Tornado Central

Looks like there's a pretty good possibility of at least one chase in the Fri-Sun time period, but I refrain from getting too optimistic until we get a better idea of the amount and depth of quality moisture that will be in place ahead of the dryline. The Gulf has been obliterated in the past week, so I'll remain on the pessimistic side until we see >65F Tds streaming past Austin and Houston.

As mentioned in a previous blog entry, Kim picked up a hedgehog from a fellow vet-schooler this past weekend. She took a picture of him yesterday:




Also, we fell for a mild-mannered, smart golden retriever "pup" this afternoon from the Guthrie animal shelter. Rainy (or Rainey -- I don't have the spelled decided upon yet) now makes the 6th pet in our household (an addition to the hedgehog, two rabbits, guinea pig, and cat). We don't have a fence yet, but she is remarkably calm, so that shouldn't be of pressing importance. We started crate training this evening, but, admittently, this will be somewhat limited until we can get her into a larger crate/kennel.



I'm running a little short on weather-related pet names. So far, we have Windy, Hailey, Vorty, and Rainy. Any ideas? Stormy, misty, gale, stratus/strato, nimby/nimbus, Rossby, ... ?

A disappointing chase through northern Texas yesterday, though there was the potential for a much more severe (and tornadic) event. I just posted my chase log and map, which can be read on the 13 April 2007 Chase Log page.

Next chase day appears as though it won't be for at least 4-5 days, as a strong cold front is currently blasting through the Gulf of Mexico, which will significantly delay strong moisture return into the Plains. This is actually fine with me, since I have quite a bit of school work and thesis work to get done in the next week or two. That said, I'm never upset to have the opportunity to chase!

Oh yeah, we picked up another exotic pet today (our two rabbits are technically considered to be exotic pets) -- Vortie, the hedgehog. Yeah, vortie is an odd name (and a hedgehog is an odd pet!), but it's weather-related and not one that I want to save for a dog. Vortie joins Hailey, Windy, Madison, and Squirt as household pets. You can probably guess pretty easily which ones I named.

Those would be Vortie, Hailey, and Windy, obviously. ;)

Model flip-flop continues regarding the setup for Friday. The trend in the NCEP models has been to shift the surface low to the west and south in time (in line with ECMWF forecasts from the past few days). My primary concern appears to be shifting from the location of the surface low and triple point (which previous forecasts indicated would be along the Red River near I35 by afternoon, while the latest 00z NAM indicates that the sfc low many actually be located quite a ways west of I35 -- much better for chasing logistics) to the degree of destabilization (or lack thereof). With strong warm-air advection occurring as the atmosphere tries to replace the currently cool airmass in place across the southern Plains by a much warmer (and more moist) airmass from the Gulf, I'm worried that we'll see widespread convection and cloudcover. Similar to 3-30-07, when widespread convection precluded destabilization and led to a bust, I fear that we'll see low CAPE. With 60-80kt 0-6km shear progged by the NAM, I'm not sure ~1000 j/kg or less CAPE will be sufficient to sustain updrafts. The NCEP models are still certainly in flux in terms of the Friday forecast, so only time will tell.

On a different note... OK, I can't avoid venting... Since when is "nappy-headed hoes" a racial slur? I'm so sick of hearing about the Imus media-made debacle! I've heard the term "hoes" hundreds of times in my life, and I've never considered it a racial term. Was it a smart thing to say? No, absolutely not. But, why is there such an apparent uproar? Since when should anyone care this much about what some radio personality says? I listen to the afternoon guys on Shade-45 on Sirius sometimes (it's a hip-hop / rap station), and I hear all sorts of jokes and comments about white people that much more racially-motivated than Imus's comments.

I think the apparent reaction to this has been much too extreme, and I think it's a direct result of the comment being made by a white man. How many times are the words "ho" and "nigga" used on rap and hip-hop albums? When those terms are so prevalent in popular music, why is it such a big deal when a white person uses them? I only mention "nigga" because of the media-storm involving Michael Richardson a couple of months ago, and I think the firestorms in the wake of Richards' and Imus's comments are quite similar. Why do people care so much what others say? Call me a 'cracker' or anything else -- I don't give a damn. Are we in 5th grade, when some comments by a random person can cause such "uproar"? The odd thing about all of this is that some of those who are screaming about the Imus deal are also those who use terms like "hoes" and others themselves. Oh the hypocrisy -- it's burning my ears!

Double-standard? Yeah. Hypocritical? Very much, and it's disgusting. If you want racial equality, then treat those of other races the same that you treat those of your own race. I don't hear much on the news or in the popular media lambasting hip-hop artists, rappers, and comedians for using terms like "ho" and "nigga". I can turn on Deaf Jam comedy on HBO any particular night and hear those terms used more than a dozen times, and the same goes for some radio stations. But, I forgot -- it's different when it's a white person using those words. If you want equality, then don't treat Caucasians any differently than you treat African-Americans. Where is Sharpton when 50 Cent releases his albums? Where is Jesse Jackson when Chris Rock or Dave Chappelle perform?

On a similar note, why is it socially acceptable to have things like "Mr. and Ms. Black OU" (other universities have these as well). If I start a group (White Student Association) and want to have a Mr. and Ms. White OU, I would be labeled a racist in seconds. Heck, I don't think I'd even be able to make a White Student Association (note that OU has a Black Student Assocation). Again, if you want equality, then don't voluntarily separate yourself from the whole. Grrr.

I've been too busy to post much on here in the past month, despite having gotten in 3 chases during that time. I have chase logs up for Feb 28th, Feb 29th, and Feb 30th, which can be read/seen on my 2007 Chase Summary page. It's worth noting that the Feb. 28th summary contains many pictures from a substantial tornadic supercell that occurred in the eastern Texas Panhandle. Here's one of my favorite pictures from that supercell:




I haven't looked at too much in the way of long-range guidance, but, last I loooked, it appears as though the next chances for chasing will be within a couple of days of next weekend.