One of the most important tools that convective forecasters have is the Skew-T/Log-P Diagram. It is a thermodynamic chart that allows forecasters to view real information about the state of the atmosphere from the surface level all the way to 100 millibars.

I receive a lot of email from prospective students asking for advice on picking a meteorology school and/or program. I have compiled some information that people can use for a starting point in their search.

Last week I had the honor of being invited to Hamilton College in upstate New York to give a lecture to a group of students and members of the community.

How to be a Storm Chaser? It’s one of the most popular questions that I receive from readers, so I’m creating this multi-part series to help the newcomer who is interested in Storm Chasing.

Dr. Rick Toracinta was my chase partner on several great storm chasing occasions and I was extremely fortunate to befriend him. Rick was a rising star in his research field of Polar Meteorology at the Byrd Polar Research Center, The Ohio State University.

Overnight (June 7th, 2009) a rare atmospheric phenomenon occurred in south-central Oklahoma. No it wasn’t a tornado, it was much more rare than that – even during 2009! Suddenly at about 3am CDT in Jefferson County the air temperature became very hot and dry, the temperature shot up to 97 degrees F, literally within minutes. The event that happened is called a Convective Heat Burst, it happens when a parcel of very cold and unsaturated air within a dying storm descends very rapidly and warms due to compression (at a rate of 9.8C per 1,000 meters) and overshoots its equilibrium level and reaches the surface.

Over the past decade a lot of technological innovations has changed the way we chase storms. While I still consider ham radio communications to be an extremely important part of my chase rig for emergency communications, I no longer depend on my ICOM dual-band radio as much as I did just five storm seasons ago.

Storm Chasing Handbook
If you’re reading this blog on stormchase.com, then there is a 100% …

Last year I had the opportunity to attend the launch of space shuttle mission STS-123, which was a night launch and that was particularly exciting for me. We arrived on the site around 4 p.m. in the afternoon even though the launch wasn’t scheduled for liftoff for another 11 hours – each minute that went by was filled with the anticipation of what my resulting photos would look like.

Since it’s founding on January 15th, 2001 Wikipedia.com has grown to become the world’s largest encyclopedia. And of course the world’s largest encyclopedia has a lot of content related to meteorology and severe weather, but I had an idea – a Wikipedia clone that is focused exclusively on meteorology and severe weather. It’s an idea that some people might find objectionable, but I think not.

I have a problem with the wording “Never try to outrun a tornado. Motorist should abandon their vehicles and seek a sturdy shelter or lay in a ditch or other low-lying area.” I understand the underlying reason for this statement is that most people are not familiar with severe storms and they may not know what they are driving into – thus, it is best just to tell them to get out of their cars and jump into a ditch or low-lying area.

Storm spotters serve as the eyes and ears to warning meteorologist at the National Weather Service. Each year, various weather forecast offices hold training seminars that are free to the public for the purposes of providing enough training to help those who are interested in volunteering as storm spotters identify storm structure and understand safe practices while storm spotting.