VORTEX2: June 11, 2009 - 32 days. Operations provided for in the field: a pair of supercells.
Miles traveled today: 607. Miles traveled total: 11,181. For
Today promises a long journey. In fact, the departure comes early and without morning briefing. At nine o'clock we are already on their way to leave Dodge City to the south-east. Mile after mile through the extreme southern Kansas, in a blow that not even you know it, we pass through the Oklahoma Panhandle and we cross the border into Texas.
For lunch we arrive at Canadian in Texas Panhandle. The coordinators can be found on the vehicle of the NOAA-NSSL Field Coordinator of the ambulance but it seems that in and 'a real gem of technology and connections.
The decision is to return to the path of the North, but gaining ground, however, to the west. So we cut diagonally in the north-eastern pan handle of Texas, cross the Oklahoma Panhandle through Boise City the largest city west of this remote corner of the mid-west where the grasslands and herds of cows are all that you can find.
In the afternoon the first time develop close to the mountains between Denver and Pueblo and our target is Lamar. At four in the afternoon, the Storm Prediction Center issued a Tornado Watch for the entire south-eastern Colorado, a good sign.
Miles traveled today: 607. Miles traveled total: 11,181. For
Today promises a long journey. In fact, the departure comes early and without morning briefing. At nine o'clock we are already on their way to leave Dodge City to the south-east. Mile after mile through the extreme southern Kansas, in a blow that not even you know it, we pass through the Oklahoma Panhandle and we cross the border into Texas.
For lunch we arrive at Canadian in Texas Panhandle. The coordinators can be found on the vehicle of the NOAA-NSSL Field Coordinator of the ambulance but it seems that in and 'a real gem of technology and connections.
The decision is to return to the path of the North, but gaining ground, however, to the west. So we cut diagonally in the north-eastern pan handle of Texas, cross the Oklahoma Panhandle through Boise City the largest city west of this remote corner of the mid-west where the grasslands and herds of cows are all that you can find.
In the afternoon the first time develop close to the mountains between Denver and Pueblo and our target is Lamar. At four in the afternoon, the Storm Prediction Center issued a Tornado Watch for the entire south-eastern Colorado, a good sign.
the next two hours as we continue our approach to the target, the temporal direction Pueblo explode and form a supercell first, followed after less than an hour from another supercell few miles south of first, they are our target. At six
overcome Lamar and head west toward the supercells pointing towards the town of La Junta. Josh Wurman, coordinator of all radar systems, began studying the various radar disposione today will work in dual-Doppler and gives orders over the radio.
While all the teams reach the stations under the supercells intensity exceeding 72dBZ quickly acquire, a sign that large hail is guaranteed for today.
At half past seven we in the southernmost supercell just south of Manzanola with all probes and start with our mesonet transects. With the Hummer and we Probe 13 directly in front of supercell hook echo and the other two probes are sent to the east. We perform our transect data gathering in the rain and hail but with grains of normal size, and now both supercells are under Tornado Warning, the mesocicloni are well developed and show clear signs of rotation at high altitude. Las Animas
When we get anti-tornado sirens are sounding, and while waiting for the Doppler On Wheels 7 terms his turn to the core data acquisition radar rainfall of supercell passes just north of our position. When the DOW7 reached our position the two supercells have almost merged into one huge storm and we have the problem of bringing us in front of the same direction east.
Guided by the watchful eyes of DOW7 cross in torrential rain accompanied by hail and strong winds to the city center antitornado desert with sirens sounding mad and tree branches scattered on the road in some parts are completely covered with leaves torn from the combined action of wind and hail. The Doppler on Wheels continues to scan in low levels along the streets to ensure security to the small caravan that there is no tornado about to touch the ground. If it were not for the DOW7 I would not for anything in the world continued to advance in this little hell, rain and wind, but behind the Doppler we felt safe, like chicks under her wings, protective mother.
In the middle of town, after a bend, there stands before the eyes left a huge white funnel cloud a few hundred meters away. We are under the main mesocicone DOW7 and continues to advance towards the east by opening the way to the hailstorm.
finally managed to emerge from the nucleus of what is now one huge rotating supercell that show spectacular. To 20.45 km while trying to earn some time on the radar NOXP points behind us a couplet in the lower layers (restricted area characterized by strong rotation in the lower layers) but it is something temporary. After passing the town of Lamar south bend trying to bring in the southeastern part of the supercell, which is now 15 miles away and continues its eastward.
The show we see is beautiful. The cloud-cloud lightning that illuminate the middle to upper reaches of the supercell rotating a high frequency, while the sun that rises from under the cloud base to the north of the supercell gives an amazing orange light in the scene.
From our position we are now safe and dry weather to photograph and shoot cameras this beautiful creature of nature. I have lost count of how many supercells we were able to study with the armada in last few days, but this is really super.
The rotation continues to be present in the lower and middle layers but never materialized into a real tornado even if dark clouds that surround the base of the supercell almost touching the ground in the dark of night can often mislead.
fact only infallible eye of a Doppler radar located a few miles away can confirm whether or not the presence of a tornado in these cases as well as indirect lighting provided by the flashes of light is not enough. In particular, there are default thresholds of 40 m / s shear that must be observed in a couplet for several successive scans to turn the attention of radar on board the DOW7 coordinator.
look to the supercell, mile after mile, approaching more and more with an expectation that at times becomes almost sinister in the darkness now fallen, until we are hit by the gust front and a few miles north of our position secure a dense falls hailstorm. The
DOW6 located north of Lamar reported the fall of grains of two and a half inches in diameter. When the supercell is transited and gathering radar data is declared closed, return to the path of Lamar for the night and through a stretch of a couple of miles of roads fully covered by a layer of two inches of hail that creates a dense fog ominously lit by the headlights of cars that proceed in the opposite direction.
Another great day for science ends VORTEX2 data with high-definition on a pair of supercells.
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