Siobhan's Closing Thoughts

Hello devoted weather-enthusiasts,

The SWIFT Internship was everything I thought it would be and more.  I came in hoping to learn more about the weather and apply what I learned in the classroom to real life situations.  I definitely believe I was able to do that as well as expound on the knowledge that I already had. From interpreting models to understanding what the movement in the clouds meant, the concepts from class that I didn’t fully understand because they were hard to visualize were definitely cemented over the past couple of weeks. 

 One thing that stands out in my mind is how small variations in the environment cause huge changes in the weather forecast. I specifically remember one of our first chasing days, it may have been my first day on the weather team, where there didn’t seem to be much going on because of the inverted trough.  I believe we headed to Oklahoma and saw some of the most photogenic storms of the trip.  What stands out to me was that there was a slight bulge in the 500mb HRRR model where we were targeting.  This slight bulge created a local low that was crucial to the development of storms in that area.  Low and behold, we saw some great storms that produced hail but there was not enough low level rotation to produce anything more significant. 

That brings up the second lesson that stands out in my mind: you can have nine parameters out of ten saying yes there will be a tornado and one parameter that says no and the storm will not produce a tornado.  Additionally, all of the parameters can say go go go and nothing happens still.  Furthermore, tornados are such complex and strange phenomena and we still have much to learn about how, when, and why they develop. 

I believe that is what makes internships like this and other groups that go out to study the storms so important.  The more data we can get from the storms and the more accurate we become at predicting where the tornados are going to pop up the more lives and property we can help save.   

Jeremy's Closing Thoughts

                As a studying mechanical engineer, I never thought my undergrad would include an opportunity to chase tornadoes across the Midwest through the Oceanography Department. The two subjects have little in common and aren’t particularly applicable to each other. SWIFT however allowed me to experience a natural phenomenon and a few weeks of training that I’m sure I will never forget.

                I think one of the experiences I will remember most is the moment the goal was achieved the first time and we saw the first bunch of tornadoes. I will never be able to see a tornado for the first time again.

                The other moment I will remember is the moment that I realized the one of the tornadoes we had been watching had hit a small town called Jay, Oklahoma. Initial reports indicate that while there were no injuries, a few houses were destroyed and the town was left without power. While I’m thankful no one was hurt, I didn’t know that at first. The moment I realized the tornado we had been watching had gone right through a town, and there were indications of damage, my stomach sank. I’m sure I will remember that moment not because it is particularly interesting or uncommon in storm chasing, but because of the reminder that something we view as positive can be viewed drastically different by someone else.

                I’d like to thank the USNA STEM program, the Oceanography Department, LCDR Burich, Prof Barrett, and the other SWIFTers for the opportunity to participate in and have fun on this educational training. Overall, I enjoyed everything from watching Game of Thrones for the first time to nearly dying by dumb drivers. It wasn’t the tornadoes that made the training fun. It was the people.

Till next time, I bid you farewell with an old Irish blessing I learned in high school choir:

May the road rise up to meet you.

May the wind always be at your back.

May the sun shine warm upon your face,

and rains fall soft upon your fields.

And until we meet again,

May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

-Jeremy

Chris' Closing Thoughts

Well folks here we are- at the end of this weird little adventure of ours.  I hope that these blog posts throughout have maintained at least the bare minimum to qualify for a tract of coherence, and I hope that you have been at least somewhat able to follow along with some of the things we've been seeing.  I have honestly never seen anything quite like the weather out here.  For one, just the fact that you can see everything here on the plains is incredible, and when your sights are set on a towering cumulous cloud there's not much else like it.  Now, don't take this the wrong way- I have seen clouds before, and in fact I have even seen fairly large clouds, but these were on a completely different scale, and besides, they had the chance of producing tornadoes, so there is an inherent sort of awe and grandeur produced as well.

(Disclaimer: this was a shelf cloud, not a tornado.  Still pretty)

This course met a lot of my expectations going in, and then just completely blew some of them away.  Get it, blew?  Like a tornado?  Anyways, I was excited to go around the country and see places I've never been before, and we ended up visiting 15 different states.  That's a lot of states, even if you only count the 2 minutes it took us to drive past the sign for Arkansas, honk, and turn around.  I think that I was expecting a whole lot of nothing from a lot of these places, and while that was certainly true in many places, I was taken aback by some of the beauty that the west had to offer.  Nebraska had its sand dunes and sweeping plains, Kansas was green and (for the most part) lively, and even Oklahoma had its own hills and rivers and so on and so on.  There are some landscapes tha tare hard to describe without sounding negative, but there was a lot of beauty in the open spaces we found.  I'm glad to have had the chance to see it, even if we were somewhat the harbingers of severe weather.  

Me, taken aback by nature

I was nervous about my knowledge of the weather side of things going into this training, because I wanted to make sure I really knew what I was doing before going into a chase.  It turns out this was foolish- nobody ever really knows what they're doing, and instead just wing it the entire time.  Of course, you have to have done quite a bit of analysis and work to get to the stage where you can comfortably wing it, but as soon as that point hits it's all up to luck and the tornado gods (was that Zeus?  Would make sense).  I learned a ton during our chases this trip.  I bore witness to crippling indecision, only for somebody to yell "GO SOUTH" and have the entire situation resolved.  A decision made is better than none, even when that decision nets you a fading supercell in Northeast Oklahoma.  I learned how to accurately plot favorable storm regions using weather models, and I also learned how to basically stick my head out the window and guess where the rotation was.  Chasing was an intricate dance between prediction and reality, between large scale verification and small scale observations, so on and so forth.  

I'm incredibly glad to have had the opportunity to attend SWIFT.  We've told jokes, yelled at each other, and faced the horror of traffic jams filled with nothing but storm chasers.  We drove through 15 states, almost 8000 miles, and somehow I still never got to tell my donkey in the desert joke.  Ah well, next time.  I'm thankful for the group, for the conditions that kept all of us safe, and my thoughts go out to those affected by some of the storms that we've kept tabs on these past couple weeks.  Nature is honestly a pretty wild thing.  This trip may be living proof that we can try to understand it as much as we can, but we'll never really be able to control it.  Thanks for reading, and have a great day!

Yours,

Chris Brakey

Lilly's Closing Thoughts

SWIFT 2019 was just as I expected it to be, and more. We traveled to over 15 different states all over the country, seeing corners that few people ever see. Country back roads, dirt fields, cows, horses, bison, prairie dogs: America has it all, and honestly, I feel so blessed to have visited so many amazing places. Nature is truly amazing, and on this trip I have experienced it in many different capacities.

However, SWIFT isn't just about traveling, its about weather and its about chasing storms. Prior to this trip, I thought about the model products and how large scale they are. Even when you zoom in on specific areas, the model creates a point for every three kilometers, which is still pretty far in my opinion, especially when we talk about how open and wide the plains are. Thinking about these large scale products made me a little nervous. How are we supposed to look at the HRRR model and be able to point to a screen and say "this is EXACTLY where the tornado will appear!" The best part about this is, that there is no one on this planet who can point to a place and tell you that a tornado will appear. Except for God, there is no one. Which is freaking amazing. And if tornadoes are acts of the Lord himself, then we were basically trying to predict acts of God. Which is pretty impossible.

So thinking about how impossible finding a storm is, I was nervous that the impossibility of the task would prevent us from actually finding a tornado, but thankfully, it didn't. What goes into finding one or predicting where one will appear is more than just the model predictions. In fact, finding a tornado depends on more than what the models say; to find one, we need luck and real-time data. Being a part of SWIFT has shown me that the models are not the be all end all. Instead, the models are just merely a tool that, when used with other products, help to form a larger picture of tornadogenesis.

Although the model discussion is RIVETING and I know that its what every one wants to hear about most, the best part of SWIFT was being in the van. Van Gough, our trusty kidnapper-warrior transport. Together, the team spent a crap ton of time together in the van. Everyone has a favorite spot and a favorite row. But without the time we all spent together, driving, hiking, etc. together, there would be no real SWIFT. My favorite part of this trip -although the weather stuff is amazing and important- was getting to know five more amazing midshipmen.

SWIFT has been an experience of a lifetime. I am forever thankful for everything I have seen, and for the experience that all of us shared together in the van. Thanks for tuning in:) It's been real, SWIFT 2019.

Lilly Myers

Day 13: Bonus Day

Yesterday, in a stunning turn of events, the team decided that there were storms worth chasing in our area. The SPC released an outlook that put us in an enhanced risk for western Missouri and instead of beginning to push back towards Annapolis, we chased storms instead.

And it payed off BIG.

The day started when we left our hotel and traveled a little bit westward. The team found a cute little park with a large parking lot and a playground. After an hour of frisbee and the discovery of a four-leaf and five-leaf clover (for good luck!) we stopped by Clinton, Missouri, for a quick bite in what might have been the weirdest restaurant of the entire trip. Although we anticipated staying in the same general area, convection began to our southwest, prompting a change in scenery. Oklahoma welcomed us back with open arms, and there we began to really chase.

The terrain in eastern Oklahoma can be pretty unforgiving to chasers, making it pretty tough to find good viewing spots for storms. A lot of trees and hills can easily block the view of a rotating funnel or wall cloud, and that's just not cool. With all of the rain and flood warnings too, we had to be especially mindful of road closures, which, unfortunately, were not well updated and closed on a more local basis. Ultimately, this obstacle made the day a little more interesting.

The real show, started at nightfall. Just as we thought the day might be over for us, the lightning gave way to a multi-vortex tornado. Encouraged, we continued to follow the storm at a safe distance, watching as the multi-vortex disappeared and was later replaced by another tornado. We didn't even find a hotel until 2330!

The team finished our bonus chase day like anyone else would: in a Waffle House at midnight.

Madison's Closing Thoughts

Well gang, as the 2019 SWIFT Team's adventures come to a close, I have a few thoughts I would like to share with you:

1. Storm chasing is pretty awesome but it is most definitely not an exact science. After having the entire semester to prep my academic knowledge, I had a small grasp of just how complex the tornadogenesis process was and how difficult it can be to forecast these monstrous events, but when in the field...I was still surprised at how complex the forecasting is! This first-hand experience made me realize how hard organizations such as the SPC and NWS work to provide the most accurate information and that I need to cut them some more slack when things don't pan out exactly as planned. Quite frankly, there are always going to be things that are outside of human predictability. Also, prepping to chase tornadoes should take a lot of time if you are doing it correctly. Not only should the SPC outlook be a guidance, but researching each parameter on your own is a must if you want to be successful in your chase. This requires a lot of patience and diligence, and I have a newfound respect for people who chase as part of their careers.

2. Chasing is something that needs to be taken very seriously, especially when chasing tornadoes. Technology has made it very easy for a lot of people to gain access to the tools needed to chase storms, but that doesn't mean they have the understanding to do so. We were very fortunate to have our two professors who have the experience needed to make our chases safe and educational, but if not, we definitely would have put ourselves and others in danger if it was just us students on the road. One of the most surprising things to me about this trip was the sheer number of chasers out on the road during a storm. At one point, while in a heavy precipitation core we were stuck in a traffic jam of storm chasers, even following some yahoo without any taillights on in a pitch black sky and heavy rain. It was clear that out of the mass of people out there that quite a few of them did not know what they were doing, and by doing so they were putting themselves and others in danger. My strong recommendation for those interested in chasing is to find an experienced professional to go with first, until you yourself have the experience to go on your own.

3. Having a good team makes all the difference. Part of being a weather enthusiast is spending a lot of time on the road...in a car...with the same people...for hours on end...you get the picture. But having the right people with you makes the time fly by and helps you enjoy almost every minute of it. I am thankful for the people I went on this adventure with because without them, I would have missed out on the unique senses of humor, sassy comments, and amazing eyes of my fellow teammates (a special shoutout to Tyler and Jeremy for the sweet photos from this trip). I will miss everyone as I embark on my other summer trainings, but I will fondly remember the time we spent together on the road in pursuit of the perfect storm. 

Thanks for following along with us on this amazing journey!

Happy Trails, 

Madison

Tyler's Closing Thoughts

Hi everyone,

Thank you so much for following our journey the past few weeks. It's been a pleasure to share everything with you. I hope you enjoyed reading our words and seeing our pictures! (Hi Mrs. Barrett) SWIFT has been a surreal experience on so many levels and I am beyond grateful that I was able to be a part of it. To be able to learn about severe storms and tornadoes from our amazing professors, LCDR Burich and Dr. Barrett, and then, no joke, apply everything we learned in the field, was life changing.

Before this trip, I had neither been to the Midwest nor had I seen a real life tornado. However, I felt a personal connection to this trip from the beginning. My connection was with learning about severe storms, yes, but it was also with the people that have been and continue to be effected by severe storms and tornadoes in this region. In October of 2012, Hurricane Sandy ravaged the east coast, centering on the Jersey Shore where I have lived my entire life before college. Many of my friends and family lost everything from this storm. Luckily, my immediate family was hardly effected, but I can still vividly remember walking through the beachfront of my hometown, seeing everything destroyed. Here's a picture of my town's beachfront the day after Sandy made landfall:

This personal connection was felt most strongly during our trip to Joplin, MO on day 3. Walking through the beautiful memorial that was erected after an EF5 tornado destroyed much of the town in 2013, I couldn't help but think back to 2012 in Manasquan, NJ. On both of those days, people's lives were flipped upside down from the power of mother nature. Before we had even chased a storm, I was firmly reminded why I decided to apply for this training. 

(Joplin Tornado statistics located at the memorial)

I'm not going to go in depth on any specific days during the trip because we already did that, but just know that ever expectation I had for SWIFT was surpassed. I'm upset that it's over, but I can't wait to share the stories and memories with friends and family throughout my summer. I hope you have a great day and don't forget to look up in the sky every once in a while. The atmosphere is always doing amazing things.

-Tyler

Day 12: Not Not in Kansas Anymore

What do you do after a day like Monday, May 21?  A day meant to be filled with tornadoes of unimaginable proportion, instead consisting of hours of chaser gridlock, minor hail, and a funnel with about as much proof behind it as a ghost on the Travel Channel.  Well, one option would certainly be to turn tail and head home- there's no shame there.  Or, you can take the lemons that life gives you (in this case, cold core storm formation) and you can make proverbial lemonade (follow said cold cores up into Kansas).  That's right, the SWIFT team decided to head back to Kansas!

As you can see, there was a 5% tornado risk and the atmospheric parameters suggested there was a good chance we'd get to see a tornado! At the very least, we'd hopefully see a severe storm.  So the SWIFT team packed up and headed out of Norman towards the flat plains of Kansas.  We watched the storm develop from nothing to the supercell seen on the radar below; we watched her try and try and try to form a tornado.  She would organize into the classic structure and then fall apart, only to reorganize again.  It was a suspenseful couple of hours, especially because the storms from the day before caused a lot of flooding that closed a lot of roads.  We were mid-chase many times when out of nowhere we were blocked  by a closed road.  Ultimately, the storm did not form a tornado, though even if it had we could not reach it due to the flooded road system. 

However, the day was not a bust despite the low hanging wall clouds that never did anything! We got to see some great cloud structure, the beautiful state of Kansas, and more importantly had the best chicken fried steak this side of the country.  LCDR Burrich and the 2018 SWIFT team found this homestyle country restaurant the year before and he maintained the entire trip that it was the best chicken fried steak he had ever had, so of course we went again this year. I must say, it lived up to the hype!  After our satisfying dinner, we headed east to the far side of Kansas City to sleep for the night. 

Day 11: (Oklahoma or) Bust

Yesterday was supposed to be the day. One of the biggest severe weather events in United States history. The SPC outlook was red and pink, twitter was aflutter with panic and excitement, and all of the parameters were in place. The stars seemed to be aligned for a day we would never forget. In some ways, the day was exactly that: unforgettable. However, it wasn't because of the severe weather we had been expecting.

all of the severe weather that didn't happen

Long story short, the day was pretty much a bust:(

During the morning weather brief, the team was faced with two options: either stay up north and play along the warm front, a zone that was highly anticipating severe and potentially violent tornadic activity, or head down into Texas and try our hand at the dry line. Although both areas had their strengths, the severe activity underneath the warm front was all but guaranteed, so we decided to position ourselves in southwestern Oklahoma and wait for some serious tornadoes.

Although at first it was looking good, as the day progressed we realized that the day was under-preforming. Where were the violent and dangerous storms we ordered? Not in Oklahoma and not in Texas. We started in Altus, Oklahoma, and then drove into Texas, our 14th state. Although there was a tornado warning in effect for Childress, the area we were driving through, the visibility was so low we didn't really see much of anything.

low visibility gang #yeet

Storms continued to form and move northeast into southwestern Oklahoma, so we returned just in time to see the end of a rope tornado in Magnum. It was really REALLY hard to see, but we managed to come away with a couple pictures, so it wasn't a total loss. Although the tornado was pretty cool, what I found the most exciting was the sudden inability of every single storm chaser on the road to drive well. Instead of choosing to core punch through the storm, the storm chose to core punch through us, and we got slaughtered by heavy rain, wind, and hail. Thank God for LCDR Burich, who handled the entire situation with the grace of a C-2 Greyhound pilot and didn't even bat an eye at the idiot in front of us with no lights on in the middle of a severe thunderstorm.

Eventually all the action decided to happen down in Texas, on the dry line. At that point we were too far away to continue to chase, so we decided to retire back to Norman, Oklahoma for the night. After falling asleep the SWIFT 2019 team had its closest tornado encounter to date, clocking in at 6 miles away at 0400 in the morning:)

our closest chase yet

Overall, not a bad chase day. We were disappointed that the parameters didn't produce stronger, or like, ANY tornadoes, but ultimately the group was thankful for the outcome on behalf of Oklahoma residents. Regardless of the potential for a good chase day, real lives will always be more important than some pretty pictures.

Day 10: The new Lewis and Clark expedition

Today was another of the SWIFT Team’s breaks.  Tomorrow is supposed to be the be-all end-all event of the tornado season and we wanted to make sure we were in a good position to catch some storms.  We drove through Oklahoma to the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge.  What a wonderful trip it was, too. We saw Prairie dogs, Bison, Long Horns, and hawks.

And the landscape was beautiful! The Swift team hiked up two different “trails”; what trails, might you ask. Well, the trails we blaze (that’s a movie reference for those who aren’t cultured).  

I say this because there weren’t actually trails for us to follow, we went our own way to our destination. 

The first one was not very strenuous, though some of the clumsier members of the SWIFT Team (Siobhan) tripped and fell once or twice.  She’s ok though, her pride is hurt more so than her body.  The hike took us up a rock formation where it felt we could see for miles. 

The second hike was more like a scramble up some rocks to the top of Mount Scott.  We really could see for miles on this one.  It put the views from the other trail to shame, though both are spectacular. 

We spent about 6 hours at Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge, after which the SWIFT Team was exhausted.  Our hotel was a 45 minute drive away in Altus, OK. Most of the younger members of the team watched the Game of Thrones series finale (Ghost finally got that good boy pat) and then went to sleep. We have a long and exciting day ahead of us tomorrow!

    

Day 9: Severe and Not-So-Severe Storms

Friends, family, stormchasers, lend me your ears, 

Today I have the honor of sharing with you (a slightly late story) of our ninth day in the field. 

After an eventful morning of a weather brief, debrief, and continental breakfast, the team was ready to get on the road and begin the transport from Nebraska to Oklahoma for some afternoon storms.  After coming off of the high of a tornado sighting the previous day, it was unexpected that anything could even compare to the sight we had seen. However, little did we know that parked in a Holiday Inn parking lot a couple miles down the road was answer to our hopes of an eventful day. 

(I encourage you to google Dominator 3 to find out more information)

After fangirling by some team members (Tyler I am looking at you), we found ourselves underway again and in hot pursuit of CI (convective initiation)  in Northern OK. Our hopes were high, but unfortunately so were the LCLs, and our target area did not produce any particularly tornadic superstorms. In spite of that, we did observe some excellent structures of shelf clouds and met some fellow stormchasers along the way who turned out to be great with the camera. All in all, it was a great opportunity for us to observe some of the traditional features of a supercell we had studied in class and prepare ourselves for the chase this upcoming Monday. 

 --Cheers!

Day 8: The Fateful Day

Let's not beat around the bush, shall we?  We all know why you're here.  It's certainly why we are here right now- much like the remote photographer yearns for their chance to witness the elusive snow leapord, so too did we sneak our way into position behind the tornado in waits for it to form.  Well, I'm not going to make you wait.

There's a lot that went into making this sighting happen, a lot of stressed decisions and down to the minute driving, but I guess it'd just be easy to start at the beginning.  Our day started where most good days do: laundry zone.  Well, I guess it started in the hotel when we decided that the storms we wanted to follow were literally happening in the neighboring county and tha twe had the whole morning to try to combat the ran-out-of-shirts-two-days-ago problem (that might have just been me).  Not only did we spend our time at the laundry zone, however, but some of us had time to run over to the Wal-Mart parking lot next door and do a little geo-cacheing, which seems to be what all the cool kids are doing these days.  We like to stay modern here at SWIFT.

As the morning went on, models of the oncoming storms continued to come out, and with every new one a whole new wave of doubt and paranoia set in.  Do we head south towards the storms forming on the dry line, do we stay up at the convective boundary, which of these predicted cells will become supercellular- all these and more were brought up maybe 40 times today, and to be fair they were honestly good questions.  But when the time came to start moving into action towards the storms, it's almost as if everything was thrown to the wind and we just sent it.

At first we headed towards a storm West of where we had stayed- this proved to be a bit of a dead end early on, however, as not much happened with the storm.  From there, though, we chased it back past town and ultimately decided to abandon it on its trajectory northwards and instead head to the south to intersect a couple storms, one of which that already had a reported tornado in it.  The timing could not have been better.  As soon as we approached the main supercell in the region, a thin black funnel touched down to the ground, surrounded by a mass of clouds and debris.  It was quite difficult to see against the darker backdrop, but the signature was unmistakeably a tornado.  Well, excited to have seen just that, we drove to a large field with absolutely nothing in the horizon that could block our view, and almost as soon as we had unloaded the van there another thin funnel reached down to the ground and put on a show for us.  A third tornado would later extend 2/3 of the way to the surface, effectively putting our count for the day at 3.

We continued to chase a fair bit after our tornadoes had died down, but aside from some interesting lightning, not much else occured.  Still, the day was a phenomenal success, and to top it off in true SWIFT tradition, Professor Barrett and LCDR Burich treated the group to a steak dinner at the Nebraskaland restaurant.  Tired, but satisfied, the group rolled south to our hotel somewhat late at night, and we'll be up early again tomorrow to continue the chase once again.  What can I say, tornadoes are a lifestyle.

Day 7: R&R in Nebraska

Today the team took a little break. We decided that the small outlooked area with virtually ZERO probability for tornadoes was not worth trying to chase in, and as a result we did our best to travel from Aberdeen, South Dakota to somewhere further south. We made a quick stop in Valentine, Nebraska, grabbing ice cream from the famous Frosty's. 

After ice cream, the team went on a quick hike on a nearby trail. We tried our best to look for Geocaches and Pokemon, but alas, our discoveries were limited. 

By the end of the day, the team finished our travels in North Platte, Nebraska. Although we didn't expect to see any severe weather, the atmosphere had other plans. An amazing line of storms passed through our area, and we were lucky enough to grab some great lightning photos!

Today marked one whole week on the road! So far we've traveled through 12 different states, including MD, PA, OH, WV, IN, IL, MO, OK, IA, SD, ND, and finally NE! The next week is projected to be absolutely crazy, so if you're interested in following our adventures in real time, follow us on twitter @usnaSWIFT!!!!