Herb. Herb makes and fixes things. Without Herb, at least half of our vehicles and instruments this season probably would not work. Thank you, Herb. Kudos also to Justin, Andrew, Ab, Brian, and everyone else who has helped out a lot (or even a little!)
(Note to readers: Any nonsensical nonsense contained herein is a product solely (mostly) of my fatigue and the fact that I’m presently sitting in a hotel room that I really don’t wish to sleep in without a hazmat suit.)
No comments:
Post a Comment