Ceaseless Wind

I TRULY WANT TO EXTEND MY GRATITUDE TO DR. WILLIAM CORCORAN, TED KELLER, DR. TOM PLYMATE AND MOST OF ALL THE FELLOW STUDENTS THAT GOT TO ENJOY SUCH A MONUMENTAL EXPERIENCE WITH ME. I AM SURE ALOT OF YOU ARE WONDERING WHAT HAPPENED TO ME YESTERDAY. WELL, I WENT CHASING WITH SEVERE STUDIOS AND ENDED UP LEADING THE PACK ON THE STORM WE PICKED AND NONE OTHER THAN THE GREAT REED TIMMER WAS TAILING DIRECTLY BEHIND US. WE CHASED THAT STORM AND IT REFUSED TO PRODUCE SO WE HEADED EAST INTO MISSOURI CHASING A VERY DYNAMIC SUPERCELL THAT DROPPED SOFTBALL SIZE HAIL AHEAD OF US AS WE BEGAN TO CORE PUNCH. AFTER FINALLY GETTING THROUGH THE CORE WE POPPED OUT AND RAN INTO THE T.I.V. AND REED TIMMER. YES THATS RIGHT DR. C, I FINALLY GOT MY VIDEO OF THE T.I.V. WE RAN INTO A HOST OF CHASERS FROM STORMTRACK.ORG ALONG WITH REED TIMMER, BRANDON IVEY, BRIAN STERTZ AND MANY MORE. IT JUST WASN’T THE SAME THOUGH. I MISSED BEING IN A CRAMPED UP VAN WITH MY LEGS FALLING ASLEEP. IT HAS BEEN JUST ONE DAY AND I TRULY MISS OUR TIME TOGETHER. I WANT EVERYONE THAT WEN’T ON THE TRIP TO KNOW THAT I AM NOT ONLY JUST ANOTHER STUDENT, I AM YOUR FRIEND AND ALWAYS WILL BE. I DEFINATELY RECOMMEND THAT EVERYONE POST ALL THE GREAT PICTURES THEY CAUGHT. MANY OF YOU SHOULD CONSIDER A HOBBY OR A CAREER IN PHOTOGRAPHY. I AM AN AVID STORM CHASER, AND THE DOOR IS ALWAYS OPEN TO ANY OF YOU THAT WOULD LIKE TO GO WITH OR TAG ALONG TO LEARN THE STEPS TO BECOME A GREAT CHASER. BE SURE TO WATCH DISCOVERY CHANNEL STORM CHASERS THIS NEXT FALL AND LOOK FOR OUR VANS IN THE SHOTS. WE HAPPENED TO RUN INTO V2 3 OR 4 TIMES ON THE TRIP AS WELL AS THE T.I.V. I DID HAVE THE LUXURY OF RUNNING INTO THEM LAST NIGHT IN DAVIES COUNTY, AND I WILL POST THE VIDEO OF REED TIMMER AND THE T.I.V SOON. BRIAN HURST AND I HAD A RAIN WRAPPED TORNADO BEHIND US ABOUT A 1/4 MILE AND PUNCHED IT TO STAY AHEAD. BEHIND US WAS ABOUT 75 VEHICLES WITH VORTEX AND MEDIA. NOTICE I SAID BEHIND US, LOL. THEY KNEW I WAS THE GUY THAT WAS WITH THE BEST CHASE TEAM IN HISTORY AND MISSOURI STATE UNIVERSITY BLESSED THEM WHEN WE ARRIVED IN STERLING WITH JACK’S LUCKY PENNY. I STILL THINK THEY WOULDN’T HAVE INTERCEPTED HAD WE NOT ARRIVED. I DON’T CARE WHAT ANYONE SAIS, WE DID IT IN 7 DAYS!! 7 DAYS BABY!! THAT IS TRULY PHENOMINAL SKILL AND YOU ALL MADE IT POSSIBLE!!

THANK EVERYONE SO MUCH!!

MATT GINGERY
WWW.FIRSTSIGHTVIDEO.COM

ha ha..I was wondering if it was normal to feel this way..I had to hide the sadness I felt last night from my husband. I didn’t want him to know how much I missed being on the road. I feel like I’ve broken up with a high school boyfriend.

Since I shot all of the chase trip in HD, I wasn’t sure how the conversion to our SD newscasts would work, if at all. Well, it does! What this means is I’ll have the tornado video up on the early newscasts today (Monday), probably a package similar to the ones I’ve beeb posting here on the late shows tonight and mostly likely more packages throughout the week!

OK, we’re back. I walked the dog, weeded the garden a bit, tried to keep the horizon from swaying back and forth as if I were in a van travelling at 70 mph, but none of it worked. I feel awful–let down from the end of an exciting 9 days, and just tired as can be. That Sugar Free Rock Star is powerful stuff, too, and I’m running 20 mph while feeling like I need sleep.

So, at 4:30 a neighbor calls. Her daughter and my son went to school together, kindergarten through high school. Daughter now lives in Indiana, teaches riding, rides, and shows horses, her life-long dream. Driving back from a horse show in Denver, near the Kansas border, she saw a tornado today (Sunday June 7, 2009). It’s that easy boys and girls.

Here’s a link to Elise’s story (no, HER story, not the tornado…no tornado at all in this link) if you’re interested: Elise

Oh, and checking SPC’s storm reports, Goshen County Wyoming, exactly where we saw our tornado, had ANOTHER one today. Wow!

Well, the Weather Channel is all full of itself and Vortex 2, and well they should be. We counted, I think, 5 radars that surrounded the storm, not to mention a tremendous number of mobile mesonet vehicles, ground planted instrumentation that they place on the roads, and many chasers, including Mike Bettes from the Weather Channel.

A bunch of our guys chatted him up after he had done his early morning broadcast: Mike Bettes in the hat with his hand up, counterclockwise around the top of the circle is: Nathan Oneal (maroon) John Gold (blue), Ryan Barnhart (maroon) Pat Bergin (light blue), Nick Anderson (plaid).

Here’s some of the vehicles from the briefing parking lot:

Most of our crew went to the briefing, since Ted Keller got them an invitation, YEA TED. But I had some problems with the motels and a few issues with other things, so I didn’t go. But our most valuable player, Barrett Stanke, who is our 4th driver, noticed the TIV (Tornado Intercept Vehicle) pass by. You’ve all seen this on the Discovery Channel. So while the others were being briefed on the Vortex 2 activities for the day (stage in Kimball, NE), a few of us chased down the TIV at a gas station…and here it is:

By the way, it says DODGE on the front of the vehicle.
We hung around truck stops until the afternoon when things started to pop, then headed out. OK, here’s the deal, we made the tornado–Tornado Ted and Matt Gingery (who saw it first) found the tornado for us, and we were all alone watching it. Here’s a few pix (near Albin, Wyoming OMG), and I’m going to bed. Here’s Matt Gingery doing what he loves:

And here’s how I will always remember this 9 day odyssey:

And we watched multiple variations of this storm; here Ted tries to make it stretch all the way to the ground (it never did):

Last one, and to bed I must get me.

That would be Pat Bergin, Mary Westman, Mike Meister (pointing), and (I think) Nathan O’Neal.

What a day. TORNADO TED led us to it, and it was phenomenal.

More blogging later in the week, but tomorrow we have a 12 hour drive home from Sidney, NE, and it won’t be on my mind to blog when I get there.

Bill Corcoran

NWS Goshen tornado review

oh and this dumbass, Reed Timmer, core punching the funnel.