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Virtual Chase Thread 2012


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Posted
  • Location: Bicester Oxfordshire
  • Location: Bicester Oxfordshire

I always have wondered what you would do on fast moving fronts in the night when chasing. Would you always make sure that you are west of any potential activity to keep guests safe. Have you ever been woken up by tornado sirens out there?

Pat and I slept through a storm report on my Weather Radio, Paul and Arron wondered why Pat and I had not seen the good lightning display despite Pat reputably always having his finger on the camera shutter button !

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Posted
  • Location: Scarborough, North Yorkshire - 80m ASL
  • Weather Preferences: Tornadoey
  • Location: Scarborough, North Yorkshire - 80m ASL

The GFS looks pretty good for a solid moderate risk tomorrow even if only for wind damage. The NAM is even better and screams High risk if that comes off. Some of the forecast soundings for the Ohio Valley are showing 2000+cape juxtaposed against SRH value of 1000 http://cdn.nwstatic.co.uk/forum/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ohmy.png Sigtor is pretty much maxed out over a large area. the only thing which might prevent this from being a pretty crazy day would be a quick transition to linear storm mode but with the amount of shear forecast, there'd still be plenty of embedded mesocyclones I'd imagine.

Edited by Gorky
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Posted
  • Location: Caterham-on-the-hill, Surrey, 190m asl (home), Heathrow (work)
  • Location: Caterham-on-the-hill, Surrey, 190m asl (home), Heathrow (work)

I always have wondered what you would do on fast moving fronts in the night when chasing. Would you always make sure that you are west of any potential activity to keep guests safe. Have you ever been woken up by tornado sirens out there?

Usually we are in the situation where we are east of the front so have to punch through them to get west of them anyway. Best option IMO is not to be out on the road at night when a squall line moves through but rather ride them out at a hotel and photograph the lightning as it approaches. However, if the cold front isn't moving through until late in the night, there is the option to chase discrete storms in the warm sectors - where there is then option to keep a distance.

Wrt to tomorrow's Moderate risk, going to be tough I think keeping up with any discrete storms that form ahead of the cold front, particularly given 500mb winds are forecast to be approaching 100knots! As Paul mentions, terrain will also likely hamper visuals in the wooded hills of Kentucky and Tennessee. If I was chasing this I would probably head for the area around Lexington, KY I think based on best CAPE and shear progged atm.

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Posted
  • Location: Leigh On Sea - Essex & Tornado Alley
  • Location: Leigh On Sea - Essex & Tornado Alley

Hi Ed

Nick has answered your question pretty well, we are usually East of any Supercells that are ongoing, you then usually get 1 of 2 Outcomes in the Plains, an advancing Cold Front spreads down a line of Storms and it is best to ride these out in a Sturdy Building always keeping an eye on radar (QLCS Tornadoes usually only pack upto EF2 Damage so a brick built structure should be okay) yes it will be quite scary and your weather radio can always keep you updated with anything more significant. The other thing that happens is an MCS Will form (Usually the size of Europe Pmsl) and you get treated to Lightning displays and non severe winds.

I have only vacated a Hotel twice since 2005 and been woken up once for a Tornado Warning.

I am sure a few of the others remember the High Risk day after Greensburg when we had to vacate and get out of the way of a Wedge Tornado heading straight for Ellsworth and our Best Western Hotel, we went South out of the way, the Tornado missed the Hotel just to it's west but unfortunately killed 2 people in a Mobile Home that night in Kansas.

The early morning wake up call was in 2008 in Hays (Kansas) when a Line of Storms erupted at 4am and headed North East, a Few Supercells formed and the Sirens went off at 530am, lots of people were in the Hallway of Hotels down the strip of Hays, again the TVS Missed Hays by a few miles.

Part and Parcel of Chasing though are the risks of Night-Time Twisters and we try to keep people as safe as possible and take evasive action when needed.

Paul S

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Posted
  • Location: Hayward’s Heath - home, Brighton/East Grinstead - work.
  • Weather Preferences: Snow and storms
  • Location: Hayward’s Heath - home, Brighton/East Grinstead - work.

Thanks for the answers Paul and Nick. It must be pretty scary being woken up by the tornado sirens for those who are unable to get info and cannot see what is heading their way. I guess that if you knew that a cold front was due to hit with possible embedded tornadic activity then you would hope to be in a position to intercept this when it was passing in daylight hours.

A night time twister is not something I would want to experience unless in the cars with all the info!!

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Posted
  • Location: Leigh On Sea - Essex & Tornado Alley
  • Location: Leigh On Sea - Essex & Tornado Alley

Wow

Just been looking on Google Maps (Terrain) and it really is pretty grim unless uou head into Ohio.

There are also some pretty Big Metropolitan areas under the Gun tomorrow like Cincinnati, Colombus and Lexington.

Would probably overnight in Lexington (Ky) with a view to head into Ohio or Extreme SE Indianna as the terrain although still green and plentiful looks less densely wooded.

Could be a grim end result once again tomorrow looking at the areas impacted atm

Paul S

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Posted
  • Location: Dublin
  • Location: Dublin

I could only imagine what a sudden overnight wake up call to the sirens going off would be like!

First ya'd get Pat all like ... " Ahh mate , its only a car alarm ... go back asleep " .......

Then ya'd have John running in ... " Sh** lads ! , tornado sirens!! , quick get everyone up! Wheres me laptop!?... Dave what did u make me drink last night my head is spinnin! " ....

Then ya'd have Arron and Dave..... " Sirens ye?.... ah k cool sweet ... just gonna pop in for a quick shower so , shall be out in 10 mins ... Arron do ya have any spare dax wax , never know who we might run into down in the shelter?"

Then ya'd hav Tom running down the hallway ... " Sirens , Tornado SIRENS!! .....Everyone down to the basement! .... Im just heading out to the car to get my camera ! "..... * PAt * .. "Tom ! , grab mine too! , think it would be a SWEET timelapse pal! "

Then Paul strolling out like a zombie ... " k everyone , i looked out my window and from what i can see , we have a low wall cloud to our NSWNE , rotation on it is PHENOMENAL , the storm looks to be kickin it at 40mph so we have approximately 10 mins to get to shelter! * .... THis could be my FIRST NIGHT-Time INTERCEPT at ... 3.05... AM ! Boo yawh!! ... *COughs* ... Now ... EVERYONE TO THE BASEMENT lets go lets go .... LETS GO LETS GO ! * MAkes Car beeping noise * ... GO GO GO!

ME " Ohhhhhhh MY GOD !!! ..... http://cdn.nwstatic.co.uk/forum/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ohmy.png , " everyone set there cameras on record ! .... Dave what settings u gonna use?" .... * walks casually to basment *

Edited by DubWeatherAddict
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Posted
  • Location: Scarborough, North Yorkshire - 80m ASL
  • Weather Preferences: Tornadoey
  • Location: Scarborough, North Yorkshire - 80m ASL

I think you're best up as far North as you can get really whilst staying in the good moisture. Terrain gets worse as you move south and the potential for everything to go linear with embedded meso's makes me think playing early near the surface low up in Indiana or Ohio would be best. the soudings for Dayton, Ohio are very good for about 3pm US time. So I'd start there. Better road network into Ohio certainly draws me that way, even if some of the better parameters are donw towards Ky. The NAM seems to be pretty robust on moisture return and shows almost 3000 cape pushing well into Ohio. The GFs is less robust and slower though so I may be too far north and east with this play and might need to readjust for the morning.

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Posted
  • Location: Midleton, Cork, Ireland
  • Location: Midleton, Cork, Ireland

LOL Ian. BTW, your probably missing Silverlight for you Mac for some of the streams. I know severe studios player is Silverlight based.

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Posted
  • Location: South West London
  • Weather Preferences: Stormy
  • Location: South West London

Lmao Ian!

Anyone hear from Pat see how he got on the past couple of days?!

For this virtual chase I would go kick it with the Armish in Ohio! Get chasing in one of their horse and traps, if I bust I might help out with the odd barn raising!

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Posted
  • Location: Dublin
  • Location: Dublin

LOL Ian. BTW, your probably missing Silverlight for you Mac for some of the streams. I know severe studios player is Silverlight based.

:D

...OK Tried that John , installed the latest version ( 5.0 ) and to no avail :(

Updated Adobe Flash player too ....

Any other ideas? ... :80:

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Posted
  • Location: Basildon
  • Weather Preferences: Stormy
  • Location: Basildon

I could only imagine what a sudden overnight wake up call to the sirens going off would be like!

First ya'd get Pat all like ... " Ahh mate , its only a car alarm ... go back asleep " .......

Then ya'd have John running in ... " Sh** lads ! , tornado sirens!! , quick get everyone up! Wheres me laptop!?... Dave what did u make me drink last night my head is spinnin! " ....

Then ya'd have Arron and Dave..... " Sirens ye?.... ah k cool sweet ... just gonna pop in for a quick shower so , shall be out in 10 mins ... Arron do ya have any spare dax wax , never know who we might run into down in the shelter?"

Then ya'd hav Tom running down the hallway ... " Sirens , Tornado SIRENS!! .....Everyone down to the basement! .... Im just heading out to the car to get my camera ! "..... * PAt * .. "Tom ! , grab mine too! , think it would be a SWEET timelapse pal! "

Then Paul strolling out like a zombie ... " k everyone , i looked out my window and from what i can see , we have a low wall cloud to our NSWNE , rotation on it is PHENOMENAL , the storm looks to be kickin it at 40mph so we have approximately 10 mins to get to shelter! * .... THis could be my FIRST NIGHT-Time INTERCEPT at ... 3.05... AM ! Boo yawh!! ... *COughs* ... Now ... EVERYONE TO THE BASEMENT lets go lets go .... LETS GO LETS GO ! * MAkes Car beeping noise * ... GO GO GO!

ME " Ohhhhhhh MY GOD !!! ..... http://cdn.nwstatic.co.uk/forum/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ohmy.png , " everyone set there cameras on record ! .... Dave what settings u gonna use?" .... * walks casually to basment *

N I'd be yelling at everyone to get in the cars now! LOL @ Tour 2 2010

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Posted
  • Location: Midleton, Cork, Ireland
  • Location: Midleton, Cork, Ireland

:D

...OK Tried that John , installed the latest version ( 5.0 ) and to no avail :(

Updated Adobe Flash player too ....

Any other ideas? ... :80:

Which site were you trying to view a stream from? Will see whats behind it and test on my mac? What browser, Safari.. something else? Edited by John Hanrahan
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Posted
  • Location: Leigh On Sea - Essex & Tornado Alley
  • Location: Leigh On Sea - Essex & Tornado Alley

Have a few Facebook friends who have just been at a Briefing at the SPC - They are expecting a Possible Tornado Outbreak Tomorrow over Tennessee, Kentucky and Indiana.

Expect a possible Upgrade to High Risk on either the 8z or 13z Update tomorrow!

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Posted
  • Location: Caterham-on-the-hill, Surrey, 190m asl (home), Heathrow (work)
  • Location: Caterham-on-the-hill, Surrey, 190m asl (home), Heathrow (work)

I am sure a few of the others remember the High Risk day after Greensburg when we had to vacate and get out of the way of a Wedge Tornado heading straight for Ellsworth and our Best Western Hotel, we went South out of the way, the Tornado missed the Hotel just to it's west but unfortunately killed 2 people in a Mobile Home that night in Kansas.

First time I heard hail roar and I also remember the couple that weren't chasers that turned up in the dark where we were parked off road south of Ellsworth and became fascinated by our barons and admitted they were oblivious to the tornado threat nearby.

The early morning wake up call was in 2008 in Hays (Kansas) when a Line of Storms erupted at 4am and headed North East, a Few Supercells formed and the Sirens went off at 530am, lots of people were in the Hallway of Hotels down the strip of Hays, again the TVS Missed Hays by a few miles.

Ah, remember waking up with positive bolts landing on the wires above our motel, I think if we opened the front door of the room to film it, we may have been zapped!

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Posted
  • Location: Leigh On Sea - Essex & Tornado Alley
  • Location: Leigh On Sea - Essex & Tornado Alley

Very Strong Words from the NWS In Nashville Tonight

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NASHVILLE TN

329 PM CST THU MAR 1 2012

.DISCUSSION...A BIG SEVERE WX OUTBREAK IS EXPECTED FOR MID TN

FRIDAY. STRONG LONG TRACK TORNADOES...DAMAGING WINDS AND LARGE

... HAIL ARE ALL POSSIBLE. SPC CONTINUES TO POST A MODERATE RISK FOR

SEVERE WEATHER OVER THE MID STATE. THIS EVENT LOOKS MORE

WIDESPREAD AND SUBSTANTIAL THAN THE SEVERE THREAT WE HAD

YESTERDAY...PROBABLY THE BIGGEST OUTBREAK OF TORNADOES SINCE

APRIL 27, 2011. THIS EVENT COULD BE ONE OF THE GREATER IMPACT

EVENTS IN THE PAST FEW YEARS. THE PUBLIC SHOULD BE STRONGLY ADVISED

TO TAKE THIS THREAT VERY SERIOUSLY.

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Posted
  • Location: Caterham-on-the-hill, Surrey, 190m asl (home), Heathrow (work)
  • Location: Caterham-on-the-hill, Surrey, 190m asl (home), Heathrow (work)

Great late winter set-up tomorrow for the Ohio valley for tornadic storms with high shear and fairly decent CAPE for the time of year, but rather testing for the storm chasers brave enough to find gold. Storm motions are probably going to be upwards of 50-60mph - so unlikely that many will keep up, rather a case of waiting for storms to come to them, perhaps side steeping down to intercept supercells. Also tricky terrain for visuals across KY and southern parts of Illinois and Indiana - where wooded hills and rolling farmland with lots of trees dominate, plus if you start in Nern Kentucky, you've the obstacle of finding a crossing over the Ohio River into Illinois and Indiana if following storms NEwards.

Unfortunately this could turn out as one of the major tornado outbreaks for early March, which could affect some large metroplex areas such as Louisville and Cincinatti, lets hope there aren't too many casualties.

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Posted
  • Location: Leigh On Sea - Essex & Tornado Alley
  • Location: Leigh On Sea - Essex & Tornado Alley

Yep

This would be a wait for the Supercells to come to you and not chase them type of day, It would be impossible to keep up with those sort of Storm Speeds and certainly with winding roads into the mix.

Pick an E-W Highway and situate yourself to the East of the Cells moving North East at warp speed, if you luck out when the cell is maturing and dropping then so be it, if not move further East and await the next in the line!

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Posted
  • Location: Dublin
  • Location: Dublin

Which site were you trying to view a stream from? Will see whats behind it and test on my mac? What browser, Safari.. something else?

tornado videos .net or any other one using the iMap Live streams.

Tried on Safari , Google chrome and firefox. Its a load of mo hón! haha

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Posted
  • Location: Weston-S-Mare North Somerset
  • Weather Preferences: Hot sunny , cold and snowy, thunderstorms
  • Location: Weston-S-Mare North Somerset

Looks like a strong outbreak is on the cards today.

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Posted
  • Location: Leigh On Sea - Essex & Tornado Alley
  • Location: Leigh On Sea - Essex & Tornado Alley

Have a few Facebook friends who have just been at a Briefing at the SPC - They are expecting a Possible Tornado Outbreak Tomorrow over Tennessee, Kentucky and Indiana.

Expect a possible Upgrade to High Risk on either the 8z or 13z Update tomorrow!

:help: :help: :help: - Going to be a grim day!

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Posted
  • Location: Caterham-on-the-hill, Surrey, 190m asl (home), Heathrow (work)
  • Location: Caterham-on-the-hill, Surrey, 190m asl (home), Heathrow (work)

Let's hope Louisville, Lexington and Cincinnati are spared. :help:

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Posted
  • Location: Whaley Bridge - Peak District
  • Location: Whaley Bridge - Peak District

Just trying to find some live streaming news coming out of Kentucky at the moment, early morning there currently so any newscasts are far & few between. If anyone else manages to get a good connection for later on then this is definitely the place to link-up.

So far WHAS11 (Louisville) and LEX18 (Lexington) I've got.

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