If you think Virginia is long, try driving across Missouri...

We're here! (almost)

After Friday's graduation ceremonies and a day of goodbyes on Saturday, Kevin and I finally departed for VORTEX2. We left State College around 4:30 on Saturday afternoon after picking up a rented car from the airport. Throughout western PA we ran into a few squall lines and weak thunderstorms. While these were wimpy compared to what we will likely see in the coming weeks, it may be the closest we get to a thunderstorm for a few days (more on that to come). Below is a picture of the drive through the Alleghenies, showing one of the storms ahead: After driving 8 hours, we arrived in Indianapolis shortly after midnight where we slept a few hours before continuing. The next morning we departed for OKC. With a little re-arrangement of our plans, we soon learned we'd be heading to a hotel in Oklahoma City as opposed to Norman. The drive in total took approximately 20 hours and over 1200 miles across ohio, indiana, illinois, missouri, and oklahoma. Kevin and I arrived in Oklahoma City around 6pm and enjoyed the last out of the local minor league baseball team and some dinner at a local microbrewery. We then exchanged our rental car with some shady dealings and free shuttle exchanges at the airport for a ride to tonight's hotel. Overall, the trip was much faster and less exhausting than either of us expected.

So what happened to the V2 crew while we were driving out here? Friday afternoon (operations day 4) was a "GO" day. The armada deployed on a line of storms in Northwest Oklahoma. Apparently one storm displayed a brief funnel cloud, but chasing was forced to a halt by dark. The target storm then preceded to develop a tornado shortly after dark near Oklahoma City, unfortunately unsampled by V2.

This weekend has been calm in the great plains, and looks to continue that way through much of this week. After Friday's action, the armada moved to a location in central Kansas, in the middle of our operating domain to wait out the clear skies. The reason for the fair (and boring) weather is a prominent ridge that is building over the middle US, and looks to stick around through this week. The map below shows an upper air map forecast for Tuesday (upper right), showing the ridge over the plains. (If you're not too familiar with meteo, the ridge is the hump in the black height lines on the map below, more ideal conditions would have a dip or trough in these lines moving through the 4 corners region).

Tomorrow Kevin and I will be picked up by a member of the team on his way from the University of Oklahoma and should be joining the team before they depart Kansas. Chances are that this week will be pretty boring with little in the way of storms. The best chances for storms over the next few days will be in the far northwest reaches of our chasing region (see below), although even this is hopeful at best. Long term forecasts show promising conditions over the southern plains developing towards the upcoming weekend.

vortex 2 operating domain (within red line)

So far, the trip has been exciting, and interesting. I've seen a lot of the country today, including the gateway arch at St. Louis. Although we have yet to see a tornado, and it seems unlikely that we will have an opportunity until late in the week, the travel and sights alone would make this trip worthwhile.

Unfortunately, in order to keep as many hangers-on and amateurs out of our way as possible for the safety of everyone invloved, I can't be more specific in this blog about our future or current locations than rough areas of states. After we're gone from places I'll be sure to let you know what happened and exactly where with pictures.

I'd like to thank everyone for all their support and interest in my adventures, and before my next post i'll leave you with this photo:

A mobile mesonet (one of the vehicles i'll be driving) collecting data in Oklahoma on Friday with a shelf cloud in the background.