As the weather in OC turned fair and summer like, I had the opportunity over this last weekend to attend the National Storm Chaser Convention which is held in Denver, Colorado. The trip took a toll on me though as I was getting or caught a cold. I left on Thursday evening with the entire family on this spontaneous trip at the last minute. We arrived just after noon the next day. I was very tired from the non-stop drive (I only drove a few hundred miles of it) and check-in registration was at 6PM.
The "Con" was opened up early Saturday morning by Co-Owners Roger Hill (Chaser, Press photo/videographer & tornado tour guide) and Tim Samaras (Tornado Researcher and Chaser). The first talk was by Jon Davies called "Where's The Tornado" which discussed the details of a rain wrapped tornado June 7th 2009 in NW Missouri. Next up was a con favorite, Tim Marshall with his talk cleverly titled "The May Trick of 2009" which was certainly a crowd pleaser. I had never seen him speak but let's just say he really get into character. After a short break another well known figure and leader of the largest research project on Tornadogenisis, Dr. Josh Wurman. He discussed in deatil the massive project, Verification of the Origins of Rotation in Tornadoes Experiment 2 (VORTEX2) and his orgainization behind it, the CSWR. This included the highlight of the year for many in research, the Goshen Co, WY tornado of 2009. This tornado was the single most scientifically covered tornadic event in recorded history. The tornado was not only scrutinized by the Vortex team and several other research groups in the area but was televised live on The Weather Channel from start to finish. After lunch Mike Bettes was to speak but couldn't make it due to heavy snow in Atlanta so Tim Samaras filled in the time slot. Mid-Afternoon, Dr. Howie Bluestein from the University of Oklahoma discussed in a detailed overview all of the mobile Doppler's used in the VORTEX2 project. The last speaker of the day was Dr. Erik Rasmussen of Rasmussen Systems who also led the first VORTEX project in the 90's. His topic was "What's left to learn about Tornados?". A vendor fair followed, were I dropped a serious amount of cash on books, DVD's and stickers.
After a quick trip to freshen up at the hotel, I returned for the banquet dinner. I believe it was Mango Chicken and rice with black beans and some steamed veggies. I was surprised to meet a few storm chasers also from California. After dinner was the keynote address by Dr. Greg Forbes (Storm Master G) The Weather Channel's resident storm expert with perspectives on the decade, a look back at the last ten years significant weather events. Dr. Forbes finished with some heartfelt memories of working with the late Ted Fujita. Following the keynote was Chaser Video Night with some very interesting amateur chase videos.
Sunday morning it was snowing pretty good. The ChaserCon started back up with the most important presentation by Chris Novy (WA9V) on "Safe and Responsible Chasing". After, Jon Davies spoke again on chase targeting issues. Next was Greg Stumpf with NSSL & CIMMS at NWS/MDL on the topic "The Evolution of Hazardous Warning Services". At this point I was exhausted from the drive and the massive amount of information I was listening too. I only caught part of the final talk by Dr. Forbes entitled "Severe Weather and Flash-flood forecasting. His talk concluded at noon and by midnight I was 750 miles away in Las Vegas looking for a pillow to lay my sleepy head on.
Below is footage from TWC coverage of the Goshen CO tornado event in June, 2009.
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