no lightning in this pic. i just like the way the clouds and the sky looks!
the squiggly line to the right of the tree is actually an airplane. i wasn't able to hold the camera completely steady so the "track" of the plane looks squiggly
Monday, March 30, 2009
Lightning pics 3/30/09
Here's some more lightning pics i took tonight, nothing real great as most of the lightning was cloud to cloud or sheet lightning. of course the few cloud to ground strikes there were i missed. i'm real excited about lightning photography and I guess photography in general now that i am learning more and more of sarah's camera's functions! i finally found the location on her camera where you can leave the shutter open for up to 15 secs. tonight i took most of the pics at 5 seconds. this kept the pics darker and still had a decent shot of catching some lightning. tonight's "storm" was kindof a surprise. even though it was real warm today, up to 68 degrees, and there was a big storm system moving through nebraska, there wasn't a lot of instability in the atmosphere so there really wasn't supposed to be many t-storms. these storms tonight basically developed about 30 miles or so southwest of town and moved through rapidly with a brief downpour of rain. meanwhile we(the omaha area) are getting missed again by another huge blizzard in the Plains tonight and tomorrow. first at the end of last week, there was a huge blizzard that was forecast to hit us for several days before the path of the storm went through kansas and oklahoma. a few spots in kansas measured 28" of snow with up to 10 FOOT drifts!!! then tonights and tomorrows storm was shown for a while to directly hit us before the forecast changed to further north in south and north dakota. a few spots in southern north dakota already have 20" of snow!! oh well i guess! i'm sure i'm one of the few that actually hope for huge blizzards so i'm sure everyone else is happy we were missed!
no lightning in this pic. i just like the way the clouds and the sky looks!
the squiggly line to the right of the tree is actually an airplane. i wasn't able to hold the camera completely steady so the "track" of the plane looks squiggly
no lightning in this pic. i just like the way the clouds and the sky looks!
the squiggly line to the right of the tree is actually an airplane. i wasn't able to hold the camera completely steady so the "track" of the plane looks squiggly
Monday, March 23, 2009
first chase of 2009! eastern nebraska supercells
i know many of my friends and family are anxiously waiting for me to post my storm report from today, i'm sure you're all waiting by your computers! ha ha!!
an absoulutely huge, strong, amazing spring storm which has been forecasted for the past 5-7 days moved across the central and northern US today and continuing into tomorrow. on the warm side of the system there was severe weather all the way up into southeast south dakota and on the cold side of the system, there is currently a MAJOR blizzard ongoing in western s. dakota and n. dakota with 50-60 mph winds and up to 30-40 inches of snow possible in the black hills and 1-2 feet possible elsewhere. Rapid City in S. Dakota was 70 degrees yesterday and now they're having feet of snow!! here in omaha, it's been in the 70s the last 3 days.
despite the talk of severe weather i wasn't going to chase today due to storm motions and the somewhat less than idea storm modes, i.e. likely squall line. when i woke up this morning it was cloudy and fairly cool(about 59 degrees). sunshine is what i had hoped to wake up to. about 1030 am the spc updated its severe weather outlook and depsite the large area of cloud cover over most of eastern nebraska they upped the tornado chances over most of eastern nebraska. there was now a 10-15% chance of tornadoes(which is high) and even a risk of significant tornadoes(i've included an image of the map highlighting this). i decided this was too good to pass, especially since its been since last june since i have chased! next was to decide where to head out to. there was alot of talk of low topped supercells and possibly tornadoes in northeast nebraska, but the highest risk of stronger tornadoes was further south. so i decided to pick the middle and head due west of omaha to columbus, ne. i arrived there about 2 and checked the radar. there were some weak cells in s. central nebraska south of I-80. i waited around for about 30 minutes before deciding to head south to meet the cells coming. the cells looked disorganized and were multicellular. finally a stronger cell developed and became severe warned for quarter sized hail, near york, ne. i met this cell along highway 92 near rising city, ne. it was pretty intense looking and since the hail wasn't too large i decided to let it cross on top of me. as it was approaching i saw a small gustnado develop out in a field to the south of me. there was a period of about 5 minutes of very heavy rain and roughly quarter sized hail. just as the rain started to let up my weather radio went off for a tornado warning! it was doppler indicated and apparently right near me! i didn't notice anything real ominous so i decided to start heading east along hwy 92 to get ahead of the next storm. this storm was tornado warned down near seward, ne along I-80. the winds all day long were pretty strong and gusty to near 40 mph so i knew what it felt like driving in it today. as i was heading east approaching david city, the winds increased greatly out of the southeast to probably 50-60 mph. there was debris flying across the road and as i looked back to the northwest behind me you could see all kinds of dust flowing to the north. i was worried for a while that the storm i left was going to drop a tornado with the inflow i was now experiencing! i kept heading east and the tornado warned storm to the south now was warned for ping pong sized hail and 70 mph winds. i didn't want to get hit by this so i flew east and let the storm pass me by. i took some good pics of this storm as it was approaching me. i continued heading to the east and as i neared weston, ne, a new tornado warning came out for another cell to my south. i pulled over and filmed and took pics of a rain free base and lowering that was coming up from the south. there was very slight noticeable rotation but no funnels or anything. well the last storm i wanted to intercept was heading right for omaha. this storm had been tornado warned for almost the past hour, and these were confirmed tornadoes on the ground. i left the wahoo area heading towards southwest omaha still on hwy 92. the radar reflectivity on this storm was very impressive and i wish i would have saved an image of it! i was listening to the radio and there were continued reports of tornadoes and wall clouds heading up towards sw omaha. unfortunately for me hwy 92 is a 2 lane highway, and i was getting closer to omaha right at rush hour, and i of course get stuck behind some idiot driving about 45 mph talking on her cell phone. i'm sure she was completely oblivious to the fact that she was driving so slowly right towards a tornado!! i was finally able to pass them after an agonizing 10-15 minutes. i headed up 275 and then headed back to the east on hwy 64(maple st) towards nw omaha. the rain was falling harder and it was getting pretty dark. the media was still reporting a wall cloud and poss funnel in omaha. about 168th and fort in omaha it really started hailing. the hail was again about quarter sized. it was coming down so hard that the road was becoming covered. the road almost became more slippery than with 6 inches of snow on them. i almost ended up in a ditch avoiding someone that stopped suddenly! just as i got to my last turn to get back to my house the rain and hail stopped so i was able to see the back end and lowering of the storm. there wasn't a wall cloud left anymore, but there was lots of scud and some of it was rising pretty rapidly. i only took one pic of this but took some good video. i arrived back home to all the yards in our neighborhoods basically covered with hail. there was a pretty good "drift" up against our house on our deck. the storms weren't done though! there was one more cell that was flying northeast at 50-55 mph too coming up from the same direction. this storm was only severe warned, but packed a punch too. there was alot of pea sized hail, and towards the end there was at least nickel sized hail. the winds with this storm were very strong too. i was standing by the back deck, when suddenly one of our metal patio chairs was blown all the way off our deck, down the stairs and into the yard. the funny thing was it landed sitting up normal on all four legs! winds were estimated with this to be 55-60 mph easily. after the first tornado warned storm came through it restrengthened and dropped a tornado near missouri valley, ia where 2 houses were completely flattened, train cars were blown off the tracks, and semis and a car were blown over on I-29. back down by lincoln, there were 8 injuries from a tree falling on a car, and a building being blown on another car. quite a day!! and there's a fairly good chance that there will be a major snowstorm this weekend. yeah for spring!!
here's a couple of links to some of the video i recorded from the chase:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JuCHy0PW54
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5xPA6_QfIQ
here is a link to the tracks and damage surveys of the tornadoes that touched down on monday. notice how the storm was heading right for omaha, but luckily the storm weakened and was "cycling" when it went over omaha, before it dropped more tornadoes north of town!
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/news/display_cmsstory.php?wfo=oax&storyid=23462&source=0
1630Z tornado outlook probs(notice the high probs in eastern nebraska and the blue hatched area)
a lightning strike taken from the video that i recorded.
leading edge of first storm passing by me near rising city, ne
impressive looking cell just east of david city, ne on hwy 92
again, same storm
you can see the rain and hail shaft
pics of some of the towers
hail along side of the road on hwy 92 east of david city
lowering and rain free base on torn warned cell just southwest of weston, ne
only pic i got of first storm that went through omaha. here is some scud at the base of the storm
hail in our backyard
more hail in backyard
hail piled up against our house on our deck
an absoulutely huge, strong, amazing spring storm which has been forecasted for the past 5-7 days moved across the central and northern US today and continuing into tomorrow. on the warm side of the system there was severe weather all the way up into southeast south dakota and on the cold side of the system, there is currently a MAJOR blizzard ongoing in western s. dakota and n. dakota with 50-60 mph winds and up to 30-40 inches of snow possible in the black hills and 1-2 feet possible elsewhere. Rapid City in S. Dakota was 70 degrees yesterday and now they're having feet of snow!! here in omaha, it's been in the 70s the last 3 days.
despite the talk of severe weather i wasn't going to chase today due to storm motions and the somewhat less than idea storm modes, i.e. likely squall line. when i woke up this morning it was cloudy and fairly cool(about 59 degrees). sunshine is what i had hoped to wake up to. about 1030 am the spc updated its severe weather outlook and depsite the large area of cloud cover over most of eastern nebraska they upped the tornado chances over most of eastern nebraska. there was now a 10-15% chance of tornadoes(which is high) and even a risk of significant tornadoes(i've included an image of the map highlighting this). i decided this was too good to pass, especially since its been since last june since i have chased! next was to decide where to head out to. there was alot of talk of low topped supercells and possibly tornadoes in northeast nebraska, but the highest risk of stronger tornadoes was further south. so i decided to pick the middle and head due west of omaha to columbus, ne. i arrived there about 2 and checked the radar. there were some weak cells in s. central nebraska south of I-80. i waited around for about 30 minutes before deciding to head south to meet the cells coming. the cells looked disorganized and were multicellular. finally a stronger cell developed and became severe warned for quarter sized hail, near york, ne. i met this cell along highway 92 near rising city, ne. it was pretty intense looking and since the hail wasn't too large i decided to let it cross on top of me. as it was approaching i saw a small gustnado develop out in a field to the south of me. there was a period of about 5 minutes of very heavy rain and roughly quarter sized hail. just as the rain started to let up my weather radio went off for a tornado warning! it was doppler indicated and apparently right near me! i didn't notice anything real ominous so i decided to start heading east along hwy 92 to get ahead of the next storm. this storm was tornado warned down near seward, ne along I-80. the winds all day long were pretty strong and gusty to near 40 mph so i knew what it felt like driving in it today. as i was heading east approaching david city, the winds increased greatly out of the southeast to probably 50-60 mph. there was debris flying across the road and as i looked back to the northwest behind me you could see all kinds of dust flowing to the north. i was worried for a while that the storm i left was going to drop a tornado with the inflow i was now experiencing! i kept heading east and the tornado warned storm to the south now was warned for ping pong sized hail and 70 mph winds. i didn't want to get hit by this so i flew east and let the storm pass me by. i took some good pics of this storm as it was approaching me. i continued heading to the east and as i neared weston, ne, a new tornado warning came out for another cell to my south. i pulled over and filmed and took pics of a rain free base and lowering that was coming up from the south. there was very slight noticeable rotation but no funnels or anything. well the last storm i wanted to intercept was heading right for omaha. this storm had been tornado warned for almost the past hour, and these were confirmed tornadoes on the ground. i left the wahoo area heading towards southwest omaha still on hwy 92. the radar reflectivity on this storm was very impressive and i wish i would have saved an image of it! i was listening to the radio and there were continued reports of tornadoes and wall clouds heading up towards sw omaha. unfortunately for me hwy 92 is a 2 lane highway, and i was getting closer to omaha right at rush hour, and i of course get stuck behind some idiot driving about 45 mph talking on her cell phone. i'm sure she was completely oblivious to the fact that she was driving so slowly right towards a tornado!! i was finally able to pass them after an agonizing 10-15 minutes. i headed up 275 and then headed back to the east on hwy 64(maple st) towards nw omaha. the rain was falling harder and it was getting pretty dark. the media was still reporting a wall cloud and poss funnel in omaha. about 168th and fort in omaha it really started hailing. the hail was again about quarter sized. it was coming down so hard that the road was becoming covered. the road almost became more slippery than with 6 inches of snow on them. i almost ended up in a ditch avoiding someone that stopped suddenly! just as i got to my last turn to get back to my house the rain and hail stopped so i was able to see the back end and lowering of the storm. there wasn't a wall cloud left anymore, but there was lots of scud and some of it was rising pretty rapidly. i only took one pic of this but took some good video. i arrived back home to all the yards in our neighborhoods basically covered with hail. there was a pretty good "drift" up against our house on our deck. the storms weren't done though! there was one more cell that was flying northeast at 50-55 mph too coming up from the same direction. this storm was only severe warned, but packed a punch too. there was alot of pea sized hail, and towards the end there was at least nickel sized hail. the winds with this storm were very strong too. i was standing by the back deck, when suddenly one of our metal patio chairs was blown all the way off our deck, down the stairs and into the yard. the funny thing was it landed sitting up normal on all four legs! winds were estimated with this to be 55-60 mph easily. after the first tornado warned storm came through it restrengthened and dropped a tornado near missouri valley, ia where 2 houses were completely flattened, train cars were blown off the tracks, and semis and a car were blown over on I-29. back down by lincoln, there were 8 injuries from a tree falling on a car, and a building being blown on another car. quite a day!! and there's a fairly good chance that there will be a major snowstorm this weekend. yeah for spring!!
here's a couple of links to some of the video i recorded from the chase:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JuCHy0PW54
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5xPA6_QfIQ
here is a link to the tracks and damage surveys of the tornadoes that touched down on monday. notice how the storm was heading right for omaha, but luckily the storm weakened and was "cycling" when it went over omaha, before it dropped more tornadoes north of town!
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/news/display_cmsstory.php?wfo=oax&storyid=23462&source=0
1630Z tornado outlook probs(notice the high probs in eastern nebraska and the blue hatched area)
a lightning strike taken from the video that i recorded.
leading edge of first storm passing by me near rising city, ne
impressive looking cell just east of david city, ne on hwy 92
again, same storm
you can see the rain and hail shaft
pics of some of the towers
hail along side of the road on hwy 92 east of david city
lowering and rain free base on torn warned cell just southwest of weston, ne
only pic i got of first storm that went through omaha. here is some scud at the base of the storm
hail in our backyard
more hail in backyard
hail piled up against our house on our deck
Monday, March 9, 2009
some crappy lightning pics 3/6/09
I've decided to post 4 lightning pics that I took from last Friday night. Sarah and I were at home just watching TV, when I started to hear quite a bit of thunder a little after 11 that night. Out our back door off the deck I have a pretty good, unblocked view of the sky for quite a ways south and southeast of our house. I'm still learning to take lightning pics so its always a crapshoot on how they will turn out. Last summer when I posted some lightning pics, I basically took those by continuously taking pics until I caught a bolt. I've learned that sarah's camera has the ability to keep the shutter open for up to 15 secs which allows you to take a very long pic, thus being able to catch a bolt! Well I still didn't use it correctly this time, but next time I will and hopefully will catch some amazing shots. btw this was pretty early to have tstorms here in omaha, in fact there was also some reports of pea sized hail around town. That's not that unusual this time of year if you do get tstorms bc the atmosphere is still so much colder right now than it would be during the summer. Oh yeah, only about 2 more months til storm chasing season again!!
some sheet lightning north of our house
the end of a stroke of lightning
my favorite pic, you can see little bolts all over the sky
the end of another bolt again out the back of our house
some sheet lightning north of our house
the end of a stroke of lightning
my favorite pic, you can see little bolts all over the sky
the end of another bolt again out the back of our house
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