Tempest Chasing » Site Updates

American Meteorological Society

Kelton Halbert — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 15:59:55 +0000

The last week has been active weather wise for much of the southeast, including a damaging wind event in Tennessee (with a reported funnel cloud) and the damaging tornado event in Alabama (6 tornadoes; 1 EF-3). As many of you may have noticed, I did not update the website or even twitter once during that event, and I know a lot of you were depending on current information to keep you posted. Therefore, I extend my sincere apologies that current information was not provided, and I will offer an explanation as to why I did not post. Also, there are consecutive Slight Risks for severe thunderstorms across the southeast over the next two days, including TX/LA/MS. There are currently tornado watches in effect as an upper level shortwave trough broke off and became a cutoff low. This will bring showers and thunderstorms to the Deep South, some of which will possibly be severe with damaging winds, hail, and isolated tornadoes.

As far as my explanation, I am at the American Meteorological Society conference in New Orleans, LA. The image above (this morning’s sounding by LIX) is the fruit of this conference; Patrick Marsh released his new sounding analysis program called SHARPPy. I’ve been here since last Friday, attending talks, meetings, presentations, and the whole lot. I got to meet Reed Timmer, the now retiring Director of the National Hurricane Center, and Dr. Josh Wurman of the Doppler on Wheels (DOW). In other words, I’m in weather nerd heaven and having a great time. I return home Saturday and will be able to resume normal life, if life permits.

No severe weather is expected for the Middle Tennessee area over the next few days.

Out Of Town – NCAS Weather Camp

Kelton Halbert — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 13:02:15 +0000

I just wanted to give everyone a heads up that I will not be in town until this next Sunday. I will be attending the NCAS Weather Camp and Jackson State University in Jackson, MS, and I will not be able to cover any of the up-comming severe weather events over the next week. What is NCAS? It’s an abbreviation of an abbreviation, which stands for NOAA CAS (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Center for Atmospheric Sciences). If I happen to find time, I might make a forecast, but don’t count on anything yet! In my absence, I recommend you sign up for Twitter and follow @NashSevereWx for accurate and timely severe weather information for Davidson and Williamson counties. Hopefully I won’t miss too much action, and the tornado threat should be minimal for the next few days. However, do not get caught off guard!

-Kelton Halbert

Storm Chase – May 2011

Kelton Halbert — Wed, 04 May 2011 01:45:09 +0000

So, in the last post about the storm intercept in Cool Springs, TN, I hinted at some big news that would be announced soon. Well, this is it! Tempest Storm Chasing will be taking it’s first trip to Oklahoma for what could be a significant severe weather event at the beginning of next week. Hoping to target the Oklahoma/northern Texas (Dallas) area, this trip has been in the works since the beginning of the year. However, I have been holding off the announcement until it looked like something substantial was at least somewhat tangible. Well, just under a week out, the Storm Prediction Center is beginning to be concerned about a 3-4 day severe weather outbreak across the plains. This is perfect timing, and I am quite excited that this event will be lining up with the trip. More importantly, this will be an excellent opportunity to see tornadoes. I do plan on finding a tornado, whether it wants to be found or not! I am well prepared for getting every shot available. I will have a camera on my dashboard, a camera for HD video, and a handheld for other various purposes. The hope is to come back home with as much material for the website as possible.

So, what makes this risk of particular interest? Well the days of May 9th-11th are showing potential with a low pressure system over the plains. It is still a little too far out to rely solely on the GFS, but it is suggesting temperatures over 90 degrees, dewpoints of 80 degrees, CAPE values over 4,000, and some moderate wind shear. Minor details such as timing are still unclear, and the values above are subject to change, but the SPC says it best.

ALTHOUGH THERE ARE DIFFERENCES IN THE GUIDANCE…THEY DO AGREE THAT BEGINNING ON SUN/D6…A LARGER SCALE TROUGH WILL DEVELOP ACROSS THE WRN STATES…WITH RIDGING DEVELOPING AHEAD OF THIS TROUGH OVER THE PLAINS STATES. THIS WOULD PORTEND A GREATER SEVERE THREAT…WITH THE POSSIBILITY OF 3-4 CONSECUTIVE DAYS OF SIGNIFICANT SEVERE DEVELOPING FROM THE PLAINS STATES INTO THE MIDWEST BEGINNING ON MON/D7 INTO TUE/D8 AND LIKELY EXTENDING INTO D9. IF TREND IN MODEL GUIDANCE PERSISTS…SEVERE RISK AREAS WILL LIKELY BE FORTHCOMING IN SUBSEQUENT D4-8 OUTLOOKS.

So, I will continue to keep an eye on the situation for Oklahoma. I will also update the website before I head out, and be sure to keep everyone not only up to date with how the trip goes, but with any significant weather that occurs here in Middle Tennessee. Enjoy the quiet weather while it lasts!

Tempest Chasing Cafepress.com Store!

Kelton Halbert — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 04:20:31 +0000

As promised, I have been working on an online store for the website. The purpose of this store is to help pay for domain fees, as well as any future additions. Fee free to browse the “store” section of the website, or go to http://cafepress.com/tempestchasing! Clicking on the main abnner on the store takes you back to this website.

A Whole Bunch Of New Stuff…

Kelton Halbert — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 19:32:05 +0000

There are a WHOLE bunch of new features I have been working on lately, and so I thought it would be best to announce them so that you know how to use them! If you have not created a user profile on this website, now is a good time, because there is some awesome stuff!

Shoutbox:

This shoutbox allows users to leave shout-outs with smiley faces! Leave comments, suggestions, or even have a conversation over the shoutbox! There is NO refreshing required with it, it automatically updates itself!

Who Is Online:

At the bottom of the page, it will tell you how many people are online. it is seperated into ‘Guests’ and ‘Members’

Live Radar:

I know I have mentioned this before, but I find it so cool that I just have to say it again =)

And here comes the big one……

User Forum!

There is now a user forum! This forum is COMPLETELY integrated with this website, so if you have an account on here and log in, it automatically logs you into the forum as well. If you create a new account, it is automatically integrated to the forum. Seamless and powerful! The point is for user discussions on blog updates, or other weather going on. From education to severe weather, this forum if for your discussion! The sidebar also contains a recent post list for the forum.

Blog posts are automatically posted in the forum, and if you comment on it, it creates a post in the forum. Also, it works the other way around. If you make a post in the forum, it makes a comment! PLEASE use these features!

I hope these features are enjoyed!

Post Ratings:

There is also a post rating system, that uses tornado icons and the EF-Scale

New Feature! LIVE radar!

Kelton Halbert — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 19:19:40 +0000

New Feature! This website is now streaming LIVE GRlevel3 Radar! Current products are Base Reflectivity, Base Velocity, and Storm Relative Velocity. I will say, this is still quite bugged right now.. but it is a work in progress. It is having trouble updating, so at this moment radar images may (or may not) be old or out of date. I am still working on this, but go ahead and click on the ‘Live GR3 Radar’ tab to see what I am talking about! Live comments and ideas below!

For those who need a link… http://tempestchasing.com/?page_id=290

New Features…

Kelton Halbert — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 03:35:47 +0000

Some new features have been added! If you go to the Weather Forecasts tab (not the blog category) there will be options for SPC outlooks, US radar, and the Nashville SKEW-T diagram. Photos have 3 galleries, including storm photos, cloud photos, and storm damage photos. If you have any suggestions for future features in the Weather Forecasts directory, leave them here in the comments section!