We were on our way into NE Colorado and decided to visit the
"tallest spot in Nebraska" via a sign we saw. While in route, we kept
passing various ICBM "minuteman" sites. We stopped at one to take some
photos since we were bored. Five minutes went by before the military showed up.
We new they probably had ground sensors or some way of detecting people near the
silos. They were nice and asked us to leave the area as it was restricted. We
left shortly and continued toward Colorado. There are more than 50 ICBM Missile
sites between Cheyenne, WY, Sidney, NE, and Scottsbluff, NE.
The Chalk Pyramids southeast of Oakley, Kansas. Image shows
Chris Collura and Scott Blair walking threw a weathered hole in the rock.
I don't recall where we saw this old church, I'm thinking it was
in E Nebraska near the Iowa border. Inside was a very large owl that flew out the
window. It had an old piano with the last patent date of 1890. The far right
image shows the basement, where it was very cold and muggy.
There are times when we neglect to make hotel reservations and
they're booked within a 100 mile radius. All of SE South Dakota had full hotels, no
matter what the price, they were all taken. A big soccer tournament was going on
that weekend. So we had to sleep in the car with the windows rolled up as mosquitoes
were really bad up there. It was very warm and humid. One chaser found a cozy
spot to sleep, with plenty of leg room!
Some nature images from the botanical gardens in Fort Worth
(left) and Oklahoma City (right).
Three
images from the NCAR Mesa Lab. First image showing the tornado model which we had
fun playing with, second showing a copy of the Coffeyville, KS hail stone, and third image
showing the Mesa Lab itself located in Boulder, CO.
Even after several years, a skyscraper in downtown Fort Worth
still bares scars from a strong tornado that went through the city back in 2000.
The windows are covered with metal to ensure no parts fall to the ground.
The city of Albuquerque, New Mexico, from several thousand feet.
View is looking west.
A before and after shot of the Capulin Volcano in northeast New
Mexico. A fast moving cold front was diving south and upslope clouds developed,
engulfing the mounting. Luckily, we were there just as it began to hit!
Images of inside the crater as the fast moving clouds swirled
inside. We threw up a balloon with no helium and watched as it swirled several times
and shot out the top. Winds on the north side of the crater were gusting to 50mph.
A view looking off the northeast side of the mountain.
Also, as we drove south, a thick cloud deck extended off to the west of a small mountain
range.
After a long day of observing severe weather, one can kick back
and enjoy a hail burger.
Campus
from the 14th floor of Sarkey's Energy Center, looking out the synoptic lab windows.
Various
places that friends and I study at OU. Sometimes it was easier to use dry erase
boards that span from one side of a room to the other.
The old
Weatherwise magazine that talks about the largest hail on record at the time.
One of
our labs in our Instruments Class was performing rising and falling step functions to
determine response time using old mobile mesonet laptops from NSSL.
The Meteorology Department was on the top four floors of Sarkey's
Energy Center at the University of Oklahoma. Summer of 2006, the Meteorology
Department moved to the National Weather Center. The first two images show one of
the SMART-R mobile radar trucks parked in front on display. Third Image shows the Doppler on Wheels (DOW-3),
parked outside for a radar meteorology course taught by Dr. Wurman. Last image shows
how the University of Oklahoma students welcome the first Phase Array Doppler Radar with
open arms! Here is Steve Vanderburg (NWS SGX) hugging the base of the radar.
