*New Users. Meet and Greet Area*

[Joe Atwood]

Hi all, new member wanting to introduce myself. My name is Joe Atwood, I have been a teacher in the OKC area for 25 years! I have taught Middle School Science and both MS and HS Technology. My first official chase was May 3rd, 1999, picked a pretty exciting first day, and have been chasing ever since. Not a lot of training, but I did go through a summer internship at SPC that they had for educators, learned a lot, but still have much to pick up. Usually chase only Central & Western Oklahoma but sometimes stray into North Texas or Southern Kansas as well as Eastern OK. Most outings now include my son Sam who is a High School freshman with plans on studying meteorology at OU! Already learning much from lurking on Stormtrack and would be happy to hook up with other OKC area chasers if they don't mind playing it safe. We tend to try and keep a pretty safe distance and will not chase in the OKC metro area (we learned our lesson May 31st, 2013), also we have a new chase vehicle so will be trying to avoid hail at all costs! Even being overly cautious we have enjoyed some beautiful storms in and around Oklahoma.

 

[Jessie Schafer]

Hello everybody, just wanted to introduce myself here. My name is Jessie schafer, currently a SSG Active duty army, stationed at fort Leonard wood, mo. (South central) new to this site and new to weather, started becoming self educated since I was stationed here and since an EF3 tore through the base on new years' Eve 2010. Has always interested me though. Found this site through ustornadoes.com and have enjoyed reading the predictions, dissertations and science from some truly intelligent people. Have never chased but would someday love to, kinda hard with the army/family though. Keep up the good work and thank you!

 

[Howard Robinson]

Welcome to ST Joe and Jessie, and to others I have missed. Joe, one of the best sites I found when I first started out was at http://www.theweatherprediction.com/habyhints/. Hope this helps you out as well.

 

[Joe Atwood]

Hello everyone,

I am new to the forums so I wanted to introduce myself. I have been "lurking" for a while now and decided to finally sign up. I am glad to be a part of Stormtrack and look forward to learning more about weather and getting to know everyone while being here.

A little bit about me: I just turned 30 (on Sunday) and have been interested in storm chasing for several years now. I've been limited in my chasing so far, and have mostly been opportunistic when it comes to going after storms (primarily stuff close to home). I am currently living in Yukon, OK...I moved here from New Mexico (where I'm originally from) and also lived in SW MO for some time as well as Nashville, TN.

What drew me into storm chasing: Growing up in the desert we didn't see a lot of severe weather. Maybe one decent storm a year if we were lucky. Never anything too crazy. Usually, if it even rained hard... I was happy with that. I guess the big thing out there was flash flooding. Whenever I moved to Missouri (I was 13) I started seeing better/more frequent storms. I was always fascinated with the lightning/hail/strong winds that would come through the area.

The one storm that "hooked" me: It was Spring of 2009, and I was working with one of my best friends who owned a HVAC business. We had left to go bid a job near the Pierce City, MO area. It involved us going underneath a house into a crawlspace. We were under there.. maybe 10 minutes at most. When we emerged from the crawlspace there was a LP mesocyclone rotating just a mile or two from our location. I was convinced that at any moment a tornado was going to drop from the cloud... it never did. It was the coolest "storm cloud" I've ever witnessed. I was hooked from that moment on.

I have yet to witness a tornado... I am hoping to change that this year.

If anyone from the OKC area wants to hang out.. grab a beer sometime and talk about severe weather, do some chasing this Spring, let me know.

Hi Chad, would love to grab a beer sometime and swap stories. You chasing today?

 

[Chad M]

Hi Chad, would love to grab a beer sometime and swap stories. You chasing today?

I am. Still not quite sure when I will be heading out or a target location just yet.

 

[Michael Dickerson]

I'll probably stay in NC Oklahoma today. Maybe Blackwell or somewhere around there and see what pops!

* Looks like we have something kicking off now in the SW.

 

[Drew Terril]

Hi Chad, would love to grab a beer sometime and swap stories. You chasing today?

If y'all get together for a beer, let me know. I live in Yukon myself as well.

 

[Nick L]

Hello, my name is Nick Lorenz and I live in the Madison, WI area, currently working at an insurance company. I graduated from UW-Madison with a BS in Meteorology in 2010. I've been lurking on this site for about four years, and have enjoyed reading all the interesting posts. I've only really been chasing once and it was five years ago. I haven't been able to chase much due to all the usual reasons (money, family, work, location), but I plan on going out more this year.

PS. I figured now was a good time to finally post since I had a very successful chase today, being on the Rochelle tornado from its formation.

 

[Ricky Weston]

Hi guys im ricky, i want to learn as much as i can about the severe weather that plagues my home state of oklahoma.

 

[Danny Høgsholt]

Hey. My name is Danny - M.Sc. in meteorology from Copenhagen and Berlin and working as meteorologist for the Danish news channel TV 2.

I've been chasing along with my chasings-friends two times in the USA, 2012 and 2014. Coming over this May as well.

Actually just wanted to say 'hi'. Even though being a meteorologist, dealing with severe convective weather is not everyday life in my country (Denmark) so I certainly look forward to learn from you guys and maybe contributing with a couple of comments to the synoptic discussions etc.

 

[Jason Boggs]

Welcome to Stormtrack everyone!

 

[Mike Talbot]

Well I suppose I'll finally post on here. My name is Michael Talbot and I'm from Tulsa, born and raised. I've been a member on here for about 2 or 3 years now. I'm 25 years old and I'm studying computer information systems at NSU. I've always had a passion for weather, mainly severe.

I love severe storms and chase whenever I get a chance. I took a meteorology class at Tulsa Community College, attended a couple Skywarn classes, and I'm currently watching the Workshop on forecasting that they recently did in Norman via Youtube whenever I have downtime.

My ultimate goal is to learn enough about forecasting that I can put my two cents in on the "target area" part of the forum. I don't want to rely on SPC and whatever the experts tell me. I'm slowly but surely getting there! (still working on fully understanding Skew-T and hodographs). However, the more I learn, the more I realize I do not know, but I know I'll get there eventually.

Thank you for letting me be a part of this awesome community!

 

[Drew Terril]

Welcome Mike. Always nice to see another Tulsa area native on here (I grew up in Catoosa). I'll likely be moving back up that way soon to help family out.

 

[Alex Torres]

Hello,

My name is Alex and currently reside in the KCK area. Moved here from the east about four years ago. I lived most of my life between the east and the Caribbean and have had my share of thunderstorms including hurricanes and blizzards. I didn’t think much of the weather then. I wasn’t weather aware until now.

Never seen a tornado in person, but have seen what they can do and after finding myself running for cover a few times because sirens are going off I then started to become more weather aware. I hear on the news the word thunderstorm or tornado I start to get panic attacks. I actually had to take Xanax. I was considering to leave KS because of this.

I then decided that I wasn’t going to live like this so I started learning about the weather, specifically tornados. In the past year I’ve learned a lot about the weather, forecasting the weather, and how thunderstorms are formed including becoming a trained skywarn spotter. Being afraid and taking Xanax is not going to help me keep myself and family safe. So here I am ready to learn more.

 

[amytierney]

Hello everyone. I am not new here but I am still a newbie. I am learning more as I go, and asking those "newbie" questions to gain better understanding. Haven't been on in quite sometime and now I am residing in NE Texas which is getting hammered with rain and all kinds of fun weather. So I hope you all have a great season and everyone be safe!!!