Tornado Season and VORTEX2

As you may have noticed from the links on the right, I'm a bit of a disaster nerd. More accurately, I find the natural processes of earthquakes, volcanoes, tornadoes and severe weather to be awe-inspiring.

Fortunately, people more capable and focused than I are interested in these phenomena, and study them with an eye towards greater understanding and applying that understanding towards minimizing the dangers they pose to people.

I was originally going to talk about the ambitious tornado study VORTEX2 and last year's quiet tornado season.

But tornado season has already started. On Monday, a spate of severe weather dropped two tornadoes on Oklahoma, and the Oklahoma-Texas region has had heavy thunderstorms every day this week.


Andy Gabrielson - SevereStudios.com

Usually the South sees what little activity that comes this early in the year, but initial forecasts predict a busy year for storm chasers.

Which - from a pure research view - is good news. Last year the VORTEX2 team had decidedly rotten luck for nearly a month, finally successfully intercepting a tornado near Goshen, Wyoming, on June 5, 2009. This was cutting things rather fine, as the team could only remain in the field for about a month due to time constraints on many of the participants.

This year, the VORTEX2 team will be taking the field again on May 1st, and remaining out until June 15th. Good hunting, guys.

[May and early June are traditionally the busiest times for tornadoes on the Great Plains.]

For more information:

VORTEX2 (Official site)
Storm Chasers - Discovery TV show; these guys have/will participate in VORTEX2
Weatherwise.com - story on VORTEX2
National Storm Prediction Center
SevereStudios.com - severe weather news
The Big Storm Picture - fantastic weather photography

Hurricane Ike's Effects - on the Great Lakes

You have probably heard about Hurricane Ike's results in the Houston area, especially in Galveston and on the Bolivar Peninsula. (If not, I refer you to Houblog. He was in the middle of it.)

But the storm also had effects clear up into Lake Michigan:

While assessing Ike's impact on the lake, Whitman noted that "The velocity and height of a tributary emptying into Lake Michigan at Portage, Indiana went off the chart. We measured a tremendous amount of sediment accumulation near Ogden Dunes."

A minor footnote in the record of Ike's passing, to be sure; but a plain reminder of the lasting and unusual power of a hurricane.

Seven-Story Freak Wave = Bad Thing

This happened over the weekend.

The cruise ship Norwegian Queen, headed from the Bahamas to New York, while traveling through 40-foot seas was hit by a seven-story-tall wave and was forced to head into Charleston, S.C. for repairs. The wave reached as high as deck 10 on the ship, breaking windows, washing overboard deck funiture and Jacuzzis, and flooding 62 cabins. 4 passengers suffered minor injuries.

The ship has now safely returned to New York. While the ship was never in any real danger, the freak wave did scare a lot of passengers. I can see why.