Fall Snooze.

Fall 2010. Lame. Its bad enough one has to face the fact winter is on its way and soon any chance for any sort of local storms will be replaced with lake effect snow. Much like 2009 though, the fall of 2010 has been very quiet so far, and the pattern we are locked in is much like what we saw last year at this time. A high amplitude ridging pattern in the west with a deep trough over the east has sent mostly below average temperatures amid sunny skies for the midwest while the west coast bakes in heat and the east coast gets all the chances for severe weather. Looking out as far as the eye can see on the models this does not look to change anytime soon.

In short this:

Equals this:

So it looks like there wont be anything interesting to talk about local weather wise in the near future. I guess not all is bad though. Its giving me the time to focus on the many projects I have been working on but still, a little active weather this way would be nice. I hate being on the troughy end of the pattern.

Next on my plate is working on the 2010 DVD with my Convective Addiction group. I have decided to not do a personal DVD this year for 2 main reasons. 1 being I dont have a computer capable of such a thing and 2 being the fact I just dont feel I have enough awesome footage to pack into a DVD yet. I don't want to make one of those DVDs that has a few good moments and the rest filled with shelf clouds and rain shafts.

So while I wait for the weather to throw me a bone I will continue working on projects as always. I will also be attending a few events in the future that I am looking forward to. Those events being the National Weather Festival, Chasercon  and the Minnesota Chasing Convention. Of course I will be making detailed posts on all.

Thats all I got for now...

Minnesota Storm Chaser Convention

My Convective Addiction group has been invited to speak at the 2nd annual Minnesota Storm Chaser Convention. Website can be found here: http://www.mnstormchasingconvention.com/

I will not be the main speaker, that duty will be left to Ryan Wichman, since it was his case study of the June 17th 2010 Tornado outbreak that got us the invite. I am tagging along to co-speak along with Jesse Risley since we actually chased the event and captured some of the best footage of our lives that day. The plan [as of day 1] is to take a look at the case study and relate it to what we the chasers were seeing at the ground at given times. Obviously we haven't even begun to work on this yet, so that is all I can provide at this time.

Oh, well have a booth too which will showcase our DVDs and perhaps some other goodies that nobody really knows about. Whether or not the rest of the members chose to come is up to them.

I am excited for this. One thing I enjoy is talking about severe weather and storm chasing, especially to people who are eager to hear what I have to say. Not only that but anything that helps get the group some exposure is always a good thing.  Public speaking generally does not frighten me, and I will be eagerly awaiting this opportunity, albeit a small one.

The convention is a fairly young thing that has only been recently started but has the potential to become a pretty significant yearly gathering, if that is the case, it will be cool to be apart of it during the early years. One thing for sure though is the people attending will be the die hard passionates who are really into it, before [if] it becomes a more mainstream event.

More details as they come! As far as the local weather goes, expecting lots of rain and maybe some thunderstorms tomorrow. I won't hold my breath just yet though...

Dallas Tornado VS Chicago Lake Breeze

The weather in Dallas, TX today [image courtesy of News8:]

The weather in Chicago today [image courtesy of GR3:]

For those who don't know...that is a lake breeze that moved through here earlier today.

Yea, guess where I would have rather been. Things have been pretty boring around here lately. Aside from some dying severe storms last week its been a pretty boring 2009 like pattern. The tornadoes today in TX were the result of the remnants of Tropical Storm Hermine which have stalled out over the area. Originally those remnants were supposed to swing our way but now looks to pass well south of here. Those types of setups don't warrant a chase all the way from IL.

I've started eyeballing the models more and more again looking for that random fall chase op but right now nothing stands out. There are a couple marginal chances but at this point don't justify a long marathon haul on my limited funds.

So what have I been up to? Well, mostly working with my Convective Addiction group on our many projects. So many good ideas this group has that keep me really excited and busy. I do need to start working on my own personal DVD, but don't want to get too deep into that until I have a computer that can at least completely make them on my own.

Furthermore I have been getting ready to embark on a new business adventure that holds promise but won't come easy. After reading all those sad statuses from chasers in TX today who missed tornadoes because of work it just reminds me why I never want to work for someone again. I will never deem myself successful if the phrases "I cant chase because of work/money" still come out of my mouth. Maybe other people like to work and chase some of the time...but I don't. I'd rather struggle for a couple years and be scrutinized for it than just hang up my dreams and conform to a normal life.

Ugh, is that first fall chase here yet?!?!