2011?

WOW hahah it's been a while since I updated this thing. With Facebook and Twitter being such great ways to connect and interact with other chasers and weather enthusiasts, I've completely forgotten to update the site. 2011 was a decent year for chasing, but a terrible year for those affected by the record number/intensity of tornadoes. I guess I'll do a brief recap on the year...

September 2010
Had a couple of amazing chases in KS. Here are the videos.
September 1st with Chris Seegs, met up with Dick McGowan and Andy Gabrielson for some amazing supercell structure.


September 15th


February 27, 2011
A couple tornadoes in NC OK.


Had an amazing 4 day chase-cation from April 22-25. Unfortunately I have yet to edit the video. At this rate, it may never see the light of day.

Here is a brief chase account from the May 24 central Oklahoma tornado outbreak:
Tuesday I was behind the storm that had a reported wedge tornado that went through El Reno, OK. I had just shattered part of my windshield(baseball hail) so I was hesitant to punch through the core to get a clear look at the tornado. I got closer to the rain-wrapped circulation and realized what I thought had been the 'core' was actually the mile-wide beast, shrouded in rain. It crossed the road a little a couple miles East of me, but I really wasn't sure whether or not it was a tornado. As I continued East, I hit the damage path, much like the 5-10-08 chase. All of a sudden I was in a war-zone. The first house looked ok, there were people walking around outside, and the neighbors were already there checking on them, so I continued. Incredible damage power poles snapped at the base, a house on the left was missing a large chunk of roof, and again neighbors were already there checking. I cross a lake/river area and every single tree had been uprooted, snapped at the trunk, or de-barked. To the left, there was a house on a hill, and a guy was running through the yard. I asked him if they were all ok, he said they were and told me to check on the next house. I get to the next house, and it's completely gone, only rubble from the garage remained. I jumped out of the car and ran up to the house screaming for trapped survivors, and sure enough there's someone poking a broom stick through a vent in the basement cellar. So I cleared the basement door of debris, a large shelf, bricks, motorcycle parts, regular garage junk. I pull a couple out of the basement, and the husband and I run to the neighbors house. I actuall skipped a house because I couldn't even tell there WAS one there. The slab was wiped clean, and the couple made it to the basement just in time. In a daze, the woman from the first house looks to the South and realizes her mother's home was hit as well. We jump in the car and take off to find her mom's house, which was back on the other side of the lake. Apparently I had driven past an entire neighborhood you couldn't even tell had existed. We dodge some downed powerlines by driving through the ditch and into someones yard, and the whole street is devastated. Well built 2-story brick homes reduced to piles, large SUVs rolled into balls of steel. She could barely tell which house was her moms, but we noticed a white van in the driveway, covered in debris. We run up to the house, and see that the cellar door was propped open with a rock. Not sure what to think, I open the door and her mom is inside, and relieved that her daughter had made it. They reunite, and I start running to the next house screaming for survivors, looking for basement entrances, storm cellars, not really sure what to do. I notice a chaser buddy of mine, JR Henley at the next house, with some neighbors. They had just found a 16 month old boy and his 4 year old sister, critically injured but still alive, only feet from landing in Falcon Lake. We wrapped the 16month-old in our shirts and the neighbor guys carried her to my buddies car. JR drove her out of the debris, up to the road where EMS crews could work on her. Some OKC police officers had shown up, and were with the 4 year old, and the mother was still in the pile of debris that was their house. She kept screaming that she has 3 kids, which means her 3 year old hadn't been found. We start running up the lake-shore frantically searching for the kid, not sure what we would find. We looked for over an hour, and slowly more and more fire, police, and EMS started showing up, everyone just scanning the ground for the missing kid. We decide to start looking through the debris near the house, tearing the house apart. 15 or 20 of us, chasers, neighbors, police, fire, EMS, just tearing through the pile that was once a home. Nothing. With so many people around, I started feeling uneasy about being there. A few highway patrolman had given us the 'who are you and why are you here' routine, and with the OKC media circus starting to show up, I had to split. Being the first on-scene, I wasn't mentally prepared for TV interviews or watching people stand around with cameras instead of helping. THAT is a subject for a different day. The 16 month old we had found passed in the hospital, and the 3 year old boy was found the next day in the lake. The mother and 4 year old daughter survived. Certainly a day I'll never forget. Remember guys, when you see damage and victims, STOP. put the cameras down and help. There will be other tornadoes, and the damage isn't going anywhere. You can help, and you should.

June yielded a few decent chases, but I haven't written up any chase logs or even edited the video. I've been pretty lazy with the video's this year.

November 7, 2011
EPIC chase day. I know too many people that over-use the word 'epic', but this day definitely deserved this title. Here's the video...


So there's a weak summary of what's been going on here at SCTV. I will definitely be updating the blog OFTEN as well as giving the website a little boost.

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