Posted by admin on April 24, 2010
Yesterday I was at work during the tornado in Montgomery and Lincoln counties, I was a bit let down that I was unable to chase this storm, but work does come first.
Today I was attending the St. Louis Kuk Sool Won tournament at UMSL. We were actually heading back from eating in Bridgeton when the tornado warning sounded. We decided our safest place was to get back to UMSL and get in the basement of the gym. Our plan worked just fine, within minutes of our arrival and communicating the urgency of the situation with the tournament organizers the basement quickly and orderly filled with people until the all clear was given.
I was somewhat let down that UMSL had not had everyone in the building in the basement when we arrived. The tornado warning had been issued a minimum of 10 minutes earlier with no action.
It appears that the worst damage was in West County near West County Mall. Scattered hail and high wind reports continued north east from the tornado report.
Filed under: Ofallon Weather, St. Louis Weather, St. Peters Weather, Storm Chasing
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Posted by admin on April 21, 2010
Looks to be a bit wet now through the weekend. Friday we are under a slight risk for severe weather, although south and west appear to have better chances of receiving severe weather.
I will have our equipment with us Saturday, we will be busy most of the day, but if severe weather rolls in, look for a live stream on the Chase/Live Video/Chat Page.
Filed under: Ofallon Weather, St. Louis Weather, St. Peters Weather, Storm Chasing
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Posted by admin on April 3, 2010
I will try and keep this one short. We stayed home Friday, and it looks like we made a good decision. A bit of seeing lack of supercells and not wanting to drive 10+ hours to try and find some. The forecast were pointing to a more line of storms than the favored discrete cells. No tornadoes were reported, a bunch of nasty wind reports and a few hail reports thrown in here and there.
The upcoming week looks to be “busy”. Sunday into Monday could see some severe weather, including our area, likely more west and then north.Then Tuesday we may get thrown in the game with our area already in an area highlighted by the Storm Prediction Center for possible severe weather.
If anything is near by and during my time off work look for me to be out and about. If it is local or I am at work we will stream from our house. We did this Friday evening as a test and all seems to work well, hopefully the same can be said while mobile.
Filed under: Ofallon Weather, St. Louis Weather, St. Peters Weather, Storm Chasing, Video and Pictures
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Posted by admin on March 29, 2010
I have been watching the models later this week with much anticipation. Locally warm air will return in a big way, dew points are likely to climb into the mid 50′s. We have had the forcing mechanism(cold front) along with plenty of shear to rotate the storms, the moisture seems to have been the limiting factor so far this year.
From what I am seeing, the major area currently looks to be Thursday/Friday in Texas and Oklahoma. I can’t make Thursday, but I am off work Friday, if it looks promising I will attempt my first storm chase of the year. I think I am set, although I have yet to activate my mobile internet….It should only take 10-15 minutes to activate…Stay tuned. :)
Remember, you can view our position, live streaming video and even chat with us while we are out.Live Chase
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Posted by admin on March 10, 2010
Well, just when we think we should be getting ready for severe weather, it is at our doorstep.
We are under a slight risk for severe weather into Thursday, the predominant threat in our area will be high winds and hail.
If I can get things setup before going to work we will stream live from our house, I will check it out for quality, as I will have to shoot through a window. It will be a good test, but I am sure my wife will have an issue with the camera and laptop in our bedroom looking southwest! I guess she won’t find out until she gets home from work! (Shhhhh) :)
The live video and chat can be found on our chase summary page
Filed under: Ofallon Weather, St. Louis Weather, St. Peters Weather, Storm Chasing, Video and Pictures
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Posted by admin on March 8, 2010
I will warn everyone upfront, this post is going to be long. First of all we are now in Awareness Week, I try to keep it simple and say have access to information and have a plan. Here is a link to the NWS, please check it out and refresh yourself. If you find you can be a bit more prepared, it is never to soon, severe weather can happen anytime. I encourage everyone have a weather radio with s.a.m.e technology. With this you put in your county code, the radio will then only alarm you if your county has a watch or warning. The model I own has the ability to program to alert for just specific watches and warnings. I have mine set to alarm me of a Tornado Warning or Severe Thunderstorm Warning, it also has the ability to sound for other situations like a nuclear spill or even a sunami.
Okay, now to the website and our hopeful successful upcoming storm chasing season. I now have my video streaming account active and working. I have some new/used equipment coming within the next two weeks to help improve the quality of streaming we will offer. Fair warning, with mobile internet the video will be a fairly low bitrate, around 150 Kbps. We will likely only stream when approaching a severe storm, we do plan possibly streaming from the house if we are unable to go mobile. If you go to our chase page you will see I have inserted a “chat” box, this will enable us to communicate with others live while on the road. You do have to sign up and verify your account. Below the chat box is our video screen, if we are not streaming it will just be a black with an arrow. Next to the video stream is a map showing our position tracked via gps, in this box you can even enable the radar button to see where we are in relation to storms. We will try to notify all people signed up for chat that we are heading out. You can also go here and install a notifier, I have not tried it but you will have access to 400+ storm chasers streaming video. You can personalize it to only notify you when certain streamers are live.
I guess that is it for now, look for this week to be in the 50-60 degree range, with 1-2 inches of rain. This is not the “boring” weather of the last couple of weeks, sorry Bob, no golf for you! ;)
Filed under: Ofallon Weather, St. Louis Weather, St. Peters Weather, Storm Chasing, Video and Pictures
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Posted by admin on February 28, 2010
Well the weather has really become “boring”, look for temperatures to fluctuate this week, but the trend is looking warmer. Looks like we may have a chance of rain and possible thunder come early next week.
I have been trying to prepare for this years storm season, we are set at home, but I am busy getting things setup for chasing.
I have applied for a live streaming account, I have tested my equipment and I believe we should see live video from the field this year!
I also plan to try and stream video from the house when we are unable to go mobile.
I have a few items left to gather for this years chase season, a portable weather radio, a dash mount for the video camera, and some wiring of extra power ports in the car.
I am currently planning on taking several days off in mid-late May, if weather is still active, it’s possible that I may have a whole week open in June to dedicate to storm chasing.
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Posted by admin on January 23, 2010
Title says it all, looks like we are going to get another shot of rain this weekend. We could see an inch or more, so the ground that already feels like a sponge will only get worse. Saturday afternoon and evening it is possible that we could hear some rumbles of thunder, then to finish off Sunday some light snow, likely no accumulation at this time. Later in the week we could be looking at some accumulating snow fall, stay tuned, I will update as the system gets closer.
In case anyone has forgot, here is what the sun looks like.
Filed under: Ofallon Weather, St. Louis Weather, St. Peters Weather
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Posted by admin on December 13, 2009
Yes that was thunder you heard overnight. The storms made the most out of some weak instability over the region. This also included reports of hail, most were pea size, or .25 inches, I did see one report of 1 inch hail, or quarter size at Meramec State Park. Although not the ideal time of year for storms, the possibility is there each and every month for severe weather in our area. I keep my weather radio plugged in year round just in case. About the hail size, I though I would post a list of sizes and descriptions from the National Weather Service. This helps relate what you are seeing to the actual size, since most of us tend to exaggerate a bit. :) Oh and I almost forgot, as taught in Storm Spotter training, never describe hail as marble size, think about it for a minute, yes we have all seen way to many sized marbles! :)
Hail Chart, from the NWS.
I also cleaned some code up on the current weather and history pages. It seems my programs were not properly inserting the degree symbol ” ° ” into the pages as they were built. I made them static on all pages now. I am far from an expert, but all I have done has been self taught.
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