20150331: North Alabama Storms

I forgot to post this after the 3/31 storm chase. Nothing scary or super exciting. We chased for the lightning and hail mostly. No real tornado threat on the cell we chased.

20150331: Storms entered the North Alabama area heading ESE. We began chasing this cell in Athens, AL with the cell almost due west of us. We went all the way to Russellville where we finally entered the cell and were able to breach the core, down to Trinity where we breached the core a second time, over to Decatur and then finally back to Huntsville.

Our first core breach was over the Tennessee River on the SR-101 bridge in Joe Wheeler State Park:

We were able to get back in front of the storm and had a second core breach near Trinity, AL on the US-72 looking toward Nucor Steel.

I created a compilation of some of the lightning we saw that night from the start in Athens to the finish.

BWAHAHA 1/10 – 1/16:

BWAHAHA (Blair’s Week Attempts at Haha’s) 1/10 – 1/16: It sleeted and snowed in Huntsville, Alabama on the 15th. Northerners may find that odd, but it’s not as uncommon here in North Alabama as one would think (just four years ago we had 12″ of snow on the ground at my house). What made this event unique was not the snow and sleet, but the fact that the city did not shut down at all. No school closings. No businesses shutting down. Redstone Arsenal stayed open. Colleges stayed open. The I-565 overpasses stayed open. If you live anywhere around Huntsville, you’ll know that the overpasses staying open is a major fucking deal when it comes to getting snow and ice in these parts. So well done Huntsville, you actually didn’t panic this time and there is still bread and milk in the grocery stores.

This week was both tedious and boring. Tedious because of all the sites I’m working on and then my boss threw three more on top of me. Tons of work to do for those sites. Boring, because it’s pretty much the same work for every single site. For those that don’t know, I work with prisons and jails. Both of those have a tendency to locate themselves in small towns and rural areas. The reason they do so is because small towns and rural areas vote them in so that the inmates count as their population, thus making their state and federal tax revenue greater. Yep, prisons are a money-making scheme all around. But newsflash prisons: building in those areas makes it hard sometimes to get the telecommunications that you need. A prison in the middle of nowhere in Pennsylvania that I’m working on is suffering from that now. The local TelCo cannot get the circuits I need until March 31st. So much for getting their system in within 45 days of the order coming in. Sure, build for economic reasons up front, but in the long run, that shit’s gonna cost you more than you’ve got coming in.

Friday night I had the pleasure of performing at the Alright Bayou Comedy Show here in Huntsville. It was an amazing show with a great crowd and my fellow comedians were awesome. Make sure you keep up with local comedy in Huntsville by following Huntsville Comedy on Twitter or Facebook and check out the Huntsville Comedy web page as well!

OTHER STUFF:

• Habanero powder in the nose… great way to start the night. On the plus side (after 100 sneezes), I can breathe really great!
• I guess I didn’t clean off the driver’s seat well enough… I now have a piece of glass stuck in my left ass cheek. Fun times ahead…
• I always appreciate when the Oscars nominations release: it lets me know which movies I don’t want to see (with a 99% accuracy rating).
• I like how a country music station in Texas favorited my Tweet about me not liking country music.
• It’s scary how well the Internet knows me sometimes…
• Snowmageddon: We’re All Gonna DIE! #alwx

140 CHARACTER ASSASSINATIONS:

• Some of us are getting more snow than others. ‪#‎WhitePrivilege‬

CAPTION CENTRAL:

• 

  Useth thou cell to texteth thine archers to unleasheth fury upon thine enemies!

• 

  Now everyone knows that Christina doesn’t want to get married. Ever. Learn something new: Gamophobia or Anthrophobia?

• 

  Someone needs to let Mike’s Mom know he sleeps with the fishes.

• 

  We’re all gonna DIE!!!!!!!

• 

  What it feels like to put on a condom.

• 

  Charles instantly regretted wearing pink to the black tie event.

20140817 Storms in Meridianville, Moore’s Mill and Gurley

On Sunday, 8/17, storms rolled through the Tennessee Valley, heading generally east. I started following the storms just northwest of Meridianville and followed them to just east of Gurley. These storms were not tornadic and showed no signs of rotation. They were moderate lightning generators and produced light to moderate winds with moderate rain. Don’t forget to check out our Alabama Storm Chasers & Spotters group on Facebook!

Video of the first cell I encountered northwest of Meridianville. I was at the 9600 block of Patterson Rd.

A couple of animated GIFs from that same cell:

 

Photos of the first cell:

 

Some of the lightning shots from the day (click on the image to see the full size photo):

US-231 Southbound, intersection of Meridian Rd.

Southbound on Naugher Rd at Intersection of Winchester Rd. Strike is on Alpha Lane.

Southbound on Naugher Rd at Intersection of Winchester Rd. Strike is on Alpha Lane.

Across from the Sunoco on Naugher Rd. looking east along Winchester Rd.

Sitting at intersection of US-72 & Dug Hill Rd looking east along US-72. Strike near Gurley.

Sitting at intersection of US-72 & Dug Hill Rd looking east along US-72. Striking the radio tower northwest of Gurley.

Sitting at intersection of US-72 & Dug Hill Rd looking east along US-72. Mountain strike northwest of Gurley.

Sitting along US-72 at Brock Rd looking east. Strike northwest of Gurley.

For some reason my dashcam is doing this weird thing with lightning:

 

Catching Up: 20130417 Lightning

Continuing the catching up series. Click on any photo to see the full size image.

My favorite lightning shot of all time comes from this series. It’s the one I use for my banner on Twitter, Facebook, etc. This storm brought with it tons of green lightning, including a green lightning display that lasted for more than 10 minutes. It was absolutely gorgeous!

20130417 Lightning:

Catching Up: 20110427 Alabama Tornadoes

Continuing the catching up series of old photos. Click on any photo to see the full size image.

April 27, 2011 is a date everyone in Alabama remembers. Alabama was ravaged by tornadoes. I ended up being a couple of blocks away from one of the tornadoes that hit north of Huntsville. I was able to capture some of the damage done to the area after the tornado went through. I’ll also post a link to the video I made that day where I tried to capture the video. Unfortunately it was rain-wrapped and not visible in the video, but the winds were powerful enough to almost knock me down the sidewalk, forcing me to take cover behind a brick pillar. We spent the next two weeks in darkness, living in the garage with a camp stove and using the car to charge our cell phones.

When the second wave came through, we sat in the car and video-taped the amazing lightning. Some of the pictures are stills from the video (I’ve since upgraded to a much better video camera, so I apologize for the crappy quality of the video stills).

Video from that day:

20110427 Tornadoes & Lightning: