LP

Today's photo is of a LP (or "Low Precipitation") supercell on June 9, 2009, near Dodge City, Kansas, This is a storm that started out like a classic supercell before transitioning into this beautiful LP. At frame center, you can see the inflow base with slight lowering. To the right, you can see a small precipitation core quite far from the updraft base. Just beautiful structure. While I don't have an special insight into the science end of Vortex 2, I imagine that it was good that they had a chance to scan and observe this storm, seeing as it transitioned from a classic to an LP, and that seems (to me) to be an interesting thing to collect data on.

Needle in the Haystack

Click photo to supersize

Today's photo is a panoramic stitch from a beautiful supercell near Dodge City, Kansas, June 9, 2009. This storm was truly a diamond in the rough on what was supposed to be a crazy day of chasing in eastern Kansas. The steering committee of V2 quickly decided that the setup in eastern Kansas wasn't going to pan out, so they booked west into what most chasers would have called a "crap setup" relying on nothing more than a very educated guess by their forcasters. Result? They found one of the most photogenic storms of the day. While this never produced a tornado, it was easily one of the prettiest storms I shot in 2009, eventually transitioning into an LP supercell.

The original file is around 10,000 pixels wide.

Whoa! A Laptop!

This picture cracks me up. This guy probably has a perfectly legit reason to take a picture of his laptop (he's part of Vortex 2, a two year science mission into studying tornadoes), but there's something hilarious about the juxtaposition of the beautiful mayhem behind him. This photo compliments yesterday's shot -- it's the same storm at roughly the same time. You can't ask for better lighting than this!

*edit* A commenter claims this is a PR person for Lenovo, which is quite possible, since Lenovo supplied V2 with a good deal of kit and sent a rep to see how things were going. If this is a Lenovo PR guy, then that's an awesome ending to this story -- I guess that's definately a legit reason to take a picture of your laptop in a thunderstorm!

Between Me and the Earth

First off -- wow! Thanks for all the response on yesterday's question. Sounds like number one was the winner, though I can see why some picked number two -- if I could go back in time, I'd reshoot number one with just a little more photo on the left hand side.

Today's is one of the last shots I took on June 7th near Amazonia, Missouri. After chasing this storm and then being chased by this storm and then chasing this storm again, Vortex 2 had finally given up following and allowed the mesocyclone to pass overhead -- which drew out the full might of setting sun, beautifully blasting a halo of amber through the rain. Hello, rainbow!

Before and while this was shot, the Vortex 2 probe teams were running "transects" beneath the mesocyclone -- the rotating "heart" of a supercell. From what I could gather from radio chatter, this storm didn't look too impressive on the computer screens inside the mobile radar trucks -- but one of the probe vehicles reported a brief spinup in front of them. Never did hear the final verdict, but it's possible this storm was producing either a "gustnado" (a rotation on the ground not connected to the storm above) or a small, brief tornado.

P.S. -- this is my one "self portrait" shot from Vortex 2. My best friend Josh convinced me a long time ago that I should remember to take a self portrait on every shoot. Can you find me?

Which one do you like more?

I'm posting two panoramas today -- because I can't decide which one is better! Shot these back to back as Project Vortex 2 wrapped up a day of chasing near Amazonia, Missouri, June 7, 2009. This is a storm V2 chased down -- and then was chased by, the entire armada screaming down I-29 with 5 1/2 inch hailstones ricocheting off of some of the slower satellite trucks. (The next morning I went to check damage at the hotel -- only one blown windshield in the crew, and the satellite truck that took the brunt of the hail was operated by the Navy -- and featured a satellite dish designed to take small arms fire.)

This is the back end of the storm a few minutes after the mesocyclone passed overhead.

So which do you like more? Panorama one, or panorama two?

Click either photo for a super-mega-big version.

Panorama One:



Panorama Two: