IowaStormChaser's Blog

Spring Musings 

As we roll through May I can’t help but wonder why time seems to pass by more quickly each year. It might be the fact that my kids are getting older, or that I’m getting older too. Whatever the case, it is now the middle of May on the calendar and my mind thinks it should be mid-March.

The spring weather so far this year has been relatively quiet, but June is coming soon, and that is the peak of severe weather season here in Iowa. While I’m not ready for it to be June quite yet (my to do list is still long,) I welcome the increased opportunities to chase. 

Time for me to go out and enjoy this sunny day…

Storm Chase from 4/9/11

not much luck

The past two days have led to very little luck in the chase department.
Thursday night was a chase through Northwest Iowa, but mostly just neat clouds, lightning, wind, and a fair share of people out in front of the small town bars pointing up at the sky. “Looky dere Earl, bet you never seen nuttin like dat befur”. Rural Iowa life is great!
Last night was more eventful as we chased into Northern Missouri, drove through some very strong winds and heavy rain, while the sun was filtering in with an eerie yellow glow. Did see a nice double rainbow, too. Not sure it was worth driving 400+ miles, but as always if you don’t go you’ll never know.

stormy night??

As the tornado watches are issued it sparks some curiosity as to whether we will have an active late afternoon/evening across Iowa.  The way I see it, it all depends on that pesky cap and when it breaks.  Time will tell, but I was sure to top off my fuel tank and charge batteries last night just in case.

Active today down south

Looks like it is going to be an active late afternoon and evening down south in Kansas and Oklahoma. I noticed that we had no reported tornadoes in Iowa for the month of April. That’s surprising given the fact that historically April ranks third among the twelve months for number of tornadoes. Could be another below-average year…

tonight’s weather….

The NWS issued a Severe T-storm Watch for Western and Central Iowa tonight, but at this time it looks like heavy rain may be the biggest threat.  Oh well, chasing after dark usually leads to problems anyway…and last I checked the truck isn’t equipped with pontoons.

The new website is on its way…hopefully!

So this is a new addition to the iowastormchaser.com website, a blog.  The thought is that with a blog as part of the site, I may actually update the site more than once a year.  Anyway, we will see how it goes.