Hurricane Dolly Makes Landfall as Cat 2 Storm

Dolly managed to strengthen to Category 2 intensity on the Saffir-Simpson scale before making landfall on South Padre Island, Texas this afternoon. At least one tornado has been spotted so far near Brownsville.

Stats:

Max. Sustained Winds = 100 mph

Max. Central Pressure = 965mb

Movement = NW @ 6 kts.

Stormtrack Chaser Thread

Planet Green's Greensburg: Best Show on TV

For most, reality television is little more than an opportunity for people who otherwise would have no chance at fame to enjoy their fifteen minutes, typically at the cost of our brain cells as we are forced to watch human pettiness at its worst.

Not so in the case of Discovery Channel and Leonardo DiCaprio's Greensburg, an ongoing documentary series concerning the tenacity of a small town in Kansas as it struggles to reorganize and completely reinvent itself after the EF 5 tornado that virtually obliterated the town from the face of the earth.

As a storm chaser, I have seen a lot in the way of destruction. I have watched as people clawed their way out of a broken home, shock written all over their face as they attempt to assimilate what has just happened to them. But the real story isn't in those first critical moments. It actually comes later, as that same person struggles to rebuild a life that has been taken severely off course by something beyond their control. Greensburg does an excellent job of documenting this process, as it is seen through the eyes of the residents of this small but tough town.

We've long been aware of the fact that people who live in the plains are survivors. We are accustomed to building a cooperation of sorts with the environment around us through agriculture and the understanding that this planet and it's natural forces have the ability to dominate us. Greensburg shows this spirit nicely. The people are working as a community. Yes, there is disagreement. There is confusion. There are questions as to whether they are making the right choices. But slowly, they are working together to help each other. I love the simple values so often portrayed on this show, as it reminds me of my own youth, growing up in a very similar small town. It almost makes me want to move there myself.

I am also taking away a better understanding of what confronts town after town after similar incidents leave them reeling each spring. What exactly do you do after you are stripped of every resource from which you have ever benefited? Where do you start? Who do you call? Who is trustworthy and who isn't? How are you going to regain some sense of normalcy again? This tells me there is a need for some sort of improved system for dealing with the aftermath of tornadoes in the plains. FEMA does what it can, and bridges the gap in the lives of these folks by providing temporary shelter. But it cannot deal with the full scope of a disaster, and really teach people what works and what does not when it comes to re-creating a working infrastructure. It would be wonderful to have someone who can walk people through the process, show them the steps it will take and answer their questions as time goes on. While the story of Greensburg, Kansas is unique and tragic, it is not without parallel. It may not be the case that an entire town is lost every year, but if a person were to add together all of those lives affected by severe weather each spring, the list would be long and staggering. There are so many other towns, other lives, other farmers. They all have stories.

I'm looking forward to the remaining episodes of Greensburg, simply because it has such a positive message. There is hope after disaster.

Nebraska Weather = Lame

It was going to be a great event. Four of the world's top NASCAR drivers coming together for an exhibition race on a dirt track in rural Nebraska. Matt Kenseth, Clint Bowyer, Kenny Schrader and Sterling Marlin would fly in this past Thursday afternoon and do up an old-fashioned race at the track in Eagle, Nebraska - just east of Lincoln.

My brother facilitates these races across the country through Patrum Racing. He knows the drivers and spends time with them. This would have been his first time coming to the plains with a race, so the whole family was looking forward to being there and sharing in the excitement.

As usual this year, Nebraska weather had other plans. Thursday was forecast to be bright and sunny. The SPC outlined a slight risk well to the northwest of Lincoln. Any storms that should occur would come much later on, overnight. Riiiigghhhtt. By 4:00, the rain was coming down by the bucket full. Of course, I had already taken the time off work, squeezing what little vacation I had left. Had already paid for the hotel room, and was closing in on the Nebraska state line as my bro called with the news that the race had been canceled. One of the drivers had already arrived, the others had all been either in the air or in the process of landing as the rain started.

What this means is that he will have to come back to make the race up. Do twice the work for the same amount of money, at a terrible inconvenience to everyone involved.

Just one more reason to hate the sky over Nebraska this year.

Long Live Bertha

Bertha is officially the longest-lived July tropical storm ... ever. It's heading back out into the Atlantic now with no threat to land.

In other tropical news, a potential depression is continuing to show signs of strengthening east of the Winward Islands. The NHC is going to check this one out this afternoon.



There is the potential for this year to end up pretty light on hurricane activity. La Nina appears to be moderating (although, we've been hearing that for months now). Very mild conditions for much of the Carribbean and continental U.S.

Personally, I'm loving this summer. We seldom hit 90 degrees, and other than the humidity, it's been a very comfortable season.

Cameras are for Criminals

Amazingly, a man in the UK recently ran into problems and was branded a pervert for taking photos of his own children playing in a park.

He said: 'I started taking photographs of them having a good time. Moments later the woman running the slide told me to stop.

'She told me I could not take pictures of other people's children. I explained that I was only interested in taking photographs of my own children and pointed out that this was taking place in a public park.

'I then showed her the photos I had taken to prove my point.

'Then another woman joined in and said her child was also on the slide and did not want me taking pictures of the youngster. I repeated that the only people being photographed were my own children.

'She then said I could be taking pictures of just any child to put on the internet and called me a pervert.

He was forced to involve two police officers, to confirm that yes, it is within his rights to take photos of his children. We live in remarkable times.

USA Today Blog Concerning Altered Footage

USA Today has this to say about Fabel's faux pas. A point that I would like the media to understand in all this (which so far no one has been willing to admit) is that this embarrassing situation greets them as a result of their own choices over the past few years. It seems nearly as difficult for the media to accept some degree of responsibility as it was for the individual who sold the bad video in the first place.

You beg for free video. You beg for the public to send in anything and everything. Do you really believe that people everywhere have journalistic integrity somehow hard-wired into their brains? And whatever happened to checking your sources? All I can say is, get used to feeling embarrassed, because in this society of sensationalized citizen journalism, this is just the first of many fun moments to come for you.

Storm chasers are a unique bunch, in that they consist of people who are so passionate about weather that they will go to every length to learn how to successfully intercept a tornado. But relatively few among these are true photojournalists. People with integrity can most certainly be found among the ranks of chasers, and these are the ones with whom the media should become familiar and use for the purchase of quality product. There are also journalists who have picked up chasing (from chasers), but few of these understand the dynamics of a supercell or the endless tools and tricks up a chaser's sleeve for making successful intercept after intercept.

As time goes on, doing business with the media is just less and less desirable. Chasers should create their own media machine and offer their product directly to the people who want it. AP wants a photo? Fine, we'll provide a link where you can buy it at cost. But no more negotiating with freebie seekers.

Media: You are not victims. Stop trying to hold yourselves out as such. I do not feel sorry for you. You will continue to get what you pay for.

2008 - The close of the season.

The storms have made their annual move to points north, and the final few pinwheeling lows are churning up the last great supercells of 2008 across the moisture-laden fields of the Canadian-American border country. It's time for me to look back at the season and do some reminiscing.

My first official chase of the year was on May 2, 2008. I was disorganized (typical for first chases of the year). The storms were powerful that night, but generally non-productive. It was a good event for the first chase of the year.

Next came May 10. The Picher, Oklahoma storm stood as an effective barrier for most chasers trying to make an attack from the north this day. As a large, destructive tornado was forever destroying the small town of Picher, not five miles north there was one of the most glorious rainbows I've ever witnessed. This event was unique in that I saw a tornado without realizing it at the time. It was clearly visible in my video later, however. Distractions kept my attention off of it. This terrible event claimed many lives, including that of storm spotter Tyler Casey, as he was performing his duties on behalf of his neighbors. It also brought out the best in storm chaser Mike Scantlin, who went out of his way to help people in need that horrible night.

On May 23rd, I took the Welch family on their first official chase experience. We saw a brief tornado northeast of Ness City, Kansas. But the real show came a bit later, as we endured the first of three major wind events for me this year ... the 80 mph RFD fest near the reservoir.

My favorite day by far was May 29th. Scott Currens and I were first knocked around pretty good by the Kearney, Nebraska monster ... and then privileged to witness one of the sky's great wonders of the year between Tipton and Glen Elder, Kansas. Multiple voritices danced in front of us as we sat in awe, watching. It was amazing. Scott, I hope you and I will chase together again.

On June 5th, Jay Antle and I played tag with several supercells that were moving at hyper speeds across the Kansas countryside. We sampled three cells, including one that produced reports of tornadoes southwest of Manhattan. In the end, the sky beat us to death, but it was still interesting.

Next up was another memorable night for me ... June 11th. Brian Stertz and I were first assaulted by a very close lightning bolt emanating from the core of the storm that had previously chewed up the town of Manhattan. We were very close to Circleville/Soldier, Kansas. The lightning convinced us to back out to Holden, where we sat in eerie silence as the town went dark and got quiet before we witnessed a large tornado off to the northeast. This tornado took a life in Solder, where we had been just minutes before. Other storms this fateful night claimed the lives of little boys camping in the summer. What a tragic evening.

That was my last official tornado chase for the spring season, followed by two lightning chases. I imagine that I'll continue to head out to get lightning as the summer goes on, and then there's fall to look forward to. It's been quite a year.

Storm master, poet and philosopher David Hoadley says it in a way I just can't. As he relates, storm chasing is the:

experience of something infinite, a sense of powers at work and scales of movement that so transcend a single man and overwhelms the senses that one feels intuitively (without really seeking) something eternal -but ephemerial- almost a conscious thought, but just below the surface. As when a vertical 50,000' wall of clouds glides silently away to the east (intermittent, distant thunder) and goes golden in a setting sun against a deep, rich azure sky, one can only pause and look and wonder.

Photography: Chaser Dream Camera

Kodak and Hasselblad have been working together and are now producing a 50 megapixel medium-format camera. It uses new technology, called four channel readout, to produce higher dynamic range in the photo. I really can't imagine a storm base shot with a medium format sensor containing 50,000,000 pixels, but I'm sure it would be incredible.

Tornado Video Added

I'm going back through some old videos to add a few as time goes on. Here is the full lifespan of the Hiawatha, Kansas tornado from 2005. I'm not sure what's more entertaining ... the tornado or listening to our running commentary.

Fabelgate '08 Update

So it appears that the WCM in North Platte, Nebraska has removed the report of a tornado anywhere near Valentine on July 5th. According to available data, there was only a brief funnel cloud associated with that storm and no actual tornado. A photo of the funnel in question was snapped by the reporting LEO, which can be seen here in LBF's archived news folder.

Andrew - thank you for the blog fodder.

As we look in on the tiny community of Chaserville, the latest story grabbing the headlines has managed to burst forth from the pages of the community paper, Stormtrack, and sustain itself on the front pages of most news websites for the duration of the day, thanks to the business strategies of one Andrew Fabel ... who, rather than own up to doing something unethical and just tell the truth, decides to go up against no less than ten people ... all with the same video from the same day, stand in front of the hundreds of millions of citizens of this country and say that he did nothing wrong. No, of course not. In fact, all of them are to blame for being the "professionally jealous" people they are. And that consummate professional Dan Robinson, who has caught more tornadoes and seen more severe weather than 99% of the world's population, was evidently driven by evil greed and lust for power to come forward and challenge Andy's claim that his video of an event in Valentine, Nebraska was accurate. Well, good citizens ... you be the judge.

Here is Dan's video, taken of the Rock, Kansas storm four years ago.

And here is Andy's video, purportedly taken on July 5, 2008.

This one was tough. The stakes were high. Emotions ran higher. But in the end, it's just another con by yet another scoundrel. But hey ... what's the harm? No one got hurt, right? Wrong. Plenty did. But I doubt that any will feel pain greater than that brought on young Andrew Fabel to himself ... who not only was willing to be dishonest, but was willing to stab his fellows in the back.

Bad Andy.

Thou Shalt Not Sell Fraudulent Video

If you are sick of making money from tornado video, this is one of the fastest ways to get out of the business:

NEW YORK (AP) - The Associated Press and video services operated by CBS and NBC have pulled video allegedly taken of a tornado in Nebraska last weekend after questions were raised about its authenticity.

A tornado chaser has claimed that the video was a doctored version of pictures he had taken of a twister that touched down four years ago in Rock, Kan.

The AP paid another storm chaser, Andy Fabel, $295 for footage of a tornado that briefly touched down Saturday afternoon near Valentine, Neb. The video was sent Sunday to nearly 2,000 Web sites that subscribe to the AP's Online Video Network, and more than 60 large digital customers that buy AP's online content individually.

Yet on Tuesday, a person who asked that his name not be used contacted the AP and said the supposed Nebraska footage was really video he had taken four years ago. The image was "flipped" to make it seem the tornado was pointed in another direction, and the action sped up. The Nebraska images add power lines and subtracts trees that were in the Kansas pictures.

Upon seeing the video evidence, the AP eliminated Fabel's video from the Online Video Network late Tuesday and contacted its other customers to urge them not to use it, said Kevin Roach, the AP's acting head of domestic broadcast news operations.

"We never want to mislead people," Roach said. "Based on evidence provided to us, we believe that the video was not authentic."

Fabel did not immediately return an e-mail and message left on his cell phone by the AP. Officials with NBC News Channel and CBS News Path said they had talked to Fabel and he had insisted his pictures were authentic.

Both the NBC and CBS services provide video to the network's affiliates. Both had purchased Fabel's video and sent it out, then took it off their servers on Tuesday after suspicions were raised about its authenticity, representatives said.

"There was enough evidence for us to make it suspect," said Sharon Houston, an executive producer with NBC News Channel.

The AP has purchased tornado video from Fabel three times before, Roach said.

Leno on the Purchase of TWC

Of course he couldn't let this one slip by. Concerning the recent purchase of The Weather Channel for $3.2 bil. by NBC Universal, Jay Leno said the goal was to "create the dullest business partnership in history."

"You thought nobody was watching the Weather Channel before, wait until NBC gets ahold of it."

Of course, the purchase of TWC "was not NBC's first choice," according to Jay. "But apparently the 'Waiting for paint to dry' channel was already taken."

Hurricane Bertha

The latest on Hurricane Bertha this morning:

Stormtrack thread for big Bertha here.

KC Power & Light District

Took these last week with the lightning photos posted earlier in the blog stream below.

Photojournalism Taking a Hit

Most storm chasers have recognized a paradigm shift in the marketplace concerning digital media and the willingness of the press to purchase stock photography and video in recent years. Traditional forms of media are finding themselves at the center of a storm, and the development of both the Internet and digital photography are driving these dramatic changes. This article explains what is happening very nicely. As the author notes, the sky may not be falling, but a cloud certainly is.

Interestingly enough, many storm chasers recognized the shift earlier than career photographers and freelancers, and are actively responding to a changing marketplace. The way that many chasers deliver their "product" has definitely undergone a marked change in the last two years. Rather than marketing to media, chasers are already offering content online directly to the people who want it, similar to the changes the music industry has already been forced to start making.

The other interesting thing to note from the article above is the move away from still photography and increasingly toward video. People by and large expect to see video these days, and while video does not have the resolution of a quality still, it is getting better all the time. The future may hold yet more dramatic developments with new technologies and methods of streaming and including multimedia content.

It will be interesting to see where these events ultimately lead and whether we will soon glimpse the blue sky behind this falling cloud.

Google Earth ... Even Cooler

Using special software, Google Earth (already a map lover's dream) can be projected as a hologram and manipulated with your fingertips these days. While it isn't 3D, it's pretty cool ... and very Minority Reportish -


Holographic Google Earth from Nicolas Loeillot on Vimeo.