Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Tom's LiveJournal:

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Sunday, April 7th, 2002
11:19 pm	April 7, 2002 Left Norman around 1:30pm headed toward Throckmorton County. Here is the watch that was issued shortly after left. This got us excited about our chances of seeing tornadoes. URGENT - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED TORNADO WATCH NUMBER 73 STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK 207 PM CDT SUN APR 7 2002 THE STORM PREDICTION CENTER HAS ISSUED A TORNADO WATCH FOR PORTIONS OF NORTH CENTRAL TEXAS EFFECTIVE THIS SUNDAY AFTERNOON AND EVENING FROM 230 PM UNTIL 800 PM CDT. ...THIS IS A PARTICULARLY DANGEROUS SITUATION... DAMAGING TORNADOES...LARGE HAIL TO 3 INCHES IN DIAMETER... THUNDERSTORM WIND GUSTS TO 70 MPH...AND DANGEROUS LIGHTNING ARE POSSIBLE IN THESE AREAS. THE TORNADO WATCH AREA IS ALONG AND 70 STATUTE MILES EAST AND WEST OF A LINE FROM 50 MILES WEST OF TEMPLE TEXAS TO 45 MILES NORTH NORTHEAST OF MINERAL WELLS TEXAS. REMEMBER...A TORNADO WATCH MEANS CONDITIONS ARE FAVORABLE FOR TORNADOES AND SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS IN AND CLOSE TO THE WATCH AREA. PERSONS IN THESE AREAS SHOULD BE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR THREATENING WEATHER CONDITIONS AND LISTEN FOR LATER STATEMENTS AND POSSIBLE WARNINGS. OTHER WATCH INFORMATION... CONTINUE...WW 72... DISCUSSION...SEVERAL BANDS/CLUSTERS OF TOWERING CUMULUS ARE FORMING IN THE ABI AREA...AND THUNDERSTORM DEVELOPMENT IS EXPECTED IN THE NEXT HOUR OR SO. LOW-LEVEL VERTICAL SHEAR AND MOISTURE ARE MAXIMIZED IN THE CORRIDOR FROM ABI TO MWL NEAR THE WARM FRONT...AND CLEARING N OF THE WARM FRONT IS ALLOWING DESTABILIZATION IN THE REGION OF STRONG SHEAR. THE DEVELOPING STORMS SHOULD QUICKLY DEVELOP SUPERCELL CHARACTERISTICS AND PRODUCE VERY LARGE HAIL... AND POTENTIALLY A STRONG TORNADO OR TWO. AVIATION...TORNADOES AND A FEW SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WITH HAIL SURFACE AND ALOFT TO 3 INCHES. EXTREME TURBULENCE AND SURFACE WIND GUSTS TO 60 KNOTS. A FEW CUMULONIMBI WITH MAXIMUM TOPS TO 500. MEAN STORM MOTION VECTOR 24030. Once we got to the storm, we just missed the tornado that had been on the ground for quite some time by 10 minutes. We followed the storm, but it quickly took on Squall Line characteristics, which is not favorable for tornado development. We passed in and out of the line of storms several times with only marble size hail. At one point we saw a possible tornado along the squall line. We are still evaluating the video. We are leaning toward just low hanging scud rather than a tornado. All in all it was a decent chase and had we been there minutes earlier we would be talking about this storm for years to come. (Comment on this)
Saturday, March 30th, 2002
7:10 pm	2002 Chase Season Has Begun! Today will be marked as the official day to my 2002 chase season. I started the day in San Antonio Texas with high hopes of a major outbreak of tornadoes. At first it looked like it might be just that. I had limited access to a computer so I had to rely on forecasts from Rob Satkus and Matt Sellers. The Day 1 outlook started off with a slight risk over most of Texas north of I 10 but quickly changed to a Moderate risk with the possibility of (Strong) tornadoes. It was later downgraded to a slight risk once again in the late morning outlook. I watched the weather channel for most of the morning and decided to head west on I 10 in hopes of catching up with the dry line. I left at 1pm and by this time the dry line was about 130 miles east of San Antonio. The upper low was located near Abilene and a small surface low had developed just east of Austin. I drove to Columbus Texas and witnessed storms going up along the dry line. I proceeded to stay ahead of the dry line and after talking to Matt I decided to go South to intercept a storm moving NE. I ended up in the small town of Eagle lake where I witnessed a brief Wall Cloud. It quickly became outflow dominant and produced a Wet Microburst. The storm had Baseball size hail and very strong winds as it moved through town. I was on the outer edges of both, but just 1 mile east of where I was at, the following occured: SEVERE WEATHER STATEMENT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HOUSTON/GALVESTON TX 430 PM CST SAT MAR 30 2002 ...THE SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING FOR COLORADO COUNTY HAS EXPIRED... THE SEVERE THUNDERSTORM HAS MOVED OUT OF THE AREA. AT 400 PM COLORADO COUNTY SHERIFFS OFFICE REPORTED SIGNIFICANT DAMAGE IN EAGLE LAKE WITH DAMAGE TO ROOFS...DOWNED POWER LINES AND REPORTS OF HAIL. I then headed back to I 10 and called it a day. I would have continued further but I wanted to get back to my TV to watch OU lose to Indianna. All in all it was a good chase. It gave me a chance to test out my new equipment and new Truck. The storms today produced numerous confirmed tornadoes as they moved east toward Houston. They also produced tornadoes under the upper low. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 22nd, 2001
7:55 am	Having Problems with Frontpage Software.......... I am unable to update my webpage at this time due to problems with my frontpage software. It will be another week until I can do so. I did go out chasing this weekend and did not see any of the tornadoes in eastern Oklahoma. Does anyone have any suggestions on what web software I can use to update my site? I was using frontpage 2000. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, May 5th, 2001
11:09 am	Heading to Southwest Oklahoma Looks like it might be an active day in southwest Oklahoma today. hopefully the storms will not form into a squall line. Looks like the winds are beginning to back in this area and the dewpoints should begin to rise throughout the day as the dryline reorganizes in western OK. Possibility of a couple of strong tornadoes. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, May 2nd, 2001
3:08 pm	Heading to Childress Heading to Childress Texas. Looks like the triple point will be around this area. (Comment on this)
8:33 am	Possible Heading out to Northern Oklahoma Today. Target area looks to be Enid northeast to extreme Southern Kansas. Kansas might be the place to be again today. Look for a strong cold front to approach from the northwest, at the same time a dryline will be moving to along the border of Oklahoma and Texas. Storm initiation will be around 4:30 pm with storms lasting through the night. At this point it looks like a decent chance of tornadoes. Especially if any of the storms can remain isolated decrete supercells. Will upated later as more data comes in. Today might be a surprise tornado day. It's always the times when you least expect tornadoes but the conditions are right that they form. Stay Tuned! After all it is early May and climatology is on our side. (Comment on this)
Monday, April 30th, 2001
10:49 pm	Guess the Low 50 Dewpoints weren't enough from keeping tornadoes away.. Today was one of those wierd unexpected tornado days. There were several confirmed tornadoes in Texas, Iowa, Nebraska, and South Dakota today. Unless you were a psychic or lived in the area, it would have been hard to chase these unpredictable storms. Might happen again tomorrow along the boundaries. The storms riding along these boundaries were the reason for the tornadoes today. Along with Capes of 1500, SE winds 15-25mph, and LI's to -6. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, April 24th, 2001
11:49 pm	Pattern looks more like late June than spring. Nothing on the horizon to even suggest storms are in the offing. I would imagine things would change around the Sunday or Monday period. This week in weather history has some of the biggest outbreaks including the April 26th Andover, KS outbreak 10 years ago. (Comment on this)
Sunday, April 22nd, 2001
11:29 pm	Good thing we didn't go out today After driving all night yesterday we were pretty tired. Looks like the supercells that were suppose to form today never got out of the squall line. It's a good thing we didn't go out today and waste our gas. Yet another tornado watch invitation goes unanswered. Looks more like a summer pattern building this week. There is even talk of monsoon rains in the desert southwest by weeks end. (Comment on this)
3:18 pm	Did not go out after all. Decided after looking at special sounding from FTW that the cap was still strong across North Texas. I do a possible exit region south of the upper jet that could break the cap but it still only looks like a squall line. This will be the last chase for the week as it looks like high pressure will set into the plains. Will update if and when anything changes. (Comment on this)
11:11 am	Things looking a little more interesting in Southwest Oklahoma Today I wasn't planning on going too far for a squall line today but it looks like the area in Southwest/Southcentral Oklahoma might not be too bad. We have Southeast winds, high temps and a slowing dryline which could all lead to an increase in Supercells as well as tornadoes. I do not plan on leaving until around 1-2pm. Stay Tuned. (Comment on this)
Saturday, April 21st, 2001
8:03 pm	Kansas Chase Produces Tornado We finally got out of Norman at 2pm. Myself and Rob Satkus headed north on I35 toward the Wichita area. Our plan was to go to southern Kansas and cut west on 160 until we saw something. We called Val Castor who was in the area of Medicine Lodge Kansas. He said he possibly saw some CU's going up and was going north for further inspection. We got to Wellington Kansas around 4:30 and turned west. We were disappointed with the lack of any towers going up. Val called on our way up and told us about the storms exploding in the Texas Panhandle. We were thinking about going there in the first place because of the capes around 3500 in the Childress area but decided to head for the triple point. We stayed with our plans and headed west toward the area of Dodge City. We were driving west when we saw some towers going up to our north. We knew it was now or never so we headed north from Medicine Lodge Kansas. As were were driving north we saw three storms. The one to our northeast looked the best but the two to our northwest were along the triple point and were closer. We approached the storm and noticed a nice inflow of scud feeding rapidly into the storm. We also noticed strong southeast winds. We were surprised to learn that SPC had just issued a Severe Thunderstorm watch as opposed to a Tornado Watch. We knew then that we could be in for a tornadic storm. The first two chases there were PDS tornado watches and we barely saw a storm. As we approached the storm, it began to look more text book by the minute. You could see the whole storm rotating with a strong southwesterly inflow at mid-levels and strong southeasterly flow at the surface. Once we were in sight of the storm, we saw a nice wall cloud that was rotating rapidly. We stayed in position around Rush Center and at about 8:06 we saw a tornado on the ground. It wasn't on the ground too long but right after the first wedge went down a small tornado went up right beside it. After about 1 min, the storm quickly occluded and waited a little while before it organized itself and produced another tornado. At 10pm we were in the Great Bend area when we heard of another tornado on the ground just north of our area. We saw a large wall cloud to our north and proceeded to chase it. We quickly raced up there but there were too many emergency vehicles heading toward Hoisington. Apparently a large tornado did some significant damage there and there were a lot of reported injuries. We saw about 50 emergency units heading from Great Bend into the area. All in all a very successful chase. It will make up for the wind event that will be unchaseable today We drove 811 miles Average Gas Price $169 No Construction Here is what SPC had to say URGENT - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH NUMBER 164 STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK 645 PM CDT SAT APR 21 2001 THE STORM PREDICTION CENTER HAS ISSUED A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH FOR PORTIONS OF WESTERN AND CENTRAL KANSAS EFFECTIVE THIS SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY MORNING FROM 715 PM UNTIL MIDNIGHT CDT. HAIL TO 2 INCHES IN DIAMETER...THUNDERSTORM WIND GUSTS TO 80 MPH...AND DANGEROUS LIGHTNING ARE POSSIBLE IN THESE AREAS. THE SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH AREA IS ALONG AND 60 STATUTE MILES NORTH AND SOUTH OF A LINE FROM 55 MILES NORTH NORTHWEST OF GARDEN CITY KANSAS TO 55 MILES EAST SOUTHEAST OF CONCORDIA KANSAS. REMEMBER...A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH MEANS CONDITIONS ARE FAVORABLE FOR SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS IN AND CLOSE TO THE WATCH AREA. PERSONS IN THESE AREAS SHOULD BE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR THREATENING WEATHER CONDITIONS AND LISTEN FOR LATER STATEMENTS AND POSSIBLE WARNINGS. OTHER WATCH INFORMATION... CONTINUE...WW 162...WW 163... DISCUSSION...THUNDERSTORMS ARE EXPECTED TO CONTINUE DEVELOPING THIS EVENING ALONG THE WARM FRONT OVER WRN AND CENTRAL KS AS LOW LEVEL JET INTENSIFIES. AIR MASS SOUTH OF THE BOUNDARY IS MOIST AND VERY UNSTABLE WITH SBCAPE TO 3500 J/KG. MOISTURE IS SPREADING NWWD INTO WRN KS AND STORMS WILL GRADUALLY DEVELOP WWD. VERTICAL SHEAR WILL ALSO INCREASE TONIGHT WITH PRIMARY THREAT FOR LARGE HAIL AND DAMAGING WIND GUSTS. AVIATION...A FEW SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WITH HAIL SURFACE AND ALOFT TO 2 INCHES. EXTREME TURBULENCE AND SURFACE WIND GUSTS TO 70 KNOTS. A FEW CUMULONIMBI WITH MAXIMUM TOPS TO 500. MEAN STORM MOTION VECTOR 22030. ...WEISS (2 Comments |Comment on this)
2:00 pm	*********Update************ Heading toward southwestern Kansas. Looks like the triple point will produce a window of oportunity for a few hours around sunset somewhere in the Dodge City area. Rushing to get out of Norman at 2:00pm. I fell very confident in seeing something today, more than tomorrow!!!! (Comment on this)
8:20 am	Will keep and Eye to the Sky this Weekend I am not too impressed with the chance of severe thunderstorms this weekend. There should be a few severe thunderstorms, however the chance of tornadoes looks to be slim at this time. Will keep and eye on southern Oklahoma today and western Oklahoma tomorrow. At this time am not planning to head out just yet. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, April 18th, 2001
12:16 pm	Weather beginning to chang across the plains Looks like the weather will become more active leading to a chance of thunderstorms this weekend. After record cold temps this morning, there will be a remarkable increase in both the lower level temps and the upper level temps. This means a cap will be in place by today and increase tomorrow. It won't be until this weekend when a series of speedmaxes will brush the area. Stay Tuned for weekend operations. (Comment on this)
Saturday, April 14th, 2001
9:42 pm	Chase yields 5 minute wallcloud nice towers This chase was better than the past two chases. We left Norman at 2:15pm. We headed southwest on I44 toward Altus Oklahoma. Before we even got to Lawton there were tornado warnings issued for the storms. At the same time there were storms firing up near Wichita Falls. We knew there was better heating down south but the dynamics were north. We decided to stay with our target area and head toward Altus. We knew that the storm with the tornado warning on it would soon move into a more stable airmass so we decided to get closer to the dryline which was now in extreme western Oklahoma. As we approached Altus, we saw some towers exploding to our NW. We knew these would be the ones to produce a tornado next. We approached the storms from the southwest and for about five minutes the storm looked impressive with rotation and a wallcloud. As soon as it got itself organized it quickly lost all its punch. We decided to head east toward Norman after that storm died. Looks like there was a cap problem today. Of all the places for supercells to form, it was Southwest and Southcentral Kansas. Here is the watch that was issued for our area. Drove 354 miles Average Gas Price was $1.58 Contruction HW9 west before blanchard also HWY 9 west before Chickasaw. URGENT - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED TORNADO WATCH NUMBER 140 STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK 219 PM CDT SAT APR 14 2001 THE STORM PREDICTION CENTER HAS ISSUED A TORNADO WATCH FOR PORTIONS OF SOUTHWEST KANSAS WESTERN OKLAHOMA EXTREME NORTHWEST TEXAS EFFECTIVE THIS SATURDAY AFTERNOON AND EVENING FROM 245 PM UNTIL 900 PM CDT. TORNADOES...HAIL TO 3 INCHES IN DIAMETER...THUNDERSTORM WIND GUSTS TO 70 MPH...AND DANGEROUS LIGHTNING ARE POSSIBLE IN THESE AREAS. THE TORNADO WATCH AREA IS ALONG AND 55 STATUTE MILES EAST AND WEST OF A LINE FROM 45 MILES SOUTHWEST OF WICHITA FALLS TEXAS TO 30 MILES NORTHWEST OF MEDICINE LODGE KANSAS. REMEMBER...A TORNADO WATCH MEANS CONDITIONS ARE FAVORABLE FOR TORNADOES AND SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS IN AND CLOSE TO THE WATCH AREA. PERSONS IN THESE AREAS SHOULD BE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR THREATENING WEATHER CONDITIONS AND LISTEN FOR LATER STATEMENTS AND POSSIBLE WARNINGS. DISCUSSION...THUNDERSTORM DEVELOPMENT IS LIKELY IN THE NEXT COUPLE OF HOURS ALONG THE DRYLINE AS A MID LEVEL TROUGH MOVES EWD OVER THE TX PANHANDLE AND WRN KS. AN AXIS OF 2500-3500 J/KG SBCAPE EXTENDS NWD FROM NW TX TO EXTREME SW KS...AND VISIBLE IMAGERY SHOWS SEVERAL CLUSTERS OF TCU FROM ROUGHLY P28 TO CDS. SUPERCELLS APPEAR LIKELY GIVEN THE 0-6 KM SHEAR OF 60-65 KT AND STRONG INSTABILITY. THE STRONGEST STORMS COULD PRODUCE VERY LARGE HAIL AND DAMAGING GUSTS... AS WELL AS A FEW TORNADOES WHERE LOW-LEVEL WINDS ARE LOCALLY BACKED/STRONGER. AVIATION...TORNADOES AND A FEW SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WITH HAIL SURFACE AND ALOFT TO 3 INCHES. EXTREME TURBULENCE AND SURFACE WIND GUSTS TO 60 KNOTS. A FEW CUMULONIMBI WITH MAXIMUM TOPS TO 550. MEAN STORM MOTION VECTOR 27025. ...THOMPSON (Comment on this)
9:32 am	Still a Go For Southwest Oklahoma Northwest Texas.... We will be hanging out in the area just south of the Red River in Texas. Target area will between Vernon, Tx and Frederick, Ok. SPC is calling for the possibility of a couple of strong tornadoes. I feel better about today than I did the past two chases one being a high risk day. The last two chases we have chased, there has been PDS tornado watches issued and not one tornado was reported. Hopefully today we can stay away from the high risk and the PDS watch jinxs. Stay Tuned for more info. ******************FROM SPC:****************************************** THUNDERSTORMS ARE EXPECTED TO REDEVELOP ALONG SWRN PORTIONS OF OUTFLOW BOUNDARY THEN MOVE EWD ALONG BOUNDARY. SHEAR PROFILES WILL BE SUFFICIENT TO SUPPORT SUPERCELLS. LOW LEVEL SHEAR MAY BE LOCALLY STRONGER IN VICINITY OF BOUNDARY WHERE LOW LEVEL FLOW MAY BE MORE BACKED WITH STORM RELATIVE HELICITIES AROUND 300 M2/S2 POSSIBLE. GIVEN DEGREE OF INSTABILITY AND LAPSE RATES...VERY LARGE HAIL WILL BE POSSIBLE WITH ANY SUPERCELL STORM THAT DEVELOPS. ISOLATED TORNADOES...INCLUDING A STRONG TORNADO OR TWO MAY BE POSSIBLE... ESPECIALLY IN VICINITY OF BOUNDARY ACROSS SWRN OK/NWRN TX AREA WHERE STRONGER LOW LEVEL SHEAR AND LOWER LCL HEIGHTS MAY ENHANCE TORNADO POTENTIAL. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
1:15 am	Easter Weekend Tornadoes Possible Today Looks like this Easter weekend could become somewhat violent if the forecasts prove to be correct. We will be heading out by 11am towards southwest Oklahoma in the vicinity of Federick or Hollis Oklahoma. The situation looks a lot like the storms of April 30th last year in which we saw an F3 rain wrapped tornado in an High Precip Supercell. Stay tuned for pictures from the chase. (Comment on this)
Friday, April 13th, 2001
8:17 am	Saturday could be an active day! Looks like there will be a chance of storms on Saturday in Southwest Oklahoma. Look for storms to fire along the triple point. Situation looks a lot like last April 30th. Will be out in full force tormorrow. Stay tuned. Looking to the week ahead, looks like tomorrow will be the only day to chase of the week. Look for much colder and dry weather to spread over much of the country. (Comment on this)
Thursday, April 12th, 2001
8:06 am	Atmosphere to remain Quiet until Saturday Saturday looks to be the next possible chase day. Moisture will be returing ahead of the next cold front. After this feature passes the atmosphere will undergo a major change and will bring much cooler and stable air over the southern plains for next week. This should preclude any chances of severe weather. (1 Comment |Comment on this)