Hey everyone,
Be sure to check out National Geographic's "Witness: Tornado Swarm 2011" on Sunday May 29 at 8PM CST. Some of our members' footage will be shown.
Sub Divo
Brantley French
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Friday, May 27, 2011
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
"Mind On Tuscaloosa" Written and Performed By Sean Rivers
Fellow University of Alabama student, Sean Rivers, wrote and performed this song as a means of coping with the recent tragedy in Tuscaloosa. That day, Rivers lost a close friend of his, Loryn Brown. Loryn was the daughter of former University of Alabama football player, Shannon Brown. Below is the music video produced by Hampton Road Studios.
My Mind On Tuscaloosa | Official Music Video | Sean Rivers from Hampton Road Studios on Vimeo.
Monday, May 23, 2011
Joplin, Missouri Tornado 5/22/11
Just wanted to talk about the Joplin,MO Tornado that ripped a 6 mile long, 1 mile wide damage path through town. To make matters worse, the St. John's Medical Center took a direct hit(Those of you who experienced the April 27th tornado in Tuscaloosa know that a hospital serves as a sort of "staging center", if you will,in times of disaster). Please include the people of Joplin in your prayers, as us Alabamians know all too well what they're going through. So far, there have been 116 confirmed fatalities in Joplin alone. We expect this number to rise in the coming days. Below are some videos I've found from around the web to give you some sort of idea of what's happening in MO.
Sub Divo.
PAR
VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED: The video below features a lot of screaming and horror that people sheltered in a local store experienced while the tornado tore right through their block. Fortunately, no one in the store was seriously injured.
Footage of Rescue workers freeing a Joplin resident from the rubble of his home.
Sub Divo.
PAR
VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED: The video below features a lot of screaming and horror that people sheltered in a local store experienced while the tornado tore right through their block. Fortunately, no one in the store was seriously injured.
Footage of Rescue workers freeing a Joplin resident from the rubble of his home.
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Tornado Chasing in the Plains 5/21
Well guys if the world does end today check youtube just after... we'll have some great footage of it... Otherwise, we'll only be chasing some severe storms today either in north eastertn OK or south eastern KS. There's good upper level and surface winds and the moisture and instability are suitable as well. This should give us some good storms and if we're lucky some tornadoes.
check out the youtube channel for the videos I got yesterday and the ones I'll be uploading in the next few days...
http://www.youtube.com/user/BamaUAMS?feature=mhee
Until next timem
Sub Divo
Frank Mullens
check out the youtube channel for the videos I got yesterday and the ones I'll be uploading in the next few days...
http://www.youtube.com/user/BamaUAMS?feature=mhee
Until next timem
Sub Divo
Frank Mullens
Friday, May 20, 2011
Tornado Chasing on the Plains: 5/20
Hey everybody,
I’m still chasing out in the plains and as a few of you may know Thursday was kinda a rough day… The outlook was promising today over most of central and northern Kansas and some sections of southwestern Oklahoma. We started out the day in extreme northern OK because the models indicated that all the parameters needed for the formation of severe storms and tornadoes were more significant in Kansas. Just after lunch some convection started just north of the KS OK border and quickly dissipated. Soon after that some very strong cells formed in western OK, so we decided to go after those and try and meet up with Reed Timmer and the Discovery Channel crew. Once we made it to the OK cells they began to die as well. At the same time storms began to form and sustain themselves in central and northern KS. We tried to jet back up to KS but the storms were flying at 90 mph. We decided to stay to the west and wait for more storms to fire across the dry line. Once a few cells formed at the dry line we got into position and thought we had a legitimate chance to see some tornadoes. There was lots of scud clouds and some really strong updraft. Sadly to say, the storms became outflow dominant and they began to slowly weaken. Today was a real disappointment and the moral of our crew took a little bit of a hit but we’re ready to bounce back tomorrow and meet up with Reed and the Dominator. Below is the outlook for Friday:
As many of you may know the world is supposed to end on the 21st. I'll still be chasing that day so maybe I'll be able to come up with some good video...
Anyways, here’s the SPC’s outlook for Friday.
NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK
1248 AM CDT FRI MAY 20 2011
VALID 201200Z - 211200Z
...THERE IS A SLGT RISK OF SVR TSTMS CNTRL AND SRN PLAINS THROUGH A
PORTION OF THE MID MS VALLEY...
...SYNOPSIS...
CLOSED UPPER LOWS OVER THE WRN STATES AND NERN U.S. ASSOCIATED WITH
OMEGA BLOCKING PATTERN WILL SLOWLY DRIFT EWD FRIDAY. SIGNIFICANT
SHORTWAVE TROUGH ROTATING THROUGH BASE OF WRN U.S. UPPER LOW WILL
EJECT THROUGH THE SRN PLAINS FRIDAY AFTERNOON AND EVENING. A WARM
FRONT WILL LIFT SLOWLY NWD THROUGH THE CNTRL PLAIN AND MID MS VALLEY
REGION...WHILE A PACIFIC FRONT ADVANCES SLOWLY EWD THROUGH THE CNTRL
AND SRN PLAINS.
...CNTRL AND SRN PLAINS THROUGH MID MS VALLEY...
STORMS WILL CONTINUE TO INCREASE FROM WRN TX THROUGH WRN OK EARLY
FRIDAY AS PACIFIC FRONT AND DEEPER FORCING FOR ASCENT ROTATING
THROUGH ERN PERIPHERY OF UPPER LOW OVERTAKE DRYLINE. ACTIVITY WILL
GROW UPSCALE INTO ONE OR MORE MCSS AND CONTINUE EWD THROUGH WARM
SECTOR DURING THE DAY. DEEP LAYER SHEAR AND LAPSE RATES DECREASE
WITH ERN EXTENT TOWARD THE LOWER-MID MS VALLEY. HOWEVER...AT LEAST A
MODEST THREAT FOR ISOLATED STRONG WIND GUSTS AND MARGINALLY SEVERE
HAIL SHOULD PERSIST AS THESE STORMS DEVELOP EWD.
GIVEN DEVELOPMENT OF EARLY WIDESPREAD CONVECTION...SOME UNCERTAINTY
EXISTS REGARDING DEGREE OF DESTABILIZATION IN WAKE OF MORNING
STORMS...BUT SOME POTENTIAL WILL EXIST FOR THE ATMOSPHERE TO
DESTABILIZE FARTHER WEST IN A NARROW CORRIDOR FROM W-CNTRL TX NWD
THROUGH WRN/CNTRL OK AND KS. NEW STORMS MAY REDEVELOP ALONG PACIFIC
FRONT AND RESIDUAL OUTFLOW BOUNDARIES AS DEEPER FORCING FOR ASCENT
ASSOCIATED WITH VORT MAX EJECTING THROUGH UPPER TROUGH BASE
OVERSPREADS INSTABILITY AXIS. STRONGER FLOW ALOFT WILL SUPPORT 40-45
KT EFFECTIVE SHEAR SUPPORTIVE OF ORGANIZED STORMS INCLUDING
SUPERCELLS AND BOWING SEGMENTS WITH LARGE HAIL AND DAMAGING WIND THE
MAIN THREATS. THOUGH A COUPLE OF TORNADOES CANNOT BE RULED
OUT...SMALL LOW LEVEL HODOGRAPHS SHOULD BE A LIMITING FACTOR FOR A
MORE SUBSTANTIAL TORNADO THREAT.
...NERN STATES...
STORMS WILL ONCE AGAIN DEVELOP IN ASSOCIATION WITH CLOSED UPPER LOW
OVER THE NERN STATES WHERE COOL TEMPERATURES ALOFT...POCKETS OF
DIABATIC WARMING AND MID 50S DEWPOINTS WILL PROMOTE MARGINAL MLCAPE.
A FEW OF THE STRONGER STORMS COULD PRODUCE ISOLATED MARGINALLY
SEVERE HAIL...GUSTY WINDS AND PERHAPS A BRIEF TORNADO.
..DIAL/GARNER.. 05/20/2011
CLICK TO GET WUUS01 PTSDY1 PRODUCT
NOTE: THE NEXT DAY 1 OUTLOOK IS SCHEDULED BY 1300Z
Here's some pics I got of some wall clouds and Super Cells:
Until next time,
Sub Divo
Frank Mullens
I’m still chasing out in the plains and as a few of you may know Thursday was kinda a rough day… The outlook was promising today over most of central and northern Kansas and some sections of southwestern Oklahoma. We started out the day in extreme northern OK because the models indicated that all the parameters needed for the formation of severe storms and tornadoes were more significant in Kansas. Just after lunch some convection started just north of the KS OK border and quickly dissipated. Soon after that some very strong cells formed in western OK, so we decided to go after those and try and meet up with Reed Timmer and the Discovery Channel crew. Once we made it to the OK cells they began to die as well. At the same time storms began to form and sustain themselves in central and northern KS. We tried to jet back up to KS but the storms were flying at 90 mph. We decided to stay to the west and wait for more storms to fire across the dry line. Once a few cells formed at the dry line we got into position and thought we had a legitimate chance to see some tornadoes. There was lots of scud clouds and some really strong updraft. Sadly to say, the storms became outflow dominant and they began to slowly weaken. Today was a real disappointment and the moral of our crew took a little bit of a hit but we’re ready to bounce back tomorrow and meet up with Reed and the Dominator. Below is the outlook for Friday:
As many of you may know the world is supposed to end on the 21st. I'll still be chasing that day so maybe I'll be able to come up with some good video...
Anyways, here’s the SPC’s outlook for Friday.
NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK
1248 AM CDT FRI MAY 20 2011
VALID 201200Z - 211200Z
...THERE IS A SLGT RISK OF SVR TSTMS CNTRL AND SRN PLAINS THROUGH A
PORTION OF THE MID MS VALLEY...
...SYNOPSIS...
CLOSED UPPER LOWS OVER THE WRN STATES AND NERN U.S. ASSOCIATED WITH
OMEGA BLOCKING PATTERN WILL SLOWLY DRIFT EWD FRIDAY. SIGNIFICANT
SHORTWAVE TROUGH ROTATING THROUGH BASE OF WRN U.S. UPPER LOW WILL
EJECT THROUGH THE SRN PLAINS FRIDAY AFTERNOON AND EVENING. A WARM
FRONT WILL LIFT SLOWLY NWD THROUGH THE CNTRL PLAIN AND MID MS VALLEY
REGION...WHILE A PACIFIC FRONT ADVANCES SLOWLY EWD THROUGH THE CNTRL
AND SRN PLAINS.
...CNTRL AND SRN PLAINS THROUGH MID MS VALLEY...
STORMS WILL CONTINUE TO INCREASE FROM WRN TX THROUGH WRN OK EARLY
FRIDAY AS PACIFIC FRONT AND DEEPER FORCING FOR ASCENT ROTATING
THROUGH ERN PERIPHERY OF UPPER LOW OVERTAKE DRYLINE. ACTIVITY WILL
GROW UPSCALE INTO ONE OR MORE MCSS AND CONTINUE EWD THROUGH WARM
SECTOR DURING THE DAY. DEEP LAYER SHEAR AND LAPSE RATES DECREASE
WITH ERN EXTENT TOWARD THE LOWER-MID MS VALLEY. HOWEVER...AT LEAST A
MODEST THREAT FOR ISOLATED STRONG WIND GUSTS AND MARGINALLY SEVERE
HAIL SHOULD PERSIST AS THESE STORMS DEVELOP EWD.
GIVEN DEVELOPMENT OF EARLY WIDESPREAD CONVECTION...SOME UNCERTAINTY
EXISTS REGARDING DEGREE OF DESTABILIZATION IN WAKE OF MORNING
STORMS...BUT SOME POTENTIAL WILL EXIST FOR THE ATMOSPHERE TO
DESTABILIZE FARTHER WEST IN A NARROW CORRIDOR FROM W-CNTRL TX NWD
THROUGH WRN/CNTRL OK AND KS. NEW STORMS MAY REDEVELOP ALONG PACIFIC
FRONT AND RESIDUAL OUTFLOW BOUNDARIES AS DEEPER FORCING FOR ASCENT
ASSOCIATED WITH VORT MAX EJECTING THROUGH UPPER TROUGH BASE
OVERSPREADS INSTABILITY AXIS. STRONGER FLOW ALOFT WILL SUPPORT 40-45
KT EFFECTIVE SHEAR SUPPORTIVE OF ORGANIZED STORMS INCLUDING
SUPERCELLS AND BOWING SEGMENTS WITH LARGE HAIL AND DAMAGING WIND THE
MAIN THREATS. THOUGH A COUPLE OF TORNADOES CANNOT BE RULED
OUT...SMALL LOW LEVEL HODOGRAPHS SHOULD BE A LIMITING FACTOR FOR A
MORE SUBSTANTIAL TORNADO THREAT.
...NERN STATES...
STORMS WILL ONCE AGAIN DEVELOP IN ASSOCIATION WITH CLOSED UPPER LOW
OVER THE NERN STATES WHERE COOL TEMPERATURES ALOFT...POCKETS OF
DIABATIC WARMING AND MID 50S DEWPOINTS WILL PROMOTE MARGINAL MLCAPE.
A FEW OF THE STRONGER STORMS COULD PRODUCE ISOLATED MARGINALLY
SEVERE HAIL...GUSTY WINDS AND PERHAPS A BRIEF TORNADO.
..DIAL/GARNER.. 05/20/2011
CLICK TO GET WUUS01 PTSDY1 PRODUCT
NOTE: THE NEXT DAY 1 OUTLOOK IS SCHEDULED BY 1300Z
Here's some pics I got of some wall clouds and Super Cells:
Until next time,
Sub Divo
Frank Mullens
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Chasing in the Plains: Weather Briefing
This morning we woke up in Woodward OK to have our daily weather briefing. Our initial target area is in central south Kansas. Winds at 500 mb look good with an upper level jet nearing 70 knots. Surface winds also look good out of the south bringing plenty of moisture into the system. CAPE looks close to 2000, which is plenty to produce to some strong storms. Also a huge positive is there's almost no cap over our chase area today, so we shouldnt have any trouble finding storms.
I'll be updating the blog hopefully throughout the chase.
Until next time,
Sub Divo
Frank Mullens
I'll be updating the blog hopefully throughout the chase.
Until next time,
Sub Divo
Frank Mullens
Tornado Chasing in the Plains
Hey guys its Frank. As a few of you may know I've been out in the plains on a tornado chasing tour with a group called Extreme Tornado Tours. Theyre affiliated with Reed Timmer and the rest of the crew from Discovery Channel's "Storm Chasers." Also leading our trip is "Cyclone Jim" Leonard (he's famous in chasing circles mainly from his work on over 60 hurricanes and hundreds of tornadoes).
Anyways, we flew into Oklahoma City on Saturday and met up with our group... Saturday-Tuesday the weather was calm so we took the time to go see some tourist attractions. Sunday we drove to Amarillo TX to eat at the Big Texan Steak Ranch, home of the 72 oz porterhouse. Monday, we drove to Canyon TX to see the Palo Duro Canyon National Park. Tuesday we drove down to Carlsbad NM to tour Carlsbad Caverns. After we saw the cave we drove back up to Abilene TX to bed down for the night.
Wednesday was our first chase day and so we drove from Abilene up towards the area east of the OK/TX panhandle. The models indicated some good CAPE (Convective Available Potential Energy) along with decent dewpoints in the upper 60s and good upper level winds. We saw a few storms trying to fire up but a strong cap along with some lingering high level cirrus clouds, which prevented heating, killed any chances of severe storms. So today was officially declared a bust...
More updates will be coming tomorrow morning after our briefing which highlights a target area and the possible factors that will contribute to the formation of any severe storms
Palo Duro Canyon
Carlsbad Caverns
Until next time,
Sub Divo
Frank Mullens
Anyways, we flew into Oklahoma City on Saturday and met up with our group... Saturday-Tuesday the weather was calm so we took the time to go see some tourist attractions. Sunday we drove to Amarillo TX to eat at the Big Texan Steak Ranch, home of the 72 oz porterhouse. Monday, we drove to Canyon TX to see the Palo Duro Canyon National Park. Tuesday we drove down to Carlsbad NM to tour Carlsbad Caverns. After we saw the cave we drove back up to Abilene TX to bed down for the night.
Wednesday was our first chase day and so we drove from Abilene up towards the area east of the OK/TX panhandle. The models indicated some good CAPE (Convective Available Potential Energy) along with decent dewpoints in the upper 60s and good upper level winds. We saw a few storms trying to fire up but a strong cap along with some lingering high level cirrus clouds, which prevented heating, killed any chances of severe storms. So today was officially declared a bust...
More updates will be coming tomorrow morning after our briefing which highlights a target area and the possible factors that will contribute to the formation of any severe storms
Palo Duro Canyon
Until next time,
Sub Divo
Frank Mullens
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Update 5/16/2011
Sorry for the lack of updates recently, but things have been rather chaotic. Please continue to pray and remember the Tuscaloosa community as well as Hackleburg, Madison, Cordova, and all the other small communities that were devastated April 27th. Here's what you can expect in Tuscaloosa for the next few days:
MONDAY 5/16
TEMP: High of 59*F/Low of 45*F, shouldn't make it out of the 50's as there will be quite a bit of cloud cover as we saw today. But, the sun should peak out at times throughout the day providing some opportunities for warming.
20% Chance of precipitation
WINDS: NW at 14MPH
TUESDAY 5/17
TEMP:High of 69*F/Low of 46*F
Mostly sunny, but expect it to be windy as we are forecasting winds to gust to 18MPH to the NNW. No chance of Precipitation
WEDNESDAY THRU FRIDAY 5/18-5/20
General warming trend thru Saturday with temps peaking at 87*F on Friday. Saturday will be our next opportunity for scattered thunderstorms, and that chance will last thru Sunday, as the chances will become more isolated on Monday.
I don't know about you, but the cooler weather has been a pleasant surprise for this time of year. I know all of those working relief and recovery are glad to have this break from the heat. However, don't get used to it.
***NEWS: A company with a huge reputation purchased our footage of the Tornado on the 27th. We are more than excited about this opportunity and will have more news stemming from it once we are allowed to discuss it at length. (Contract purposes, you know how it is.)
Also, we found out that one of the ladies we took to the hospital following the storm ended up making it through her head trauma! Just goes to show you that God is good! You can read about it here:
MONDAY 5/16
TEMP: High of 59*F/Low of 45*F, shouldn't make it out of the 50's as there will be quite a bit of cloud cover as we saw today. But, the sun should peak out at times throughout the day providing some opportunities for warming.
20% Chance of precipitation
WINDS: NW at 14MPH
TUESDAY 5/17
TEMP:High of 69*F/Low of 46*F
Mostly sunny, but expect it to be windy as we are forecasting winds to gust to 18MPH to the NNW. No chance of Precipitation
WEDNESDAY THRU FRIDAY 5/18-5/20
General warming trend thru Saturday with temps peaking at 87*F on Friday. Saturday will be our next opportunity for scattered thunderstorms, and that chance will last thru Sunday, as the chances will become more isolated on Monday.
I don't know about you, but the cooler weather has been a pleasant surprise for this time of year. I know all of those working relief and recovery are glad to have this break from the heat. However, don't get used to it.
***NEWS: A company with a huge reputation purchased our footage of the Tornado on the 27th. We are more than excited about this opportunity and will have more news stemming from it once we are allowed to discuss it at length. (Contract purposes, you know how it is.)
Also, we found out that one of the ladies we took to the hospital following the storm ended up making it through her head trauma! Just goes to show you that God is good! You can read about it here:
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
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