A beautiful alto-cumulus deck this week...
Over the past few days I've gathered a few photos to keep up with this utter boredom. Utter boredom in the sense of the current synoptic weather pattern that is. The positive: it has allowed me to get a lot of things accomplished already. It really is somewhat amazing how productive you can be when you're not driving around 12hrs straight in some cases chasing storms and tornadoes. Negative: No
supercells and/or tornadoes to chase in the central U.S. I originally planned on a "
chasecation" meaning a storm chasing vacation in the Great Plains, but with this dismal outlook for severe weather I have had to put that on hold or will have to cancel it completely at some point. I'm hoping that June makes up for this disappointing late-May weather pattern. That's wish-casting at this point though based on the
GFS model. So what has happened you say? Well, a "death-ridge" has caused the jet stream to head to the U.S./Canada border which provides thunderstorms with shear that promotes storms the capability to become severe and produce tornadoes. At the same time, a semi-tropical system has "cut-off" the Gulf of Mexico from allowing its rich-moisture this time of the year to surge north fueling the development of thunderstorms. For those without a meteorology background...this is a pattern you'd see in July or August for example. The affect: it frustrates storm chasers alike and V2 (
Vortex2 Project). Every so often this happens in
Tornado Alley. Unfortunately, this is one of those years and once you're socked into this pattern it's extremely difficult for the pattern to break down and become more favorable. Even if the pattern does not break down I'll still plan at least a few days in the plains to visit Mt.Rushmore, the Badlands, and
Wakita, KS (town filmed in the movie Twister) to name a few at some point this summer. Anyhow I've added a few images of the past few days. I visited a wind farm today in Stark County, IL as these are popping-up everywhere (another nearby in Bureau County). I'm a big-supporter of
green energy so I decided to check one out today. I've added a few photos below:
Our outdoor cat enjoying the "death-ridge" pattern to my dismay
Sun dipping below the horizon making a odd "glowing" affect on this treeline as everything else on the horizon is in shadow
Didn't have to go far to grab a decent photo on this day (backyard)
Keep checking back for more photos from storm chasing once the pattern cooperates or for any other projects I'm working on since I'll post those here as well. I'll be storm chasing eventually again June-July (anywhere) and locally this summer July-August (IL, IA, IN, MO).
