AFTER THE CHASE, INDELIBLE MEMORIES
Was it fun? people ask, knowing I’ve just returned from a tornado chase on the Great Plains. Sure it was fun. If your idea of fun is sitting in a van for 10 hours a day, reeling in the miles (3500 of them in seven days); or waiting and waiting and waiting for something to happen (thank God for Walmarts, great places to hang out); or falling in a ditch in the dark (next time I’ll bring a flashlight); or clogging your arteries with fast food (I had to double my statin drug dosage). Oh, don’t take me seriously. It wasn’t fun in the sense of an Alaskan cruise or Caribbean vacation, but it was a memorable adventure. One I wouldn’t have missed for the world. I...
Read MoreBIRTH OF A HIGH PLAINS MONSTER
With other members of my chase group, I’m standing on the high plains of the Texas Panhandle, west of Lubbock. A stiff wind, inflow to a supercell aborning, slams into my back as I snap pictures of the strengthening storm. I struggle to stay upright; to hold the camera steady. Daggers of lightning lance into the field in front of us. Our tour guide, Roger Hill, raising his voice to be heard over the galloping wind, says, “This thing could turn into a real monster.” Minutes later, a wisp of dark scud appears beneath the underbelly of the storm. “Watch,” Roger says, “this may be the beginning of a wall cloud.” What? That dinky little misty thing? ...
Read MoreEPIC HEAT WAVE LOOMING?
There isn’t much stirring over the tropical Atlantic Basin yet, that is, there are no storms or hurricanes lurking in the foreseeable future. No Eyewall Janets. But that’s not unexpected in July. Meanwhile, what’s really catching meteorologists’ attention is the steroidal upper-level high pressure area forecast to burgeon over the center of the nation. That means a heat wave, perhaps one of epic proportions, looms for areas from Texas and Louisiana northward into the Upper Midwest. Expect the atmospheric oven to be turned on “broil” beginning this weekend. My friend and former colleague at The Weather Channel, Stu Ostro, sent me some images of...
Read MoreTHE DOG DAYS OF JUNE COMETH
It’s been a rough spring so far. The Grim Reaper in the guise of EF-4 and EF-5 twisters stalking the southern Plains and Deep South; a flood worthy of Biblical times washing down the Mississippi Valley; and Texans fearing the appearance of Bedouins on camels as the landscape withers under unprecedented drought. But wait, there’s more. Medium-range computer models are suggesting the Dog Days of June–not August–are ready to pounce. An upper-level high pressure ridge, the purveyor of sizzling heat, is forecast to flex its muscle from Texas to New England as we flip the calendar from May to June. The center of this Sasquatch-on-steroids anticyclone is...
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Senior Meteorologist
The Weather Channel (Ret)
Colonel, USAF Weather Officer (Ret)
Awarded the Legion of Merit
