Josh Burress's Storm Chase Logs

My pics for best of trip...

2006-03-16T15:01:00.000-08:00

WTHR video of our trip

2005-07-06T12:54:00.000-07:00

WTHR did a write up and video segment on our trip. Here are the links:

Video
Write-up

It is rather well done. There is a section where they do a silhouette of me while I wasn't looking, so I was actually on it. I didn't think I was going to be in it at all since I didn't get interviewed and I tended to be less vocal and quieter than the others there. Anyway, it wasn't too bad.

Also, my local paper, the Lebanon Reporter did a story on it. It was rather nice.

2005-06-12T16:20:00.000-07:00

This is a blurry picture of the farm that was hit by the tornado on our last chase day. You can see the roof was partially missing. There was more damage, but all the pictures are blurry.

2005-06-12T16:19:00.000-07:00

We went sight seeing on one of our travel days. We went to Mt. Rushmore, The Black Hills, and Custer National Park.

2005-06-12T16:18:00.001-07:00

Antelope mother and child.

2005-06-12T16:18:00.000-07:00

We were chasing and ran into some trouble. Just kidding. We were at Custer National Park in South Dakota.

2005-06-12T16:15:00.000-07:00

Look dead in the center of the picture. There is a funnel coming out of that white poofaroo of a cloud.

2005-06-12T16:14:00.000-07:00

Storm we were chasing in South Dakota. This would eventually produce a large funnel and a tornado for us.

2005-06-12T16:13:00.000-07:00

Here is the above mentioned funnel. It may very well have touched ground, but we were not in a position to tell.

2005-06-12T16:12:00.000-07:00

This is the tornado we got for the day. It was probably the most well defined tornado for the entire trip.

2005-06-12T16:11:00.000-07:00

The above tornado during its strongest point.

2005-06-12T16:09:00.000-07:00

Wall cloud that produced the tornado and funnel earlier.

2005-06-12T16:08:00.000-07:00

Storm and Wall Cloud over the badlands in South Dakota.

2005-06-12T15:56:00.000-07:00

Awesome shelf cloud formation. This storm was running about 65 mph. We would drive for 20 minutes, get out and have about a minute to take pictures before we would get hit by the gust front again and have to leave.

Oops. I forgot.

2005-06-12T14:20:00.000-07:00

Something I should mention, is that on our last day of chasing (Thursday), we were witness to the damage of an F1 tornado that went through Kansas. Luckily, the only damage we saw were two flipped semis, a flipped travel trailer (but not the truck), and a farm that was really torn up with part of the roof missing from the house. There were probably thirty carloads of people at the farm helping clean up. Oh yeah, and by the farm there were some vehicles flipped and thrown in the fields. It didn't appear to be serious enough for terrible injuries, just property damage. Anyway, I thought that would explain a few of the pics. Talk to you all later.

I'm back!

2005-06-12T14:11:00.000-07:00

I have been in muncie since 1 AM Saturday morning. Between then and the last update we saw a very large cool funnel and a tornado from the same storm system in South Dakota. I got to see the Badlands, the Black Hills, Mount Rushmore, and several states. I can't remember a whole lot about which day contained what event anymore, as it all sort of runs together, but I'm going to put up pics of the different events. This will be my last update for the trip. I'll continue to keep this up for my own chase adventures throughout the year. For those of you at home, I'll be in Lebanon next weekend. I'll see you all soon.

2005-06-11T16:04:00.000-07:00

Very cool wall cloud.

2005-06-07T00:21:00.000-07:00

Day 23 was a pathetic bust, but we did see this diner on the way.

2005-06-07T00:18:00.000-07:00

Day 24 - The land spout tornado as we first spotted it. It kind of surprised us. If Jonah's car hadn't broken down, who knows if we would have seen this. As it is, this is the best formed tornado we've seen yet.

2005-06-07T00:17:00.000-07:00

The landspout is beginning to dissipate at this point.

2005-06-07T00:16:00.001-07:00

Nice rotating wall cloud. It was very near the area the landspout developed in.

2005-06-07T00:16:00.000-07:00

The storm almost develops into a mothership. Yes, that is a meteorological term.

2005-06-07T00:14:00.000-07:00

Day 25 - Nice picture of storm development. The towering cumulus are very fun to watch form.

2005-06-07T00:13:00.000-07:00

Nice funnel out of the back of this rotating wall cloud.

2005-06-07T00:12:00.001-07:00

I liked the cloud formations on this shelf cloud. I believe that was the start of a wall cloud, but I can't remember for sure.

2005-06-07T00:12:00.000-07:00

Wall cloud that showed potential.

2005-06-07T00:09:00.000-07:00

Wall cloud directly behind Fred's van. We waited out a TVS (Tornado Vortex Signature) that popped up right above us during a bathroom break at this rest stop. Kind of scary, but we were ready if a funnel started to form.

2005-06-07T00:08:00.001-07:00

That spot is the sun. I thought it was a neat picture.

2005-06-07T00:08:00.000-07:00

Nice sunset pic.

2005-06-07T00:07:00.000-07:00

Best mammatus pic in my opinion. The coloring is wonderful.

2005-06-07T00:05:00.000-07:00

Here's the clearest pic I have out of them all.

2005-06-07T00:03:00.000-07:00

The first storm for Day 27 in Montana. We were so close, I couldn't fit the whole thing in the camera. This is the best shot at the front end.

2005-06-07T00:02:00.000-07:00

The typical piece of hail we found out of the first storm. This wasn't even out of a precip core, but merely the anvil. In other words, there was much bigger hail in the main part of the storm.

2005-06-07T00:01:00.000-07:00

This scud right above us was spinning radically at one point and formed a wall cloud above us.

2005-06-07T00:00:00.000-07:00

Wall cloud we had a very good vantage point on. Note the small funnel.

2005-06-06T23:59:00.000-07:00

This was taken shortly after the last pic, but this was right above us. About 10 seconds later this produced a funnel and we had to move.

2005-06-06T23:58:00.000-07:00

Another nice looking wall cloud. Can't remember whether this produced a funnel or not. It all kind of runs together now.

2005-06-06T23:57:00.000-07:00

Steve had a run in with some grass.

2005-06-06T23:56:00.000-07:00

The turquoise color is the sunlight refracting off of all of the hail. It only happens when there is a large amount of large hail. It made for a very pretty storm though.

Sorry for the hiatus...

2005-06-06T13:14:00.000-07:00

It took me a while to figure it out, but I broke my wireless internet card. I finally bought a new one, so here's an update for the last 5 days.

Day 23 - Thurs. June 2nd

This day was a bust. We were in the right place but got nothing but towering cumulus. I have a few pics, but of course nothing worth posting.

Day 24 - Fri. June 3rd

This day looked ok. There was a moderate risk put out in early morning, so we went to put ourselves in position. However, one of the cars broke (of a student who was following us) in the middle of rural Kansas. We had to wait for an hour or more for the tow truck. We considered this to be bad, but as we were following the tow truck back, we saw a landspout tornado. This was probably our best find yet. We continued following that storm, but did not see anything else the rest of the day.

Day 25 - Sat. June 4th

This day took us through Nebraska and Kansas. There was a high risk put out, with a 35% chance of tornados, and a hatched area saying a good chance for F2 tornados or greater. This was a bust day however. We followed a couple of storms, but they eventually converged into a massive MCS (Mesoscale Convective System). In other words, a line of very wet storms. Almost impossible to chase.

Day 26 - Sun. June 5th

Today was a travel day. We spent a good 14 hours on the road in order to put us in a good position for the next day. We did stop by Carhenge though. Ended up in South Dakota just north of Rapid City.

Day 27 - Mon. June 6th

Today we were in South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, and North Dakota. We put ourselves in the right position in Montana, and were soon rewarded with a nice supercell right over top of us. We didn't even have to move, we just stayed in the parking lot. We were actually a little too close, since I couldn't get the entire storm into the view on my camera, and we started getting quarter size hail out of the anvil above us. Eventually chased two other storms that had some interesting colors from the hail core. Spotted three funnels, one directly over top of us. Don't worry, we saw it beginning to form and immediately moved a half mile down the road. It was pretty neat. Only thing missing was a tornado touchdown:)

Next three days...

2005-06-02T07:00:00.000-07:00

Oh man. The outlook for today has a 15% hatched area. The hatched means there is a 10% or greater probability of F2 or greater tornados within 10 miles of a point. And we're right in the middle of it. The SPC has already issued a public statement. Today looks great. Tomorrow and Saturday are also looking very good. Then again, a lot can happen in a short time. Still, this is the best outlook we've had yet and Doc gave up a chase day yesterday so we could drive here for the next few days activity, so he must think something's up.

OOPS

2005-06-02T00:17:00.000-07:00

Kind of reverse the order of those last 4 pics (day 21). I did them out of order.

2005-06-02T00:16:00.000-07:00

This is what 2 inch hail does to a 2 week old car. It's hard to see, but the windshield is cracked in it's entirety. The couple said they had to hold it up with their sweatshirts in order to get it as far as the hotel.

2005-06-02T00:15:00.000-07:00

As the storm dissipates, it produces a nice full rainbow that was so big I could only capture part of it. I would see 2 total full rainbows and 2 partials over the next 2 days, but this was the clearest.

2005-06-02T00:13:00.001-07:00

Nice funnel, unfortunately the storm dissipates soon afterward.

2005-06-02T00:13:00.000-07:00

The day 21 storm as we approach it. Fortunately, we were able to get out of the mountains and see it better later on.

2005-06-02T00:07:00.000-07:00

The day 22 storm as we approach it.

2005-06-02T00:04:00.000-07:00

A hole in the clouds shows how tall this storm is.

2005-06-02T00:03:00.000-07:00

You can see how close to producing a nice, funneled tornado this storm came. It did this several times.

2005-06-02T00:01:00.000-07:00

Flash flooding we hit as we were following this storm. This was right outside the town of Shallowater, TX. (no kidding)

2005-06-01T23:59:00.000-07:00

A shot of the dust bowl. You can see the wall cloud dissappear into the dust and Doc thought he saw rotation. This was scary because it was so close to a town (we were actually in the limits.) To their credit, the sirens were going off and everyone seemed to be taking shelter, which often is not the case with storms like these.

2005-06-01T23:56:00.001-07:00

The dust rotating up into the storm assuring us of tornadic activity. This is the sure tornado for the day.

2005-06-01T23:56:00.000-07:00

Dusk time image of the day 22 storm. This was the most beautiful storm I have ever seen.

Days 21, 22, and 23

2005-06-01T23:12:00.000-07:00

Day 21.

Saw several storms. To be honest, I can't remember where they were, but we got some good hail. I have some pictures from it if I remember right. I'll post what I have.

Day 22

Spent much of the day chasing a wonderful storm from New Mexico through the panhandle of Texas. It was an amazing storm with a huge top. At one point you could see the whole thing moving. We know for a fact it spawned one tornado. It quite possibly had another one called a Dust Bowl style tornado. The problem is there was so much dust it is hard to tell. Doc thought there was rotation, but does not know for sure. I have pics of the certain one, and a good movie of the dust bowl.

Day 23

Wow. So, today is a travel day/oil change day. Evidently, the university likes us to change the oil in the vans every, oh, ten thousand miles or so. We got to the oil change place by 11:30 and they were done by about 3:00. We get ten miles down the road to fill up and notice oil spewing out of docks car. Long story made short, we finally leave the gas station a little before 5 after the mechanic figures out he forgot to tighten the drain plug. So, we should have gotten to Goodland about 8, but got here after midnight. Anyway, rough day. Should be worth it for the next couple of days though. Doc said it could be a tornado outbreak day. We'll see. Anyway, pics are coming.

Day 20

2005-05-29T20:45:00.000-07:00

Today was our first chase day since Wednesday. Doc took us through Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico trying to escape the cold temperatures and stratus deck that was preventing major storms. Basically all I got today was some really good video footage when we punched a precip core with 1 inch hail. It was so heavy that the van in front of us was leaving tire tracks and our windshield developed two new cracks. Our windshield must be really puny. Anyway, that was the most excitment we'd had in a while, so I'll be sure to show it to everybody when I get back. Have a good one.

2005-05-28T14:50:00.000-07:00

A picture I took while we were in Taos, New Mexico for lunch.

2005-05-28T14:49:00.001-07:00

The Rio Grande Gorge. We stopped to take pictures on the bridge overlooking it.

2005-05-28T14:49:00.000-07:00

The Rio Grande gorge in New Mexico. I'd never seen anything like it.

2005-05-28T14:48:00.000-07:00

The bridge I took the last picture off of with the mountains in the background.

2005-05-28T14:47:00.000-07:00

This was taken as we were going through the mountains nearing the Colorado/New Mexico border.

2005-05-28T14:46:00.000-07:00

You can see the funnel just to the left of the precip core. It was more obvious at other times, but I wasn't able to get a picture out of the moving van.

2005-05-28T14:45:00.000-07:00

You can kind of see the funnel to the left of the precip core. It was much more obvious at other times, but we were in the van and I couldn't get a very good picture.

2005-05-28T14:44:00.000-07:00

A nice pic in New Mexico before we hung it up for the day. Notice the mammatus above.

Wednesday was interesting.

2005-05-28T11:53:00.000-07:00

Our last chase day as of now (saturday afternoon) was Wednesday. We caught a storm in New Mexico that may have produced a tornado, but from the distance all we could see is a funnel. The roads out there make getting close nearly impossible. To give you an idea, we travelled for nearly half an hour on one road before seeing our first house (which was probably temp housing for cattle ranchers.)

I love New Mexico. I have some pictures. We've also been in Denver for a while, and probably will be till tomorrow. I saw the NCAR building, which was amazing. I also saw the Cray 1, the worlds first supercomputer. That particular one was the first one to ever be activated. I also saw Deep Blue, the computer that Caspirov almost lost in chess to. Among that I saw other weather related things that were really cool. Anyway, I'll post some pics shortly.

2005-05-24T22:19:00.001-07:00

Day 15 - The storm that will produce tornado #4 for the trip.

2005-05-24T22:19:00.000-07:00

Day 15 - The tornado. You could see the rotation of the dust in person. This pic is taken out of the window of a monving vehicle, so it's a little blurry.

2005-05-24T22:17:00.000-07:00

Day 15 - The wall cloud that produced the tornado less than a minute later. It's more in focus.

2005-05-24T22:16:00.000-07:00

Day 15 - I wonder where the wall cloud is on that precip core?

2005-05-24T22:15:00.000-07:00

Day 15 - The wall cloud that earlier produced a brief tornado.

2005-05-24T22:14:00.000-07:00

Day 15 - The same wall cloud as it nears us.

2005-05-24T22:11:00.000-07:00

Day 14 - I had never seen a windmill field before. The blades on there things are the size of a semi trailer. That's how big these things are.

2005-05-24T22:09:00.001-07:00

Day 14 - Nice mammatus and anvil in background.

2005-05-24T22:09:00.000-07:00

Day 14 - Nice wall cloud.

2005-05-24T22:08:00.000-07:00

Day 14 - Lovely sunset under the storm

2005-05-24T22:07:00.001-07:00

Day 14 - I liked the cloud formations here.

2005-05-24T22:07:00.000-07:00

Day 14 - Ignore the emergency lights, lookdirectly in the center. You can see three distinct updrafts into the storm. They were pretty cool.

Finally...

2005-05-24T21:50:00.000-07:00

Alright. This is the second time trying to post this so it'll be short cause I'm tired of typing it... Stupid computer.

Finally after several days of busts and no internet, I am able to post things.

Monday (23 May) turned out a good picturesque storm. Pics should follow. Also, today (Tues. 24 May) was an outbreak day. We briefly caught Tornado number four. The storms then formed a squall line and we headed south to watch the Tail end Charley till dark. Pics will follow for that as well. Have a good one.

Finally...

2005-05-24T21:39:00.001-07:00

Ok, after several days with either no storms or no internet, I'm finally able to post something. Yesterday (Monday, 23 May) marked our first good storm in a while. I have a few pics from that. It was in Colorado. Today (Tues, 24 May) was also in Colorado and was great. We saw our fourth tornado of the trip for a few fleeting seconds. We were in the only part of eastern colorado with hills, so our view was obscured for a while and it had fizzled by the time we passed it. It was an outbreak day, but unfortunately all of the storms merged into a squall line, so we went after a tail end charley. It had 9 mesocyclones (areas of rotation) on it at one point, however none of them produced a tornado that we saw and it got dark too soon. Anyway, pics should follow for that as well. Have a good one.

2005-05-24T21:39:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone! This is a pic I thought was funny that I took on one of our off days driving through Kansas.

Dead day 3...

2005-05-21T10:04:00.000-07:00

Hey. I haven't forgotten ya'll. I just haven't had any storm action for a while. We're in Nebraska right now (noon Saturday) and are heading north. Today may be pretty good. We'll see. Anyway, just thought I'd give you an update. Hopefully have more for you soon.

2005-05-19T09:37:00.000-07:00

This is the cloud that formed the system in the next two pics.

2005-05-19T09:36:00.000-07:00

Cumulus in Towering status. It's building, but has not broken the cap.

2005-05-19T09:32:00.000-07:00

The cumulus after breaking the cap and starting to form a storm.

Day 9 - Bust?

2005-05-19T09:28:00.000-07:00

5-18-05

Today looked good. All the large scale processes were in place when we started, and we got to the Wichita, KA area early. We saw some towering cumulus and even a few small storms, however nothing of significance. It appeared later after a look at radar that the wind shear (up and down motion of the air) dropped out as we were chasing. This most likely prevented anything major from happening. I got a few photos out of it though.

2005-05-19T09:27:00.000-07:00

Cumulus trying to break the cap and form a supercell.

2005-05-19T09:26:00.000-07:00

Supercell forming very quickly 10 minutes after the other pic.

2005-05-19T09:24:00.000-07:00

Wall cloud after the tornado dissipated.

2005-05-19T09:23:00.000-07:00

Dust storm as we headed east after the tornado.

2005-05-19T09:22:00.000-07:00

Great pic of a supercell storm complete with core (on the left). We followed it for a while and got a tornado out of it as well.

2005-05-19T09:21:00.000-07:00

Nice picture of the storm that produced our second tornado.

Day 8 - Yay! Naders!

2005-05-19T09:12:00.000-07:00

5-17-05

I saw two tornados! Unfortunately, all I have is video, since I can't take video and pictures at the same time. The first one came out of a supercell not half an hour after it formed in North Platte, NE. We watched this cumulus field develop andproduce a tornado in what seemed like minutes. The great part is, we were some 100-200 yards away from this F1 size tornado. It was great.

We followed that storm for a while, then moved on to another one. We ended up getting pea size hail or slightly larger out of that one. We finally ended up on the tail end of a squall line (line of storms) on what is called a tail end charley. Squall lines are dificult because there is not much vorticity (rotation) in the storm. However, concentrations on the southern end of the line can be good to chase. We did, and right before dark we caught a small, laminar tornado. It was very nice. On the way back we got some really neat lightning shots. Unfortunately I am not good at photographing lightning, so only have video. It was an almost constant stream of lightning. I've never seen anything like it in Indiana.

Day 6 and Day 7 plans

2005-05-16T07:39:00.000-07:00

Ok. The order of stuff is a little off here. I posted the pictures for yesterday first. We went from the place where we stayed in Pecos and headed west to El Paso. It was a neat little border town. We ate at a place called Chico's Tacos. Oh yeah, we hit a tumbleweed along the way and shot some mountain pictures.

We proceeded toward New Mexico, going through Las Cruces, which is a really neat little city. I liked it. Anyway, we saw the start of a storm, but nothing to write home about. That was our storm activity for the day. A little rain and that's it.

We ended up in Albequerque. It is also a very nice city. My allergies have been behaving really well while we've been in New Mexico as well, which is kind of nice. Anyway, I only have a few scenery pics for yesterday.

Today, Doc thinks there is a sleeper region in Northwest Colorado so we're going to try and make it there. It'll be quite a drive, but that hasn't stopped us yet. Hopefully something will happen today, otherwise we'll just position ourselves for tomorrow in Nebraska.

2005-05-16T07:36:00.000-07:00

Reservoir and mountains in New Mexico.

2005-05-16T07:35:00.001-07:00

Tumbleweed stuck in our grill. It was about the width of the van.

2005-05-16T07:35:00.000-07:00

Picture from the top of a hill of the mountains in western Texas near Van Horn.

NBC Nightly News

2005-05-15T22:49:00.000-07:00

We were featured tonight on the NBC Nightly news everywhere except our hometown. Evidently our partner station decided it was more important to air redundant footage about pole day and the Pacers loss. Anyway, you can view our clip here entitled "Homework: ChasingTornados" in the video section. I don't know how long it will be up, but I'm going to try and find a way to save it and post a link somehow. You have to use internet explorer, since it's the MSNBC Site.

Also, here is a link to another chaser's site who rides in our van. It has some interesting photos and such, such as the SUV without a back window and softball size hole in the windshield. Just thought I'd provide it.

I'll update with today's pics tomorrow. They weren't that great. Pretty boring day stormwise. Some neat scenery and that's it. More tomorrow after I get sleep. Good night.

2005-05-15T22:31:00.000-07:00

That kind of upside down L shaped cloud in the middle of the picture shows what happens to a tower when the cap is to strong. It later developed into a storm as more of those towers ate away at the warm air cap.

2005-05-15T22:28:00.001-07:00

Storm that developed between Pecos and Ft. Stockton.

2005-05-15T22:28:00.000-07:00

Quarter size (it had melted some at this point) hail out of the storm above.

2005-05-15T22:25:00.000-07:00

A storm that just kind of popped up out of Fort Stockton. The NWS doesn't have any radar in Mexico, so it really surprised us. It was barely on radar at this point.