The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
-Psalm 19:1

Do you know that God controls the clouds and makes his lightning flash?
-Job 37:15



Sunday, December 16, 2007

Another one bites the dust... courtesy of the Dewvoid

Leave it to the Dewvoid to take care of any storm system within a 50 miles radius of me. The good news is that chasing can be an adventure without the storms.

So, I am talking to Rick, and we are discussing the weather, looking at the set-up. Granted, I felt like the Dewvoid would destroy it from the get-go, but the SPC was persistent in their insistence to ignore the Dewvoid and forecast significant weather. Yes, yes, I will admit that both Rick and I thought that it would probabaly happen further north (where the road options really suck)... despite that and Rick's exhaustion after pulling a 56 hour shift as an EMT with limited sleep... Meso Magnet Mike and I were able to talk him out of sleeping and going out to chase, when the Tornado watch went up and I got a little bit of a hesitation out of the guys. Final preparations are made... it's CHASE TIME!!! When Rick arrived, we caught one quick radar shot (after I'd watched trends most of the evening), and we were on our way. We returned a call to Meso Magnet Mike, letting him know we were deployed, and as I was returning Alabama Mike's call, he called Rick's phone. Since Rick was busy pumping gas, and I saw it was Mike, I answered the phone. My answering Rick's phone meant that it was show time. He got the scoop on what we had planned... west, then south (of course, that means everything fired good northeast of here.) Rick got Jay on the line just to get some more eyes on us... we were out in a serious pulse event at night in high precip. We could use all the eyes we could get. Hoowaa!

(The capture is from after the time we left Monticello. This is what we missed down there... sigh) This is about the time that Rick introduced me to liquid sweet tarts (Eww...) It was some energy drink called Monster Energy, and it literally tasted like a sweet tarts solution, and made me slightly spazzy. Jay was kind enough to offer safety tips via text message... "Use your wipers". The guys offered fantastic support. Thanks so much for that guys!!! It wouldn't have been nearly as much fun without you, Mike, Mike and Jay. We set up south of Monticello, FL, to let the action bear down on us... Rick took the safety off his 9mm, as a precaution to keep him safe from... heck, I have no idea what he was protecting us from. That's when it starts... tornado warned in Worth County, tornado warned in Wilcox County, Miller County, serious action in Moultrie, nice cell firing... oh, over your house, Dew! Yeah... no shocker there... I think Meso Magnet Mike called about every 5 minutes to let us know how far the action was from where we were. He derived some sort of sick pleasure from telling us this news. About this time is when the Jefferson County sheriff's deputy pulled up behind us. Just pulled behind us initially, but after some thought, turned in the flashing blue lights... lol. Apparently, when he ran tags, he wasn't able to find Rick's on file... we told him our business, and he asked if there was a storm nearby. About then, the NWS announced a significant weather alert for Jefferson County. He was pleased with that and explained that "his daddy lived across that there field" and he knew "wasn't nobody supposed to be there", so that was why he stopped. (I could almost hear the banjos.) Seriously Alabama Mike heard the whole account, all true. My weather radio went bezerk and wouldn't stop squawking, so I had to take out the batteries, which means I have to program it... again. Rick got tired of waiting, and decided to chase after a cell 30 miles away that gave his gut a stir. There was no way we were going to make it to that one, but he was tired, so I let him go... During the whole time, we saw perhaps 3 flashes of lit up sky. sigh, total bust. We had fun though, and that's what matters. On the way back, we discussed exciting things, such as the difference between Red Bull and Mad Dog and went through some minimal flash flooding in Clyattville. Sorry the pics aren't all that impressive. The only time we had light was when the police officer pulled up behind us. He made the rain drops turn blue. :O) Thanks, Alabama Mike,for the great chase account and screen shots during our chase posted to the Weather Brigade site... yet more compelling proof of the unrelenting existence of the Dewvoid.

(This graphic shows what we didn't get. The Navarre tornado was early on in the day... but the others we were out during... sigh.)This morning, the wind is howling with the passage of that cold front that caused all the weather that didn't occur here. Of course, my anemometer isn't working properly, so I have no idea the speeds, but I can hear stuff slamming against the siding of the house. We got some rain, but my rain gauge isn't reading, so I can't tell you how much. Some weather geek I am... I expect that temps have already peaked for the day with the reading at 60. The high and low are both 57 for today... lol.

That's it for me.

I love to Chase! HOOWAA!
~Dewdrop

9 comments:

  1. Howaah back at ya! Exellent coverage Dew..

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  2. Your winds are from the West at 15.4 mph (10:30)
    Ok I am glad ya'll had fun.
    I got to know if the safety went back on when the sheriff pulled behind the truck? lol

    Hey...didn't I try to get you to go 29 miles north to Thomasville? lol

    Blue rain can get scarry! :P

    enjoyed the blog like always Dewdrop!

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  3. forgot.... Did you run into flash flooding?

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  4. Wow, what an adventure! I sure did enjoy it vicariously. I do hold out hope that the Dewvoid will eventually be defeated, strong as it may be!

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  5. Rick, Hoowaa! Thanks.

    Michael, Thanks for the wind update. Now that the winds have started to die down some tonight, the temps are really falling. We are down to 41 degrees now. Is the safety back on Rick??? Yes, yes, you did try to guide us north, Mike. Blue rain is sort of like purple rain... except different. Glad you enjoyed the blog... knew you'd pick up on that flood comment... it was for your benefit. No, no flash flooding, just some sitting water on a low spot in the road, but Rick saw it well ahead and we were ready.

    Mike, you were terrific radar support for us, even if we didn't take all your suggestions. Glad you were able to "ride along". I sure hope that stinkin' Dewvoid can be defeated....SOON!

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  6. Sorry you didn't get your storm...You should have been here a tornado came down two streets behind my house (where they always come down). I was watching the radar on TV and there were 8 upper and lower level rotations overlapping each other and headed straight for us and then two of them aligned and made the tornado. The weather people said they couldn't believe the tornado lasted like 15 minutes because in FL they generally just bounce on the ground a few times and go back up--this was one more like you would see out West and in the SUMMER time--not December! Although last year we had tornados on CHRISTMAS DAY on the SAME street! Later I heard there were several other tornados in surrounding cities, 1800 without power and LOTS of damage including our county jail which was destroyed in one compound that had 100 inmates in it! There were lots of funnel clouds (I think at one point they said 8) but it was hard to tell if they were touching down because it was too dark outside. The thunder and wind woke me up at 4 AM and around 5:30 it sounded really loud and got VERY windy I am guessing this was around the time the tornado came to visit us. THANK GOD I didn't see it--I think I would have died of a heart attack. Just watching Twister Sisters makes me have turn the channel because my anxiety gets all worked up. I was just wishing you had been here (although--I don't know what you could have seen in the dark--at least you could have felt it and heard it!)

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  7. Holy cow, Annie! Great account of your tornadic event. Thanks so much for sharing. Mr. X had mentioned that there was something in Central FL, but I hadn't heard anything prior to that.

    Jeff... did you intercept? Annie is North of Tampa.

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  8. Bummer you didn't see more action, but sounds like quite a ride!

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  9. Nicole... I know it was a bummer, but it was still a great time!!!

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