Season's coming to a close

It's July already!?!?! WOW, that's hard to believe, this year has flown by. Looking into this past severe season I am super proud of myself and the rest of the team/members that I've chased with and now-casted for.

I have my updated 2010 stats on the side of the home page and I am very happy with how 2010 turned out. By far the best chase day that I had was May 22nd in Bowdle, SD we witnessed 7 tornado's that day and one of those was a massive wedge that we were sitting no more than 1/4 mile from. Every other chase that I went on was  a CAP gamble but I never did have a blue sky bust. One was close and that was April 29th, we were on our way to the target south of Omaha but while we were eating in Missourri Valley there as a discrete cell SW of Sioux City, this cell had rotation well defined within it so we baled on the South target (oops bad mistake) by the time we intercepted the updraft was really struggling and as soon as it hit the Missourri River it completely died so being it was 7:30ish we packed up and went home.

2010 was also more than a big year for me it was a huge year for Extreme Weather Chase Team we have gained a ton of knowledge, intercepted over 20 tornado's this year and made national media! Marc Hicks deserves a huge pat on the back because he was super agressive this year and really got the team rolling. We are also associated with Black Cloud Media so we will most likely be making national media more often.

I just want to say thanks to everyone and especially Jill for supporting this hobby of mine. The rest of the year I'm planning on staying very local unless there is a great setup which I'm sure there will be one or maybe two more this year but I won't hold my breath. I will make an account later with all of this years greatest pics.

Thanks for following!
Joe 

6-17-10 = Bustish for me.... win for many others

We were determined to stay in IA last night but only being 1/2 of a county away we should have ran up to MN to get to the late show, we could have made it for a couple nados but we wanted to see it keep back building and eventually get crazy in IA. Well that never happened, for some reason it decided to stay insane in MN!!! Marc Hicks, Mike Vetter, and John Stone ended up getting 8 total tornados, 3 of which were wedges!!!

Here's a short video for now, I will post the whole video as soon as it's done getting edited...

6-17-10 FCST

Well here is the day we've wanted all along, the chances of the SPC (Storm Prediction Center) of jumping this day up to a Moderate Risk is there, they just need to do it!!!

This will be a short but easy forecast as I'm sure I'll have more to come later on.

There is an enhanced chance for severe t-storms in the hatched area w/ the yellow defining a higher probability!

There will be tons of moisture to play with in the atmosphere!

There will be very little to NO cap out there. (Cap is the overall wind shear aloft that kills off convection and doesn't allow storms to form)

Now with very little cap and 4000+ CAPE the convection should be off the charts, the way this usually plays out is there are a couple great supercells that form and a lot of other little satellites that spark up on radar but then they get pulled into the main cells thus creating major supercells.

I really can't wait for tomorrow, this could easily be another tornado outbreak day. I hope we get to top May 22nd but I have some doubts too. No matter what this is going to be a great day for chasing, many well noted national chasers are targeting the area from SW MN, E Central SD, and NW IA. I personally feel that I will be targeting the NW IA area since it's my backyard but I am still waiting on a couple model runs before that's set in stone. Be sure to click here for EXWX's live streams and pay attention to the skys so you remain safe! 

Update

I just thought I should update since I haven't for the past 2 weeks, I've been doing some chasing but staying very local since many of the storms eventually make their way to Rock Valley I need to stay more local just in case something were to happen then I can respond with the fire department. All has gone well, last week we put about 600 miles on and got to punch some cores with blinding rain, 70+ mph straight-line wind and a wall cloud with a funnel but no tornado! Overall I'm very satisfied with the last 2 chases, it's been great fun and I'm especially happy that Jill was finally able to go with us this year, hopefully the next storm she goes out on will be a little better.

We have an active next couple days coming up and if you are around the KELO viewing area be very mindful of the skys as the tornado threat isn't very high but hail and wind are and it's still possible to have a brief tornado from a severe warned storm. Also pay attention to KELO TV for EXWX streams or click hear to see them live also!