Where were you 13 years ago today?

[Rocky Rascovich]

Hey Everyone...hope all who got lucky this season are rejoicing mightily or perhaps your licking your wounds in disgust like many this year..
I for one had an "average" year with three tornadoes...all this past week,
June 5th near Snyder, OK and the next weekend near Wayside, TX. on the 11th and Dickins, TX on the 12th...more on those later.

Today marks the 13th anniversary of one of the most exciting chases of my career in north central Kansas...it centred around Osborne and unfortunately, I was one of the few that did not see ANY tornadoes that day..as I was marooned from my escape road to the south due to flooded roads...because of this, I was trapped literally inside the supercell with blinding rains, intense shifting winds, hail up to golfball size...all this chasing in a high top conversion van...a vehicle I have not chased in to this day...I was almost blown right off the highway a few different times..a navel puckering experience to put it mildly.

Anyway, I pulled out one of my ultimate chase videos "Chase to live, live to chase" compiled by Gene Rhoden, I just finished watching it and to this day, I can't remember a supercell quite like this one...the structure was the best I've seen as far as HP storms go. The interactions between the chasers David Gold, Gene Rhoden and others whom I can't remember on that video are priceless, not to mention at times hysterically funny.

Who else on this list was on that storm? Any comments? memories?
Also, who else on the June 15 '92 has video of it besides Gene Rhoden or David Gold? I'm very interested in purchasing a copy.

To be continued! Rocky&family

 

[Blake Michaleski]

hmm 13 years ago?....

I reckon I was enjoying my summer vacation between 6th and 7th grade. :lol:

Always great to hear about the good ol days Rocky!

 

[Khristian Snyder]

I was 1 year old here in California...studying the current meteorological conditions! 8) 8)

 

[cdcollura]

Thirteen years back, uuum, puts it at about 1992, I was 22, chasing storms in Florida (near Ft Lauderdale), have not been to the Plains chasing yet, finishing college in Computer Science. Had a Sea Doo personal watercraft I would take out when the waves were stirred by tropical storms, seen 30 foot waves.

I had a Chevy Cavalier with little symbols of storms (ones I intercepted with that vehicle) painted on the passenger side, kinda like on the side of the hurricane WP-3 Orion (or kills painted on the side of a famous bomber). Chased hurricane Andrew that same year. Just started working in computers (IT, programming). Still living with mom and dad!

 

[Blake Naftel]

I was eleven years old at the time of the 15-June-1992 Plains mega-outbreak, and while not chasing, watched it unfold on The Weather Channel; recording airchecks of both June 15 and 16. It's mind blowing this occured 13 years ago, let alone that you mentioned Rhoden's CTL-LTC video; now I'll be foreced to dig out my copy.

..Blake..

 

[Mike Parker]

I was 8 days into my infamous "summer of groundation (word?)". Being 16 at the time and just out of school for the summer, my buddies and I thought it would be funny to throw eggs out of my car onto other cars. We thought it was funny 'til we did it in front of the local law enforcement official who was parked near by. To this day I swear to anyone who will listen that I was NOT trying to evade arrest. I was just trying to get home very quickly. Unfortunately the officer did not see it that way and I got to hear handcuffs click on my wrist for the first and only time in my life. I literally begged the cop to let me spend the night in the jail but he did not want to do the paperwork. So he called my parents at 2:00AM. When they showed up to get me 20 minutes later I got to see into the eyes of the devil himself. Very scary. Walking to work everyday in the summer in Texas taught me a very valuable lesson. 1.) Heat sucks 2.) Walking sucks 3.) Being a minor saves you lots of regrets (nothing on my record) and finally 4.) Don't get caught!

Rocky, I appreciate you reminding me of the worst summer of my life. 'Preciate it. :lol:

 

[Tony Laubach]

Summer of 1992... definately enjoying my friends and times back in Circleville, Ohio...

 

[Susan Strom]

92?

I have to tell you a funny story about 1992. I was directing a cover shot (worked at a Sacramento magazine). I shopped it out to a local photographer who did large format. This media guy from an agricultural group shows up to the shoot to watch, and saw that Dale (photog's name) had a similar tripod to one they kept at assn headquarters as a joke. The ag group was out filming the daily farm report one morning (a 5am ritual in California) and their tripod got ran over by a combine. It was all wanged and one of the legs got twisted up and it was so funny looking that the ag media guy couldn't bear to throw it away. After we finished my shoot, Dale was loading his stuff into his van and they handed him the tweaked one as a joke. Dale was cracking up "what did you DO to this poor thing!" LOL I wish I had kept a picture of that tripod. How do you tweak a large format tripod? Run over it with a combine. Then we handed Dale his real tripod

Poor Dale. A few months later I sent him out to shoot another cover - a night shot of the city skyline. He got up on the freeway overpass that heads toward San Francisco. Motorists below called in a jumper, thinking he was going to take a dive off the bridge! Cops arrived...made him explain. Well...the cover shot was perfect anyway. Although he was a bit shaken up, Dale kept my business card anyway LOL. He was a really good sport and we worked on a ton of other cover shots that year.

Back then I also had a hike of a lifetime - summitted Half Dome with some friends. He's a 5000 ft ascent. I don't know who shot this but this is a beautiful photo of HD with the Merced River in the foreground. http://www.olsztyn.mm.pl/~grzegorzg/gory/H...alifornia~1.jpg I worked out for 6 months to prepare.

In 1992 - also a lighthouse freak. Hung out a lot on the Pacific north coast and Napa. Still love those dang lighthouses. This one is my fave and most often the one I visit.
http://www.gualalaarts.org/images/05-PT-AR...-LIGHTHOUSE.jpg I have even made the drive from Phoenix to visit it. I was so into lighthouses that I used to do tape recordings of the fog signals from the freezing cold beach and shoot the waves below from the lens room. Lighthouse weirdo.

 

[Carrie Halliday]

1992 was a year long turning point in my life.

I got divorced. I lost 150lbs. I found out I had a life. I went absolutely crazy for the whole year. I miss 1992.

While it was not a great year in terms of my weather fascination, it was quite a good time personally. 8)

 

[Joey Ketcham]

13 years ago from today, June 17th, I was 11 years old... only if I could remember that far back... :!:

 

[nickgrillo]

13 Years Ago...

I was probably watching Nickelodeon, while drinking Lifesavers soda (man, I miss those) and watching a squall line outside of my window... :lol:

 

[David Shohami]

Hello, it's been a long time since I last wrote here.

Funny you should mention it, but June 16 1992 was the stormiest June day in Israel since records began at the beginning of the 20th century. Hail and severe thunderstorms developed all over Israel that day. Some 30 mm of rain fell in Jerusalem, which compared to the monthly average for June of, oh, about 0 mm, is a lot!

And speaking of 1992, the winter of 1991-1992 (December-March) was the most severe winter in the history of Israel and probably in the 20th century as well. All areas of Israel received 200 to 300 percent of the annual average precipitation. There were several huge floods and three major snow storms. In February alone the entire yearly average fell in some places. It was a weather-lover's dream come true!

 

[Dan Kokes]

I has just graduated high school and was preparing to go to Western Illinois University in Macomb to study Meteorology.

 

[Dan Cook]

cool another WIUer. 8)

 

[Tim Vasquez]

June 15, 1992 ... I was 23 at the time. A Monday. The only thing that was certain is I would have been catching the 727 flight from Las Vegas to the Tonopah Test Range. I was probably working day shifts at the weather station there manning the observing desk. Our observations there were sent under the identifier TNX, which was not documented anywhere and was practically a hidden identifier during its existence, but CompuServe weather carried it.. a good chunk of those obs were mine.

Our station looked a lot like this, typical of a late-80s Air Force weather station (late-80s considering our equipment). I don't have any photos since cameras were prohibited there.

(Air Weather Association website)

I used to keep track of weather on the Plains via our COMEDS and AFDIGS equipment (the COMEDS terminal would be that black monitor in the middle of the above photo). I kept a file with me that had "Storm Dossier" scribbled on it, and I'd do the 16Z hand plot and analysis like a crossword puzzle. Later I'd see how I did once the storms broke out.

Tim