One "hail" of a game

Imagine that you and your buddies are out chasing, and somehow end up in the core of an LP supercell. What do you do? Well, you could wait it out, OR you could wait it out while playing this game.

How to play

Imagine that there is an imaginary line that divides the front/back windshield in half
If there are four people, two people on each side.
You get points for every time the glass cracks.
The first team to have their half of the front or back window busted out loses.

Points
Points are determined by the size of the cracks in the glass

Small cracks (pit-sized to 3") are 1 point
Medium sized cracks (4" to 6") are 2 points
Big cracks (6" and over, but less then 1') are 3 points

Objective

To get as many points as possibe without losing the entire windshield.

Optional

You could expand it to include the entire vehicle split down the middle. The same rules apply to side windows too. Also, add in the hood and trunk lid.
Small dents are 1 point
Medium dents are 2 points
Large dents are 3 points

This way, if you lost your half of the window, and the other team has all small cracks, you could still come back and win it if you have alot of big dents.

Of course, you would want to wait until it stops hailing to get out and add up your points.

I got the idea for this game after watching this on Youtube

EDITED...This is a work in progress...

You know you are from tornado alley when....

The first thing you do if you hear tornado sirens during the day is check your watch to see if it's noon.
-Yep...I sure do


You don't get worried unless the sky looks "green".
-I don't usually get worried.

You use the word "tornado" as a verb.
-not really


You chuckle at all the facebook groups called "I survived the ___ tornado."
Nope...never seen a group like that


You might go indoors when there's a tornado, but you won't "seek shelter" for anything less than an F3.
-HELLO?! I'm a chaser, I don't think so. I wont seek shelter at all. Unless God himself threatens me within an inch of my life. (OK, so Ill be safe about it)



You know what Doppler radar, Hook echo, wall cloud, and rain-wrapped all mean.
-Yep....That and a few others.....;)


You've never exactly memorized the tornado precautions, but you've heard them enough times that you know them by heart anyway.
-Most of it is common sense anyway



Watching the weather is entertaining. And red on the Doppler radar is exciting.
-Watching the weather is boring. Chasing it kicks butt.




The phrase "Tornado on the ground, take your immediate tornado precautions" sends exciting shivers up your spine.
-Always



You've seen photos/videos of tornadoes and said, "Wow, that's a nice one!"
-Yep



You can feel/smell tornado weather brewing a few hours before the storm actually begins.
-I cant, but my mom can....Its freaky....



There's an odd feeling as though you've misplaced something if you make it all the way to June without a tornado warning near you.
-Id go insane if that happened.



You think people that live in earthquake and/or hurricane prone areas are crazy.
-Earthquakes, yes. Hurricanes, no



You know what people are talking about when they mention the "May 3rd/Moore" tornado and the "Greensburg/May4th" tornado.
-Boy, do i ever....and its May 5th



You watch the movie "Twister" just so you can point out all the inaccuracies in it.
-There are a ton of them



You know your weathermen by their first names. i.e. Gary.
-Hmmm....Jim Cantore, Steve Lyons and Greg Forbes. Kristina Abernathy, Heather Tessche and Marshal Seese. Jennifer Lopez....and that's all i can remember....

When you hear the tornado sirens go off, you go outside to watch the storm and take pictures.
-Seriously...Is this question even necessary?


Most of the tornado video footage comes from everyday people with camcorders instead of from actual news/weathermen.
-No; some of it comes from irresponsible "yahoos" that give us chasers a bad name....and everyday people with camcorders...

You're sure there's a giant tornado magnet hidden somewhere in Moore. And that there are smaller ones distributed throughout trailer parks.
-Hmm....Lets look at that name for a quick second. "Moore". Looks and sounds alot like the word "More". I think i have made my point. Trailer parks are just bad luck.

You know that the four seasons are actually: summer, late summer, winter (if you're lucky), and tornado.
-Dang right.

You don't consider it windy until the wind speed is faster than 30mph.
-That's nothing but a light breeze

You are highly entertained by people from outside tornado alley when there is a tornado watch.
-No, its more entertaining to watch mammatus clouds scare the crap out of them.

Your school has tornado drills. And you assumed that schools in every other state had them as well.
-You mean they don't??

There's enough random stuff in your tornado shelter that you could live there for a year
Well, at least for 6 months

You stand under your carport or open your front door to watch hail and/or thunderstorms.
-Back door/garage door/carport/front door/window/tree (ha ha....just kidding)

You know the difference between a basement, a cellar, and a storm shelter.
-Our house has a basement, the neighbors have a cellar, and the farm house out in the country has a storm shelter

The weather is a completely acceptable subject for conversation, at any time, for any occasion.
-Sure. Why not?

Your local mall has "tornado shelter" signs posted.
-I am from a small town. The "local mall" is 30 miles away...and yes, it does. The gym here in town does too.

It doesn't bother you the next day to find out that your area was under a tornado watch the night before and you had no idea. Unless, of course, it caused you to miss some interesting cloud formations.
-You have no idea how much that torques me off!!

Getting to "play" in the basement/cellar/storm shelter numbers among your favorite childhood memories.
-Getting to play in the back of my dads grain truck during harvest time numbers among my favorite childhood memories

You keep matches, candles, and candle holders in more than one place in your house.
-Yep

Your town will never get hit by a tornado because you're between two rivers or because an old Indian legend says so.
-Oh, it'll get hit....sometime

You complain about severe weather reports that interrupt the TV show you're watching.
-For me, its more like i complain about the TV shows that interrupt the Severe Weather Reports I'm watching.

You can get together all your most important possessions in 2 minutes flat.
-No....Don't really have any

When tornado sirens woke you up in the middle of the night...you rolled over and went back to sleep.
-When tornado sirens wake me up in the middle of the night...I get out of bed to see whats going on.

You've ever tried to reassure someone by saying that "if anything forms it will only be a little tornado"...and couldn't understand why this didn't calm them down any.
-You have to wonder....

It's normal for your area to be under a tornado watch for multiple days in a row.
-THAT would be cool.

When looking at houses/buildings you give them a "tornado survival ranking". i.e., how big of a tornado it would take to destroy it.
-Sometimes

You've ever asked (probably w/ disdain) "Don't they know the difference between a warning and a watch?"
-That's annoying...

You know what towns/cities a tornado normally passes through before coming your way.
-Before May 22, 2004, Fairfield hadn't been hit by one since like the 80's.

From watching radar maps, you've heard of almost every small town in your state. And you know what towns are around them, but you have no idea where in the state they are.
-Ha ha...like El Dorado Ne.? "Welcome to El Dorado--Population: Hardly worth mentioning"

You laughed at everything in this list, but you also respect a tornado's power. And you know that after it's over, clean-up and re-building has to begin.

Who I would like to meet this spring

With me being a new chaser, there are bound to be a few chasers out there that I would like to cross paths with, right? There are, and I am going to tell you who they are.



This list is in no specific order

Mike Hollingshead (Hollingshed? That's the way I've always said it)
Joel Taylor (Because yelling adds to the excitement)
Jason Boggs
Mike Umscheid (How do you say it?)
Tim Vasquez
Josh Wurman
Warren Faidley
David Drummond
Mickey Ptak (I'm assuming the 'P' is silent)
Reed Timmer (The TornadoVideo.net chase team is awesome)
Bob Schafer
Shane Adams ('cause guys with long hair are just cool)
Martin North
Susan Strom (I'm so tempted to just spell it S-t-o-r-m)
Darin Brunin
Dick McGowen
Sean Casey (Push all the buttons!!!)

Like I said, this list is not in any order; meeting anyone from the chasing community period would really make my day. Just being apart of the storm chasing community makes me feel good. To me, everyone is equal. Experience means nothing to me.

If I think of any others, I will add them as I go.

What as a chaser are you thankful for?

"Not an actual chaser yet, but one thing i loved to do back in my highshool days is when there was a storm, I would get in my car and find a nice back country road where i could just sit and watch it, and listen to it, and smell it. I charished those moments. Every second of every minute, I was totally at peace. It is truly a breath taking experience. That is what i am thankful for."



The above quote I took off Stormtrack, its a post to a thread about what as a chaser you are thankful for. Having read what others had written, I thought I would add some more to it.

I am thankful that I met Jeff Miller. He got me started down the path to becoming a chaser. Even though our friendship didnt last, what he taught me sure will. I am truly blessed to have known such a wonderful man. I am also thankful that i met and made friends with Bob Schafer. He is my future chase partner. He helps me as well.

The First Snow of the Season/Being able to contribute to an area on ST

When I woke up this morning, I wasnt all too thrilled about getting out of bed. I wasnt thrilled until i remembered it was suppose to snow. So i got up and went to check the radar. What i saw made me happy. What i saw next made me even more happy. I have a window down here by my computer and i could see that it was snowing! Still groggy, i went upstairs to eat breakfast. On the way up, i looked out the window and it was pretty! There was snow on the ground and it was still snowing. I took some pictures and a short vid clip.

My other thing with ST

Iv been on Stormtrack for awhile now, and because im still learning, havent really been able to contribute to any of the different areas, except for the Chaser Bar and Grill; ill get to here in a little bit. Iv always felt bad about that, but today i thought id put my 2 cents in and hope for the best. The forum i added to is called Forecasts and Nowcasts. The thread i posted in is for winter Precip. I got my information from weather bug, which i live by. I just hope my post doesnt get pulled. If it does, I tried my best, and i guess thats all i can do. Made me feel good though. Back to the Grill. The one place i have been able to add to is the Grill, and i think i was a little too helpful in that area, cause i cant find it now (oops). Oh well, thats what this blog is for, right?

Ah, The Joys of the Skew-T Log-P Diagram

Holy cow!! I am mentally drained! Why am I so tired, you ask? Well for starters, I have been working on being able to interpret Skew-T plots. Iv got the lines down, its just how the lines are placed on the plot i don't really understand--well, i do--but not really.
I spent dang near close to 3 hours working with nothing but the Skew-T. One of those hours was spent actually drawing one up myself. I had to free-hand the dry adiabatic lines 'cause i didn't have a...a uh--what do you call 'em--caterpillars? No, that's not it. Capillaries? No, that's not it either. Oh, I remember now! Callipers! Ha ha. I not only drew it up, but labeled it too. Then--on top of that--printed off a current one and labeled it as well. Without looking at the one i had just did. Did pretty well, really.
Wow. When I first wanted to be a storm chaser, I had no idea as to how much learning i had to do. Iv learned a lot, I can tell you that. Compare that to how much i need to lern--I mean, 'learn' (this cant be good...I spelled 'learn' wrong...how ironic!)--I haven't even begun to scratch the surface!

A day in the life...remembering May 22, 2004

The day had started out as any other, sunny and warm. That afternoon there had been a small thunderstorm--nothing exciting--rain and a few rumbles of thunder. Usually after the thunderstorm, it cools off. Not this time. It got hot and humid, the humidity had to have easily been in the upper 80s, low 90s. On this particular day, May 22, 2004 marked the start of pre-season baseball tournements, which i had to help run consessions for. Towards mid-afternoon, the games were in full swing (no pun intended). Because it was so hot out that day, we were going through sno-cones like mad. During a lull in the action, I was standing at the window talking with my friend, Ian. What we talked about, i dont remember, because i had noticed dark clouds off to the west (sorry 'bout that, Ian). I had been noticing these dark clouds for the past hour or so. The thing that got me, was how increasingly dark they were getting. Earlier, I had thought maybe we would get another thunderstorm; but as i was standing there, these clouds had gone from being a dark blue, to a dark navy blue, to almost black. This had me thinking that for sure we were going to get a bad storm. I went up to my car to listen to the radio, when i heard this:

"The National Weather Service in Hastings Has Issued a Tornado Warning for Buffalo and Hall counties in south-central Nebraska until 10:00 CDT Tonight."

Well, that explains why the clouds are so dark. I didnt have a camera with me that day, but I got in my car and drove to about a half mile west of town anyway. I had never seen clouds that dark in my whole life!! As i was watching this thing come in, they broke in with another weather report. This time it was for Adams county. This had me worried. So i hightailed my butt back to town. I parked my car, hopped on my bike, and went over to the other ball field where my mom was. She had been helping with consessions as well. Naturally, being my mother, she yelled at me for being on my bike. She told me to get my @$$ home. I got home, put my bike away, and ran inside. Loving the weather like i do, i ran BACK outside to the front yard to watch this thing some more. Wouldnt you know it, though? My mom had told one of our neighbors that if she saw me, i was to be in the house. Well she saw me; and after a few "Pleases" and giving her the puppy-dog look a couple times, I reluctantly went back inside. I despretly wanted to go out and look at the clouds. Until they blew the siren. At that point i turned into a baby and ran to the basement. After the shock of what was happening passed, i went back up stairs. It was windier then CRAP!!! 75-80 MPH cross winds battered our house for what seemed like an eternity!! After the storm had passed, we all went outside on our back porch. There was major tree damage, it was a mess. I then got on my bike and went around to survey the damage. I went to go turn a corner and narrowly missed running into an entire tree that had fallen across the road. On my way back to the house, i stopped and talked to my other neighbor, who had heard from someone that there was talk of ANOTHER storm coming in. That night really sucked, not only were we without power, but i had a sinus infection. Long night, it was. Next day, we had lots of work to do. We had leaves plastered to our house, lost a couple shingles, a big limb in the front yard. That was about it for us, as far as damage goes. That was a day i will not soon forget.

Chase Music

Hi! Storm chasing is as you know a heart-pounding, adrenaline surging, roller coaster ride of emotions (when you catch the storm your chasing). Other times, you might as well sit in your vehicle listening to the theme song to "Jeopardy". I'm not here to talk about that instance though. I'm here to talk about enhancing that roller coaster ride. I'm talking about the chase music. I made a CD the other day of different songs i like to listen to when I'm "seeking out" a particular storm (I say "seeking out" because i have not actually gone chasing yet, just mainly watch it and take pictures). I wanted to share my list with you.

Storm Chasing Mega mix

16 - "Respect the Wind" by Van Halen.
This song is alot slower then what i would normally listen to, but its packed with hardcore emotion. This song would be great to listen to during a lull in the action; sitting in your car admiring the breath-taking structure. This song is played during the credits in the movie Twister.

15 - "Block Rockin' Beats" by The Chemical Brothers
This song is kind of different, I put this song on my CD because of the beat. Not many words (at all), and actually I'm starting to wonder why i even put this one on here.

14 - "Hells Bells" by AC/DC
This song--well--it just fits, i guess.

13 - "Humans Being" by Van Halen
How could you not have this one? Its on my favorite movie! "'Bout a mile up there's a little
detour, were gonna take a walk in the woods!" Plus, the guitar solos kick butt.

12 - "Awake" by Godsmack
You'll know this one from the Army commercial, another one i think has alot of power.

11 - "Thunderstruck" by AC/DC
I think this one is pretty much self explanatory.

10 - "Life is a Highway" by Rascal Flatts
Perfect road trip music; 'nuf said.

9 - "Welcome to the Jungle" by Guns N Roses

8 - "Fuel" by Metallica
Oh, when I burn
Fuel is pumping engines
Burning hard, loose and clean

And then I burn
Turning my direction
Quench my thirst with gasoline

7 - "Thunder" (NASCAR theme song) by David Robidoux
The ultimate chase song, IMO

6 - "Numb" by Rob Zombie
...the savage power of nature...(look up Jarrell Mania on YouTube)

5 - "Danger Zone" by Kenny Loggins
Need I say more? I think not...

4 - "Action" by Powerman 5000
...see explanation for #7...

3 - "Long Way Down" by the Goo Goo Dolls

2 - "When Worlds Collide" by Powerman 5000

And Last But Not Least--

1 - "Thunder" (NASCAR theme song) [Rock Remix] by David Robidoux

Whew!! That took a little over an hour to do that!
Hope you liked it!

Im on ST

Hi there!

For any chasers out there who are not members yet, go to Stormtrack and check it out. I registered yesterday and am already getting things down, as far as figureing out what to do.

Excited for the 2008 storm chasing season

Hello, my name is Maggie.

I am a chaser in training, and have been finding info off the internet for about a month now. I am excited to become the thing iv always dreamed about. I have always been obsessed with the weather, with the exception of when i was very young. I have a YouTube account, where i will put my future chasing videos, right now i have a really good slide show, you should check it out. I also am on Facebook where i put my weather pictures. Its in two parts; Part one, and part two.