I have lived in Texas all my life, and no other subject has filled me with both fear and awe at the same time like Texas storms do. This powerful weather phenomenon has always inspired me. The storms themselves are a work of art. Powerful winds aloft sculpt the towers into magnificent shapes and structures. Lightning lights up the night sky like an Independence Day celebration, and the booming thunder seems to echo forever. All of these factors are orchestrated like a symphony in the heavens. “Majestic Noise” is the name of this performance, and I am its audience. I love photographing and experiencing these storms. It is my passion, my calling, and my mission. When the severe weather rolls in, I go out to listen for that “Majestic Noise!”

Friday, February 18, 2011

Ready for the Next Season?...

With all the cold and dry air we have been getting lately it has had me worried about the drought this year. All these cold fronts that have been moving through keep pushing all the moisture back to the gulf. But the latest run of the GFS has got me intrigued. We could have an early start to the season in less then a week! Now of course this could fall apart before tomorrow, but its nice to see some instability and moisture return.

Surface dewpoint temperatures for 7 p.m. on Thursday evening. Dewpoints reach the 60s in western north TX and southern OK. A sharp dryline sets up to the west of the moisture axis.

850mb Vertical Velocity you can see there is a lot of lift along the dryline.

We also have some instability over the target area CAPE values around 1000 J/kg. This is sufficient for thunderstorms.

LI values are also very high -9 over western OK.



The hodographs are also impressive for early in teh season. We see a nice right curvature on the chart. 0-6km shear is around 50kts.

I would like to see a little higher surface temps, but that's to be expected with this early in the season. Lets keep our fingers crossed and hope for an early start to the season.
Posted by shutterbug2007 at 10:22 PM

2 comments:

  1. UnknownFebruary 19, 2011 at 4:29 PM

    If only I didn't have class on Thursday.
    I've been watching this too. James and some friends are making plans to head out Thursday if things continue to look interesting.

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  2. Ken ReynoldsFebruary 20, 2011 at 6:24 PM

    I'm still undecided, to be honest. I won't even give it a second thought until Tuesday, at the very earliest. GFS doesn't seem to resolve things very well until around 3 days out. It looks like I could make an after work chase of it though, here in DFW, if everything holds together.

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