Punkin Says Goodbye

As we cross the Tennessee border into the best state in the Union, we draw closer to the end of SWIFT. After seeing three tornadoes on the first night of chasing, I definitely had the wrong impression of the challenges of chasing naders. Since then, we’ve seen the model be completely wrong (and right sometimes), and we’ve seen storms predicted to have little chance of producing tornadoes prove their predictions wrong. One of the coolest non-tornado moments of the trip came last Tuesday when we finally saw a capping inversion. CDR Cooper and I could look out the window and see where the different clouds had built enough energy to finally bust through the high layer of stability.

Even if we had not seen so much wild weather over the last two weeks, travelling the Great Plains with the rest of these goobers would have still been a blast. Being cooped up in a van with the same 11 people for 2 weeks provided us with a few challenges, but it’s also provided me with 7 new friends and strong relationships with 3 great professors. I loved seeing all the new states and the crazy weather. Though this trip is over, I will definitely chase tornadoes another day.