Out on the Plains and Up in the Sky

I had quite the experience of a lifetime 10 years ago this month.  From Friday, May 13, until Monday, May 23, 2011, I participated in the Plains Convective Field Study Trip with the Valparaiso University Meteorology Department.  These field studies happened for over 20 years, and are also known as the storm chase trips.

The trip I went on covered 4669 miles, with this map showing our route:

Following the end of the trip, I wrote an extensive account of it, which some of you may have already read.  If you're interested in reading it, please feel free to contact me and I'll send it to you.

To mark the 10th anniversary of this trip, I share here the brief daily update e-mails I sent with a tiny bit of editing.  Following the updates, I offer some other reflective remarks.

Update #1, May 13:

Greetings from Paducah, Kentucky!

We started out our convective field study trip by heading south to intercept some potential convective activity due to occur in western Kentucky and Tennessee.

I can't share too much about what we did at this point, but we did come across a storm that produced a big amount of rain in western Kentucky.

More to come...

To the Dove and the Eagle,
Paul

Update #2, May 14:

Greetings from Oklahoma!

 

Prospects for convective activity was very low for the next 24 hours this morning, so we decided just to head to Oklahoma and wait for something to happen Monday or Tuesday.  We're in a town called Miami (pronounced my-am-uh).

 

It was quite a day.  We went to Cairo, IL, and witnessed some flooding there.

 

Then we drove through Missouri, and at 6:15 PM, I entered into the state of Oklahoma for the first time.  We had dinner at a great local eatery, and then toured a ghost town.

 

More to come...

 

I salute the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of America,

Paul

Update #3, May 15:

Greetings from Liberal, Kansas!

We decided that since there were no prospects for convective activity, we would just drive west and better position ourselves for anything that might happen tomorrow or Tuesday.

We drove through a lot of nice towns in Kansas, and through a very scenic hilly, shrub-covered area.  Before going to Liberal, we stopped in Greensburg, KS, a town devastated by an EF5 tornado back in May 2007.  (By the way, Liberal is in southwestern Kansas.)

More to come...

I salute the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of America,
Paul

Update #4, May 16:

Greetings from Limon, Colorado!

Prospects for convective activity were still quite low at our morning discussion this day, but some of the various components that fuel convective activity were present and scattered across Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas, so we decided to head west to position ourselves better for anything that might happen tomorrow or Wednesday.

So we drove north through western Kansas, and then into Colorado. After getting to our hotel in Limon (about 70-80 miles southeast of Denver), we drove about an hour to Colorado Springs to get some views of the mountains.

More to come...

I salute the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of America,
Paul

Update #5, May 17:

Greetings from Goodland, Kansas!

 

We are just east of the border with Colorado (by about 17 miles) along I-70.

 

We headed out from Limon, CO, and spent a good amount of time pulled over along roadsides, looking to see what the clouds would bring.

 

Later, toward 5 PM, storms started to form in the High Plains of Eastern Colorado.

 

We drove around the eastern central part of the state, watching the amazing cloud structures and lightning.

 

Then, we stopped in Burlington, CO, (just west of the CO-KS border) around 9 PM Mountain Time, and got "rolled"--which basically means we sat in place while the heavy rains and pea-sized hail (some of it bigger) came down on us in torrents.

 

More to come...

I salute the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of America,

Paul

Update #6, May 18:

Greetings from Weatherford, Oklahoma!

 

We decided to head south from Goodland this morning to Oklahoma to see some convective activity.  There was a cap in the area that could prevent convective activity, but if there was any chance of its breaking, the activity would be spectacular.  (By the way, a cap is basically an area of the atmosphere with warm temperatures that prevents air from rising to form severe thunderstorms.)

 

The cap never broke, and we stood parked in a field just outside of Woodward, OK, for about 90 minutes.

 

More to come...

 

I salute the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of America,
Paul

Update #7, May 19:

Greetings from Concordia, Kansas!

 

We left Oklahoma this morning to seek convective activity prospects in central Kansas.

 

We got pretty close to a high-precipitation cell in the north central Kansas town of Lincoln, which induced unconfirmed reports of a rain-wrapped tornado, for the storm was exhibiting circulation.  Then we swung back southwest to observe another cell south of the town of Otis, before parking down for the night in the north central Kansas town of Concordia.

 

More to come...

 

I salute the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of America,
Paul

Update #8, May 20:

Greetings from Andover, Kansas!

 

Yesterday, we left Concordia to chase storms in central Kansas.

 

We encountered a very interesting set-up.  One storm would form, and then it would "split", and as the original storm moved to the north and east, the new storm would develop and follow from behind, and then another storm would form behind that one.

 

We stopped for about an hour on a country road and watched the developing storm send down rain shafts that looked like a curtain covering the setting sun.  It was beautiful.

 

We ended the day at our hotel in an eastern suburb of Wichita.

 

More to come...

 

I salute the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of America,
Paul

Update #9, May 21:

Greetings from St. Joseph, Missouri!

 

The bulk of our chasing activity was in northeastern Kansas.

 

We saw some neat storm structures: First, the towering cumulus; then a really cool storm with rotations above, updraft/downdraft motion, wall clouds, and rain shafts.  We didn't attempt to view any tornadoes, because given the nature of these storms, they would have been completely rain-wrapped, if they occurred at all.

 

Our chasing extended into northwestern Missouri.  As the storms weakened, we saw some great views of the sunset, and then an amazing lightning show associated with some strong storms moving through the area as we headed to our hotel in St. Joseph.

 

More to come...

 

I salute the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of America,
Paul

Update #10, May 22:

Greetings from Pontiac, Illinois!

 

We headed eastward to chase some storms that were forming in southeast Iowa. 

 

While in southeast Iowa, we passed by Ottumwa, a town that has connections to my family.

 

Then, we went into Illinois to chase some activity that was moving out of Missouri.

 

All this activity occurred as part of a large outbreak of severe weather.  We didn't get to see much of the storms, because we didn't want to risk getting in heavy rain and hail, as well as rain-wrapped tornadoes.

 

I salute the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of America,
Paul

Update #11, May 23:

Greetings from Oak Park, Illinois!

 

In case you didn't know already, the storm chase trip has ended.  We arrived back at our home base in Valparaiso about 3:15 today, and I got back home to Oak Park about 20 minutes ago.

 

Before returning, we attempted to intercept some storms.

 

There was a possibility for convective activity in central Indiana, so we decided to drive east from Pontiac to see if we could intercept anything.

 

In the end, though, the storms were too far south for us to logistically intercept them and get back to Valparaiso at a reasonable hour.

 

We did, though, get to enjoy one last wonderful meal together: a Pizza Hut lunch buffet in a town called Watseka, Illinois.

 

 

Well, that's my last update for the trip.  In the next couple of weeks, I'm going to compose a more detailed account of the trip and send it to you all.

 

Until then...

 

I salute the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of America,
Paul

One aspect of the trip that stands is that after studying about weather in the classroom, especially in the severe storms class, we had an incredible opportunity to see it on display in the laboratory of the atmosphere.  At one point, we pulled over to watch storms in northeast Kansas, and someone pointed out some cloud debris that indicated the presence of an air circulation pattern in the storm.

Besides seeing severe weather was understanding what triggers it.  And that learning would start each morning when we gathered as a group to look at the weather conditions and discuss what area was most likely to see convective activity.  Based on what we saw in various maps and other weather data, we would determine where to go chasing, and also where Professor Wolf would book our next hotel stay.  Durign one of our morning discussions, when we had a tough call to make about where to chase that day, Professor Wolf remarked that no storm happens by accident, but through a deliberate combination of factors.  

This trip was unique as a field study in that we had no set itinerary other than our departure and return dates.  We would take whatever the weather gave us each day, and go with the flow.

After some smaller storms on the first day out, we went a few days without seeing anything, because the weather pattern over the central USA wasn't conducive to storms--and we almost started going a little crazy, especially with the music playing in our vehicles.  

Finally, all chaos broke loose in the skies above eastern Colorado in the afternoon and evening hours of May 17.  We saw some very impressive storms.  Once nightfall came, we parked on the side of a road south of Burlington, CO, and watched the frequent and intense lightning.  Flipping open my Bible to Job 38, I read a passage in which God describes how He unleashes His power in nature, and I saw that on display as I looked out the window, and it felt like an encounter with the Divine Presence.  A few minutes later, the storm came to us with lots of hail.

The following morning, we started in Goodland, KS, and it looked like we might see some spectacular storms in Oklahoma.  We drove south, but the storms never materialized as we thought they might because the rising air never broke through a cap of warmer air higher up in the atmosphere, which stopped further upward movement to build towering storms.  We ended up spending over an hour in a field east of Woodward, OK, passing the time before heading to our hotel.  So while we didn't see storms, it was still a learning opportunity.

We also became painfully aware of the devastating impact nature can have on life.  On May 15, we visited Greensburg, KS, largely destroyed by an EF5 tornado in 2007.  Signs of the destruction were still present, even though many parts of the town have been rebuilt.  On the second to last day of our trip, May 22, a major outbreak of severe weather occurred, which Professor Wolf could tell would happen based on information he saw that morning, which prompted him to call his wife.  We never got into anything intense, largely because of Professor Wolf's unyielding commitment to safety.  As we headed to our hotel, Professor Wolf read to us news reports about a violent tornado that hit Joplin.  We had actually passed by Joplin about a week prior.

The trip was also an enjoyable experience of driving through the vast expanses of the Great Plains.  Entering Oklahoma for the first time was pretty exciting on the evening of May 14.  And driving around in Kansas was scenic as I looked out at the vast plains, similar to what I had seen years prior when my family rode the Southwest Chief train through Kansas.  (In fact, according to my calculations, about 40% of our trip was spent in Kansas.)  I also enjoyed going to visit Colorado, somewhat close to where I have family, and to spend time in the vast, flat expanses of the eastern part of the state, distinct from the mountains areas for which Colorado is known.  While there, we drove to Colorado Springs to see the mountains, since some in our group had never been to Colorado.  On the second to last day of the trip, it was personally meaningful for me when we passed by Ottumwa, IA, where my grandpa grew up.

I was in the great company of my fellow students participating in the trip.  We would pass the time sharing stories over the CB radio and flipping channels on the satellite radio, which included the relaxing music of the Spa Channel.  After the trip, we all got a t-shirt, which includes lots of statements, some humorous, that comprise some of the many inside jokes from the trip.  We definitely bonded over the course of those 11 days.

And that spirit of camaraderie is still alive: One of my close friends in college, Richard, was on that same trip.  Last week Thursday, May 13, he sent me a message reminding me of the 10th anniversary of our storm chase trip departure.

We shared so much, including the sight of the storms, the discussions about where to chase, the learning about the atmosphere, the long drives, and the interesting places we visited.  I still have fond memories of Buttered Bunns Cafe in Miami, OK.  The hotel in Liberal, KS, had a Wizard of Oz-themed suite, in keeping with the Wizard of Oz places in town.  I also became acquainted with Braum's, a chain of fast food restaurants with an accompanying grocery store.  We also visited Cairo, at the southernmost tip of Illinois.

There's something about the Great Plains that uniquely stirs the imagination.  As I reflect back on this trip 10 years later, something about those vast expanses of land we drove through continues to stir something within me, as does the vast expanses of sky there and the incredible action of nature we saw.