Mark:
Grateful to God with praise that you made it through that event successfully. What an incredible experience and great description by you also! I sense an opportunity for a presentation at chaser/weather conferences in the future.
This is definitely NOT the first time that such a thing has happened. There have been some real scary close calls from others in this group just in the last five years.
That said, I am somewhat surprised that so far, no one has mentioned the role or opportunity that a nowcaster can play in assisting chasers with getting back home or to an overnight destination SAFELY. I am in no way saying that one needs a nowcaster to get back home or to a hotel, but it would be good for us all to have some way of obtaining data and information about what is going on around us---especially if we are going to be driving through a severe thunderstorm environment, or an area that experienced damaging weather after the chase.
I used to nowcast for several folk who are regulars on this forum. But I am now out of business---I have been "put out to pasture," thanks to WX-Works, Threat-Net, ect. lol. You hear that David, Dave, Bob, Phillip, Shane??? [I even updated my computer recently for you guys
] Ha, ha, ha.
Anyway, once the chase is over for the chaser, the night is NOT over for nowcasters or others who could be a source of beneficial information for chasers. Some suggestions / observations / recommendations:...
1. For chasers, try to have continued access to data (more than one source in case your favorite source fails) for your trip home or evening destination.
2. For nowcasters or others watching out for chaser friends---like I said earlier---the night IS NOT OVER........stay on top of things and stay in touch with your chasers.
3. It would be wise to have a decent prescribed plan of how you are going to travel to wherever you are going and to let others know about your plans and proposed route of travel. We all know that none of us hardly ever know where we will end up at the end of the chase day, but we should have some kinda game plan in the back of our minds and at the end of the day, we can let others know where we are and where we are going, with the stipulation that plans are always subject to change.
4. Now (casting) for the rest of the story.....this is where folks watching the weather for chasers need to stay in gear and begin to assess the situation. I would evaluate what is going between point of chase ending and heading home. Ongoing convection and its severeity with associated hazards? Are there any damage paths to be encountered, counties under flash flood warmings, or situations with the potential for new storms to fire? Anything that could affect a chaser's ability to get somewhere safely and in a decent amount of time. Keep up with watches, warnings, statements from local NWS offices, media reports, current radar, reports from other chasers. Flash flood and river flood warnings are of particular importance. And chasers / spotters should be inquiring about the same data from wherever and whoever they can obtain such vital information.
Quick case study---May 7th-8th, 2003.
David Drummond ( who only calls me now if he bags multiple tornadoes in a single hour
) ) was chasing the Big Country of West Texas that Wednesday afternoon. He comes through Fort Worth and chats over dinner on his way to Oklahoma for the evening to chase a potential High Risk the next day (which did materialize). D-Day leaves Ft. Worth at about 11:30 PM (late dinner) heading up I-35 towards Norman. I go back to my usual routines but notice at about 12:15 AM, an incredible supercell storm that has increased in intensity east northeast of Wichita Falls, Texas that is moving east towards the Ardmore, OK area. Well, the hail core was just incredible, especially for such a late night storm. Dbz's were approaching 70 and VIL's were between 70 and 80. The storm is both severe and tornado warned with confirmed giant hail and spotter reports of tornado touchdowns west of Ardmore near Wilson. I thought I better call David to let him know that if he is South of the storm, to sit it out and let it pass by to his north. Or if he is east of the storm, to keep hauling north and get out of its way. Well, what does he do--he goes after it and contemplates a full scale core punch. Dave intercepts the storm on its south flank, experiences a close encounter with a significant night time tornado, gets some hail, goes looking for and finds the damage path, checks on my relatives near Ardmore, and does not get to Norman before 5:00 AM. We all know the rest of the story. Not to brag, I would do this for anyone, but I assessed this as a successful case of nowcaster intervention.
As for my last out of state chase, embarassingly I must admit, 5/29/04 from Fort Worth to Thomas, Oklahoma to Oklahoma City back to Fort Worth. Great chase. Great celebratory dinner in Oklahoma City at Johnny Carinos. But had to check in and out with nowcasters (George Tincher and Danielle Flannery) as to if storms were firing in the I-35 corridor between Norman and Ardmore on my way back to Fort Worth. Some short-lived storms did develop but they never got in the way. I was prepared to take other road options and dodge the developing storms if the need arised. The area was still in a Tor Watch and quite unstable. Got back to Fort Worth late with no problems. Was not sure where the chase would take us that day but once the chase was over, knew the route home and made plans accordingly.
Enough rambliing---most of us know what to do!
Again, very thankful that Mark got through that experience without any physical scars and hope that the rest of us can say the same as we go through this interesting 2007 year. Take care and be safe out there.
Call your nowcasters darnnddned it!!!
)
TomTackett
Ft. Worth, TX....."Where the West Begins."
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