The Missouri State University Storm Chase Class started in the last days of May 2009 and we left for the actual chase on Sunday May 31st, returning seven days later
A ”death ridge” refers to a pattern of weather in the upper atmosphere where high pressure dominates. This encourages air to sink; a stabilizing effect which all but snuffs out thunderstorms.
Such a pattern was setting up in the middle and late portion of May as the Missouri State University storm chase class was coming together. Dr. Corcoran and I knew that a pattern of high pressure would cause problems for the class. If it set up, where would we go? Would there be anything to chase? The Vortex 2 armada was dismayed over this pattern too. They only had until the middle of June to surround a tornado.
Fortunately, the unfavorable pattern was showing some signs of breakdown by the week of the chase. While this was certainly good news, it was still a less than ideal pattern in which to chase storms. It looked as if moisture would be limited and the jet stream was too far north at least at the beginning of chase week. Be sure to read some of my blogs on the social site for the class linked below to gain some insight on how we arrived at our chase decisions.
SPC Forecasts for the Beginning of Chase Week!
But with only a few days left, the Storm Prediction Center finally started to project severe weather for the Great Plains! With new found hope, the first day of class met with some excitement. Bill Corcoran went over the basics of storm development and forecasting and quizzed the students on where the target should be our first day. On that subject, which would be the day we finally hit the road? Saturday was discussed but finally a “hard departure” of Sunday morning was set.
Meanwhile, I was busy collecting equipment and gear. A visit with Jim Sellars proved to be quite valuable; he was so open, friendly and willing to help the whole class. He was also quite generous, lending us HAM radio gear, power inverters, maps, you name it. Plus, he made sure we thought about the “gotchas” like “what happens is hail busts out a windshield?” or “you should probably have a roll of toilet paper in the van!”
I tested live streaming in the days before the chase began. I chose to use Livestream because it allowed other videos to be running in a play loop during non-streaming times. I wasn’t sure how streaming would work (so-so it turned out) but I wanted to be ready.
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