News from National Storm Chasers Convention

It has been a day of learning and admiring at the Seventh Annual National Storm Chasers Convention. The event started out as the Colorado Storm Chasers Convention. It has grown to over 200 chasers this year.

Jim Edds enthralled the audience with video clips from his 2004 hurricane chases. He started it off playing a video from the April 2004 National Hurricane Conference, when researcher Bill Gray announced that “Floridians did not know how lucky they had been.” He predicted big trouble ahead for the Sunshine State. Little did the audience know how prophetic his statement would be. Edds showed impressive video from Hurricane Charley as it made landfall in Punta Gorda, Florida on August 13th as a Category Four hurricane. It was upgraded that afternoon based on an aircraft reconnaissance report. Edds reported that surface observations from the north coast of Cuba actually indicated that it was at Category Three status even before it crossed Cuba. Edds also showed some video of him getting caught in storm surge on the North Carolina coast as Hurricane Isabel made landfall in 2003. The storm tide rose more rapidly and was higher than he expected, since the storm was weakening at the time. It was a poignant reminder that the power of storm surge takes a long time to diminish, even if the hurricane is weakening. Edds was shooting video from the beach when a series of powerful waves caught him and washed him several hundred yards inland over the next several minutes. He was lucky to escape with his life.

Dr. Al Bedard gave an interesting talk on his team’s research into the detection of tornadoes with atmospheric ultrasound. His team at NCAR in Boulder has determined that a tornado produces a distinctive sound signature that can be measured from a long distance by sensitive equipment. They actually have a research prototype working with NWS offices in Pueblo, Boulder and Goodland, Kansas. Their equipment observed 67 signals in 2003. During that year, it successfully detected 30% of the tornadoes within the system’s range. Another 36% of the signals were associated with non-tornadic severe weather. 20% were false alarms. 2% of the actual tornadoes went undetected. Bedard believes this may provide ground truth reports in isolated areas.

More tomorrow...