Just finished up editing lightning photos from the chase night before last across West Texas and Eastern New Mexico.  Fun, but long day, despite the lack of anticipated severe weather and flooding rains.  It was nice to finally get a shot at some local lightning photography!

You can view all the photos and the chase story here. All the photos there can be clicked on for a larger size!

This past weekend I had the opportunity to watch storm chaser Ben Holcomb’s new 2011 Storm Chasing DVD creatively titled Relocated. Ben moved to Central Oklahoma from Michigan to more conveniently and actively pursue his severe weather interests, and this DVD shows that move certainly paid off!

In full disclosure I must confess that I am friends with Ben. I’ve known Ben for a while now and have watched him grow not only as a storm chaser but as a photographer as well. His video skills have greatly improved over the last couple of years, and some of the segments in this video really show that!  That said, he knows that I would be brutally honest in a review of his DVD, good or bad.

Despite the fact that I personally had the worst storm chasing season since 1988, Ben seemed to have been on a lot of tornadoes in 2011, and I’m kicking myself for not being there.  There aren’t the killer, more well known tornadoes from 2011, but some of the lesser known events. Despite them being lesser known events, they are still no doubt stunning captures. A couple of the tornadoes he caught I was somehow unaware they even happened!

The package quality was no less than you would receive from a store bought DVD. Nothing about it screams amateur DVD.  (In fact, I’ve seen a couple of tornado knockoff videos in the past that sold on store shelves that were downright awful compared to Ben’s offering).

Most of the DVD is in full resolution HD. I watched in on a 82″ DLP screen and the quality was great on most of the clips.  There were one or two (a clip from the dashcam) that come to mind, that were sprinkled in that didn’t appear to be HD, as well as some of the trailers for other chaser videos at the beginning (more on that in a minute).

If you like tornado footage, this DVD does not disappoint, including a couple of long lived tornadoes he managed to capture.  I found myself yelling at the TV while he was shooting the tornado near Chickasha, OK. There was an embankment about 15 feet tall next to the road he was on, and as the tornado moved behind it I was begging him to grab the camera and run up the embankment, as it was obscuring the ground contact of the tornado!  Nonetheless, it was a great tripoded video segment and clearly had me engaged in the action!

He even includes a bonus at the end of video and photos from his trip to view the final space shuttle launch.  A nice treat I wasn’t expecting.  As a whole, I can find little to complain about in this DVD (I know, a rarity for me, right?)

One thing that really stuck out as a negative was a couple of the trailers for other storm chaser DVDs.  This was a nice idea and I kinda hope it catches on, to expose people to more of the DVDs produced every year.  But one thing I would do, and this is directed at the creators of those trailers, make sure your trailer is in full 1080p HD before you give it to someone to include on their DVD.  Some of them looked downright awful on a big screen, especially the text.  There are a lot of big screens out there now.  I know Ben just inserted them in the quality he received them, so not a knock on his DVD.

Bottom line, go right now and buy Ben’s 2011 Relocated DVD, you will NOT be disappointed!  If you aren’t convinced yet, here is the trailer!

Just a quick post. Wanted to share the beautiful harvest moon currently shining over Texas tonight.  You can click on it and see it even bigger!

I’ve been covering a lot of wildfires on the Southern Plains this year, in the absence of much severe weather to chase.  This day was certainly one of the bigger fires I covered this year so far.  I was returning from a storm chase in Oklahoma the previous day, and as is often the case after a storm system passes the area in the spring, the winds were howling across the plains. Combined with dry air, this was an explosive combination.

Arriving in Wichita Falls, Texas, there was already a large fire in progress on the north side, moving in to residential areas.  That one was already well covered by media, and I knew there was another fire in progress to the SW near Iowa Park that I assumed was getting little, if any coverage, so I headed for it.

Thanks to some local law enforcement, I was able to get right up near the fire line, and was even shown a safe place to ride it out as it passed by.  This turned out to produce great photographic opportunities of course.

Sadly, I watched and documented as people scrambled to shove as many possessions that they could in their vehicles and rush out of there in the very short time before the fire arrived.  Winds were howling over 50 mph and the fire was coming fast and furious, through mostly mesquite trees and overgrown brush.  Imagine trying to shove as much of your things as you can (or even to think of everything you want to save first) in 30 minutes and get out of there.   I then watched in horror as those same folks’ homes burned to the ground in minutes!

While these are quite scary to watch, document, and even be in close proximity to, they do present incredible photographic opportunities to document the event, both in photo and video.  I shot video for hours, was there from just after noon until well after dark, and I shot a couple hundred photographs as well.

The photograph above was of a local volunteer Fire Department truck that had mechanical troubles while fighting the fire, and had to be abandoned for their safety.  You’ll actually see this truck working in some of the clips in the video below.

Here is a video of some of the best of the event.  It’s a little long for a news type video, but I cut out as much as I thought possible and still tell the story.  First you’ll see the fire coming in, then coming through the area I was at, and then some aftermath.  Some of the area was just barren. It was like being on another planet!  Finally, in the end we get to see some of the day’s heroes at work.

I’m planning to eventually get a fire gallery going on the main website, but right now I have a gallery from this day you can find here:

http://daviddrummond.com/wildfires/2011-wichita-county-tx-wildfire.html

Short, backyard chase yesterday around the Lubbock area. Thanks to Steve Miller of Amarillo for the heads up, as I was working my side job yesterday and not expecting much after the models downplayed everything.

I have posted the full chase report on my website, with a few more images as well!

I’ll be out at the Science Spectrum in Lubbock tomorrow with the chase vehicle on display and talking to people about storm chasing and severe weather. Come on out and join us!  At the end of this post is a video on YouTube that is the beginning of a 9 part series from last year’s event, so you can see what kind of weather enthusiast fun you’ll miss out on if you don’t come!  It’s also a great chance to get storm spotter training and a tour of the Lubbock NWS office.  The event is free (except for the IMAX movie).

Sat., February 26th (11:00am to 5:00pm)

The Student Chapter of the American Meteorological Society at Texas Tech University along with the Science Spectrum, KCBD News Channel 11 and the National Weather Service will be hosting Lubbock’s Fifth Annual Severe Weather Awareness Day on Saturday February 26th, from 11:00am to 5:00pm at the Science Spectrum & OMNI Theater.

Activities will include hands-on weather experiments for kids of all ages, live weather demonstrations with a tornado simulator, information on severe weather preparedness, and door prizes.  Storm Chasing vehicles, weather instrumentation from Texas Tech’s Severe Storm Research Team as well as a mobile Doppler radar will be on-site and open for all to see.

The national Weather Service, whose regional offices are located in the Science Spectrum building, will also be providing a certified Storm Spotter Training seminar and guided tours of their offices to the general public.

Additionally, special OMNI Theater screenings of the film, Storm Chasers will also be featured in celebration of the day’s events.  Storm Chasers lets audiences get closer to real tornadoes, hurricanes and other severe storms than most would ever dare!

Come out and meet John Robison and the whole KCBD weather crew for a weather-filled day of fun! This is a *FREE event for the general public and will be located in the Science Spectrum’s Exhibit Hall .

*Regular OMNI Theater ticket rates apply for all films.

Showtimes for Storm Chasers on Sat., Feb. 26th will be at 2:00 and 4:00pm.
General Admission Ticket Prices for OMNI films:
$8.00 Adults
$6.50 Seniors (60+)
$6.50 Children (ages 3-12) ?

What I did learn was that I have a lot to learn and a lot of practice ahead, so there is much room for improvement.  That said I did catch one of the brighter meteors and got one other star trail image that I liked, so I thought I would share those with you here.

You can click on the images to get a bit larger one.

Yes, I haven’t even posted on my blog here in nearly 3 months, and rarely on Facebook and Twitter during that time. What happened?

The 2010 chase season got into its stride and as many know, I opened Dryline Media up to representing other storm chasers video just before the season started. Without getting into all the dirty details of why, around mid-May I decided to shut down that extension of Dryline Media. There were a myriad of reasons, but the bottom line was that it was causing me an unreal amount of stress and taking it’s toll on me physically, emotionally and mentally. I have to take care of myself first, and although it was a hard decision, I realized that continuing the way things were was severely detrimental to my health and things had to change.

This all came along with what seemed to be a peak in stress with storm chasing in general. Some of it was self imposed, because of how hard I’ve been pushing the media aspect of it further and further. Other parts were allowing myself to get caught up in all the extensive drama in the storm chase “community”, which believe me, this year was in epic proportions. Due to the Storm Chasers TV show, the constant publicity of the Vortex 2 project and the constant and real time updates by the latter as well as most all other “storm chasers” has caused the ranks of storm chasers to grow exponentially. I put “storm chasers” in quotes in this context, because many of the people on the roads of late aren’t your typical dedicated storm chasers, but rather locals who saw all this coverage and wanted to get out and be a part of it I guess.

The end result is that it’s been a cause for some very frustrating and stressful chases for me, particularly in Oklahoma, but certainly not limited to there. While I recognize that everyone has the right to go out and look at clouds if they so choose, the sheer numbers have fundamentally changed what I loved for so many years about storm chasing. The lonely rural drives, sitting out on the side of a desolate highway, just me and perhaps a couple of other dedicated storm chasers, just enjoying the weather. Now it’s large traffic jams on those rural roads and some pretty terrific driving stunts by some of them. On bigger days it’s even getting difficult to find a place to pull off to the side of the road to watch a storm.

This growth has not been lost in the social aspect of storm chasing. It seems not a day goes by any more that some “chaser” isn’t bashing some other “chaser”. The Storm Track forums are now mostly populated by local storm spotters and weather enthusiasts, rather than the dedicated chasers that were there before. Well, some of them are still there, but you see them less and less. Especially veteran chasers who rarely post there any more, as well as many academic and professional weather folks who have left that venue. The staff at Storm Track are pretty quick to pounce on the flame wars that seem to start every few days, but now it just spills right over to facebook and blogs where it continues unmitigated. I used to post on Storm Track daily and was very active, but I’ve gotten to where I only breeze through Storm Track and read threads that interest me and rarely post there any more. I just want no part of all the drama.

Another element of storm chasing that seems to be growing is that of the fraudster. Websites and Facebook pages of “storm chasers” are popping up all over the place. In some cases well designed websites, even storm chase tour companies, all with almost NO experience, but yet proclaiming all sorts of untruthful things. I’m sorry, but if you have been chasing for 10 or 15 years like you say on your website, either you are a horrible chaser, or you would have at least one or two tornado pics to throw up on your site, rather than a crappy shot of a scud cloud misidentified as a wall cloud or a funnel cloud. Seriously, there is no shame in being new at an activity. We were all new once. This coming in making false proclamations about your chasing isn’t doing you any favors. Come in with a spirit of humility and learning and in 10 years you will have a REAL track record to be proud of, not some fake stuff you threw up on a website trying to garner some instant respect.

The point is that lying is a growing element in chasing and it’s getting harder and harder to know who you can trust. Some of these “chasers” are stealing photos and videos from one another, mooching off others to chase, etc etc. A large influx in recent years of some very negative elements in storm chasing to be sure.

Chaser drama…why? What is it about storm chasing that either causes the drama or attracts those types of people that have to continually start crap with people? I’ve never in my life been involved in any activity that has as much back-stabbing and attacking, often on those who are successful in the activity. In my struggle the last few years to learn why storm chasing is becoming so stressful to me, I’ve come to the conclusion that it is that very element that I hate so much about it and it is that same element that I need to distance myself from for my own sanity and well being.

This has caused me to have to block a few people on Facebook and unsubscribe to a few Twitter and blog feeds or set them to ignore status on Storm Track and other things. In some cases it meant distancing myself from some people I considered friends. I’m sorry guys, but I no longer want any part of all the drama and crap. If it comes my way, it gets an instant wall put in front of it. If you are the type of person that must generate or propagate drama, I’m not going to be associating with you. I’d rather have positive people around me.

Storm Chasing…the actual chasing of storms, I dearly love. The adventure on the plains, the drives, the crazy things I see. Witnessing up close the awesome power of nature. I love chasing for KCBD because I love the people there and l love helping the viewers be informed. But all this negative extra-curricular junk in chasing that is severely causing me to no longer enjoy storm chasing. The only way I can continue to chase is to block that stuff out and distance myself from those doing it.

Well, that went to a darker place than I intended when I started this post. I’m sorry about that, just letting my thoughts flow.

I’ve had a break from things now, had time to think outside the box for a while, and have reached some clarity and some level of peace with what I want in the future from storm chasing. In the end, it’s ingrained into me to the point it’s part of my identity. As such it’s not just something I can walk away from and not look back. That said, there are other things in life I want to explore, so storm chasing is going to start having to allow room for that.

So now I am back to keeping things updated again (not that there is anyone still checking for updates here heh). I have a lot of work ahead of me on some video and photography stuff I’ll be posting in the months to come. We’ll also have to see what happens on the hurricane front as well, so far it’s be relatively quiet. Since this is my personal website, you might see a few of those other activities pop up from time to time around here.

I will still be storm chasing when the opportunity arises, but things are going to be different where I am concerned. Let’s see where this adventure takes us now….

Another potent day on tap for most of Western OK and down in to parts of North Central Texas as a dryline will move to along the eastern TX Panhandle/OK state line, and a warm from is lifting north across Oklahoma.

The warm front is currently situated along the I40 corridor with what we call a triple point (where the warm front intersects the dryline) currently in the vicinity of Wheeler County, TX.

The northward extent of severe weather will be tempered by the eventual location of the warm front by mid-late afternoon, but even farther south along the dryline, isolated monster supercells capable of extreme size hail larger than baseballs, strong tornadoes and damaging winds will still be possible.  Storms following the warm front in particular should be especially dangerous!

Today has the potential to be yet another tornado outbreak for much of Oklahoma and even parts of North Central Texas.  Everyone have your weather radios on today and pay attention to local media sources.   Storms will be moving much slower today than they did during the last outbreak on Monday, which means you may have more lead time on warnings, but this unfortunately also means that giant hail and tornadoes will have more time over a given area to do more damage.

I’ll be heading out the door shortly for far western Oklahoma, and will be streaming LIVE this afternoon on the LIVE ChaseCam, with AUDIO!

Very potent severe weather day is shaping up for the Texas Panhandle and South Plains area with the possibility of tornadoes and hail to the size of softballs!

Morning surface analysis shows dewpoints in the upper 50s across the area, which is more that sufficient moisture in the higher terrain of West Texas up on the caprock to get good storms going and forecast models show this increasing into the 60s by late today.

A dryline should tighten up near the Texas/New Mexico state line by afternoon and provide a focus for storms to initiate.  Additionally, some old outflow boundaries from previous convection could also provide a focus, especially anywhere those intersect the dryline.

Wind profiles should increase favorably for supercell development as the day wears on. RUC forecast model shows more than sufficient instability for tall, strong storms of the type to produce very large hail,  and the low level EHI (Energy Helicity Index) has a nice bullseye just west of Lubbock by 22z.  Any supercells today that interact with any of these  boundaries will certainly be capable of producing tornadoes, maybe even a strong one.

From a storm chasing perspective, at least the storm motions will be relatively slow so they should be easy to keep up with.

People living in the area should have your weather radios on today, and tune in to KCBD 11 for up to the minute information if you are on the South Plains in the Lubbock viewing area.

I will be out in the field by early afternoon streaming live on the LIVE ChaseCam page!  Be safe today everyone!