ROTATE : Notes from the Weather Venture: On The Road Again Again

The dismal days have come and gone, leaving in their wake dreary, dusty memories of times once passed, roads once traveled, and storms once seen. Five days we spent in Boulder; five days we watched the clouds float by with nary a sight nor sound of convection to come. Despondently we hung our heads and wrung our hands; with melancholy eyes we perused the forecast discussions and analyzed the model runs, but the guidance horizons showed us little to no glimmers of weather hope. Work is work, however, and worn hands still slaved away over hot grinders and hollow wave guides.

Alas, a small beacon of light appeared and shined itself down upon our weary party. The SPC, that wise and awesome juggernaut of severe weather prediction, determined forthwith that conditions might be favorable for tornadic convection in the land of the arid southwest. The outcome was bleak, but with no other options presenting themselves in the near future, our band of wayward travelers packed up their things and migrated to New Mexico…

At this point in the story, you might expect a *bang!* *smash!* *tornado!*, but such was not in the cards (or, quite literally, the atmosphere). New Mexico did see storms today, and they may have even been severe, but the ingredients simply were not there to produce much in the way of tornadic activity. The armada therefore spent much of the day in Carlsbad, New Mexico interacting with the public, meeting up with Sean Casey’s TIV to make sure that its instruments were wired correctly, posing for photo ops, and getting to know our DOW8 driver’s (Eddie!) hometown and family. We did observe convection forming near the area, and many of our group either got photos of the storm as it was becoming outflow dominant or of its lightning, but the DOWs and Scouts themselves could only experience the storm’s gust front and downpours from the hotel parking lot.

Conditions for the rest of the week still look rather bleak. You know what that means…