Ready to rock and roll

We're on the ground in Norman, waiting to see what we'll be doing today and for the next few days. The forecast doesn't look as promising, so it's entirely possible that we'll be sitting tight for a few days, which isn't a necessarily a bad thing since it will give us a chance to do some more "shake downs" and testing of our equipment. We did a quick run through of sounding procedures yesterday, a refresher for those of us returning, and a learning experience of the newbies on board. All told we seem to be in good shape to start the season, now we just need some storms!

2010: Let's do it again! (posted by M. Parker)

The NC State mobile soundings team will be heading back out to the Plains for another round of VORTEX2 in 2010. Departure is just days away, and the campaign officially begins on May 1st. Stay tuned!

NCSU launches on a severe supercell day

The NSSL2 team fills the balloon:



Matt Morin and Kate Rojowsky, ready for launch:



One of the many large hailstones found on the ground in the wake of the target storm (probably had been melting for 20 minutes or more!):

posted by Matt Parker

VORTEX2 Intercepts Its First Tornado (Posted By David Stark)

On Friday June 5, 2009, The VORTEX2 team intercepted a tornadic supercell near La Grange, Wyoming. The MGUAS teams launched balloons around the storm to observe its inflow environment, forward flank baroclinicity, and rear flank environment. Thankfully, the tornado did not harm anything other than a few trees and several fences. That does make trying to figure out how strong the tornado was more difficult. The National Weather Service did a damage SURVEY and rated it an EF-1 pending data from V2. The Doppler on Wheels data needs to be analzyed further, but it is possible the wind speeds were stronger than what the NWS saw from the little damage the tornado caused. Below are two photos that I took during the intercept. My sounding truck was located approximately 10-15 miles from the tornado.

NSSL2 Hits Dime to Nickel-Sized Hail (Posted By David Stark)

On Thursday, June 4, NSSL2, the sounding truck that I deploy in, ran into lots of hail along Interstate 80 along the Nebraska, Wyoming border. We pulled over to the side of the road until the hail let up and we were able to witness a fascinating rainbow right in front of us. Take a look!

Recent Student TV Interview (posted by Casey Letkewicz)

One of the consequences in taking part in a huge project like VORTEX2 is the constant media presence, not only by large stations like the Weather Channel but also the smaller, local stations. Yesterday in Hebron, Nebraska I (Casey Letkewicz) was stopped by a reporter from Lincoln who wanted an interview since V2 was in Nebraska yesterday and for a few days before. It was a pretty basic interview. They wanted to know why we were in Nebraska, what the goals of V2 are, and they also wanted to know a little bit about our mobile soundings team. Here's the link to the story on their website, including video: http://www.kolnkgin.com/home/headlines/46677602.html

One of the guys I was with was also snapped a picture of the interview (props goes to Mike Daniels from EOL for the image):

Weak, Short Lived Convection Intercept (Posted By David Stark)

Since the weather pattern is not conducive to producing supercells and tornadoes, we targeted some much weaker convection in southwestern Nebraska and northeastern Colorado today. More ordinary convection is not the target of VORTEX2, but any scientific data on thunderstorms will go a long way into better understanding the dynamics in and around them. Several of the sounding teams launched balloons early in the afternoon to get a good look at the temperature, moisture, and wind profiles of the troposphere. Below are some photos of our balloon preparations near our target storm.

Ground station to measure 2 meter temperature, humidity and pressure to make sure the radiosonde is close to registering similar data. The radiosonde is placed in the smaller white instrument just off the ground called an aspirator while this test is occuring.

Adam French (NCSU) and Chris Golubeski (NCAR) tie the radiosonde to their balloon.


Casey Letkewicz (NCSU) and Jen Standrige (NCAR) fill their balloon in preparation for a launch under the anvil of the target storm.