There has been some awesome weather around the country in the last 6 weeks. I'll just throw some thoughts around...
- May 10 may go down with May 3rd for Oklahoma. It might be more in the arena of May 8-9th, 2003, but nonethless it goes down as one of the more premium and memorable severe weather days in Oklahoma. Talking with fellow blog contributor B-Dubs... the soundings, upper air maps, and radar returns were about as classic and textbook as you could get. The conditions were perfect for widespread discrete tornadic supercells. Props to friend of the blog Rick Hluchan who was in not only the National Weather Center but working the NWS on May 10. He said you could see the Norman tornado touchdown from the office. Our thoughts and prayers do go out to the deceased, injured, and to all those who were affected by the tornadoes on May 10.
- Quick side note. Dr. Kaplan at DRI is going to put together a NSF proposal about tornado genesis and tornado outbreaks in the coming weeks. It breaks from traditional theories and from the 'OU Dogma' about severe weather. If it gets funded, I could be a part of this. If you are interested in knowing more about this, let me know.
- The snow keeps coming out west. The Sierras have recieved storm after storm since I've left making me feel like I missed out on about another 5-10 ski days since I moved out to Colorado. You may ask why don't you ski in Colorado? Well, some resorts close at the beginning of April and other ones are too expensive for especially for the lack of snowpack left up around Vail and Summitt County. It snowed in Reno this monday and in Grand Junction 10 days ago. If you are backcountry skiing this late, be very careful of avalanches. Heavy, wet spring snow on top of months old snowpack can be very dangerous. Maybe our snow expert can blog about this soon...
- The fire season is still about a month away for most places out west. However, spring burning is going on and I got on my first two fires last week. It was really cool and informative to see how fires actually spread and what they burn given certain conditions. I've always said and will continue to say that you cannot fully understand your craft unless you see it in action. I hope to continue to go on fires to expand my knowledge and understanding of fire behavior and weather.
- The fire season outlook looks to be above normal for the northern Rockies and near normal around my area (Central Rockies). One thing to keep an eye is the below average snowpack in Colorado's high country in conjunction with the bug kill. This could become a problem in August, but we'll see.
In conclusion, congrats to the end of the semester for everyone and to everyone that is graduating.
Peace
Jim Thorpe
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