Spring has Arrived

I've been busy this past month; a lot of travel, a lot of projects at work, and a lot of time spent working on odd projects around the house (the Bathroom project has been on hold as my interior designer has had quite a bit going on as well). However, spring hath arrived and there are various ways to tell.

One key sign it is spring is that I had to clean up the lawn mower, change the oil and filter, and lower the ride height a couple of notches for the first cut of the season. The mowing was an all-afternoon ordeal; make one cut, empty the bag, restart the mower, make another cut, empty the bag, and repeat the process for both the front and back lawns. I normally don't enjoy this process as it kills my allergies but it was rather nice this time as a brisk north wind helped to dissipate the dust and dry grass keeping the snot and sneezing at bay. Related is the fact that I had to break out the garden hoses and purchase sprinklers to replace the ones destroyed by the hard water we have in this neck of the woods. I should also sadly note that I had the water on for FOUR hours and there was no runoff whatsoever. Maybe I should have watered the lawn over the winter a couple of times...

Another important sign that spring has arrived is that I removed the hard top on the Jeep and have gone back to the "convertible" mode with the soft top. Many thanks to my good friend W.C. for the assistance in getting the hard top stowed and soft top on along with the great discussion that ensued over a late dinner at Rosa's. I'll have to wait for a couple of days before enjoying the soft top; the weather will be a bit and I still have to do an annual spring tune-up as well.

However, the biggest sign that spring has arrived is severe weather across northern TX through OK and into the Central Plains. That means that stormchasing is soon to be around the corner for the Top 'o Texas. I've had many a friend request to come along the next time I head out towards severe weather (whenever that might be) but I am sad to say that I probably have lost all desire to storm chase. Why? Take a look at this picture taken in Oklahoma during a late March severe weather event (and you will probably need to click on it to get the full-sized image)...

You are looking at two supercell thunderstorms in central Oklahoma. The one on the left has a Severe Thunderstorm Warning (yellow box) for it and the one on the right has a tornado warning on it (red box). These storms were moving off to the east at about 35 to 40 mph and had a history of producing tornadoes. What I want you to notice however are the green, yellow, and red boxes that are generally on the south and east portions of the storms. These are vehicle positions from a nifty thing called The Spotter Network which is a free service that allows storm spotters and chasers to use their in-vehicle internet or ham radio to relay their position and other information back to the website. The biggest utility is that we can see these positions in near real-time at my place of employment during severe weather operations. But I digress; the real reason I wanted to use the image above is to illustrate that there were 20 people relaying their positions back to the network. Add in a plethora of other people who don't use this service and you can probably guess that there were anywhere from 50 to 100 people on the storm. The yahoo season has arrived.

I started stormchasing before the movie "Twister" came out, before the learning channels started promoting the Most Extreme Tornado Chase shows, before the TIV and DOWs were on the scene. These three things, among many others, have encouraged any person with a video camera to start to head out and attempt to chase storms for an ultimate video capture. I can't tell you how many times we have received video and/or pictures at my unnamed employer of "MASIV TORNADOS" (yes someone REALLY spelled that way) when in reality they are nothing but dust devils or fair-weather cumulus clouds. Of greater concern is the lack of responsibility a small minority show towards others while stormchasing. It was this small minority that almost resulted in my severe injury or possible death while traveling a road at 40 mph (15 mph UNDER the speed limit I might add) back in 2001. A month shy of 7 years ago, someone pulled out in the middle of the road without warning, head hanging out the door with a video camera, and was almost T-boned by my Explorer. I was able to stop (thanks to massive amounts of cussing and both feet on the brake pedal...thank you for whomever invented anti-lock brakes) but the person in the other vehicle looked at me like I was at fault and flipped me a one-fingered salute before speeding off. It was at that point I swore off stormchasing on high profile days due to the idiocy of a few people; the "yahoo's", the thrill-seekers, the general public in some cases.

I am sad that I have come to this decision. There is nothing more amazing that sitting under a supercell in late spring, smelling the moisture in the inflow, hearing the "hail roar" from massive hailstones banging against each other in the 100+ mph updraft, and spending a solitary moment immersed in Mother Nature. I miss having a local pull up and ask if everything was O.K., replying "I'm fine, I'm just watching this storm.", and then hear their stories of storms they have experienced in bygone years while both watching the storm evolve and morph in front of us. Living in the top o' Texas will yield a few days that some claim are "surprises" but those are the days that I'll be out chasing. Fewer "yahoos", more roads to get away from people (I'd like to see you TRY and follow my Jeep on a muddy section road!), and a general population that somewhat has a respect for bad weather and knows when to stay close to safe shelter. The "Moderate/High Risk" days bring out so many people now that the magic of chasing is gone for me.

I'll probably be yelled at by a few people as being "elitist", "unfair", or "insert colorful adjectives here" as a few of my colleagues and friends have been so labeled. So be it. Wait and see how you feel after your life flashes in front of your eyes at 40 MPH because someone was acting like a "yahoo" in total disregard of the law and public safety. Of course, I reserve the right to reverse my decision as high gas prices might impact the number of people out on very marginal days. Besides; it is REALLY hard to give up seeing something like this as you drive towards it...