Sun setting on another year

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

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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

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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!