Chases 4-25 and 4-26

Full logs will be done by the end of today.

It takes me longer than most because I have to spend a whole day driving home. Then typically I have work early the next morning so it must wait till evening.

Saturday was a great chase. Lots of amazing structure and we got blasted by hail up to tennis ball size. It left some dents on the new chase mobile and made for some sweet video. I was able to keep the swearing down to a minimum for once too. Perhaps Im learning to control myself...I still let a few F-bombs slip though...however those who know me know that a few is pretty damn good. We also saw a nice high based funnel. The video is awesome though. Ive never heard the popcorn like sound from all that gorilla hail smashing into the pavement and breaking up into a bunch of pieces. It was awesome.

Sunday we blew big time. I hate being the driver sometimes because I have multiple people screaming in my ear to go one way or another. Im driving and not monitoring things so I have less of a clue as to whats going on. Long story short we went west instead of north out of sweet water and got on the storm behind it while the north storm went nuts. I mean shit...its a high risk right and all the storms could have gone nuts...generally the southern storm is a better bet but GOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooo figure that was not the case today.

We did score a nice funnel though and had several run ins with quarter hail cores...but when everyone else bags big tornadoes in the same exact areas we are in it stings a bit and suddenly a funnel and hail core lose their excitement level.

I try not to be too mad though. Failure will come from time to time...I think for me the hardest part about it is the fact these were 2009s first photogenic awesome tornadoes. I know the peak of the season isnt here yet but there are never garuntees in the world of weather. If I had already scored at least one tornado this season of that quality it would sting less, because I would be happier knowing I got my piece of the prize.

But alas...I will be out the next chance I get and ready to go after it again! The next time I get conflicting directions from those Im chasing with Im going to take a minute and look at both options myself and make the call rather than just listning to the person whos screaming louder in my ear because he has a map and updated GR3 image. I should have known better. I do know better. I take the blame.

Another aspect which will lessen the blow is the fact the forecast setup crapped out. It was a high risk that screaming tornadic potential. Had storms fired the way we all thought I could have redeemed myself. Had I know there would be 1 tornado producing storm out of the whole linear crapfest I might have opted to play the setup differently...but thats the way chasing is. All you can do is continue to learn.

Anways, Ill post another update once the website is updated.

Id like to congratulate all my chase pals who scored this weekend. Im happy they got some awesome footage and photos.