 Total Miles Today: 271 [ Updated @ 0001AM ] No updates until tomorrow mornings briefing. Looks promising but nothing great. [ Updated @ 11:30AM ] Good news! Van 2 is supposedly fixed. Kent and Ryan, our great drivers, are heading over to pick up the Van. The reason Dodge gave for the issue was not the EGR valve but a bunch of codes were tripped in the computer and the van freaked out and went into "call mommy I'm sick" mode. Several of us do not think that is the main cause of the problems, given what we know of the history of this type of Van and basic logic, but who are we to argue with the technician? I hope he is right. We had an extended weather analysis class this morning in the hotel. I found it very educational to sit and watch educated meteorology folks draw the maps and have the opportunity to ask dumb questions. This is exactly why I came. The analysis shows VERY slight risk in south east OK with a much better potential tomorrow. So we are going to reposition up to Norman, OK and see if we can catch some storms in late afternoon/evening. I've been in contact with a friend at the SPC and he is willing to help us get a tour organized if we have time. Lunch is a short walk to Olive Garden [ Updated @ 0150PM ] Lunch was actually not at Olive Garden but a local Italian place. Why you ask? because Van 2 is broken AGAIN. Well, it seems the technician was wrong. Kent and Ryan tried to "burn in" the Van on it's way back to the hotel and they didn't get 3 exits from the Dodge shop and it shut down again. They are back at the Dodge facility probably strangling someone. Now that Dodge believes Kent about what the problem is, we hope to have it fixed like we asked this morning. Paul just did a quick weather review and we are still on target for an afternoon storm in eastern OK, probably even NE OK based on a pulse wave that has not sagged as far south as expected/hoped. As long as we leave soon we should be fine. [ Updated @ 0300PM ] The Dodge shop still refuses to install an EGR valve even though Paul and Kent are fuming. They claim it is something else or can not figure out what the problem is. Paul is trying to work with the Dodge dealer back in Chicago to see if they can get pressure put on the Dallas dealer to replace the EGR valve, since that was the Chicago dealer did to fix Van 1 when it had this problem. Kent and Ryan are still at the shop pushing for action. Everyone else is milling about the hotel. It's still not looking too bad but if the Dodge shop closes before the Van is fixed we will be stuck in Dallas again. [ Updated @ 0415PM ] Van's are back from the shop. It wasn't the EGR valve. It was the turbo resonator that was cracked. This was in fact what Van 1 had replaced..not an EGR valve. The EGR valve plays some part in this happy dance somewhere I'm sure. [ Updated @ 0430PM ] Unbelievable is that an MCD just got put out for west of Dallas. Van's are also fixed and enroute to pick us up. Looks like this is where we should have been all day anyway. Chase is on!!! [ Updated @ 0500PM ] Van's are loaded and everything is powered up. Out we go! [ Updated @ 0530PM ] Bah! Stuck in Dallas rush hour traffic. We can see the storm to the west about 100 miles away with an overshooting anvil and a very high base. [ Updated @ 0700PM ] A major detour enroute to Graham, TX and storm looks to be dying on radar before we can get to it. [ Updated @ 0710PM ] Paul declares the storm officially dead. We stop for gas and a quick break. Locals pull up and tell us that a new storm is firing to the west. Everybody looks at each other and says "no way". [ Updated @ 0800PM ] New storm fires to our west. All be dag gone. Paul orders a quick dinner at Taco Bell/KFC and we are back on the road. [ Updated @ 0820PM ] Two cells are up and working but the larger of the two is to the south west. We are too far north east and have to drive through the forward storm...a mini core punch and some sub-pea size hail and we are out the other side in perfect position on the south west storm. First hail of the trip! [ Updated @ 0828PM ] Matt calls a wall cloud as Paul is looking for a spot to pull off for pictures. It's getting too dark to see much detail so we can not tell if it is rotating. We suspect not. [ Updated @ 0835PM ] We park and get out for the first storm picture opportunities of the trip. Sun is setting and we have a nice little late evening storm pictures and the start of a lightning show. [ Updated @ 0845PM ] Paul believes the other storm is larger, or is getting larger, and we reposition. [ Updated @ 0914PM ] Paul calls it quits for the evening and everyone gets back into the van. Not a bad day really considering everything in the past couple days and the non-favorable weather patterns for today. [ Updated @ 1259PM ] We've got rooms at a Comfort Inn in Wichita Falls, TX |
| Morning map analysis | ||
| Couple of the girls go out and sunbath while the rest of us just hang out waiting for Dodge to fix our van. | ||
| Our first view of the storm. You can see the anvil top forming. | ||
| A shot from in the van. You can see the anvil top on the 1km Vis satellite underlay on GR3. | ||
| Just more shots of the storm as we get closer to Graham, TX | ||
| We are out of the vans now shooting our first real storm pictures of the trip. | ||
| We have repositioned in front of a large ranch. They have a US flag flying which makes for a great picture. | ||
| Laura Heiden, my roomie, has much better storm pictures. | ||
