Beef Jerky Hall of Fame Beef Jerky Emporium Okc

At 8:31 am AEST 20 January 2014…. our tiny little girl arrived in the outside world! Welcome Alessia Frances Hall. She gave precisely one little cry to let us know she was breathing and everything was fine, and then got down to the business of looking for a feed (not too much has changed in her first week really). She tipped the scales at 2.79 kg (6 lb 2 oz), and according to the growth charts I have available, that puts her on the 9th percentile for full term girls; she's so tiny! But she makes up for it in the cuteness area.

So, the first week is done and dusted — so much discovery, and a lot of hard work, but we are getting there. She is adorable, and we both feel pretty darn blessed right now 🙂

So we write this blog as we sit in wondrous confines of LA airport, waiting for our flight home. Our last couple days in Denver included attending a baseball game at Coors Field, where the LA Dodgers got smashed by the Colorado Rockies, eating the obligatory hot dog (or two) and sucking down a couple of brewski's. A very entertaining game and much easier to watch then cricket (says Jo)! A little stroll around Denver downtown, some washing, a sleep in and 'organising' to repack was in order for our last day. Joanne was packed pretty quickly while Jonty had to don a new hat and t-shirt to get into the mood to 'pack'.

One last bar-b-q lunch was squeezed into our pre-existing stuffed bellies and then a 2 hr flight from Denver to LA. Which brings us to the present. LA airport is crapola. This is a hint to all people travelling to or through LAX – spend as little time as possible here…BORING!

Overall, it's been a great trip, if a little disappointing on the storm side of things. We saw two tornadoes, but they were only mere glimpses. We did see some fairly nice supercell thunderstorms, and even some of the aftermath of the tornadoes in Oklahoma, but generally didn't have too much luck. We've driven over 14,000 km (actually, the final driving tally goes something like Jonty: 14234, Jo: 0), through some wonderful and contrasting landscapes, experienced temperatures ranging from -5C with snow to 42C (with no snow), blue skies, cumulonimbus (aka, Cl9!!), a fabulous live concert that will live in the memory forever (thanks Ludovico!), caught up on some friends, and generally enjoyed spending time with the natives in the US of A. And some non natives too, you know who you are.

And so now, we must sign off until next year when for some strange reason …. we will be returning for the Tornado season!  Yay!

J & J

Snap snap

Random photos that  didn't quite get to shine…

At the famous Eishens, Okarche, OK – famous for fried chicken

chow down at eishens…fried fried fried!

Just in case you were thinking about it!

Its perfect!

storm over yonder

Look i think….

downtown somewhere…. jo ready to go!

Good Spirits

Smile Joey

Imitation perfect of John Wayne

Beef Sandwich

Im just thinking….

Showing the leg!

doesn't top the bacon and peanut butter shake from sonic

Boo

A walk in Sedona, Arizona

Get your hot sauces here!

Coffee and storm in one!

The latest tornado outbreak in Oklahoma occurred on the 31st May, with a significant tornado developing in the El Reno area west of Oklahoma City. This tornado was a multi-vortex tornado, and by that I mean it contains several vortices rotating around or inside of the main vortex.  Diagram below illustrates what a multi-vortex tornado may appear as. It also had some tricky motion associated with it, as the tornado itself appeared to be rotating around the periphery of a much larger meso-cyclone circulation, all combined with the forward motion of the storm itself. This, combined with very heavy traffic on many roads in the area, led to major difficulties for chasers on this storm.

Unfortunately it has claimed the lives of another 9 people, and I believe all of these fatalities occurred in vehicles — this certainly raises some questions. Included in these 9 deaths are 3 storm chasers, one of whom I knew, although not well. This is the first time that chasers have been killed in the field. The details of the death are unknown but they were very cautious chasers and researchers and will certainly be missed.

In view of this, and to answer the questions of Miss Dunns HSIE class, I thought i would put this clip up to give you an idea of what can occur when you become too close to the tornado path. This clip depicts the same Tornado that occurred in El Reno on the 31st May. A big component of deaths is car accidents and this fact has been a major contributor to the horrendous traffic jam that occurred on the roads during this time.

To be clear to all, this is way too close to be near a Tornado and i would never willingly place myself into such a position.

In the meantime we are here in Breckenridge. Relaxing with some day treks, sleeping..of course eating, drinking and taking a little time in the hot tub before heading off again tomorrow for Denver. Here are a few shots of our time here in Breckenridge, Colorado:

Balancing act

Leading the charge

Reflections in a frozen puddle

Where did the trail go?

Outside our digs

downtown Breckenridge

Strike a pose

More imagery

On our trek ….

A recap of our last few days is in order given our time here is fast approaching an end — departure day is now only 5 days away :-O As mentioned we headed out from Norman OK to Boulder CO the other day. Along the way we stopped off at the Great Salt Plains Lake, oddly named because of the salt flats in the area and for the salt fork Arkansas river which is dammed to form the lake. Home to a variety of birds and selenite crystals which people can dig up for themselves during certain times of the year.

Great Salt Plains Lake

Great Salt Plains Lake

Salt Plains

Digging for selenite crystals

View across the salt plains

Kicking on towards north westerly direction we came across some beautiful landscapes, becoming progressively flatter and more desolate, and finally encapsulated by a stunning sunset across the Oklahoma panhandle just east of Boise City.

We saw a silhouette of a homestead in the distance and pulled up to it with the hope of using it as forground for some sunset photos. However on our approach it was clear that it had been abandoned, boarded up and desolate. The words 'HANTA VIRUS' stared back at us, draped across the door in red paint. On the flat desolate plain, with not another soul around, this image gave an eerie atmosphere – a dark history and one that made me want to get the heck out of there! A bit of google searching later, 'HANTA VIRUS' as it turns out is not a nice little bug! Known for a recent outbreak in Yosemite National Park, it is a virus that is carried by certain species of mice and rats. Basically you get exposed to the virus, fall sick and die from respiratory failure. Look it up! Rest assured, we did not venture in there! If someone wrote it on the door to keep people out, well it worked!

The following day, we finished the journey up to Boulder, which was home for a couple of nights, obviously one night was a date with Ludovico Einaudi — see previous post — but rave rave.. still singing his praises. Whilst in Boulder, we ventured out into the mountains for a trek up the flatirons. These flatirons are Boulders backdrop and provide a haven for eagle nesting, bears and citizens alike. Boulder, who have legalized marijuana, hosts an array of individuals as one might imagine given its surroundings and certainly has its own vibe.

Following the mountainous interlude, we headed back out onto the plains to chase a marginal setup for storms over western Kansas. Well, this proved to be a complete bust unfortunately, and we don't even have any photos worth showing. We saw some storms, but nothing really of note. We stayed the night in Dodge City, and in the morning of course we "got the hell out of Dodge" — after much discussion, we decided against travelling down into northern Oklahoma for storms, and headed back to the west into the mountains once more. The setup had some things going for it, strong instability and shear, but similar problems to the previous day, with storms likely to be HP supercells and having a tendency to line out. We watched the radar from Oklahoma during the drive, and it turned out to be the right decision. This feeling was reinforced sitting in a cosy lodge in Breckenridge CO, supping down some soup and red wine, with an open fire and the snow falling outside. More about that later…

Just returned from seeing Ludovico in concert at the Boulder Theater. Jonty got a little starstruck last night when he and his entourage dined at the same place as us. If you haven't already heard his music… get onto it!!! The recent movie 'Intouchables' — a French film — features it beautifully on the sound track, but to see in person is just another level. Fantastic orchestra too, mostly quite young, but they all clearly loved the music they were playing.

We have travelled many a mile across the USA and while the landscape changes as you move eastwards, so too does the billboard messages.  In LA, it's promoting Nike, electronic goods, phone companies etc, but as you progress further east and deep into the 'bible belt' the billboard messages drift towards a different theme. 'The bible belt' is part of the USA where strict fundamentalist Christianity dominates life. Typically it is the southern states from Oklahoma and Texas across into Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee , Florida and the Carolina's.

As we drive through towns, there is no shortage of churches that you may choose from. From the First Baptist church to the Church of Christ to Church for the deaf – every city, village, and even ghost town has one. Funnily enough after the tornado ripped through Moore, God was mentioned more than once or twice. This broadcast from ABC in Australia by one of their reporters provides some interesting listening.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-05-25/freedom-to-worship-and-the-freedom-to-not/4713420

After seeing the billboard signs throughout our drive in the bible belt, and then listening to this ABC post I thought it to be quite poignant.  It is not intended to offend anyone, it is merely an observation, and apologies in advance if it causes any offence.

Well, despite the frustration of not having a great deal of success in seeing tornadoes ourselves during the three day chase, a little chat with a couple of the experienced forecasters at the Storm Prediction Center made us feel a little better about our decisions. Basically, they had been off duty during the three day outbreak, and had made virtually the same decisions during their own chase; so, if the pros were thinking along the same lines, well that is some sort of reassurance anyway! The chat also led us to do some damage surveying of the Lake Thunderbird/Shawnee tornado from May 19. This was quite interesting and educational to be doing a detailed survey of damage indicators, with a view to rating it on the EF scale, and comparing to the official damage surveys conducted by the National Weather Service. The following photos were taken in the area just east of Lake Thunderbird, which is just to the east of Norman.

The area we surveyed

EF2 damage, most walls remaining intact.

This was given EF2, with removal of some external walls. Here one brick wall of the house has completely gone.

Next door neighbour, a timber construction, is completely demolished, with most walls destroyed. This was given EF3, although borderline EF4.

The demolished house sits only 20 metres away from one that was virtually untouched.

Tree debarking, but this one appears to have been dead for quite some time.

These folks were happy to chat about their experience in the tornado. Their house will probably be demolished, but at least it protected them and they are insured.

We were a bit wary about taking photos in the area, getting in the way or annoying home owners who were trying to clean up and recover. But just chatting to them cleared the way instantly, all were happy for us to be there and to discuss their experiences; in fact most wanted to show us their homes and discuss how it all unfolded. This in itself was interesting, learning how ordinary people (i.e. not meteorologists!) deal with living in this tornado prone area.

We did not survey the Moore damage, but just driving along I-35, you cross the damage path as the tornado crossed the Warren theatre and headed into the residential area on the east side of the freeway. This was also quite a sobering experience, the violence and destruction being quite evident, even several days later. It also brings home the very narrow swathes of damage that tornadoes produce; the worst damage produced by sub-vortices within the main tornado circulation (sometimes called "suction vortices") are no more than 20 to 50 metres wide, and virtually untouched houses sit next to ones that have been completely destroyed.

Damage along I-35 in Moore

The warren theatre, it survived very well considering the tornado passed directly over it.

East of I-35, EF-4 damage

Day 1: Saturday May 18

Distance travelled: 540 km.

We headed north into southern Kansas to be located in position just north of a warm from near the OK/KS border, with a reasonable setup for supercells and tornadoes expected to develop during the day over western Kansas. One problem was that the instability was very large, with vertical wind shear initially a little on the weak side, but it was expected to increase late in the day. Due to some logistical issues, we were a little late leaving Norman, and as we drove west on US 160 in southern Kansas, we could see the initial updraughts rising through the haze about 100 km away. This led the driver to be a little keen on the gas pedal, and we were pulled over to be given a warning by the local constabulary. Following this slight delay, we arrived in Coldwater KS, with a decision to make about whether to go north to intercept a cell showing some organisation to our north, or drop a little south to intercept the next cell coming north from the Oklahoma panhandle. Well, long story short, we decided on the south option, the northern cell went on to produce a few very photogenic tornadoes near Sanford KS, while our choice became very outflow dominant and lined out quite spectacularly. Such is life. We did see some very pretty outflow features, including lots of raised dust and several gustnadoes as we raced eastwards to stay ahead of the outflow. Visibility at time was reduced to almost zero in the blowing dust. We eventually stopped at Pratt to let the line pass through, and then decided to call it a night in Pratt. A lovely Mexican dinner at a small local restaurant helped, but it was frustrating to see the tornado photos being posted on social media. Oh well.

Out over the tundra

Pitstop

Evil brews

Dust starts up

Storm ahead

Topsoil spills across the road

Gustnado

Windmill farm

Storm brewing

Sweeping dust across the wind farms

Hiding out at Macca's

Storm approaches Pratt

Sun re-emerges in Pratt

Day 2, Sunday 19 May

Distance travelled: approx 480 km.

Another fairly frustrating day really. Analysis in the morning showed strong instability and shear in place east of the dryline, which was situated pretty much right over us in the morning at Pratt, then SSW down into Oklahoma. The wind fields seemed a little more favourable for storms to remain discrete in central Oklahoma, while upscale growth into lines may be a problem further north where we were. On the other hand, relative humidity was forecast to be a little low over central OK, which would play against tornadoes. As it happened, we decided to stay north… and the storms over central OK produced tornadoes. Our storms did tend to lines, which plagued us all afternoon as we attempted time and again to position on the southern cell in the line, only for it to be interfered with yet another new cell developing to its south. Nothing could move east off the dryline, and so once again we saw some nice storms, but no tornadoes. Early in the day, we were on a storm to the SSW of Wichita, which produced a tornado, but we could not see it due to haze and rain wrapping. It looked for a while that the large city of Wichita was going to be hit badly, but as it happens the tornado dissipated before it reached the city. Late in the day when we were about to give up, the southern member of our line did manage to separate for an extended time, and we followed this cell to the ENE, although it was seriously moving, and this took us into Osage County in Oklahoma, a rather infamous chase area for its unfavourable terrain and lack of roads. In any case, we did not see a lot with this storm, and aborted the chase. The need to dodge around a few strong storms on the way home meant we were delayed, and stayed the night in Stillwater OK.

Quick game of frisbee while we wait

Star!!

Look i think….

Yes, yes.. i i confer

where??

Ill just check the radar

The radar is on track

Base of storm found

Things looking good..

Getting better

Developing wall cloud

still looking good

Goodbye storm

A pretty ending

Day 3: Monday 20 May

Distance travelled: approx 490 km.

An early start saw us back in Norman early morning, and down the Gray Owl for much needed coffee infusion. We left Norman to travel a little to the south just after noon, where we thought there was a better chance of storms remaining isolated and a bit slower moving. After about 2 pm, the whole section of the dryline over southwest Oklahoma and north Texas began to erupt, and with the favourable conditions in place over the whole region, it was really a case of "pick your supercell". Weaker convection to our north did not look too promising, and so we decided to chase a storm just to the south of where the Moore tornado storm developed. The Moore storm actually developed extremely rapidly to our north, going from first radar echo to supercell in about 10 to 15 minutes. It went on to produce the tornado very rapidly as well, and there was no chance of us returning to follow it – we just heard about the mayhem and destruction on the radio as we followed our storm. A bad decision or good decision??? You decide! But suffice to say we have mixed feelings about it. As it turned out, the Moore tornado was really the only significant tornado of the day, with several others developing on other storms but remaining relatively weak and short-lived. We probably caught a glimpse of one of these other tornadoes, but I'm not sure we'll ever be sure of that. Our photos of a questionable lowering beneath a rotating wall cloud were taken at the same time as other chasers and spotters saw a tornado at the same place, so maybe we did catch a glimpse. The storm maintained its wall cloud for 15 to 20 minutes as we watched, and at this time it was throwing down some really intense lightning, with very frequent CGs all around the updraught base. Following this, the storm became outflow dominant, and we were almost ready to abandon it for storms further south, but then it seemed to rapidly recycle during a period when we couldn't see it, and featured a large, very low-based  rotating wall cloud, in fact it was virtually scraping the ground. So we followed it rapidly ENE through Pauls Valley and east of I-35. As it happens, the storm did not produce and we busted again. We were keen to head further south to other cells in north Texas, but not keen to core punch to get there, and discretion became the better part of valour. With no other options remaining, we decided to head home. We saw some beautiful mammatus on the way home, which gained in colour as the sun sank below the thunderstorm anvil clouds, a slight consolation.

Damage from tornado at Carney,OK from previous day tornado

Anvil lightening strike

Base of storm

Starting..

Getting thicker

Wall cloud and updraft

Nearly

Wall cloud developing

Shelf cloud forming on outflow push

Interesting mammatus

Mammatus

oOo

All in all, a fairly frustrating three day chase really, which promised a fair bit and delivered not a great deal for us. As it happens, there were not too many photogenic tornadoes anywhere over the whole period, and we missed them all. We were positioned quite well on all three days, but unlucky decisions put us on the wrong storms. I guess on the Sunday, central Oklahoma would have been the better play for initial target, so that was probably the worst decision meteorologically. We did see some nice, strong storms, several wall clouds, some interesting outflow features and some intense lightning.

Next stop will be a chase into the Texas panhandle on Thursday. While the upper level trough will be quite weak, and the unstable airmass will be well capped, the low level upslope flow may be enough to break it, and the is the possibility of some nice, slow-moving supercells, with the chance of a tornado or two. This is a fairly special region, flatter than any pancake and seems to produce the goods in seemingly marginal setups quite regularly. Here's hoping! Until next time, over and out!

Well, we had actually written a draft blog a day or so ago detailing our adventures with the hope of publishing it later in the afternoon. However, in the past 24hours or so things obviously developed into what you should all be aware of by now, a most devastating tornado hitting Moore, OK, which apart from all the mayhem and destruction, has put us a bit behind on the blogging.

For those that don't know where Moore is… well, it is literally just up the road from my home-away-from-home in Norman. The following images should give you a better idea. The first one is just a general overview, the second and third show the results of the National Weather Service damage survey plotted onto a Google Earth map (with the Montford Inn, where we are staying, also indicated).

Overview map

NWS damage survey. Colours indicate damage intensity on the EF scale as follows: Light blue EF0; Yellow EF2; Red EF4.

Same image with actual damage survey results plotted.

More information can be found at the NWS Norman office web page:

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/oun/?n=events-20130520

A collection of photos of the aftermath can be found here:

http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2013/05/photos-of-tornado-damage-in-moore-oklahoma/100518/

So as you can see it is not too far from Norman, where we are located now — at its closest point, it was about 11 km away. Given that the tornado was about 2 km wide, that means it was only about "5 tornado diameters" away from us. So once again, Norman escaped destruction by the skin of its teeth. This has occurred many times in the past few years, and unfortunately for Moore, they have often been the "fall guy". There is no known meteorological reason for this, more likely just blind luck.

Rating  Tornado's

It is probably timely that we give you an idea on how tornadoes are rated. Internationally, we use a scale called the Enhanced Fujita (EF) scale, named after one of the pioneers of serious tornado research, the late Ted Fujita. Since tornadoes are relatively rare and very small in size, it is exceedingly rare for one to actually pass over wind measuring instruments. So as an alternative, a tornado's strength is assessed after the event by inspecting the effect it has on structures of known strength, such as houses, trees etc. Skilled inspection teams go in to identify and assess the damage as soon as possible after each major tornado, and assign to tornado according to the most severe damage on the EF scale. The diagram shown here can provide some indication of how this works. The tornado that went through Moore, OK is still being assessed at present, but preliminary results show that it had a path length of 27 km, a maximum width of just over 2 km, and was on the ground for a period of 50 minutes. One inspection team found evidence of EF5 damage along a portion of the track, and so this tornado will be classified as an EF5, the first EF5 since May 24 2011 in El Reno/Piedmont Oklahoma — funnily enough, I was chasing in the area on that day too.

I'm sure you have all seen the devastating destruction it has caused through the media. The following table illustrates the wind speeds that these monsters can achieve. In comparison to the USA, Australia has relatively few strong tornadoes, however we do still get them. The most destructive tornado recorded in Australia was probably the Bulahdelah (near Newcastle) tornado in 1970, although there is no official rating of this one, it was likely EF4 or 5. There was also an officially rated EF4 tornado at Bucca (near Bundaberg) in 1992. Although the type of atmospheric setup to support strong tornadoes is far more common over the Great Plains of the USA (including Oklahoma) than in Australia, it can still occur on rare occasions, and the result can then be very similar.

Wind Speeds and Damage

Pictures illustrating

Bucca tornado, near Bundaberg Qld, 1992

It's been a hectic few days, with spotty internet and phone lines. An now it is late and bed is calling, but we will get a post up tomorrow about our own chase experiences over the past few days. Until then, ciao!

J & J

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