Posted by admin on July 19, 2010
So since we backed out on our chase to Minnesota Saturday and the storms this morning took the energy away from what could have been a decent setup for MO/IL, I spent some time updating the website.
The archive page has long been a thorn in my side. It worked, but I didn’t like the way it looked. I found a nice script online that I really like. Until now each month I had to manually update the last months data and place a new link on the archive page, the same process occurred for the yearly archive listings. This really wasn’t a big deal, about 10 minutes each month, now it will all happen automatically.
Hopefully the data is easier to navigate and it should be updated within 2 hours at the beginning of a new month/year.
Here is the link: NOAA Reports
Filed under: Ofallon Weather, St. Peters Weather, Storm Chasing
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Posted by admin on June 6, 2010
Well looks like we missed out on a great chase day Saturday in Illinois. We had some issues with servers at work so my two co-workers and I put in 9 hours on Saturday. I will be on vacation starting next Saturday, I am hoping for multiple chase days that week.
Tuesday is looking interesting for our area for Severe Weather, keep an eye/ear out as we get closer. The rest of the week looks to be turning very warm with highs over 90 as we approach the weekend.
On a sad note…..We lost several people in the storms Saturday, I would guess that most of them had no idea severe weather was in the area. If they did, they likely didn’t take action. A few minutes in the basement is well worth it.<rant off>
Filed under: Ofallon Weather, St. Louis Weather, St. Peters Weather, Storm Chasing
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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
Filed under: Ofallon Weather, St. Louis Weather, Storm Chasing, Video and Pictures
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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 19, 2010
Well I have been watching the models for the past several day in anticipation of the next two storm systems.
I was/am hoping for a big snow, but it is looking more like a rain/sleet/snow event.
Either way, it appears we are in for some heavy precipitation, we will have to wait to see how it falls.
The models are forecasting just over an inch of moisture through Monday.
However we receive this be careful, if it’s rain we could see some flash flooding, if snow or sleet, it could get deep.
Filed under: Ofallon Weather, St. Louis Weather, St. Peters Weather
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Posted by admin on February 12, 2010
Looks like a Valentines snow is on it’s way, perfect for a day snuggled under the covers!
The models have been wavering a bit, I have posted an image of each model output through Monday afternoon. This is still fairly far out for a snow forecast, but we will see what happens.
Filed under: Ofallon Weather, St. Louis Weather, St. Peters Weather
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