A Journey’s End

For those of you who haven’t heard, my time with VORTEX2 came to an end earlier this week (rather unceremoniously, I should add, but more on that in a minute) and I stumbled back into Raleigh around 1:30 am Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. I’ve given myself a day or two to recover from my travels and get back into the groove of being home, and I must say, as much as I loved going out and stormchasing, it’s been nice sleeping in my own bed and eating food that I didn’t have to order from a cashier or waitress.

As for my last few days with VORTEX2…they were a bit disappointing, actually, because we only pseudo-operated (meaning we sat around and waited for something targetable to form, which never did) or had a total down day where nothing happened. I was hoping for a bit more action, but the PI’s (principal investigators) seemed to take a more discriminatory approach to storms because of certain goals they wanted to accomplish. Completely understandable, but a little sad for me. With the days that I did have left, here’s how I spent my time:

On a travel day to South Dakota, stopping by Devil’s Tower in Wyoming…mashed potatoes, anyone?

After driving all the way up to South Dakota, we ended up not operating and having another travel day, but it was a relatively short drive, so we decided to stop by Wall Drug and take in all the tourist-y goodness.

Wall Drug also wasn’t far from the Badlands, so we took a couple of hours and took in the gorgeous rock formations. Above is my truck, NCAR2, with the Badlands in the background.

After all that traveling, we had one day where there weren’t any targetable storms, a down day spent in North Platte, Nebraska, and my last day, spent in “standby” mode. We were waiting to see if storms would form in our area (which they eventually didn’t) and I was able to launch one last balloon.

While the end of my time with VORTEX2 wasn’t so action-packed, I wanted to take a minute and reflect on some of the memories from my time this year that really stuck out (in no particular order):

• Seeing 3 tornadoes and 1 funnel
• Being caught between two tornadic supercells
• My truck catching on fire
• A five-hour drive to our hotel after operating all day
• Attempting to launch balloons in 45+ mph winds
• Conversing with a guy who clearly had too much to drink while getting ready for a balloon launch from a high-stress storm-relative location
• Prepping for at the time was supposed to be a live on national TV weather-balloon launch and mini-interview with Mike Bettes from The Weather Channel
• Being subjected to the stares/questioning looks of many locals as we drove through towns
• After a long operations day, evacuating from our hotel and waiting outside late at night because of smoke in the hallways
• Experiencing some beautiful and picturesque storms
• Running into a college friend who was also chasing at a gas station in the middle of nowhere
• Spending the night in a hotel without power on the day of a tornado outbreak
• Driving past tornado damage on the interstate the day after a tornado outbreak
• Being in the middle of a “chaser convergence” controversy
• Needing to remind myself constantly what day it was
• A late-night concert right outside my hotel window causing me to stay awake well past a decent hour
• Eating WAY too much Subway
• Waiting in long lines late at night to check into hotels
• VORTEX2 being thanked by a local Emergency Manager for going out and doing what we do
• Enjoying every minute of a stormchase, in constant wonder of the beauty nature produces

While I can’t list every experience I had this year–good or bad–I do know that VORTEX2 has been a success in many ways and I am truly grateful to have had the opportunity to participate. As the data collection wraps up in the next two weeks and the data analysis begins, I hope to keep in mind the people I’ve met, the stories I’ve heard, the storms I’ve seen, and the fun I’ve had. I’m excited for the research to come and the new knowledge revealed through this data I’ve helped collect!

Advertisement

Tags: roadside attractions, strange happenings, supercell, tornadoes