Ever wonder what goes on inside a tornado? If you cut it all down to just basics, it’s pretty simple. A tornado is just a column of air violently rotating around an area of low pressure (how they form will be discussed at some future date). They work in the […]
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Large Scale Setup/Discussion A weak wave of energy is currently crossing Colorado’s Rocky Mountains and is forecast to undergo “lee cyclogenesis” (it’s actually more of a lee intensification) as it ejects off the Front Range and into the Great Plains on Thursday, ahead of a much more powerful upper level […]
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MOORE, OK — May 3rd, 1999. It’s a date that anyone with ties to Oklahoma knows very well. If you don’t know, an F5 tornado struck Moore, Oklahoma that day, packing winds of 318 miles per hour (no, that’s not a type-o), which to this day remains the strongest wind […]
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GRANITE, OK — I chased three separate clusters of storms across western Oklahoma. I first captured an isolated supercell north of Clinton, but did have to battle some hills and a less-than-ideal road network. When that storm began to weaken, I dropped south and captured some gorgeous pictures of a […]
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FREDERICK, OK — The April 17th severe weather event was easily the highlight of April. I got to chase as part of one of my classes, which was a lot of fun. A warm front had stalled over the Interstate 44 corridor, with extremely unstable air on the warm side […]
Read MoreNORMAN, OK — A day that started as an epic bust/lack of a storm chase turned out to be anything but disappointing. It was an event that nobody could have predicted (not even the models), featuring golf ball sized hail and freezing rain falling out of a severe thunderstorm at […]
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NORMAN, OK — After a very strong year in 2011, I had high hopes coming into the 2012 season. It seemed like forever, but late winter finally turned into early spring. I ended up missing out on the first chase opportunity of the season, which came on March 18 in […]
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AMBER, OK — Another round of severe weather brought quite the grand finale to May here in Central Oklahoma. With a Moderate Risk up, all of Oklahoma west of Interstate 35 was fair game for a target area. Just after 3 PM, storms began to explode on the dryline in […]
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BLANCHARD, OK — Destructive hailstorms pounded the Oklahoma City metro on May 29th, bringing enormous hail, 80 mph winds, and a few tornadoes to the area. Storms formed in the late afternoon near Lawton, OK and started moving to the northeast. One was particularly persistent and long-lived and was tracking […]
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NORMAN, OK — There is no more satisfying redemption from a 500-plus mile bust than a gentleman’s chase…when the storms come to you. In the evening hours, two lone severe thunderstorms formed to the southwest of the Oklahoma City metro and started tracking northeast towards Norman and points south. I […]
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ASHLAND, KS — A week after getting what will likely be my photo of the year as beautiful tornadoes touched down near Harper, KS, I was back in the Sunflower State and got to experience the complete opposite end of the spectrum in one of the most spectacular busts I’ve […]
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On May 19, 2012, I observed and photographed a landspout and two tornadoes near Harper, Kansas. The term “landspout” is not used very often so I will attempt to explain what it means and how it differs from a tornado. Tornadoes Most tornadoes are driven by a mesocyclone in a […]
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