Mike Hollingshead
What is your most amazing chasing experience, or one that left you pinching yourself the most during it? I asked myself this a few times lately and have been meaning to post the question and figure it out myself. I chase for those moments where you can't believe they sky is doing what it is doing. Thinking back over this I have a good deal of things that would rank up there. That meteor shower late in the year several years back(01'ish) ranked way up there on the 'cool' factor. Both the extreme geomagnetic storms I've seen in the last year are there as well. At the time I figured the first one in November 2004 was the most amazing 'sky' experience I ever had.
If I had to pick one chase that the 'pinch me I'm dreaming' fit to the most it'd be the July 26, 2002 Falls City Nebraska Supercell experience. http://www.extremeinstability.com/02-07-26.htm Now that I ponder back a bit the June 6 sky near Yankton SD that same year was perhaps the coolest experience to date. There was nothing severe about anything on that either. It was just the colors and contrast being so amazing. First it was a simply incredible double hail-bow that I royally messed up on with the wide angle on the video camera. It was incredibly strong and colorful, contrasted against pure white that seemed to dance in and out of the double bows(if it was even hail it was likely pea sized at the most..so it was able to blow around a good bit...whatever it was). Then the sun did the work on the amazing mammatus field. This experience is why I finally purchased a still camera for chasing. I was a tad upset that all I had from it was video. I can clearly remember Steve Peterson saying, "you need a still camera for things like that"...or something to that effect. So this is why I had a still cam July 26(first chase with one actually), which was sort of a good thing, even if I didn't know what I was doing with it.
So, the July 26, 02 storm still takes the cake for most amazing experience. It was an interesting storm too. It was just a high based storm on a warmfront(maybe TP). It then got a big block of scud under it from its own cooled air to the north. It really anchored as it did this. Not long after this it got a long tail cloud and a whole lot of structure(very very clear structure for eastern NE). Then came cg after cg.
Pow!
I was just north of its track and was getting more and more in the vault. So as it slowly moved east there were a few hair-raising crack(pause)boom'ers. Gotta love those.
Then the meso started to move overhead and just to the south of me...well overhead basically. The sun began working on this scene and well, it was just amazing to take it all in.
As the scene kept changing with the storm moving overhead the cgs kept a coming, some extremely close. The crack from this one was pretty instantaneous, as were some earlier ones that likely came from the anvil as it approached. Temps just south of this boundary were right at 100 in some places. North of it was cool and grungy(mid-70s I believe).
As it got east a bit more this huge detached funnel forms arcing around the back of the updraft.
East a bit more(the storm...I never move this whole time) and a very nice rainbow forms behind the sunlit meso and above/behind this cemetary I was sitting by. It all just makes a person wonder about things...or it did for me that day.
Just minutes before dropping south, before all this happened I was sitting in elevated crap-o-fun just north of this boundary. I was depressed with the whole year and this chase day. I was on the phone talking about how much I loved being a chaser, lol. I was seriously not happy, but was still laughing about it. Then I dropped south, this unfolded and I watched it all from one spot. It seemed like it knew I was watching as it did everything just right for the lighting I was having at this and that time. I mean it formed right there, did all that till it was just passed me, and then elevated and died big time. If any of it means anything I think it is that stuff WILL pay off if you have a little faith even when you think it is toast. Well, if one does it on a enough days anyway, it sort of has to. For me it always seems to do it when I'm down a whole lot on what has been happening. Like when I REALLY want to throw in the towel(though I'm so hopelessly a chaser, even after many days in a row of things sucking).
I seem to get into a habbit of screwing up a bunch of the earlier days in the year. May 3, 4, 6, and 8th 2003 only to finally 'win' the 10th. It really sucks to see everyone and their dog scoring on outbreaks and you "keep on keeping on", lol. May 3rd I opted to not chase in NE and Steve Peterson nabs several tubes out west from some looooong lived supercells that went up early. Then bust while an outbreak unfolds May 4th(was at the TP). May 6 was a big day that busted basically, but chased and didn't see much. May 8th looks just like May 4th and what do I do, bust at the TP again while everyone and their dog sees large violent tornadoes. Then more chasers getting more tornadoes May 9th. By then I'm soooooooooooooooo sick of not getting mine and half sick of the trying part. Then May 10th is another big big setup and a high risk. After racing after junk a good part of the afternoon I was completely ready to give up on it. I let the junk move past me and pondered calling it. I mean I was so sick of screwing up days and not seeing much. But for whatever reason I sucked it up and kept at it and THEN it paid off. LOL, then comes June 21, 22, 23 and 24. 21, 22, and 23 were all HELL days from driving, screwing up, and having to work early the next mornings on top of it. So what do I do the 24th, I let up on trying and boy did that bite me in the A$$(a "little" outbreak in se SD, right up the road).
Alright, I'm really rambling now. I love talking about things about chasing and how things seem to work out and not work out. My goal when I go out on any chase is to try and see that sky that makes you feel giddy and wonder if you're dreaming. So, what is your chase that you feel was most like this?
If I had to pick one chase that the 'pinch me I'm dreaming' fit to the most it'd be the July 26, 2002 Falls City Nebraska Supercell experience. http://www.extremeinstability.com/02-07-26.htm Now that I ponder back a bit the June 6 sky near Yankton SD that same year was perhaps the coolest experience to date. There was nothing severe about anything on that either. It was just the colors and contrast being so amazing. First it was a simply incredible double hail-bow that I royally messed up on with the wide angle on the video camera. It was incredibly strong and colorful, contrasted against pure white that seemed to dance in and out of the double bows(if it was even hail it was likely pea sized at the most..so it was able to blow around a good bit...whatever it was). Then the sun did the work on the amazing mammatus field. This experience is why I finally purchased a still camera for chasing. I was a tad upset that all I had from it was video. I can clearly remember Steve Peterson saying, "you need a still camera for things like that"...or something to that effect. So this is why I had a still cam July 26(first chase with one actually), which was sort of a good thing, even if I didn't know what I was doing with it.
So, the July 26, 02 storm still takes the cake for most amazing experience. It was an interesting storm too. It was just a high based storm on a warmfront(maybe TP). It then got a big block of scud under it from its own cooled air to the north. It really anchored as it did this. Not long after this it got a long tail cloud and a whole lot of structure(very very clear structure for eastern NE). Then came cg after cg.
Pow!
I was just north of its track and was getting more and more in the vault. So as it slowly moved east there were a few hair-raising crack(pause)boom'ers. Gotta love those.
Then the meso started to move overhead and just to the south of me...well overhead basically. The sun began working on this scene and well, it was just amazing to take it all in.
As the scene kept changing with the storm moving overhead the cgs kept a coming, some extremely close. The crack from this one was pretty instantaneous, as were some earlier ones that likely came from the anvil as it approached. Temps just south of this boundary were right at 100 in some places. North of it was cool and grungy(mid-70s I believe).
As it got east a bit more this huge detached funnel forms arcing around the back of the updraft.
East a bit more(the storm...I never move this whole time) and a very nice rainbow forms behind the sunlit meso and above/behind this cemetary I was sitting by. It all just makes a person wonder about things...or it did for me that day.
Just minutes before dropping south, before all this happened I was sitting in elevated crap-o-fun just north of this boundary. I was depressed with the whole year and this chase day. I was on the phone talking about how much I loved being a chaser, lol. I was seriously not happy, but was still laughing about it. Then I dropped south, this unfolded and I watched it all from one spot. It seemed like it knew I was watching as it did everything just right for the lighting I was having at this and that time. I mean it formed right there, did all that till it was just passed me, and then elevated and died big time. If any of it means anything I think it is that stuff WILL pay off if you have a little faith even when you think it is toast. Well, if one does it on a enough days anyway, it sort of has to. For me it always seems to do it when I'm down a whole lot on what has been happening. Like when I REALLY want to throw in the towel(though I'm so hopelessly a chaser, even after many days in a row of things sucking).
I seem to get into a habbit of screwing up a bunch of the earlier days in the year. May 3, 4, 6, and 8th 2003 only to finally 'win' the 10th. It really sucks to see everyone and their dog scoring on outbreaks and you "keep on keeping on", lol. May 3rd I opted to not chase in NE and Steve Peterson nabs several tubes out west from some looooong lived supercells that went up early. Then bust while an outbreak unfolds May 4th(was at the TP). May 6 was a big day that busted basically, but chased and didn't see much. May 8th looks just like May 4th and what do I do, bust at the TP again while everyone and their dog sees large violent tornadoes. Then more chasers getting more tornadoes May 9th. By then I'm soooooooooooooooo sick of not getting mine and half sick of the trying part. Then May 10th is another big big setup and a high risk. After racing after junk a good part of the afternoon I was completely ready to give up on it. I let the junk move past me and pondered calling it. I mean I was so sick of screwing up days and not seeing much. But for whatever reason I sucked it up and kept at it and THEN it paid off. LOL, then comes June 21, 22, 23 and 24. 21, 22, and 23 were all HELL days from driving, screwing up, and having to work early the next mornings on top of it. So what do I do the 24th, I let up on trying and boy did that bite me in the A$$(a "little" outbreak in se SD, right up the road).
Alright, I'm really rambling now. I love talking about things about chasing and how things seem to work out and not work out. My goal when I go out on any chase is to try and see that sky that makes you feel giddy and wonder if you're dreaming. So, what is your chase that you feel was most like this?
)
