January 2010 Tulsa Winter Storm Recap

Over the course of two days, Tulsa ended up with .6" of ice followed by 6-7 inches of snow. Overall, the damage caused by the storm was much less than expected. Tulsa did not experience any widespread power outages due to the ice. I could be wrong but I think the ice storm of 2007 took care of many of the trees that would likely cause power problems.

The video below consists of several video clips throughout the course of the storm. You'll notice the ice event occurred on Jan. 28 followed by snow on Jan. 29.

Tulsa Ice Storm

Below is the Oklahoma mesonet map as of 1:10pm today. The reason I am posting this is because it shows the first signs of the ongoing ice storm in Oklahoma. You will notice a path from southwest Oklahoma through central OK that where the wind barbs are missing. This is because the anemometers are covered with ice. I will continue to post updates here as the storm progresses in Tulsa. Currently, ice is covering elevated surfaces but the roads seem to be fine. Heavier amounts of freezing rain and sleet are expected this afternoon with a change to snow overnight and tomorrow.

Who Ya Gonna Call

It's been a while since I've updated the ol' blog. Things should start to get more active here as the fall chase season is nearing and OSU tailgating just a week away. For now I thought I would share this jewel.



My coworker sent me this pic while he's on the road in Idaho. I wonder if the dude has any proton packs in that thing?

Here is a Powerful Message written by Stevie Wonder on Michael Jackson's Death

........ .. ... ... .. .....
.. . .. ... . . . .. . .. . .. .... .. .. . ... ..
... ... .. ... ... ... .. .... ....... ... ... ... .... ..... .. .
.. ... .. . . . ..
... . .... ... .... .... ...
...... .... .... .... ..... ..... ..... .. . . .... .....
. .. .
. . .. . .. . ...
....... ... ... ... .. ... ........ .. .. .... ... ... .... ....
. .. .. .
.. ....
.. . . . . . .. .. ... ..
.. .... ... ... ... ...... ...... .....

Deep stuff.
I nearly cried when he said “. .. . . . .. .. ... .. .. . . .... ....”

Partying on Skiatook

Bologna Sandwich Sparks Robbery in OKC

Man beaten, robbed for bologna sandwich in Oklahoma City

By Staff Reports NewsOK.com
Published: 6/18/2009 1:08 PM
Last Modified: 6/18/2009 1:08 PM

Roger Hamilton told police he was sitting on a bus station bench, preparing to put mayonnaise on his bologna and cheese sandwich, when a man wearing headphones began staring at him.

Hamilton, 24, told police he asked the man if he could help him, but before he knew it, the man punched him in the mouth and snatched his sandwich.

When police arrived at the Hudson Street bus station Wednesday, they found Hamilton with a swollen lip and his face covered in blood.

Hamilton told police he did not know the man or why he assaulted him and stole his sandwich. He described him as a black man who appeared to be in his 30s.

The police report values the sandwich at 76 cents.

Hot dogs anyone?

This truck was parked outside the coney restaurant I went to for lunch today. I'm not sure that's the best way to market hot dogs. Glad I had the bbq sandwich.

4-25-09 Chase Recap (200th Post)

This past Saturday I chased western Oklahoma with Robert Bonnell, Steve Miller(OK), Hans Schroeder, and Aaron Tuttle. I picked Robert up around 1:00 and headed out to meet the rest of the gang in Weatherford. The bulk of the chase was around Leedey, OK. Despite the lack of tornadoes, it was a great chase day that included many wall clouds a few funnels and large hail that I was happy to hide from. Below are a few of the better pictures from the day.

My Parent's Crazy Dog

A couple shots of the stupidest dog on earth.

4-9-09 Chase Recap

I had to pull the trigger on this chase. Things just looked too good to sit this one out. I pulled out of Tulsa about 3:15 and met up with Steve Miller and Hans Schroeder in Nowata, OK. From there we decided to head east to Vinita where we intercepted a good cell. At the beginning we were not too hopeful that anything would happen but as it rolled into town the cell began strengthening and developed a rapidly rotating lowering (shown in the first part of the video). The storm dropped a very brief tornado just east of Vinita.

From Vinita, we followed the storm up I44 to about 5 miles north of Afton where it developed a very well defined funnel cloud (shown in the last clip of the video). The storm tried to produce again but it just couldn't quite get its act together.

This ended up being a great chase. After a crappy year in 2008, 2009 is off to a good start. I've got the fever more than ever right now. Bring on the next system!

Vinita Wall Cloud

Afton Wall Cloud

Tulsa Snow Storm

As was forecasted, Tulsa experienced a heavy snow storm yesterday. In south Tulsa, the snow began during the 8am hour . The heaviest snow fell between 9:30 and 1:00. Most reports for Tulsa were between 6 and 8 inches. For some reason there were a lot of people out running around during this time and many people found themselves in the ditch. Above is some of the video I captured as I was out shooting for KTUL.

Now that that's over, I am turning my eye to the spring and hoping to get some good chases in over the next few months. Check back for chase updates.

Mexican Restaurant Handicap Parking

3-23-09 Chase Recap

I decided to go ahead and pull the trigger on this chase about 4:00 yesterday. After looking over the RUC, radar, and mesonet, I decided to head west for Stillwater after work. I arrived in Stillwater just as a the storm I was planning to intercept went tornado warned in Logan county. I positioned myself east of the storm in Payne county, about 2 miles south of Stillwater, and prepared for the intercept. As the storm barreled into town, the inflow winds associated with it were intense. It was nearly impossible to stand up on my own. I'm not sure if I was supporting my tripod or if my tripod was supporting me. Either way neither myself or my camera hit the ground. As the storm came in I got a good look at the wall cloud that had been reported.(pictured above) There was very minimal if any rotation at this time.

After the storm rolled through Stillwater, I got back on 412 and followed it back into the Tulsa area. The storm stayed to my south until around Hallett where it crossed 412 and dropped around 1" hail on me for a few minutes.

Once the core passed, I booked it back to Tulsa so I could take Hwy 75 up to Skiatook for a second intercept. At this point the highway was a chaser caravan. Unfortunately, the storm decided to crap out about the time I took the turn north out of Tulsa.

Even though the storm had dropped below severe limits, I decided to go ahead and get some lightning shots. I stopped on the entrance ramp at Hwy 75 and 86th St. North and shot c.g. for a while but the storm just didn't want to do much. (pictured below)

Overall, it was a pretty fun chase and it provided some excitement to an otherwise boring Monday. One thing is for sure, I'm ready to chase a storm that doesn't move 50+ mph.

Bust and Colder Weather

It appears as though I was a little overly anxious to chase when I decided to head west after work yesterday. I had toyed with the idea of just hanging out around Tulsa until something popped but once they issued the tornado watch at 4pm I decided to head west. I rolled out of Broken Arrow around 5:15 and ended up meeting Kelly Baker at Hwy 51 and I-35 west of Stillwater. At that point it was pretty obvious that the night was going to be a bust. We hung out for a while chatting and waiting to see if anything was going to form up near us. Once we noticed that the dryline hadn't moved more than about 15 miles all day we decided it was time to head back to Tulsa. The whole chase pretty much pissed me off. Besides the bust, I was having serious technical issues. My internet connection was absolutely horrible so I wasn't getting reliable radar updates on GR. I also couldn't get model data because of the wonderful T-mobile card I'm using. On top of that, WxWorx kept loosing connection for whatever reason. By the end of the night I was about to run over my laptop.

It looks like we have a big change coming in our weather. After several days in the 70's and 80's, we are about to return to the 30's and 40's. The map below is the OK Mesonet air temperature map valid at 10:30 this morning. As you can see, we are about to say goodbye to the 70's for several days. Hopefully this will be the last cold snap of the year and we can get on with the chase season and warmer lake weather.

Tulsa Skywarn Training Agenda

For those who are interested, here is the schedule for tomorrows Skywarn Training Day.

Tulsa SKYWARN Conference, February 28, 2009 - TTC Lemley Campus

900 am: Opening Statements/Welcome: Mike McCool - Tulsa Area Emergency Management Agency Director, Steve Piltz - NWS Tulsa Meteorologist-in-Charge, Kelly Baker - OkArkSkywarn Coordinator

915 am: NCO / Reporting Issues: Kelly Baker, OkArkSkywarn Coordinator/Joel Genung, OkArkSkywarn Committee Member

930 am: OkArkSkywarn Website Update: Steve Bluford, OkArkSkywarn Committee Member

945 am: The December 2007 Ice Storm, An Emergency Operations Perspective: Mike McCool, Tulsa Area Emergency Management Agency Director

1015 am: Break

1030 am: Storm Spotter Training: Ed Calianese, NWS Tulsa Warning Coordination Meteorologist

1200 pm: Lunch

130 pm: Sidelobe and Inflow Doppler Radar "Signatures": Steve Piltz, NWS Tulsa Meteorologist in Charge

145 pm: Mesoanalysis of Several 2008 Tornado Events: Brad McGavock, NWS Tulsa Lead Forecaster

215 pm: Storm Chaser Video Highlights

330 pm: Conclusion

Spring Fever

After a long winter, spring is finally approaching. In a way this week marks the start of severe weather season for me. Tonight I have my annual chaser meeting at KTUL in which we'll find out any upgrades being made to the weather department before severe weather season kicks off. It's usually a pretty good time since all of the chasers rarely get together during the year. This meeting is followed by the Tulsa Skywarn training on Saturday. While some of this event targets new chasers, they always have one or two topics that are of interest to more seasoned chasers. I haven't seen an agenda for this years training day but I'm sure it will be beneficial to attend. It's also a chance to see several people that I don't see throughout the year.

In other spring related news...I was visiting Steve Miller last weekend and as we usually do this time of year, we started discussing the lake and boating and when we'll be able to enjoy our first day at the lake. There are a couple of key dates to determine when that might be. We usually shoot for the first part of April but you never know if we might get to scratch that itch a little early. The average last hard freeze (below 28F) occurs in Tulsa on the 18th of March. The average last freeze/frost (32F) occurs on March 29th. That means Saturday April 4th is the first weekend without an expected freeze. Time to start compiling music for Boat Tunes 2009.

Another celebrated spring event is also approaching, March Madness. Selection Sunday is March 15th, which is also considered the beginning of severe weather season. As an avid Oklahoma State Cowboys fan, I'm really hoping we can continue our win streak and make an appearance in the tourney this year. It would be nice to dance in celebration of 100 years of Cowboy Basketball. We are currently on a 4 game win streak and have a record of 18-9 and 7-6 in Big 12 play. As things stand we are a bubble team, but if we can continue our win streak against Texas and Kansas State at home I believe we'll be in good shape for a tourney bid going into the second leg of bedlam in Norman. If we can win out or go 2-1 in our final three and get a win in the Big 12 tourney, we should be able to make the NCAA Tournament.

So that was a pretty random blog post but I guess it's all tied together by things I enjoy in the spring; boating, storm chasing, and the NCAA Tournament.

2-10-09 Chase Recap

Yesterday was the most frustrating day I've had at the office in a while. I was stuck in Broken Arrow while everyone was out on the first chase of the season. With every model update the sickening feeling in the pit of my stomach got worse. Nearly all of my chaser friends were out on this setup and I was stuck at work. Then initiation occurred. Monday night I looked over models and set a target of Chickasha. What do you know, the first storms of the day went up just west of Chickasha and then the same storm produced a tornado in Edmond, looked crazy headed into Stillwater on radar, then produced another tornado in Pawnee county.

Finally 5:00 rolled around and I hit the road for Bartlesville to intercept the same storm that had been pissing me off all day. I should probably mention that chasing in Bartlesville always adds extra stress to the situation since my family and several friends live there. At times it's nearly impossible to answer phone calls and text messages from those in the area but I gave it my best. On to the chase...Just as I got into Bartlesville, the NWS issued a tornado warning for eastern Osage county and Washington County. About this time, my XM/ThreatNet pulled it's usual crap and stopped working so over to GR3 I went. I headed up to a truck stop about a mile north of Dewey where I rode out the storm. At this point it had gotten dark enough to where I couldn't really see much. After a few minutes I was overran by extremely heavy rain and winds between 40 and 50mph followed by a few minutes of 1/2" to 1" hail.

After sending a few videos up to KTUL, I headed back south to play around in the line of storms coming through the area. The Bartlesville/Dewey area had gotten a ton of rain in a very short time and there were several areas of flash flooding. I spoke with Kelly Baker who was in the downtown Bartlesville area and he was reporting stalled cars and significant flash flooding around Adams Rd. and Keeler.

Finally, I decided to head back to Tulsa. About 10 miles south of Bartlesville I got ran over by a small cell that made driving nearly impossible and had a few pieces of pea sized hail in it. Once that passed the show was pretty much over for me.

Despite not getting anything too exciting, it was great to chase in February. I needed something to clear my mind and I find that chasing does that for me. It's probably due to the fact that I don't have time to think about anything else. I'm looking forward to spring and chasing in the daylight.

Ice Pics

We've gotten about a quarter of an inch of ice here in Tulsa so far. Since the worst of it came in right before dark, I haven't had a chance to take many pics but here are a couple.

Defining a Gooner

After suffering through yesterday and the overwhelming support shown for OU football, I feel that it is time to address the status of gooner. Before I get into that, I would like to explain that if you graduated from OU, have immediate family that graduated from OU, or maybe even stepped foot in an OU classroom (as a student), then this blog entry most likely does not pertain to you. However, if you meet any of the following criteria, you might be a gooner.

One definition in the Urban Dictionary defines a gooner as "a glory hunting pussbag who has very little knowledge of football". You should check out the rest of the definitions, some of them are pretty funny and a little too racy to be mentioned here on the blog.

You might be a gooner if:

• You refer to OU as "we" but have no actual affiliation with the university.
• Your wardrobe consists mainly of OU apparel yet you haven't attended a game in the past 10 years.
• Your OU season tickets cost more than your car.
• You have never actually been to Norman.
• You have ever yelled "BOOMER" in a public establishment on a random Tuesday just to see if anyone answers you.
• You wore your crimson on Jan. 8, 2009 but on the 9th no one would have the slightest clue that you support OU football.
• You complained about Bob Stoops on Jan. 9, 2009. ( I hope he leaves too.)
• You yell "the home of the sooners" during the national anthem. (That's just disrespectful to your country.)
• You forgot to support any of the other 16 sports that OU participates in.
• You find yourself wondering if any of these bullet points describes you.

So those are a few characteristics of a gooner. Add more in the comments if you would like.

Now that I've got that cleared up for everyone, I would like to say that I know several OU fans who did not attend OU that are very good people. Unfortunately, the majority of OU fans make a bad name for the few good ones that are out there. Maybe there should be a positive mentoring program for OU fans.

Sun setting on another year

Hope everyone has a happy new year. Best of luck in 2009.

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

12-27-08 Chase

Even though this was a linear setup, Bob Hall and I decided to take advantage of the opportunity to chase in late December. After about 3 hours of sleep Bob met me at my place around 5:40am and we headed out west of town to intercept the line of storms that had formed along a cold front that was pushing through the state.

We made our first intercept at hwy 412 and 209th W. Ave (west of Sand Springs). After shooting a little lightning video we were overtaken by very heavy rain. At that point we got back in front of the line and decided to let the same cell run over us at 76th St. N and Hwy 75 just north of Tulsa. We ended up in the Whirlpool plant parking lot where we had very heavy rain and winds approaching 50 mph. Oddly enough the storm drain in the Whirlpool parking lot produced a whirlpool after about 10 minutes of very heavy rain. Thanks to Bob's suggestion of finding the drain, I was able to get a pretty cool video of the whirlpool (see below).

From north Tulsa, we headed east to Hwy 169 and started heading south just as the tornado warning was issued for Wagoner country. Fortunately, we were within a mile of jumping on 412 eastbound and intercepted the storm in Chouteau a few minutes after Mayes county went under a tornado warning. As we rolled into town, we were once again pounded with heavy rain and wind but quarter sized hail was added to the mix this time. After letting a couple of training cells pass over us in Chouteau, we decided that the line had pretty much crapped out so we headed back up to Tulsa and called it a day.

Given the fact that it is late December, I was happy to get out on these storms. Even though they never produced a tornado and it was a linear piece of crap setup, it was great to get out there and was a fun chase overall. Plus it was only 151 miles. It's much easier to enjoy this type of setup when you don't have to drive all day.

Can't beat hole in the wall Mexican restaurants

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Winter Wx Update

Temps as of 8:40pm

So much for the warm weather. The massive cold front swept through south Tulsa at 3:15. It took about 30 seconds for the south winds to calm and switch to a brisk north wind. From there temps plummeted. Currently I am sitting at 27 degrees with moderate sleet. It looks like we'll be in for small bands of frozen precip throughout the night.

Big Wx Changes Approaching

Cold front progress as of 1:50

An approaching cold front will bring big changes to the weather in the next few hours. The NW portion of Oklahoma has already experienced the switch to colder weather while I'm enjoying a temp of 73 degrees with my windows open and my grill fired up. It looks like this will only last another few hours for the Tulsa area.

As for precip with this system, I don't see much of a chance for anything significant. It looks at best like we might get a few light rounds of various frozen precip over the course of the week. Of course, now that I've said that, it will probably snow three feet.

Venus, Jupiter, and a New Job

When I got home from the gym tonight Jupiter and Venus were shining brightly in the western sky. I managed to snap a few pictures before they dropped below the horizon. My lens isn't ideal for these types of pictures but they didn't turn out too bad.

On another note, I accepted a position as the Marketing Manager for a company in Broken Arrow today. That concludes about a 10 week job search and 4 weeks of sitting in my recliner with nothing to do. I hope I never have to go through that again. Thanks to all of my friends who have been very supportive during my down time. Back to work on Monday!

A Few Vegas Pictures

About a week ago I met up with Steve out in Vegas for a few days. We spent at least 12 hours playing blackjack and drinking pop with liquor flavored extract in it. It had been a while since I sat down at a table so it felt good to be back in the saddle again. I'm blackjacked out for a while now though.

I did find a little time to snap some pictures around the Bellagio and the Venetian. I'm pretty sure you could spend most of a day just taking pictures of the different casinos and outdoor shows that some have. Below are some of the better shots I ended up with.

Bellagio Fountains

The Mirage

Fountain outside the Venetian

Obvious

Arizona Mexican Restaurant Special

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

NWS Tulsa Wed Evening Area Forecast Discussion

000
FXUS64 KTSA 300157
AFDTSA

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TULSA OK
857 PM CDT WED OCT 29 2008

.UPDATE...

&&

.DISCUSSION...
ONCE AGAIN TONIGHT THE FORECAST AREA IS TRANQUIL AND
CLOUD FREE. THE NEAREST CLOUD IS APPROXIMATELY 562
MILES NORTHWEST OF TULSA IN COLORADO...AS SEEN ON IR
SATELLITE. THIS CLOUD APPEARS TO BE CIRRUS IN NATURE...
BEING GENERATED IN CONJUNCTION WITH A WEAK UPPER TROUGH
CROSSING THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. THE CIRRUS CLOUD IS GENERALLY
MOVING TOWARD THE EAST-NORTHEAST AND IS TRAVELING AT A
RATE OF APPROXIMATELY 20 KNOTS. WITH THIS CLOUD FORECAST
TO MISS THE REGION BY AT LEAST 372 MILES... AND ALL OTHER
FORECAST ELEMENTS ON TRACK... THERE WILL BE NO NEED TO
UPDATE THE FORECAST THIS EVENING.

&&

.TSA WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
OK...NONE.
AR...NONE.
&&

$$

SHORT TERM...06

Tony Royster JR. Crazy Drum Solo

Saw this kid on YouTube while I was hard at work today. Thought it was worth sharing. Pretty amazing!

OSU Homecoming 2008

Last weekend was homecoming for Oklahoma State. I forgot to take my camera into the game but we defeated Baylor 34-6 and remained undefeated. For the first time since 1945, OSU is 7-0. The undefeated record payed off on Sunday when we ranked 6th in the first BCS poll of the year. Hopefully we can keep things rolling into Austin this weekend. Below are a few pics from our tailgate party.

The Crew

Our live music. If anyone remembers his name put it in comments. He deserves some recognition.

Tucker and Royer manning the shrimp boil.

Justin, Tucker and Nichole

E-rin and I

Gabby, Tucker and I. Gabby had on her holy socks.(not the spiritual kind)

Daz and Jeff

New Feature - SpotterChat

To the right of this post you will notice I've added a cool new feature to my blog, a direct link to my SpotterChat. This software was developed by Scott Bennett for purposes of weather discussion and storm reporting. From what I've seen so far the software works great, even through a cellular internet connection. If you are a storm chaser, and would like to sign up for SpotterChat, go to www.spotterchat.com to register and download the software.

Taco Bell Grande

This is a product of Steve and I hitting the taco bell drive thru after too many beers.

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Cross Canadian Ragweed Concert

Last night Steve, Bob, Matt, Heather, and I went to watch Cross Canadian Ragweed at the Reynolds Center on the TU campus. This concert marked the first night of homecoming festivities for the University of Tulsa. Since this was a school sponsored event mainly for students and alumni, it was not advertised anywhere. Some might think that would make for a crappy concert but it was quite the opposite. We were one person away from the stage for the entire show and if you needed to get out of the crowd it wasn't impossible to find your spot again. I doubt there was more than 400-500 people there. Another cool thing was that the band was celebrating their 14th anniversary yesterday so they played several of their older songs that you don't hear very often anymore. This show was so much better than the last couple I've been to. With exception of one song, they stuck to all originals and put on a great show. Below are a few pictures I was able to snap. Sorry for the graininess, they were taken with my blackberry.

Rain or shine baby!

These seats don't suck.

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile