Storms Don't Scare Me!

Why don't storms scare me? 

I don't really know.  I can't say that it's my faith because I haven't always had faith, but I have always had a passion for weather.  I know people who are terrified of weather (kind of like my brother under the bed hiding from the "lightling").  I know people who beg me to do something about the storms, make them go away.... ummm... I know I've got tremendous Dewvoid.  I know people who pray the storms away... OK, I do actually get that.

Dewvoid: (noun) The absence of significant weather events within a close proximity of me... only cause I think significant weather is really cool.

Perhaps there is an opportunity there to sell my services (storm stopping) to wedding planners and bar mitzvah  coordinators.  You want pretty weather for the event, just invite me, guaranteed sunshine! "Stopping severe weather in a single bound.  It's a bird, it's a plane... no, it's Dewdrop."

I have actually had a conversation recently with a friend at the National Weather Service office who was discussing with me a solid squall indicating severe parameters of wind, and "they" had placed me in the severe warning box. HA!  I told him that it looked like they forgot the Dewvoid in forecasting, and he jokingly said that he should make sure the radar guys draw out a significant Dewvoid parameter... moments later, I was drawn out of the severe warning when the storm completely pulsed down.  You see, it's scientifically proven.  But, I digress.

So, why are so many people terrified of "bad" weather, while I face it head on without a care in the world??

I guess it's not fair to say I don't have a care in the world in the face of severe weather.  I have a healthy respect for flash flooding and would definitely turn around rather than drown.  It simply isn't worth it.  I definitely have a strong respect for lightning and its death inducing potential.  When thunder roars, you should head indoors.  I do that most of the time, OK, OK, some of the time.  Sometimes, I go out on the porch, in the back yard, or in the garage (with the door open) trying to nab a shot. Talk about role reversal, my daughter is usually the one trying to drag me inside.  I know better. I have storm chasing friends who have had some bad experiences. I have been known to seek out rotating wall clouds just to watch them spin, but I did freak out a bit when I ended up in the Drop Zone, this one time on accident because south Georgia roads twist and turn so much and you have really limited visibility for all the trees (Disclaimer: storm chasing in south Georgia is not safe, at all).  I have a healthy respect for all things destructive in weather.  Heat, flooding, lightning, wind... gosh even big enough hail can kill a person.  I get that.  The threat is real.

But then... I see a sky like this one here.  This is what showed up after a severe warned thunderstorm rolled through one evening, recently. Do you SEE that?!  It's amazing. 

I guess, for me, it all comes down to striking beauty.  There are times when I look to the sky, and my breath is literally taken away.  My eyes are lured to it; I find myself enthralled with the splendor and glory of His creation.  Sure, the severe stuff is dangerous and can be quite ominous, but the beauty I see seems to outweigh the danger.  I mean, I have seen shelf clouds that look like the mother ship, slinking across the sky, all it's layers and colors and texture.  I have seen cloud to ground lightning, light up a sky in brilliant shades of purple, as its web-like tendrils scatter through the atmosphere, cleaning the air.  I have seen rotating wall clouds, mere feet above the ground, wider than a football field, just barely moving, not hurting anything, just being stunning.  The beauty keeps me seeking more; it draws me in.

I am Dewdrop, and I am obsessed with weather, cause it takes my breath away.  I can't get enough.

I am not scared.  I love it too much!

Till next time,
~Dewdrop

We've got rotation!

What a day yesterday was!!! It started out like normal... a little work around the house, headed down to the church for a work day. Then, I joined up with my wonderful groom, to head out of town for Tallahassee for our market adventure. Well, before we were able to get out of town, we ran into a little thunderstorm action. Well, better than that... we ran into a ROTATING WALL CLOUD!!!! Of course, we did the only thing we could. We chased that bad boy, and we got into position to let that really awesome structure pass right on by. If you look at the series, you can see the rotation. (If you are on my Facebook, you can click through the pictures fast and see the rotation clearly!) I took video, but it's terrible, and I am terrible with video anyway. I much prefer pics. These pics are zoomed out all the way. This is how close we were to it!! We could feel the inflow of the storm, sucking all the air in to it. That's experiencing weather! We were in the perfect spot!











Of course, I was in heaven. I hadn't been on the computer all day, so I had no idea what the weather looked like. I hadn't seen any radar and am still utilizing a stupid phone for the time being, so I called into VA Mike and AL Mike to get some information about what we were looking at. They both saw a notch in the radar and an indication of broad rotation. DEW-yah! I did call into into the NWS to report the rotating beast, but it did dissipate, and they never warned it, but I experienced it, so it made my day!!! It was SO CLOSE to the ground!!!

***Incidentally, if you ever see anything like this, get indoors, lowest floor, in your safe place. It could potentially drop a tornado and be extremely dangerous.***

Have a beautiful day.
~Dewdrop

Storm Chasing Dew Style in South Georgia... the Dewvoid is dead!!!

This was written by Alabama Mike to me. All true...

Dew HERSELF witnessed a few wall clouds and a funnel cloud. She reported that to the NWS Tallahassee but they issued no tornado warning as far as I could tell. They dropped the ball by not using her report.

Finally, there is irrefutable scientific evidence that the Dewvoid was a myth and it happened in her own county...

Mike also had a great account of my chase on the team blog from the radar perspective. Awesome, Mike! Thanks! Meso Mike emailed a storm report that was related to the rotating wall cloud I saw:

HAHIRA, GA 3099N 8337W SEVERAL TREES AND POWER LINES WERE DOWN.

Based on that report's lat/long, I might be returning to a powerless house. Anyways, on with my story...

It was my lunch hour, and I asked bf if he would be interested in going out and shooting some lightning on the squall line that was coming through, so we got set up in a decent-sized sod field, well to the east of the approaching squall and waited for the lightning to start flashing, while we ate sandwiches. A few frequent flashes (none of which caught) preceded a heavy downpour with ferocious wind. Luckily, we were chasing in a Jeep (yes, yes, I know I just preached all about how we shouldn't do that... but we did it anyway, so :OP), so when the water covered the dirt road access back to the highway, we just went bogging through that. (Gotta love a Jeep for the off-road chasing opportunities. My minivan would have been stuck there...)






Yes, in south Georgia you get John Deere tractors in your chase pics. It was while we were bogging out of there, headed back to the office that I got the call from Alabama Mike "DID YOU KNOW THAT YOU ARE UNDER A TORNADO WARNING?!" Uh... no! (Remember that I forgot my weather radio today... bad storm chaser) So, a quick about-face and we were chasing a tornado warned cell, where a tornado had been spotted by a trained spotter in the southern part of my county.

CLYATTVILLE, GA ROOF LIFTED OFF HOME ON JOHNSON ROAD . POWER POLES AND TREES SNAPPED.

This is what that area to my south looked like... (where I estimate that cell was) So, bf and I were headed east on Highway 84, trying to get ahead of the tornadic supercell, which we could see to our southwest. We were awaiting the opportunity to make a southward turn for an intercept opportunity. Finally, that chance arrived. We turned south on Highway 129 and headed for some action... but along the way had to stop and take a picture of the doppler radar site that I have come to rely upon. (How cool is that, getting a picture of your actual radar during your chase?!) We were driving steadily south, and we saw the storm was racing along to the east, but appeared to be dissipating. Mike suggested an east turn early on along the way, but my gut told me to keep going south. With the way these storms were flying by, we never would have caught up to that one, and the next one was right behind it, so if we journeyed south... it would come to us, theoretically. Mike seemed to agree with that line of thinking, but soon we came to another east/west decision. Alabama Mike and I talked through options and we jointly decided that we should head west toward a cell that looked powerful with some signs of rotation that was three counties over at that point, and we planned for an intercept in Valdosta up by Highway 84. We were traveling west on Highway 94, racing (not speeding, just hurrying along...;OP) toward a potentially tornadic supercell. Yeehaw! Finally, we hit a perimeter road in Valdosta that cuts from Highway 94 over to Highway 84, but there it was. We were just in time for the main event, so we pulled into the center median on a bridge on that road (where two sheriff's deputies--seperately--stopped with lights to check on us, one asking us to move to a safer viewing spot--deeper into the storm with less visibility... ok, Einstein... I think not!). So, we were watching this monster roll by about 5 miles to the north, when suddenly... this wall cloud descends from the cloud base, beautiful wall cloud, showing definite rotation. I was on the phone with Alabama Mike at the time, and I had to go to call it in to the guys... Spotter duty, don't you know? Parks... who didn't issue a warning... on my trained spotted rotating wall cloud (lol, I wrote eye wall, intially... is it cane season already???). :OP Whatever, Parks! That same cell produced wind damage in Thomasville and in Hahira, probably at the time I was calling it in (more on that to come)... Well, after getting off the phone with Parks, who didn't issue a warning (did I mention that?)...bf and I both saw the funnel drop from it and pop back up. I am still digging through the video, to see if I can find it... (Update: I found that tonight..., and let me say that my video capability on the camera I have stinks big time!!! I am actually about to get one of Rick's reject video cameras, for a great deal, so that should help. Thanks, Rick!) Anyways, as a warning, this video accidentally contained a wordy dird. Sorry, I guess my language gets a little less than PG when faced with exciting weather... It's hard to make out, and I have no editing software (another thing to add to my list) to enhance the sharpness, etc., but I promise, a funnel cloud descended for a few seconds and popped back up and dipped again, before a wall of rain from another approaching cell covered us in a blanket of torrential downpour, and I did not feel comfortable being in that mess because I figured we shouldn't play with rain wrapped rotation, so we headed back east to get ahead of it again, and we were riding parallel with it because when Alabama Mike suggested we turn north, we traveled about 5 miles up a tree covered windy dirt road before we came out RIGHT UNDER a rotating wall cloud!!!! Then, I was trying my hardest to convince bf to turn us around and get us the heck out of there because we were in DANGER!!! He reluctantly did without anything dropping on us... whew.... (we have talked about this, and he said that he promises that the next time we end up under a rotating wall cloud, he will get us out of there faster--he was just excited. lol. At least, we survived to tell about it. Thank God.) and we decided to just let it pass on by so we could both get back to what we needed to be doing... work. Mike indicated that the cell lost its umph, and time was working against us. So we stopped and watched it roll on by... until it started to pour on us, a cold pounding rain. Awesome chase! Great intercept! Off to pain and torture!!!

~Dew