Things I am Going to be Working on.

Before I get to the point I should mention I had an incredible chase about 2 weeks ago in Oklahoma. At east 8 tornadoes, some very beautiful and high contrast, were documented by myself along with Ben Holcomb and Jonathan Williamson. Detailed log can be seen here: http://www.aerostorms.com/110711-Oklahoma-Tornadoes-in-November.php

The sad part is that only covers about half of what went on. A little known fact about that day is we actually got hit by a brief spinup while blasting north under a new developing area of rotation. My ears popped, debris flew by from the west, and then whipped back around from the east. No doubt in my mind it was a brief tornadic spinup. At that point the battery in my camera was dead from filming over 90 minutes of the chase so I have no video. Jon had his camera on the seat since he was focusing on still pictures, I was filming with Bens camera and had it pointed out the windshield, but he said the video turned out like crap. So who knows...

That being said, one of the things I will be upgrading is a new extended battery. Never again do I want to have a battery die during the middle of a hot chase. That was the first, and will be the last time that ever happens.

I also plan to get a wind filter, one thing I can't stand in video is excessive amounts of wind noise. Sort of hard to avoid in this line of work, but a filter is a relatively cheap purchase so its worth a shot.

New laptop is coming thanks to a very generous individual. It won't be top of the line [nothing I own ever is] but it will be better than what I have, and I've been able to make do with what I have, so an upgrade is an upgrade. I am tired of being skunked in video sales [especially by people with worse shots] because it takes my old ass laptop 2hrs to render out a 20 second video clip to upload.

I say this every year, but I would really like to finally get my HAM license. Not sure Ill have money for a radio though, so we'll see. 

I also want to get certified in first responding. Arriving on the devastation moments after it happened during the April 27th and May 24th outbreaks really was a kick in the gut. The things I saw those days were just...ugh. I need to be able to help more.

So that is a bit of a preview of the things I plan to change for 2012. 

If I have time I may attempt to build the rest of the hail guards for the windshield and rear window. Time is short, and so are funds. So we'll see!

Any moment we will be in winters grip, and as always there is plenty to keep me busy during the off season. 2012 potentially has some major opportunities for me. Lots of leads for good things, just gotta keep my head in the game and make sure I am always striving to improve!

Closing Out October

Hard to believe October is almost over and November will begin. It won't be long now until the Chicago area is the grips of winters nastiness, which from "expert" opinions is supposed to be another terrible one, similar to the last 3 years. I remain skeptical, seeing as how winter 2010-2011 broke the record for consecutive years with 50+ inches of snow here, it seems inconceivable that it would happen 2 years in a row but hey, records were made to be broken.

In other news I had to miss the NWSF this year which kinda bummed me out. I was all set to go but went to the dentist a few days prior to get one of my many teeth problems fixed and got slapped with a bill that was allot higher than expected, and there went all my trip funds. I suppose I still could have went, but it wouldn't have been the smart thing to do financially, plus many of the faces I wanted to see down there weren't going, so I decided to just save my resources for chasercon.

I have been aggressive in knocking out bills and debt, so I can move forward with life on a clean slate. Its been a challenge but it is my priority now. I don't make much money, but what I do make is being used to knock out my debt so that once the future rolls around I can be better off. Its tough, but I manage...

DVDs are moving off the shelf, not as fast as I was hoping though. Not sure why, but probably because I set my price at 19.99 while most other chasers are offering theirs between 10 and 15. Mine is jam packed with 4 years worth of my best stuff though and is pretty much wall to wall tornado and extreme weather. Not knocking other DVDs but if I had allot of filler content and stuff I find boring [like blizzards and forest fires and 7 minute long dashcam shots of me driving towards a shelf cloud] I would have charged less.

Another reason is probably the title, it wasn't meant to be taken serious which is probably why allot of seasoned weather enthusiasts are ignoring it. Most of my sales are coming from the general public and fans/supporters of mine as opposed to the typical members of the chase community minus the couple trades I have done. Thats fine though, I wanted to branch out in that harder to reach market so in that aspect its been a success. I have had a few people tell me mine is the first DVD they have ever purchased, so for that I feel special and extremely grateful!

There is still the CA 2011 DVD which is about to be released as well, and those typically sell well and are bought by all the usual suspects so if I can have a leg in each side of the market that is certainly a good thing.

One things for certain though, when compiling footage for a DVD it is definitely the best way to critique your own shooting style, and I will be making sure I do allot of things to improve my videography skills in 2012. Tripoding more is a must. Many times I didn't want to grab my tripod because I didn't want to miss filming the tornado for those few seconds. I have now realized its worth missing a few seconds to have the rest be professional and stabilized.

Although in 2012 I plan to be more aggressive in my distance to tornadoes by getting closer, which means lots of in vehicle shots. Perhaps a dashcam mount - but for some reason I tend not to like daschcam footage when I see it from others. A stabilized shot is good, but those just seem TOO stable [if that makes sense] to where it diminishes the true chaotic-ness of the situation. We'll see, the winter will be long and Ill have lots of time to consider the pros and cons of the things I want to do differently in 2012.

Speaking of conventions. I am supposed to speak at the Indiana Storm Chasers convention this Saturday. Working with the bums in my group has been an eye rolling experience as usual since they can't commit to anything. Perhaps devolving the group into just a DVD production is the way to go...but thats another issue for another time...and now the GFS is driving me crazy with fantasy runs showing a potential chase the day of the convention [of course] so we'll see what happens.

Thats all for now!

The Fire Photo That Will Not Die.

Those of you who are my friend on facebook know about the eternal flame photo. This past weekend I went camping with friends, nothing unusual there. I snapped a pic of the campfire and uploaded it to facebook, nothing unusual there either. In fact, if you browse my mobile uploads album you'll see more than one instance of this [most recently on my Birthday while visiting Jon Williamson in WI.] Somehow the photo is stuck in a weird loop and auto posts every 4-5 hours.

I've done everything on my end I can think of to make it stop. I deleted the photo out of my phone, deleted my message boxes, upload folders, restarted the phone, took out the sim card, deleted the original facebook post but alas, just like Old Faithful, every 4-5 hours it appears again. I don't have a smart phone so there is no facebook app to try and jigger settings on.

So I decided to have some fun with it since people seem amused by it, and used it as a way to promote my DVD I am working on by offering people free copies if they were the first to comment stupid random sayings I made up. I'm generally a go with the flow type of person, never take things too seriously and will roll with the punches. I've even gotten about a dozen friend requests since the wacky incident started. The parody photos and videos have been hilarious, and offer a nice distraction from life's stresses. Ill probably collect and save them all somewhere at some point.

Some of you think I am doing it on purpose...rest assured that even if I were clever enough to come up with the scheme on my own, I am definitely too lazy to make sure I am on facebook every 4 hours to post it. Contrary to popular belief I do sleep and work...sometimes ;)

Alas though, there are those out there who value the content of their facebook feeds like a first born child, and apparently having to take an extra second to scroll past it is a huge burden on their life so I will be contacting facebook [if thats even possible] about it to see if they can stop it.

Though it will one day be extinguished, it will never truly die!

In other news, the progress I am making on my DVD has been great, much faster than I expected. I am ashamed of myself for waiting so long, as I am having trouble cramming 4 years worth of content into one DVD, but once I got rolling with the project my focus really ramped up and I've gotten really into it. When I first started it I gave an estimated release date of December 1st thinking my lazy ass would have all sorts of road blocks, but at the rate I am going I don't see a reason it won't be done in the next two weeks, so stay tuned for more announcements regarding that!

I plan to promote it to the point people will get sick of hearing the word noob, but if the word association sticks [for better or worse] and keeps me in people's heads, I will deem my unintended marketing campaign a success.

Storm Chasing DVD Trailer!

I've finally begun working on my first ever DVD. There is much to do, but I have finished the trailer. It only took me about 5 hours, mostly because I had to dig out my old computer that had some of my 2008 and 2009 stuff on it, but I like the way it turned out. Anyways here is the trailer.

Why did I title it The Noob? Well, a couple reasons. It is my first DVD which covers my first several years as a chaser. I also find the term amusing, especially when someone attempts to call me that as an insult. It's a snarky way to stick it to those who thought I could never do it. Rather than trying to get defensive and give a million reasons why I am some die hard non-noob chaser, I simply embrace what I am and where I am in my career. These WERE my noob years, and I have allot of accomplishments to be proud of!

I am not sure when the DVD will be released. I am going to put it together using software I've never used before, so I expect it to be a nightmare with lots of problems. Hopefully sooner than later, and definitely before the holidays!

Storm Chasers: I will accept trades. Some of you have hooked me up with your DVDs over the years and rest assured I will definitely reciprocate! Everyone else; thatll be 19.99 - I need some new gear for 2012!

I am excited, and hope everyone will enjoy it when it is done.

Storm Chasing and Making Money

I've been a bit of a crabass lately, so its time to rant on a popular debate in the chase community. The whole issue when it comes to storm chasing and making money.

First and foremost, if you are a new and aspiring chaser hoping for big fame and big bucks for the latest and greatest tornado video. Don't even bother. The market is extremely tough, and in this day and age even if you get a good shot one of 2 things will happen.

1 - Someone better than you who already has the connections will get a better shot or
2 - Some dipshit with an I-phone will give the news a crappier shot for free. The news could care less about quality.

The big debate revolves around those who want to make money are said to be less passionate. Are you kidding me?! Often what you see is blanket statements like "I don't care if I make money, I am there for the love of the weather and to save lives." Get over yourself now. I am tired of reading this from people. As if somehow that statement is going to convince me that you are a die hard chaser and deserve to be there more than others. Please, you ain't fooling anyone except those who try and spout the same bullshit. Then you can all rally together and stroke each others egos.

There is nothing I would enjoy more than being able to make my lifes living off of storm chasing. A pipe dream sure, but a dream none-the-less. I could give a rats ass about a persons "real" job nor do I want to be remembered in life for the work I do. Hey wow, you work in IT! Congrats. PHHHT. Sure, in the grand scheme of things storm chasers may not really matter, but neither do half of the occupations out there.

When I die I want people to think "There goes Adam, he was a badass storm chaser." Not "there goes adam, he was awesome at fixing computers, flipping burgers, filling out tax forms, cutting lawns, driving forklifts, etc etc etc." I think allot of time people assume that those who want to make money off chasing want to become RICH from chasing. There is a difference. I would be happy living in a dumpy apartment or trailer, if it meant I had the freedom to chase. More money is always better, but to me life fulfillment outweighs just how much money I make. If I was handed a job offer for 40k a year that guaranteed a way I could chase when I wanted, I would take that anyday over a job that offered me 100K a year but said I could only have 2 weeks off.

So you better damn well believe I will do everything in my power to make as much money as possible with my chasing en devours. If that makes me a sellout in your eyes thats fine. I don't owe you or anyone anything and you sure as hell aren't going to help me in anyway so why do I care if you think I am a sellout? Have fun not chasing as much as you would like in the meantime, just don't expect me to feel sorry for you because you're stuck in a routine and the storms won't always come within 20 miles of your house.

Another argument is chasing for money turns chasing into work as opposed to enjoyment. While there may be some truth to that it still wouldn't bother me. Its work I would enjoy, and it would be my life. Every job has its stressful moments, its ups and downs. I might as well have my work be my lifes passion, and if I want a hobby I purely enjoy thats where fishing, BBQing and camping comes in.

This all goes back to chasing being different things to different people. If you are happy with your situation thats all that matters. If chasing only a handful of times a year is enough for you, I applaud you and surely don't look down on you. The people I look down on are the ones who whine about their situation and do little to change it. Succeeding in your dream is harder than succeeding in everyday normal life.

Life is hard, and bills need to get paid. I am not blind to this. I may chase allot, but its not nearly enough as I want to because even I still have to do what I have to do to survive. I have given up allot of "normal life" things in order to be able to chase as much as I can though. I was not born into an easy means to chase freely, so for me it has to come with hard work and sacrifice. I've sacrificed moving out of my house when I was in my mid 20s, getting married, having a family, that nice job downtown...you know, all the normal stuff people are supposed to do. That may be the ultimate goal for many, its just not mine.

I think the bottom line is, even if I never make another penny doing it, I am still going to do it. But as long as I am doing it, I am not going half ass it, and will do everything in my power to make the most from it. I think allot of people fail to grasp that concept. Do I think I am better? Certainly not and sometimes I have a struggle from within thinking I am making the wrong decisions and that I wish I wasn't a slave to this desire. Its a tough battle to fight trying to climb your way up from the very bottom.

Basically, if you don't want to make money from chasing then good for you, but you are not better than anyone, you are not more passionate, and it doesn't give you anymore right to be there than someone else. So STFU, and thats where I stand on that whole issue.

EDIT: While discussing this entry on facebook I summed it up quite nicely and wanted to add it in here.

Really the point I am trying to make is who cares what others are doing and that none of us are better than anyone else. Do it for your own reasons and enjoy it. I think WE ALL do it for the love of storms. That is the ONLY THING that fuels us to go out there. What spin you decide to take on it from there is up to you, and no matter what that is, you have a right to do it.

Severe Weather Nowcast - Too Little Too Late?

Today is a perfect example of how morning garbage storms can really mess up an otherwise great setup. Sure, the shelf cloud was pretty but you can thank that decaying crap complex for ruining what would have been something far better. Perhaps I would be less bitter if the complex had held together when it reached Chicago, but instead it fell apart completely and even the shelf cloud was gone, leaving the area in nothing but thundery showers for a whole 4 hours. Finally, a loud pulse storm rolled through around 4pm, and the sun quickly has come out over all of IL as shown by the visible sat:

We are finally destabilizing as shown by the 3hrs CAPE change:

But it might be too little too late. Areas to the west though have had a chance to sit in the sun and cook longer, but of course out there the cap [a warm layer of air aloft that thwarts storm development] is more of an issue. Still, convection allowing models have shown a new band of storms developing shortly around sunset. Most notebly for Chicago, the 12z 4km wrf, which has actually handled todays storm situation quite well so far. So we will see if this trend continues:

Another popular convection allowing model, the HRRR also buys into a similar situation though it keeps the development further west and never really brings it into the Chicago area, likely due to the lack of instability that has yet to materialize over this area. However, this model is run each hour, and the solutions can vary greatly from run to run, below are the 2 most recent runs for the same time [10pm this evening] and you can see a huge difference.

Naturally being a storm lover I want the bottom solution to verify, but I am leaning towards the top one as of right now.

A big negative factor for severe weather is dismal low level lapse rates. This is lower than pathetic and would need to change quickly.

Still though, shear over the region remains impressive, with bulk shear in the 40-50kt range. Low level flow is backing, and there would be both ample speed and directional shear to support severe storms including a brief window for supercells with very large hail and an isolated tornado threat given the high instability out west, After which a more typical transition to a linear mode takes over with attendant wind/hail threat.

Such is always the case when watching an event unfold, there are factors supporting severe weather, and other factors scream bust. I think the forecast I posted last night is on track fairly well though and would expect the area that would see the best chance of severe weather to be from I-39 west towards the Missisippi river. As far as Chicagoland goes it is a tough call, but those in the area still need to be on alert for potential severe weather.

For the latest you can always stay tuned to my facebook page, or follow Convective Addiction here: http://www.facebook.com/aerostorms/posts/10150271094208807#!/convectiveaddiction

Potential for Severe Weather in Chicago Tuesday and Wednesday.

Bored and checking over the 0z NAM as it continues to trickle in. A NW flow type event could bring multiple rounds of severe weather to the area. These are quirky setups that occur in this area from time to time. Basically if you take a traditional setup and rotate the shear profile clockwise 90 degrees you get a NW flow event. They have dealt some surprise tornado events in the past, and are worth watching.

Tomorrows setup looks to be one of those cases as decent directional shear will be in place. Surface to 500mb crossovers show a good 90 degrees of turning, though speed shear is a bit lacking near the surface which leads me to believes storms will puke on their own outflow before they get a chance to utilize their full potential. Instability will really need to be in place to compensate for this, and it looks like the best instability will be to the west, with a modest 1500 CAPE in the N IL area.

The other big question is what will happen with a morning round of storms progged to form in E IA and track over N IL. Latest HRRR runs as well as the 0z NAM support this idea, though the NAM is much later with initiation. There are a couple scenarios that will play out.

1- Storms form in E IA earlier than later, move through Chicago by early morning, and N IL has sufficient time to recover. Outflow from this complex could spark a new round of storms, potentially supercells early on given ample directional shear before eventually congealing into a large bowing MCS. This would be the most ideal scenario chase wise.

2- Storms form later than sooner, and move through N IL and the Chicago area in late morning or early afternoon. If early afternoon they could potentially be severe if enough instability can develop ahead of them...or we get a decaying MCS with moderate rain and a CG or two. Despite whichever scenario plays out, a later passing would likely ruin the threat for the remainder of the day. I would then place the favored area of initiation further north and west into Wisconsin, this new round would potentially reach Chicago after dark.

The other trend I noticed is the fropa seems to have slowed down a bit. This intrigues me as well since severe storms will likely redevelop ahead of the front Wednesday. Slower frontal passage gives the Chicago area a greater chance of getting in on this action as well as opposed to what normally happens where the front passes through here at noon and storms form near I-65 and flip me the bird as they slide away. So I am all for a slower frontal passage.

Basically, I don't know exactly what will happen with the threat these next two days, but it will probably be one of the scenarios I mentioned above, so I am going to be nowcasting the event, and head out if I deem it worthwhile.

Right now my target triangle for potential supercells would be Rochelle, Madison, Dubuque.

Hail in Chicago and the Little Me

Back on June 30th Chicago got whacked by a significant hailstorm. Im pretty sure I bitched about it another post because it just barely missed my house. Hail is somewhat rare around here, from what I read online we average 2 hail events a year here, most of it small. This year I have managed to see 3 small hail events at home but am still bitter about the big one missing me. Anyways, todays barrage was all pea to dime size, but unlike the other events it lasted for a good 6-7 minutes as opposed to 30 seconds.

A pic and some video:

 

[Ugh, I don't know why its showing up retarded like that, I hate bloggers editor and what it does to the format when I try and add pics/video to this blog - thats the reason I hardly do it anymore because its a pain in the arse and I've tried to fix it 4 times already with no luck. Google, PLEASE GO BACK TO THE OLD EDITOR THAT DIDN'T DO THIS!!]

Anyways...the storm. Before it hit tried to take on the appearance of a supercell with a hook echo.

So I think mother nature is still teasing me, but it was a fun local storm. They have been fairly plentiful this year, so I have no major gripes.

On a different note, if you watched the video you may have heard a child screaming. I am usually filming a storm whenever it hits my house, and lately I have noticed one of the kids on the block always comes running outside during a storm. He is around 6 years old if I had to guess and he is always excited. When I was watching a shelf cloud a couple weeks ago he came running outside going WHOAA THATS SO AWESOME! Jumping up and down and getting excited. Today he was outside running around in the hail while his mom watched.

So I finally decided to go over and hand them a business card and a laminated picture of the June 7th 2008 tornado [I have about 20 of them and I carry a few in my laptop bag to give to kids.] I explained to his mom what I do and that I notice how excited he gets during storms, she said he loves them and is obsessed with the weather. He reminds me of me as a kid, because I did all the same thing. So I gave them the card/picture and said I would be willing to help him learn weather or anything they would want. Might as well right? Im a big advocate of people following what they love, and it would be a shame to see young mind slip into the dreary 9 to 5 lifestyle that gets jammed into our heads.

After that, I went on to do more interviews with the film crew working on their documentary, as well as sign release forms for the footage I am letting them use.

Just another day in the storm chaser bizz...

Wettest Day Ever in Chicago

Its been a stormy weekend here in Chicago. Repeated rounds of extremely heavy rain and vivid lightning have bombarded the area since Thursday night. I never managed to get any lightning shots as it seems like the bulk of the lightning activity managed to evade my house with the exception of those random 2 or 3 strikes that are really close during a 3hr long storm barrage.

The bigger story has been the flooding though, in fact Chicago just recorded its wettest day ever with O'hare Airport picking up 6.91" of rain on Saturday, which outsed the previous record of 6.64 in September of 2008 when the boring, thunderless remnants of a hurricane dumped on us for a couple days.

Here is a local news story about the event [probably time sensitive so I dont know how long the link will be valid: http://www.wgntv.com/wgntv-overnight-storm-july23,0,6626062.story

While the rain at O'hare was incredible, we got about 4" less here at Midway, which just goes to show how much it can vary during these events. A tidbit of irony is that exactly one year ago on the very same date, the Midway area was hit with 7" of rain in one day and the massive flooding was affecting my neighborhood. I have a write up on that event on my site which can be seen here: http://www.chicagoillinoisstormchaser.com/072310-chicago-severe-weather.php

The photogenic prize for the weekend was a wicked shelf cloud that passed over early Friday morning, you dont often see structure and colors like this around here, so it was a real treat, but hard to capture in full due to the buildings and neighborhood trees. More can be seen on my homepage.

Since I have a weird date obsession with storms, it appears I will have to look forward to July 23rd 2012! Though usually once I notice a coincidence in the dates in which my area gets hit with storms is when the pattern ends. Today should be the last day of storms here, and normal people will finally get some weather they enjoy, while I look forward to a similar pattern rebuilding around Wednesday and potentially lasting 3 or 4 days. I love summer ring of fire patterns.

Chicago Heat Wave!

No news here, been sweltering through a heatwave most of the week. The high at Midway Airport has reached 100 degrees 2 days in a row, which hasn't happened since the deadly heat wave of 1995 that claimed nearly 700 lives.

I actually don't mind the heat though and for some reason look for excuses to be outside more than when temperatures are normal. Perhaps its that weird weather nerd in me that enjoys unusual weather, to know that such extreme heat is pretty rare around here and I want to get a taste of it, especially to feel what people in Texas have to deal with on a daily basis.

Other than that its been boring. With such a heat pattern comes ring of fire storms with vivid lightning, so far they have evaded the area day after day much to my dismay, but the next 48hrs are as good a chance as any, so heres hoping.

There is also a good chase setup tomorrow and Saturday too that I cannot partake in and its frustrating me to no end. See, there are very few things that keep me from chasing, and I am blessed with very understanding family and friends as I am always canceling out on and ditching plans last minute to go chasing, but once a year there is a massive annual picnic. Since its in the dead of summer I figure its safe enough to commit to and be a big part of the planning. Well, not this year, although the better of the 2 setups [Friday] I could still chase if it weren't for one more caveat...my truck.

My air conditioner went out in early June, and for over a month its been a back and forth struggle with my mechanic to get it looked at, order the right parts and last week I FINALLY got an appointment scheduled, yup, that appointment just happens to be tomorrow. Otherwise I would just chase myself and marathon it back in time, since my normal crew of Skip and Jon are chasing both days. I guess the cards were stacked against me this  time, it sucks, and while I wish everyone the best luck, I am secretly hoping the cap holds. Nothing pains me more to miss a chase due to circumstances I can't control, but I guess I have been spoiled with more freedom to chase than most. Still, it irks me.

The other thing is I may be starting to work full time again very soon, and my freedom will be cut down, so I would like to grasp any chances I could, but then again after my second interview I may not like the offer anyways, so well find out.

O well, hopefully I can snag some lightning shots in the next 48hrs, if so, Ill post em here!