48 Degrees at GTR...

This is NOT to knock the NWS but again they were too low with the morning low... When you have 11" + of rain in less than two weeks it's hard to get your dewpoints low enough to reach last nights forecasted 45 degrees... The afternoon update actually dropped it down to 44... When you have that much water in the ground it will evaporate and cause your dewpoints to stay up... Basically you have excess moisture trapped near the surface! This is a good lesson for everyone as it was taught to me by Doug Gillham! I guess what surprised me the most was when you see that it didn't happen the night before, then why don't you adjust the next night??? Tonight the NWS is going 47... Again I still think that is too low! Winds beginning to shift out of the south with warm air advection and you still have a TON of water in the ground... I'm leaning more towards 51 degrees tonight.. By hey, that's just me!

I should get the Anthony, KS night tornado video up tonight... If not I'll get it up tomorrow 100%... I do have an intramural football game at 9pm tonight! GO CANES!!!

52 Degrees at GTR...

It only got to 52 degrees at GTR this morning which just goes to show what 11" of rain can do... The NWS had 48 degrees which I thought was too low because of how wet the ground still is... I don't think it was a bad forecast, but just a little too aggressive with the amount of rain we have had in the last 2 weeks... Tonight I think the NWS is also a little too low... They have 45 degrees and while I think it will get into the upper 40's tonight at GTR, I can't go as low as 45 degrees... I'll say 48, maybe 47 degrees tonight... We'll have to wait and see but I think 48/47 will be close with the amount of water still around Starkville...

I'm going to post the Anthony, KS night tornado video tomorrow... We (Justyn Jackson, Derek Cody, and Myself) actually saw this tornado about 45 minutes after the Attica, KS tornado... After breaking off from Jon Davies and Jim Reed, we basically "ran" into this awesome tornado... It was light up almost perfectly many times by some nice lightning... Also we were fairly close to it which only helped visually... Again I'll post that video sometime tomorrow night!

Attica, KS Tornado Video...

I just released a 10 minute video of the Attica, KS tornado... This was the first large tornado I had ever chased in my life... May 12th 2004 is also the first day I ever saw a tornado in my mind... I probably had seen a few before at night or from a good distance away but again I consider May 12th 2004 as my first successful tornado chase... If you have to go back and re-watch your video to say you saw a tornado, DON'T COUNT THAT!!! Or if you have to use binoculars to say you saw a tornado, PLEASE DON'T COUNT THAT EITHER!!! That's just weak in my personal opinion... Anyways it was an amazing day I'll never forget for a long as I live... One of the happiest I have ever been... Sorry about the laughing and excitement but honestly I couldn't contain myself... Justyn Jackson always told me that I would just laugh when I saw my first significant tornado just like he did a year earlier with the Hamilton, KS tornado... The funny thing is he was exactly right!

The best part of this day was the fact that we got to storm chase with two of the very best! Jon Davies and Jim Reed... Both are unbelievable people and I feel very blessed that I got to see my first tornadoes with these two great men! It really was such a great learning experience that I'll always thank both of them for... They easily could have told us to get lost which I think a lot of high profile chasers would have done! Jon Davies actually told TWC about this particular chase and it was featured on storm stories in December of 2004... We actually saw 2 smaller tornadoes and the Attica, KS tornado with Jon Davies and Jim Reed... Later that night Justyn Jackson, Derek Cody, and myself saw a nice tornado about 45 minutes after Attica, KS near a town called Anthony, KS... I'll show some video on that one later... It was light up perfectly many times by constant intense lightning... Cool stuff!!!

This particular tornado unfortunately hit a house and basically destroyed it... I believe it was ranked as a high end F-2... I'm sure many people have seen famous video of the house just lifting into the tornado... At the time we had no idea that the insulation raining on us was from that particular house... Thank God both the husband and wife were ok! They went into the basement which saved them! I'll post links to that video and links to both Jon Davies and Jim Reeds websites below...

House getting sucked up into Attica, KS tornado
NWS post tornado damage video of the house
Jon Davies Website
Jim Reed Website


*WARNING* There are plenty of cuss words in this video!!! Most actually not by me this time but I still thought I would warn everyone... I apologize again but if you are sensitive to cuss words then don't watch the video... Again with a tornado less than a half mile from you, it's tough sometimes!!!

© Greg Nordstrom 2004

ANY USE OF THIS VIDEO WITHOUT PERMISSION FROM GREG NORDSTROM IS PROHIBITED AND WILL BE PROSECUTED TO THE FULLEST EXTENT OF THE LAW...

Beautiful Day!!!

What a beautiful day!!! A cold front pushed through Starkville, MS yesterday making today feel great! I actually had another 2.40" of rain at my house between about 8am and noon Saturday! That brought a 10 day total near 11" at my house! CRAZY!!! Today though we had mostly clear skies with a high around 84 degrees... The dewpoints were still up as we were in the mid to upper 60's... There is still SO MUCH water in the ground that it's going to be tough to get them down, even though we will have a second shot of cooler/drier air with a re-enforcing cold front heading through Starkville by around 8am tomorrow... The Funny thing is mid to upper 60's feels great when you're used to mid to upper 70's...

Tonight we will be near 65 degrees but tomorrow looks even better than today... Again the cold front should make it to Starkville tomorrow morning... It will be mostly sunny with highs near 80 degrees... The winds will be out of the northwest tomorrow, gusting to near 20 mph at times... Also the dewpoints should drop all day getting into the lower 50's which will feel amazing combined the NW winds... The NWS has as a low tomorrow of 49 degrees with dewpoints in the upper 40's... While I think it will be a great night I just can't see the low getting to 49 with all the rain we have had the last 10 days or so... I would say 52 maybe 51 right now if I had to guess... The dewpoints "should" stay up! Either way it will feel great! I hope everyone ENJOYS it!!! :-)

Also really quick I'm going to upload some more tornado videos this week... Tomorrow will be the Attica, KS tornado which was the first large tornado I ever chased... Also I'm going to make a best of hurricane/tornado videos here soon as well... They should hopefully turn out pretty cool...

MSU Tornado 4 Years Later-2...

I wanted to add one more link that Dr. Mike Brown sent me yesterday... It's a great link that shows the path of the tornado through campus and also shows a few amazing damage pictures from the event... I think everyone will enjoy this link and I want to thank Mike again for sending it to me...

MSU Tornado Track

MSU Tornado 4 Years Later...

Like I mentioned yesterday, today is the 4 year anniversary of a F-1 tornado going through the campus of Mississippi State University, eventually taking a direct strike on my old apartment at Chadwick Place just off East Lee Blvd... I found a few cool article that I'll leave links to below... Enjoy!!!

Classes Cancelled Monday -9/25/05

Campus Recovers from Rita-Spawned Tornado -9/27/05

University Continues Repairs -9/30/05

Hurricane Rita 4 Years Later!!!

Today is the 4 year anniversary of Hurricane Rita making landfall just south (marshlands) of where we were in Orange, TX... The right center portion of the eye went right over us (The winds went dead calm for at least 30-45 minutes)!!! I believe it officially made landfall in between Sabine Pass, TX and Johnson's Bayou, LA... It was an AMAZING experience and I'll never forget the lightning associated with this particular hurricane for the rest of my life! I've NEVER seen anything like it in a hurricane!!! Since I actually just released the video earlier this month I'll leave a link to the video and write up... Remember the next day my house was hit by a mesocyclone induced F-1 tornado from the remnant feeder bands of Rita... It was a CRAZY two days to say the least!!!

Hurricane Rita Video/Write Up

Radar Loop of Rita Making Landfall

Southeastern Geographer-2...

I just realized that you can only see the link to the Southeastern Geographer if you are on a school computer (.edu) or if you are a member of SEDAAG... My parents and a few other people said they couldn't see it... Sorry about that!!! Here is the actual image of what the journal looks like...

Front Cover

Front cover photograph: Friday the 13th, August 2004. Northern eyewall of Hurricane Charley coming ashore in Port Charlotte, FL. Sustained winds 150 mph +. Photo courtesy of Greg Nordstrom, Long Distance Chase Team.

Southeastern Geographer...

I was just going to let everyone know that one of my Hurricane Charley pictures made it on the cover of the Southeastern Geographer... For anyone that is interested, the Southeastern Geographer is a great weather journal I think everyone into weather would enjoy reading... You will find lots of great weather/climate publications! My photo is in Volume 49, Number 2: Summer 2009 (Florida: Bellweather of the South)... I'll leave a link to it below...

Funny enough the photo they chose is by far the best picture I have ever taken in my personal opinion... There is nothing fancy with it as I shot it with a basic waterproof disposal camera... In a way it almost made it look better! Sometimes simple is best with weather! Honestly, I just got lucky capturing the worst of Hurricane Charley with a single picture!!! I would say the winds were around 150mph at the time of the photo... Just minutes later the eye went directly over our heads in Port Charlotte, FL (On southeastern side very near Charlotte Harbor)... The wind gauge across the street at the hospital reportedly blew off at 173mph... While it's true that pictures can speak a thousand words, when dealing with a major hurricane no single picture can truly capture the incredible power/force associated with it! However this particular picture did a decent/OK job of it!!!


Below is the black and white copy of it used in the journal...


Southeastern Geographer Link

Today in Weather History!!!

Today is the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Hugo smashing into South Carolina and also the 71st anniversary of the Great 1938 "Long Island Express" Hurricane smashing into New England... Hurricane Hugo is a very well known hurricane which at the time was the costliest hurricane in US history at around 10 billion dollars... For more information on Hugo I would read the links below... The first link is the NHC's report from Hugo and the second link is some INCREDIBLE video of Hurricane Hugo when it was destroying Puerto Rico!!!

NHC Hurricane Hugo Report

AMAZING Hurricane Hugo Video

I know today little is talked about the Great 1938 "Long Island Express" Hurricane, but in many ways it was a stronger hurricane than Hugo... At landfall it was moving at over 60mph! Now you can't just add the 60mph to the storm (HORRIBLE PHYSICS) but it does add some wind speeds when you have a hurricane hitting the shore perpendicular like you did with the 1938 hurricane... It causes the eye to shrink/tighten therefore leading to an increase in pressure gradient and wind speeds... How much? That's impossible to say but you CAN'T just add the 60mph to it... I would maybe add 1/3 of it in this particular case if I had to guess, but each hurricane/situation is unique...

It went straight across Long Island, NY (2:30pm) into Connecticut (4:00pm)... The worst of this strong Category-3 hurricane (946mb) was felt in Rhode Island... Providence, RI was under 13 feet of water as some places along the Rhode Island shore had 16-18 foot + storm surges as it coincided with high tide! Not only did this hurricane produced a massive storm surge, it also produced the highest recorded wind gust associated with a tropical cyclone in US history... The Blue Hills Observatory had 121 mph sustained winds with a US record on land wind gust of 186 mph for landfalling hurricanes... Incredible if you think about all the horrible hurricanes that have struck the US... Of course this is just recorded history and there is no doubt plenty of hurricanes have produced MUCH higher wind gust that just wasn't recorded... Ie: 1935 Labor Day, Camille, Andrew, etc...

Unfortunately when it was over at least 600 people lost their lives... Many people had NO IDEA the hurricane was coming until it was already on them... Remember it was moving at 60 mph, plus most forecasts had it going out to sea not affecting the North East... There really was basically NO WARNING!!!

One more interesting/incredible fact about this famous hurricane was the amazing waves it produced... Some waves over 40 feet were associated with the very high storm surge... The waves were smashing so hard into the New England coast line that seismograph machines along the Pacific Coast recorded the shock of many of these incredible waves! Absolutely Crazy!!! If you like historical weather, then I would take the time to read up on this amazing US hurricane... There are many books about it and without a doubt it will always go down as one of the strongest US landfalling hurricanes of all time!!! If you think about this is the last horrible hurricane to directly strike the North East!!! I hope New Englanders realize that there is ALWAYS a HUGE hurricane threat even though it has happened in a long long time!!! Unfortunately, history will repeat itself!!!

Albany, MO Tornado

This video was shoot near Albany, MO on May 24th 2004 (aka P-DAY)... At one point the main tornado was about 100 yards away, however the satellite tornado coming around the base got about 100-200 feet away... This is by far the closest I have ever gotten to a tornado!!! The terrain made it a little hard to see, so it did close in on us fast! The satellite tornado is what really caught me off guard... Either way it was very crazy/intense there for about 10 minutes!!! It really was an amazing multiple-vortex tornado that went up and down many many times! From Albany, MO it continued east towards Bethany, MO where it eventually dissipated... Here is another chase account from that day! This tornado caused strong F-2 damage in Albany, MO!

Other Chase Account

*WARNING* Again unfortunately there are cuss words... This one is a little worse than most of the storm chasing videos I shot, so if you are sensitive to language then please don't watch! Again I'm very sorry about that but at 24 years old I wasn't too worried about it! Today I let very few go while taping!!!

© Greg Nordstrom 2004

ANY USE OF THIS VIDEO WITHOUT PERMISSION FROM GREG NORDSTROM IS PROHIBITED AND WILL BE PROSECUTED TO THE FULLEST EXTENT OF THE LAW...

Argonia, KS Tornado Video

Sorry it took me a while but I have finally put up the Argonia, KS tornado video... This is a very impressive tornado we saw about 30-45 minutes before Conway Springs... Conways Springs was the strongest tornado I have ever chased but Argonia might have been the most unique! At one point you had 3 tornadoes on the ground at the same time! One parent strong tornado with 2 weak satellite tornadoes... The satellite tornado to the right of the parent tornado actually became the main tornado as it crossed the road... Eventually it became a wedge tornado... The way the dust streamed into this tornado is one of the more amazing things I have ever seen!!! When it comes to tornado chasing I think it's going to be hard to beat a day like this as a chaser... To see many tornadoes (really hard to count honestly) and 2 large violent wedge tornadoes is an one in a million chase day... I hope to get LUCKY enough to see this one-day again... But there are NO GUARANTEES!!!

Also I think there are 2 or 3 cuss words in the video just to warn you! Again I'm sorry about that but it's tough sometimes when you are inside a 1/2 mile from a tornado... No excuses, but I'm MUCH MUCH better today...

© Greg Nordstrom 2004

ANY USE OF THIS VIDEO WITHOUT PERMISSION FROM GREG NORDSTROM IS PROHIBITED AND WILL BE PROSECUTED TO THE FULLEST EXTENT OF THE LAW...

Southeast Severe Storms Symposium

Today was the beginning of the 8th Annual Southeast Severe Storms Symposium... It's hard to believe I was at the first one in 2002... We have come a LONG way since then and it's great to see how our department has progressed operationally... We have been and will always be great in broadcasting, but again we have come a long way operationally in the last 10-15 years... That was the purpose of the first symposium which Ryan Wade helped start get into motion in 2001... It's a great idea and I hope to see it continue over the years...

Like always there are plenty of great talks, but I really enjoy Dave Freeman talk about Greensburg, KS... He was on-air in Wichita, KS doing wall to wall coverage of the EF-5... There were actually 4 "super" tornadoes that night and ironically Greensburg was not the largest of the four... I believe the Greensburg tornado was about 1.7 miles wide but there was another monster tornado just to the north and east of Greensburg about 2 miles wide... Thankfully that tornado stayed mostly over farmland... Dave gave a GREAT talk and it was awesome to see someone that cares so much for his viewers... There is NO DOUBT he does this because he loves it! Not being on TV, but having the opportunity to save lives... And that's the ultimate goal...

I'm also going to try to get the Argonia, KS tornado video up tonight... I would have earlier but things have been really busy... Again though I'll try to get it up late tonight and if I don't for some reason, I'll get it up tomorrow no matter what!

8th Annual SSSS Agenda...

Conway Springs Tornado Video-2

Here is the second and final video from the Conway Springs, KS Tornado... Again the video speaks for itself... UNREAL TORNADO!! It's funny I hear a lot of people hate on someone like Reed Timmer... Does he push the limit, of course he does... But you know what that's his thing and I have respect for him... I never root against anyone out there in the Great Plains! All I can control is myself and how I forecast, but at the same time I'm not in competition with anyone but myself... And that's how I look at it with Reed... If he wants to get that close than I say go for it buddy... Hey you can't doubt his forecasting abilities and honestly I just think a lot of people are jealous... I mean look how many tornadoes he has been on!!!

While I don't usually get as close as Reed I definitely don't see the point of watching a tornado from 2 or 3 miles away... Again just my opinion but you don't really feel the true force of the tornado until you get about 1/2 mile away... I'M NOT SAYING THAT IF YOU ARE NOT A TRAINED EXPERIENCED CHASER YOU SHOULD DO THIS!!! However for me and my style of chasing this is the goal... When I'm out in the plains I'm in the business of finding tornadoes... Of course I'm also out to have a good times with my friends, but again the BUSINESS IS TORNADOES!!! People have stole this saying from me before, but you win some and you lose most when it comes to chasing... That's why when you get that opportunity you better go all out, because you might never get another opportunity like the one presented before you ever again!!! NOTHING IS GUARANTEED IN LIFE... Just look at the Conway Springs, KS tornado... If we were a mile or two away I would be like yeah that is some good video... But when you're inside a 1/2 mile for most of it I would be like DAMN THAT'S SOME AMAZING VIDEO... Again just my personal opinion but it's the way I usually try to chase... It's the LDCT way... Not being dumb, but being tactfully aggressive...

I want to say that my good friends Tim Wallace and John Walker were with me during this amazing event... It's funny when you go through things like this with someone, you form a type of bond that no-one can understand or break... Also I wanted to add one more thing... Justyn Jackson (aka mini Doswell) really helped us a lot on this event... This is before the days of iphones and internet cards (at least for us) so his radar analysis really helped us! Justyn at one point told us to go down the road, turn left and look right and you should see a tornado... What do you know, we went straight down the road, turned left and looked right at the Argonia, KS tornado... AMAZING!!!

I'm actually going to post the Argonia, KS tornado video tomorrow or Wednesday... This is another 1/2 mile wide tornado we saw about 30 minutes before Conway Springs... At one point 3 tornadoes were on the ground at once... The crazy part is we had to break off the Argonia, KS tornado to get on the Conway Springs, KS tornado... Again tactfully aggressive chasing... If you don't risk it you're not going to get rewarded... Thank God we did!!!

Also thank God this tornado only hurt one person... The Weather Channel actually did a storm stories of this... A lady who was holding onto her toilet was ripped from her house and tossed about 1/2 mile in the air... She was beat up pretty bad but some storm chasers found her and saved her life... The house was completely gone... It was only ranked a F-3 because of the structural integrity of the houses hit... It was actually heading straight for Conway Springs (without any tornado sirens going off) when it turned right just in the nick of time! Thank God too, because we were screaming at people to go inside their house as this MONSTER was heading towards them... You'll see in the video that we were doing EVERYTHING we could to warn the citizens of the possible immanent danger coming their way! If it would have hit the main town it probably would have been at least a F-4 if not possibly a F-5... I thank God almost everyday that didn't happen!

High Risk Archive 5/29/04 12z

High Risk Archive 5/29/04 1630z

High Risk Archive 5/29/04 20z

High Risk Archive 5/30/04 13z

High Risk Archive 5/30/04 1630z

High Risk Archive 5/30/04 20z

Remember 193 tornadoes in less than 2 full days!!!

© Greg Nordstrom 2004

ANY USE OF THIS VIDEO WITHOUT PERMISSION FROM GREG NORDSTROM IS PROHIBITED AND WILL BE PROSECUTED TO THE FULLEST EXTENT OF THE LAW...

Conway Springs Tornado Video-1

This is the first of 2 Conway Springs, KS tornado videos I'm going to post tonight... Sorry for the delay but I was watching my Oakland Raiders choke again.... But back to the tornado.... This was BY FAR the biggest, baddest, most AMAZING tornado I have ever seen... We took a risk and played the triple point that day, hoping the cap would break... High Risk = Huge Reward... I always believe you should play the best environment even if it wasn't the sure thing... It didn't look good at first but then BOOM, the lid popped off the cap and things got crazy QUICK... Storms went up and were getting tornado warned in about 15-20 minutes...

I have never seen an environment like it in my life... This is off the top of my head but again you had a triple point with a nice dry line bulge, dew points into the 70's, incredible SE surface winds sustained around tropical storm force, unbelievable directional/speed shear, awesome low-level jet, and a surface low near 985mb... I think it bombed out to near 980mb by the end of the 2-day event... The video speaks for itself but I most warn you there are some cuss words... Sorry about that but again I've gotten much better since then... Honestly though when you see the 2 videos I think you'll understand why I let a few go... That day there were 93 tornadoes and another 100 tornadoes the next day! That's 193 tornadoes in less than 2 full days! Just INSANE period end of story!!! I think it will hard to beat this event but I'm sure it will happen again one-day...

5/29/04 Storm Reports

5/30/04 Storm Reports

*Also remember to better view the videos, first click on play and then click again on the actual video to take you to youtube... That way you can see it in full screen!!!

© Greg Nordstrom 2004

ANY USE OF THIS VIDEO WITHOUT PERMISSION FROM GREG NORDSTROM IS PROHIBITED AND WILL BE PROSECUTED TO THE FULLEST EXTENT OF THE LAW...

888mb...

Today is the 21st anniversary of Hurricane Gilbert's barometric pressure getting down to 888mb or 26.13 inches of mercury... At the time this was the all time record low pressure in the Carribean, Gulf of Mexico, and the Atlantic Ocean... Gilbert smashed the Grand Cayman Islands (156mph wind gust), and then headed for the Yucatan Pennisula as a MONSTER hurricane with maximum sustained winds as high as 185mph... For 17 years this record stood until Hurricane Wilma got down to 882mb on October 19th 2005... Ironically where Wilma reached 882mb is almost the same area where Gilbert reached 888mb...

Tomorrow I'm going to post Conway Springs tornado video... This was a half mile wide + multiple vortex wedge tornado that we got VERY close to a few times... By far the best/strongest tornado I have ever chased... Look for that tomorrow!

Hurricane Gilbert Stormpulse

Hurricane Wilma Stormpulse

Hurricane Carla...

Today is the 48 year anniversary of Hurricane Carla... Another VERY under-rated hurricane that made landfall near Port Lavaca, TX midday on September 11th 1961... At one time Carla was a strong Category-5 hurricane (175mph) in the Gulf of Mexico but thankfully "weakened" to a Category-4 at landfall with sustained winds of 150 mph... Wind gusts were reported as high as 175 mph in Port Lavaca!!! At the time it was tied for 5th strongest hurricane in US history by pressure at landfall (931mb)... Today it would rank a little higher with hurricanes like Camille, Andrew, and Katrina, but either way it was still an extremely powerful hurricane that devastated southeast Texas... Here are 2 very interesting facts about Hurricane Carla that few people know about:

1) A little known reporter named Dan Rather reported live from Galveston Island as Hurricane Carla made landfall... Today many others have followed in Dan Rather's footsteps, but at the time this was basically unheard of making him a pioneer of live reporting in a hurricane!!! On a side note I always loved to watch Dan Rather as a kid because he had NO FEAR when it came to hurricanes... I remember him in Hugo, Andrew, Opal, and a few others... My favorite was during the height of Hurricane Opal when he came on live during the CBS evening news tied to phone pole in Pensacola, Fl... I just smiled and thought that I really want to do that one-day!

2) Hurricane Carla produced a large tornado outbreak which included a F4 tornado that struck downtown Galveston killing 8 people and injuring 55 others... To the best of my knowledge this is the strongest tornado ever produced by a hurricane! Hard to believe but when it comes to weather I'll be the first to say that crazy things happen all the time!!! It really is an amazing event if you think about it!

Hurricane Carla - Stormpulse...

Hurricane Donna...

Today was the 49 anniversary of the landfall of Hurricane Donna in the Florida Keys and SW Florida... You typically don't hear a lot about Donna, but in my opinion it's a VERY under-rated hurricane... In its day it was known as one of the strongest hurricanes in US history... But I guess after Carla, Camille, Hugo, Andrew, Charley, Ivan, Katrina, Rita, Ike, etc, it has been lost in the long line of historic hurricanes... Instead of me describing every detail, I'll leave you a few great links to very interesting websites on this very powerful hurricane... I will say Hurricane Donna still to this day holds one amazing record... Donna holds the record for retaining major hurricane strength (Cat-3 and higher) for an astounding 9 days! From September 2nd 1960 through September 11th 1960, Hurricane Donna NEVER dropped below Category-3 status which is just unbelievable to me... Donna first ravaged the Florida Keys and SW Florida as it continued up the eastern seaboard making two more landfalls in North Carolina and New York... If you like historical weather then I think you will enjoy the links!!!

Link 1

Link 2

Link 3

1900 Great Galveston Hurricane...

I forgot to re-tweet this today so I thought I would just post it on my blog... Yesterday was the 109th anniversary of the great 1900 Galveston Hurricane!!! My good friend Justyn Jackson told me to check out Bill Murray's post on ABC 33/40 blog (alabamwx.com)... I highly recommend everyone to check out both Justyn's blog which is bookmarked on my blog and the alabamawx.com blog which is also bookmarked on my blog... I'll leave a link to Bill's post below... If you are interested in historical weather I recommend reading his post... Also if you want to read more on the Great 1900 Galveston Hurricane I HIGHLY recommend reading Isaac's Storm by Erik Larson!!! One of my all time favorite books!!!

Bill Murray's Post...

Hurricane Ike Video-3...

This is the last of three videos I'm going to post from Hurricane Ike... This video is shot during the peak of Ike and also the next morning walking down Seawall Blvd... It was hard to get the worst winds in the dark but I did get a little surge video from the bottom of the parking deck... It was only a few feet deep in the parking deck but down the street I would say it got about 5 maybe 6 feet deep in some spots... I want everybody to remember the first video I posted when you watch the end of this third and final video... The piers, restaurants, shops, etc, are ALL GONE!!! Nothing was left but a huge pile of debris well over 10 feet high in spots... Hurricane Katrina is by far the worst damage I have ever seen but for about 5 or so blocks along the sea wall, the damage was similar to Katrina... And that's saying a lot! My heart still goes out to the people of southeast Texas as we come up on the year anniversary of Hurricane Ike... People forget about Bolivar Peninsula which was completely annihilated... They took the worst of the surge which is why the damage was so horrible there... It was bad in Galveston Island, don't get me wrong, but with the eye coming straight over us we got very lucky!

© Greg Nordstrom 2008

ANY USE OF THIS VIDEO WITHOUT PERMISSION FROM GREG NORDSTROM IS PROHIBITED AND WILL BE PROSECUTED TO THE FULLEST EXTENT OF THE LAW...

Tropical Storm Fred...

Remember the tropical tip: 9 out to 10 tropical cyclones that develop before 35 W longitude re-curve out to sea!!! Well that's what tropical storm Fred is going to do... I think the NHC's track is dead on and we'll get to see a textbook example of this tropical tip at work...

Hurricane Ike Video-2...

This is the second of three 10-minute clips from Hurricane Ike I'm going to post... This is shot on September 12th 2008 on our way to the fort Galveston where we rode the storm out! It was really surreal walking down Seawall Blvd seeing 20 foot + waves shooting into the sky! Also when we did get to our fort there was a horrible fire about a block or so away from us in the marina... Huge flames and think black smoke shot across the sky as far as we could see... That night I saw the eeriest sunset I have EVER SEEN in my life... A mixture or smoke, red sky, and winds approaching hurricane force! Below is the link to a blog post I put out just before we left for the fort... I couldn't help thinking what Isaac Cline and others must have been thinking as the GREAT 1900 Hurricane was coming ashore... Keep in mind there was NO sea wall back then!!! Even though Ike was not as strong at the 1900 hurricane, without a seawall Galveston wouldn't exist and we would have been in big trouble!

Staying Put!!!

© Greg Nordstrom 2008

ANY USE OF THIS VIDEO WITHOUT PERMISSION FROM GREG NORDSTROM IS PROHIBITED AND WILL BE PROSECUTED TO THE FULLEST EXTENT OF THE LAW...

Hurricane Ike Video...

This is the first of three 10-minute videos I'm going to post on Hurricane Ike! Hard to believe were coming up on the 1st anniversary... Time sure flies!!! The first video you will see is shot mainly 36 hours before landfall... I want you to notice all the piers and structures near and on the seawall... In video #3 you'll see how it's unfortunately all destroyed by Ike... Hurricane Ike was not the strongest hurricane I have been in, however I would say by far it was the closest/most hardcore hurricane chase attempt of my life... There is something about being on a barrier island, especially one with the history of Galveston... I will say that I felt more safe in the structure I rode out Ike than any other previously during hurricane chases... It was truly a fort and could have easily held up to even a Cat-5... The problem would have been getting off the island... Even with it only being a borderline 2/3, we still barely made it off... For a chase account on this historic hurricane click on the link below... By the way, Hurricane Ike went down as the third costliest hurricane in US history topping out around 24 billion in damage!

Galveston Island and Hurricane Ike...

© Greg Nordstrom 2008

ANY USE OF THIS VIDEO WITHOUT PERMISSION FROM GREG NORDSTROM IS PROHIBITED AND WILL BE PROSECUTED TO THE FULLEST EXTENT OF THE LAW...

Taking it Easy...

I just wanted to post really quick about Erika and the tropics... The shear and dry air won and has basically killed Erika... This is great news as anything that makes its way into the Bahamas and especially the Gulf this year would be VERY bad news if the environment is right of course... The water is primed beyond belief... The good news is the deep tropics has pretty much shut down... The upswing (rising motion) of MJO is gone and now we see a lot of subsidence (sinking air) entering the Caribbean and the deep tropics... This doesn't mean we can't have any tropical development but again it's not favorable... If the US does get any strikes it looks to me like it will have to develop close to home for it to be a legitimate threat... Later in the season (late September-early October) things look like they will begin to open up in the Caribbean and the Gulf... I know Joe Bastardi using analogs is talking about similarities to 2002 when Lili snuck into the Gulf of Mexico... We'll see what happens???

I'm going to pretty much relax this weekend getting ready for my dad to come visit from Miami on Tuesday... I have to get the house in order, haha... So over the next week I'm not going to be posting a whole lot as I'll be hanging out with him... I will upload some more chase videos though, and tomorrow I'm going to try to put up my Hurricane Ike video from Galveston Island, TX... I hope everyone enjoys the holiday weekend and I'll be back if something does develop in the tropics...

Hurricane Rita Video...

I decided to put up some Hurricane Rita video I shot from Orange, TX on September 23rd and 24th 2005... Even though most is at night some of the video I shot is quite amazing... Especially the shots of lightning and thunder being able to be heard over Category-3 winds... Rita may quite possible be the most underrated hurricane of all time, mainly because it followed the heals of Hurricane Katrina... Check out storm damage photos from Cameron, LA and really all of Cameron Parish one day... NOTHING WAS LEFT!!! The damage was actually worst than when Audrey hit in 1957... And that's saying a lot! The power of water is INCREDIBLE!!!

Ironically the next day after making it back to Starkville, MS a remnant feeder-band from Rita produced a mesocylone induced tornado on the campus on Mississippi State University... I lived just off campus back then (Chadwick Place) and this F-1 tornado took a direct strike on my apartment... I was with Josh Johnson and Matt Miller, and honestly it's something I'll never forget... Thank GOD it was only a F-1 or we would have been in serious trouble... It was moving over 50mph so there was almost no time to react... No sirens went off either!!! There was some minor damage but again we got LUCKY!!! Experiencing a direct hit (eye) from a historic Category-3 and then to be hit by a F-1 from that same hurricane the next day was a CRAZY experience!!! Below is a storm reports page from SPC of Hurricane Rita's tornado outbreak across Mississippi and Alabama...

9/25/05 Storm Reports

(Read down a little and you'll see Dr. Brown's report from MSU)

(I apologize for some bad language in the video! There are no excuses but it's tough sometimes when things get crazy in a hurricane! However I wanted to give everyone fair warning... It's not horrible but there are a few bad ones I let slip... I've gotten much better over the years! Sorry again!!!)

© Greg Nordstrom 2005

ANY USE OF THIS VIDEO WITHOUT PERMISSION FROM GREG NORDSTROM IS PROHIBITED AND WILL BE PROSECUTED TO THE FULLEST EXTENT OF THE LAW...

1935 Labor Day Hurricane...

Today is the 74 year anniversary of the strongest landfalling hurricane in US history! It struck near Long Key, FL at a record pressure of 892mb (Craig Key, FL) on September 2nd 1935... Actually the pressure may have been a little lower at landfall but that's the lowest officially recorded... Winds were at times well over 200-mph which is just crazy! I'm been to Florida Keys a few times and I always stop at the hurricane monument (Islamorada) on the way down to Key West! I highly recommend everyone to check it out one-day! Here is some very interesting articles and personal stories on this historic storm...

Monthly Weather Review Article

From Original Newspaper Article

History of 1935 Labor Day Monument

Erika's center pulling in South and Southeast!!!

Erika's is and has been doing some crazy unpredictable stuff today... Even last night I was more than aware that Erika had made it much more south and west than myself or any model originally thought! Also I pointed out how the dry air and shear may be bad news for the US... Well, unfortunately it's looking like that's all starting to come together... Weak storms tend to reform under the best convection and you are starting to see this with Erika... If you check out the visible imagery right now you will see the low-level center begin pulled south and southeast towards the best convection... Essentially Erika is reforming further south and east which is NOT good... If this trend continues and Erika makes it south of Hispanola, LOOK OUT GULF OF MEXICO!!!

HOPEFULLY at worst it hits Hispanola and gets destroyed but honestly I'm starting to worry about a Gulf threat now... The weaker Erika stays in the short term, the more I worry about a Gulf Landfall... I know I had it out to sea but it never could develop enough to get pulled out by the upper level winds... Plus now with it reforming more south and east, I really think that is VERY unlikely now... Weak storms don't feel the upper level winds like strong storms do... I have talked about this in depth in the past, but just look to Erika for a textbook real life example! Also unfortunately the overall environment seems better in the Caribbean... So if this track materializes it's more likely to strengthen in the long term, unless of course it slams into Hispanola... Tropical cyclones don't like Hispanola very much... Things are changing by the second and now unfortunately the Gulf needs to watch this closely... You got to love weather! It's always ever changing and unpredictable!!!

Overview of Erika!!!

My thoughts on Erika still really haven't changed much... I will say it has moved more south and west than I first thought... The longer it does this the more the threat to the US... I feel strongly it will turn but it makes a big difference where Erika starts this turn... The more it continues west, the more likely it is to either graze or strike the US... I still feel that it misses the US but if it does strike, the Carolinas seems to be the main threat to me at this time... Key word though is seems... It's possible that Erika could feel the trough but not get completely picked up... Then a ridge builds in over the top and we have problems for Florida... Again I'm going to stick with my original forecast but this is NOT EASY by any means... Lets do a overview of the models...

The champ of the tropics, the European, has Erika harmlessly curving out to sea... I will say the European is a good bit west today compared to yesterday... While the European is the best model for the tropics in my personal opinion, it can and is wrong sometimes... Just look at Jimena... It thought is was going to curve out to sea and not hit the Baja of California... FAIL!!! The funny part is the GFS nailed Jimena which just goes to show you that even a blind squirrel finds a nut sometimes... Just messing!

The Canadian model shows a much different situation... It has an extremely powerful hurricane that does start to turn north but if it misses the US it's not going to miss by much... The Canadian has done well with initializing tropical cyclones this year but it has been bad with strengthening them way too much, way too fast...

The Japanese model shows a BAD situation for the US... It shows Erika not really affected at all by the trough, heading straight for south Florida... Is this possible, of course, but honestly I don't see it... Also look how the precipitation is stretched out from the center towards the north and northeast, so something is not right in my opinion... I think how you see the precipitation stretched north is a sign that Erika should head that way also...

The GFS looks like it's having some issues with Erika... In fairness I think we should give it a day or two to initialize properly but again it's having issues.. It's hard to tell but it tracks Erika through the Bahamas as a very weak tropical cyclone... From there it takes it into south Florida as a very weak storm... Again possible but I'm not seeing it that south at this time...

The GFDL shows a Category-3 hurricane moving northwest towards the US... Since it's already that north by 126 hours it "should" start a north and eventually a northeast turn... However I don't think it would miss by near as much as the European thinks but also not as close as the Canadian thinks... Again it's tough to GUESS what the model will do after the time you can visually see it... One thing I don't like is the fact that the ridge starts to build in over the top, so I wonder if it would continue that motion straight into the Carolinas??? Very possible...

The HWRF shows a BAD situation for the US... Like the GFDL it shows a powerful Category-3 hurricane... However unlike the GFDL that feels the trough and heads northwest, the HWRD feels the trough, heads northwest for awhile, then starts to bend back west as the ridge builds in over the top... Not a good track for Florida!!!

In the short term I don't see Erika strengthening a whole lot with it moving into shear and drier air... However I will say that this shear and dry air could mean bad news for the US... If it stays fairly weak like it is, then I think it will continue more west... The more west it moves the less likely it is to feel the trough and go out to sea without any landfalling threat to the US... I still believe Erika feels the trough enough to get pulled north and eventually pulled out completely... Even if the ridge builds in over the top I still think Erika gets pulled enough north that Florida is not a threat for landfall... At that point I would worry if I lived in the Carolinas...

I'll be the first to say that this is a VERY TOUGH forecast... Honestly though what is new with the tropics... Until you get an established storm were basically guessing a lot... That's why I think it's best to give it a few days before I write anything off... The track is HUGE during that time so let's keep a close eye on that... I don't care what ANY model says, real time observations is always the way to go!!! I also don't like how the ridge is forecasted to build in over the top... THIS IS NOT GOOD!!! If the trough misses Erika not only will it head towards the US but usually when you have a ridge building in over the top like this, conditions will be ripe for intensification... Now don't get me wrong I'm sticking with my original forecast but I would be stupid not to recognize how tough this is! Anywhere from Miami, FL to Cape Hatteras needs to watch this storm VERY CLOSELY!!!

I just wanted to throw it all out there so you can see how complex this is... I hate to say it, but only time will tell... More updates to come later!