Shocking Mammatus

Norfolk, NE

Today's chase involved adventures in Nebraska. I got some amazing photos. There was no rotation on these storms, but we got to see some quarter sized hail. We took shelter at a bank in the little town of Bassett. Then, a resident invited us to a fundraser at a senior's center nearby, which was awesome. Super nice people. It was kind of surreal seeing a guy wearing a "Make America Great Again" hat. I was definitely in America's heartland.

Then we were off and we saw the most amazing mammatus I had ever witnessed. There was lightning in the distance, but none nearby. Everything was peaceful as I filmed a timelapse. Then, suddenly, Ray was like, "Your hair is standing up!" And I just asked, "Are you sure? It's probably just messy" and he's like, "there's electricity running through you, it's lifting up." I instantly thought, "Shit!, I'm about to be struck by lightning." I thought I should run back to the van.. But then I wanted to verify if that was indeed the case (I.e. I needed to take a photo). I could see other people's hair standing up a bit too. I checked my arm hairs but then remembered that I recently waxed my arms. No one seemed to be panicking.. So I just kept taking selfies and videos, even though, in the back of my mind, I kind of felt like I was playing with fire. I remember as a kid going to the Ontario Science Center and touching that big static orb that makes your hair stand up and I used to purposely rub my shoes on the carpet and shock people. Electricity always fascinated me. I am literally like a moth to a flame when it comes to this kind of stuff. My curiosity and fascination overrode any sense of personal safety. I guess I also just figured that if no one else is freaking out, then why should I? I also thought it might have been something else and not lightning, since it was happening to everyone and not just me and there was no lightning nearby. Though, after speaking to another chaser and doing some Googling, I learned that we probably were in the danger zone.



Here are a few of the selfies.

 

Despite the lightning danger, the mammatus we saw that night was absolutely breathtaking. 

There was A LOT of lightning on this storm so we were out late taking photos.

Tornado Alley - Birthday Tornadoes in Cope, Colorado

When I booked this trip, the only thing I kept wishing for was to see a tornado on my birthday.

Well.. I can honestly say that this was probably my best birthday ever. We saw 5 tornadoes (that was the agreed upon final number) and we enjoyed a well earned steak dinner. The restaurant was packed with chasers. I had a margarita that I could barely finish (seriously, do Americans even measure drinks or is it all free-pour? 😂). 

Those tornadoes happened so fast. The whole thing was over in about 40 minutes. That cell popped up and it was wham, bam, thank you ma'am. It got the job done and was out of there.

The only bummer is that I feel myself coming down with a cold. Probably from the lack of sleep and stress leading up to the trip. This happened in 2015 as well.

I *really* want to go though my photos and videos and update my blog but we're meeting at 9am (it's just past midnight) so I have to sleep if I'm to fight off this cold. Tomorrow is another chase day.

Here is video of that day.

Tornado Alley - A little warm up in Kanorado

Goodland, KS

We didn't have huge hopes for today so we were pleasantly surprised by a really nice cell on the Kansas/Colorado border, in Kanorado. At one point it became tornado warned and had a lot of lightning. We *may* have seen a tornado on two separate occasions, but it was very hard to tell because it was getting dark and it was low contrast.

Here are my best pics of the day.

Of course I had to include my post chase hair.

Oh and I also have to mention.. I ended up clocking a 60km/hr wind gust with my Kestrel! I love this
thing.

On a side note, I'm technically in Mountain Time, but my phone is still picking up a signal from a tower on Central Time.. So according to my phone, it's already my birthday! But according to my location.. It's not. I've lost the concept of time at this point. I don't even know if I'm jetlagged or not. Time feels like it's completely slowed down. I can't believe I only got here yesterday

Point Roberts Wind Storm

EDIT: My Periscope stream was actually saved. The sound wasn't recorded, but I did get some great shots of the flooding.

Check out the link below.
https://www.pscp.tv/thatchaserchick/1dRKZbErEvvKB


The lower mainland doesn't get much in the way of severe weather but

on this rare occasion, I was able to chase a wind storm in Point Roberts. There was a wind warning, with 100km/hr winds in the forecast. 

It was dark when the winds were strongest, but here is what it was doing to my hair. https://twitter.com/thatchaserchick/status/955082312395276288/video/1

I did some live streaming over Periscope. After the whole Jeff Piotrowski's popularity with the #blueshed during Hurricane Harvey, I figured live streaming was where it was at. And I guess it can be, if you have good reception, but my stream ended up having no sound.. and I didn't realize the streams get deleted after 24 hours. The unfortunate situation was that I ended up streaming more than I did shooting with my actual camera. I got a lot of newsworthy shots of flooding on the roads and in and around people's homes, but it was with the Periscope stream -which had no sound and was deleted a day later. 

All in all though, I picked a good spot, since I got barely and precip. The only water I was hit with was seawater. 

What was unique about this situation was that I took a date with me. He said he wanted to "do something out in nature", so I brought him along for the ride. Even though he likes thunderstorms (and even sort of chased a tornado last year near his hometown in Alberta), I don't think he knew the extent of what he was signing up for when I picked him up at 5am this morning. He hadn't eaten. He wasn't dressed warm enough or wearing anything water resistant. He took it like a champ though. 

There were times where I could tell he was physically uncomfortable and wanted it to be over.. But he didn't explicitly tell me to stop, so I kept going because it felt good. Though, this was the reason I actually didn't take any photos and didn't shoot that much video with my good camera -because I was so aware of him just standing there, covering his ears with this pained expression on his face as the wind cut through him. He was a good sport though. At one point, he held my gear for me while I was live streaming. I appreciated that.

When I bought him breakfast afterwards and then drove him home, he was like.. "That was fun.. Though I guess I just didn't realize we were going to be out in it for that long.." I kind of laughed and was like.. "I cut it short for you. I could have spent all day out there."

I guess the lesson here is, storm chasing is like sex; if you don't have the right partner, it's way more satisfying to just do it alone.

Here is the video I did manage to get.

The Great American Eclipse

A total solar eclipse is as magical and as mind blowing as you think it might be. Nothing will prepare you for totality. You know it's going to be this incredible, once in a lifetime experience but once it happens, you feel.. altered somehow. I felt high for about a week afterwards. You wouldn't think that one percent would make much of a difference, but the sun is extremely bright and even if 99% of it is eclipsed, you can't look directly at it. Photos and video just don't fully capture it. Totality is something that needs to be experienced in person. Definitely one of the highlights of my chasing adventures so far.  

I got to share this experience with my best friend, Roseanna, who I have known since high school. 

I met her at place in South Surrey at 5:30am on the 20th. After a bit of a wait at the border, we were off!

We stayed in a sketchy little motel in Longview, WA. The security there was top notch! ;)

This didn't matter though because we were in bed by 6pm and up bright and early (1am!) to start driving south, to our target area. 

I had spent weeks agonizing over a location and having fitful dreams about it clouding over. I was obsessed. I finally settled on a Walmart parking lot on Turner Road in Salem, OR with a clear view to the East. It worked out perfectly. They are open 24 hours so we had access to amenities. There were quite a few other people there, as you can see from the video further down.

I was so ready for this. Featured here is my Canon Rebel T3 with my 200mm lens. And the my trustee Sony HXR-NX70, with it's slightly melted frame. A hand-me-down from George Kourounis

This was the compilation of my shots during different phases of the eclipse. 

My mom got this footage of the moment of totality. Whereas everyone was focused on the sun, she shot the surrounding and environment and really captured the experience. 

Wildfire Smoke on the North Shore and Whistler

The wildfire smoke has been so thick that it's been making the sun look an eerie shade of pink at times. I took this opportunity to take a lot of sun shots, in preparation for the eclipse.

At one point, a friend and I decided to drive up to Whistler, where the smoke was even thicker, since it was downwind from the nearby fire in Cache Creek. I shot a bit of video of it and this footage ended up on The Weather Network. 

'Tis the Season

In 1988, my mom rode out Major Hurricane Gilbert in Jamaica. It was a Cat 3 by then, but at its peak intensity it was the strongest Atlantic hurricane on record until Wilma in 2005. I remember following it on the news, wondering if my mom was okay. When she got back, she told me about the giant waves of rain, the terrifying howl of the wind, the hotel shaking as if a train was plowing through it, and the roof ripping off. At 7 years old, the only feelings I had were fascination -and envy. I knew right then and there that I had to experience a hurricane before I died. To paraphrase hurricane chaser Josh Morgerman, I think people who become obsessed with severe weather are just born this way.

Yesterday (Tuesday) was the first time I seriously contemplated intercepting a hurricane. Charles Edwards planted Myrtle Beach in my head when he commented on a Facebook post. As of Tuesday morning, Hurricane Matthew was forecast to be just offshore early Saturday near Myrtle Beach, SC as a Cat 2.  It was only an idea at first.. But as I looked up flights and hotels, the idea became more real and I started to get very nervous/excited. I checked the forecast every 3 hours, anxiously jumping between websites and contemplating my next move. I figured Myrtle Beach would be okay because I would arrive and just ride it out in a concrete high rise hotel. I didn't feel comfortable with the thought of renting a car and driving around alone in an attempt to relocate. Picking a hotel and just staying there seemed to be a safer option. I had crashed at a friend's place the night before and was still in pajamas at 2:30pm. My one track mind needed some food. I relocated myself to a nearby Tim Hortons and did some more thinking. By this point my nerves were making my stomach turn. Eventually I went to the library that I normally study and work at.

As time wore on and the forecast slowly changed, I started to consider West Palm Beach, FL instead. It was around 5pm by this point. The chasers I was chatting with throughout the day kept giving me tidbits of advice. George Kourounis's words of wisdom were, "Don't wreck my camera. Wrap it in plastic like it's a Tinder date." Myrtle Beach still felt like a better plan because it seemed less complicated and the hotel would have been cheap. At the end of the day, I just thought of it as a solo vacation. I was actually looking forward to having a hotel room to myself almost as much as the hurricane. My nerves were on high alert. It's like my instincts were fighting each other. One part of my brain, a very small part, was telling me that I was f*cking crazy but the rest was just trying to figure out the logistics of how I could pull this off. I suddenly had to make an urgent trip to the bathroom -that's how anxious I was. Shortly after 8pm, I was ready to pull the trigger on Myrtle Beach. I was going to arrive on Thursday and leave on Sunday. It looked like it was going to come very close to land. Then came the most useful piece of advice, from Scott McPartland, which was to call the hotel to make sure they were planning on staying open. I knew that South Carolina was going to be under a mandatory evacuation. He said that sometimes a hotel will kick you out and you have to scramble to find a new one before the storm arrives. Well f*ck. I knew I had to make this phone call, but a part of me didn't want to because I didn't want the answer. I knew it was not going to bode well for this trip.

Sure enough, I call the Polynesian and the front desk clerk, in her adorable southern accent, tells me that they are closing the next day at 1pm due to mandatory evacuation. As soon as I hear this, my heart sinks, but my stomach settles. I'm disappointed and bitter... but as it turned out, the later model runs and forecasts the next morning showed it veering east, out into the sea. At the present moment, the center of the storm will be nowhere near Myrtle Beach. I dodged a bullet. 

I feel like hurricane chasing is this exclusive club that is very hard to get into... but I know that eventually I will have my day in the rain. It just won't be this day. 

As was the case with ex-boyfriends of the same name, it appears that Matthew isn't the one.