Monday, August 11, 2008

my first lightning pics!! 7/10/08

so i've never taken an actual lightning pic before, well i've tried but never actually caught the lightning stroke itself. obviously there is a certain way and equipment that you can get that allows lightning photography to be pretty easy, but i don't have the type of camera needed. this night there was a storm moving across mainly southern omaha and points to the south of there. we had moved to our new place in northern omaha so i had a pretty good view of the storm off my deck. it was about 1130 or so at night and there was almost continuous cloud to cloud lightning occuring with the storm. so i took my camera out on the deck and just started clicking. i think i ended up taking some 70 pics or so and only got these couple of pics that had any lightning in them! oh well it was still fun i guess!




Omaha bow echo 6/27/08

As a storm chaser and a person who has a strong interest in weather and severe weather especially, I always kindof hope that I find severe weather if i'm out chasing, or if i'm at home in Omaha, I hope that something hits Omaha directly. I know that's not a nice thing to hope for because someone will end up with property damage of some sort or be without power for a long time, etc. But hey I can't help it, it's what interests me!! Anyways, at the beginning of June there was the tornado that directly hit southwest Omaha in a relatively small area, and then at the end of June, there was this severe bow echo that directly effected the whole city and ended up being a "once in every 10 year event". I was at home around 4 pm when my weather radio went for a new severe tstorm watch. I was surprised as it seemed like a nice day out and didn't really seem like the weather wanted to do anything. there was a slight risk however, so the chance was there. I checked the radar and there was a relatively small cell out by Columbus, NE that was warned for small hail and 60 mph winds. the storm was moving southeast directly towards omaha. as the storm continued southeast it began to strengthen and expand and eventually bow out. soon warnings were coming out around fremont, which is 40 miles northwest of omaha, for golf ball sized hail and 80 mph winds! the warnings for omaha came out almost an hour before the storm was going to blow through which ended up being around 530 or so. they actually sounded the sirens too for just a severe tstorm warning, which was a change of policy after the tornado that came through at the beginning of the month of June. during that storm there was no tornado warning issued in advance of the tornado being on the ground so despite there being emergency calls coming in and tornado like damage occurring, there was no sirens blowing until the weather service actually issued a tornado warning. back to this days storm, i set up my video camera out in the driveway to capture the storm rolling in. i thought about going somewhere where i would have a better view of the western horizon, but didn't want to be caught outside for this storm and besides i did have a decent view to the west from my driveway. unfortunately i didn't have my digital camera at home so i could only record video. anyways the sirens went off some 20 minutes before the storm even hit and then again just as it was coming into town. it was very impressive at my house where it wasn't even the worse. from northwest to west central omaha through midtown and downtown and southeast omaha received the stongest winds and damage. winds were estimated at 90-115 mph in spots!! 126,000 OPPD customers lost power right after the storm. at our place in millard(southwest omaha) we didn't lose power and i would estimate winds at 60-70 mph. i brought my video camera in right before the storm hit and continued to record from inside the house during the storm. my fiance sarah was working at the keystone pool in northern omaha and i wanted to make sure she was alright, but couldn't get a hold of her because the cell phone network was overloaded with calls. i decided to drive out there and what would normally be a 15 minute drive turned into an hour drive because all the traffic lights were out and it was just after rush hour. sarah and i drove through midtown and then went up to her sisters in northern omaha. there they still had pea sized hail in drifts some 3 hours after the storm had passed! we took mainly video and some pics although it was starting to get dark. on the way home we found the most severe damage around 132nd and maple. there were numerous power poles snapped at the base, stoplights blown down, and a gas station had its canopy ripped off. i went back out there the next morning to get some pics. it was truly an impressive storm. unfortunately 2 teenagers died in council bluffs when a tree fell on a car. there was also a concert just getting under way in memorial park but luckily there were able to evacuate almost everyone, and it was early enough that most of the expected 40-50,000 people weren't there yet. i've included links to the damage surveys done by the nws as well. you might have to scroll down a bit on the pages to see the info from the links

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/news/display_cmsstory.php?wfo=oax&storyid=16345&source=2
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/news/display_cmsstory.php?wfo=oax&storyid=16339&source=2
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/news/display_cmsstory.php?wfo=oax&storyid=16416&source=2

some amazing youtube videos from the storm:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdvVVLL2oCE&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFF19P23YJE

MY VIDEO THAT I TOOK FROM MY HOUSE!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pbcHttRU4c


shelf cloud in w omaha by village pointe(world herald pic)

flooding on saddle creek(world herald pic)

it looks like a hurricane!!(world herald pic)

another shot of shelf cloud in w omaha(world herald pic)

storm nearly on top of omaha(world herald pic)


car stranded in flooding on saddle creek(world herald pic)

billboard on I-80 getting ripped apart(world herald pic)

sarah's car floating away!! all that water is actually a street its flowing down!!

hail drift at sarah's sisters house in n omaha almost 3 hours after

damage to gas station near 132nd and maple


power pole snapped at base near 132nd and maple

power pole snapped near 132nd and maple

light pole snapped at base at 132nd and maple applebees

closer view of light pole

tree damage

flag pole bent at base

stop lights blown down at 132nd and maple intersection

again

large tree uprooted

another view of 132nd and maple intersection

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Iowa Shelf Cloud 6/15/08

This also wasn't a "chase", but once again produced the best pictures! This shelf cloud was amazing!! Sarah and I were driving home from her Grandpa's in central Iowa. Right before we left at 9 am, i checked the weather and saw that there was a severe storm that had just moved through the omaha metro area and was heading east towards us so i knew we would run into it eventually if it held together. Near Greenfield, Iowa we began to see the shelf cloud. Our route home took us north of the storm on I-80 so we didn't experience the full brunt of the storm.

First view of storm near Greenfield, IA

north of Greenfield looking west, beautiful!!


another awesome shot!!

again!!

zoomed in shot


super zoomed in shot of the shelf cloud. it looks so cool!!

Eastern Nebraska severe weather outbreak 6/11/08

Only 2 days after the tornado that touched down in omaha, there was another moderate risk over eastern nebraska. My friend Shawn and I went out chasing. The first severe tstorm warning came out at 430 west of Omaha by Wahoo, NE. Cells were also firing up in SE S Dakota that were already tornado warned. We had a tough time deciding which way to go. We started to head west and the cell that was warned weakened, so we headed north towards Blair. The southern end of the line was filling in with severe storms all the way from northwestern Iowa back down to west of Omaha, so we stopped in Blair to try and make another decision of where to go. We decided if storms were going so close to Omaha we would head back that way. I came up on top of hill just west of Blair and looked to the north and saw a beautiful lowering and beavertail leading into it. I got real excited and turned the car around to go north and try to get get a better view. Unfortunately there is a lot of hills in that part of nebraska so we ended up about 10 miles north of Blair before we could get into an area that was flat and had a good view of the storm. by this point we were probably only 5 miles from the storm and it had lost some of its structure. Shawn and I got out of the car to film and take some pictures. It really tried to reorganize again and definitely had some rotation at times but didnt drop a tornado. As it began to move away from us to the northeast we had another decision to make. Do we drop back to Blair to cross the river and get on I-29 in Iowa to go back north, or do we just head back towards omaha where there were also tornado warnings. I remember telling Shawn if we follow this storm it won't produce, if we don't follow it, it will drop a tornado. Unfortunately I was right as we headed back towards Omaha and this storm went on to produce the Little Sioux tornado that killed 4 boyscouts. We drove south on Hwy 31 and got cored by a severe cell that was said to be producing a tornado. Once that passed we arrived in Elkhorn to the sirens going off there and reports of a tornado 2 miles west of town. Neither time did we see anything. I ended up back at my house, where we stayed in the basement for 1.5 hours because of the constant tornado warnings for Omaha as the line slowly moved through. i included a link to the storm reports from that day. i believe there ended up being 7 confirmed touchdowns but all were over open country excpet for the Little Sioux boyscout tradgedy.

http://w1.spc.woc.noaa.gov/exper/archive/events/080611/index.html

link to little sioux, iowa tornado survey(you might have to scroll down a bit to see the info):
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/news/display_cmsstory.php?wfo=oax&storyid=14381&source=2


small lowering on southern edge of cell

2 areas of rotation trying to develop

about as close as it got to producing a tornado. rotation wasn't very rapid in the lowering here

lowering a little less ominous now

huge anvil with mamatus clouds on the underside

Saturday, August 2, 2008

Omaha Isolated supercell 6/9/08

This storm was nothing special as far as severe weather goes, but it was beautiful to photograph. There wasn't any chance of storms that day originally, but with enough heating and a little boundary, a few storms popped across eastern nebraska. A couple of the storms did produce 3/4" hail but that was it. I saw this cell as i was leaving work at 8 pm and i happened to have the camera with me so i went out north of town to take some photos.


southern end of cell heading west on dodge road in omaha

first real good view of storm with sun setting behind it

closer view of storm

another beautiful shot!

storm is at its stongest point

another shot with a little bit of rotation in the middle

looking back to the west as sunset is getting closer

awesome backlit shot of sunset behind a rainshaft of a 2nd storm moving into omaha

storm way down in southeast nebraska probably 80 miles away

beautiful sunset!