Hello readers,
Now an annual event, yesterday 8 students and 2 professors embarked on a journey across the great plains to forecast and verify severe convection. This ‘storm chasing’ class is meant as a capstone experience for young meteorologists to perfect their forecasting skill that they were lectured on at WKU. Daily updates on this blog will begin today, and run through the next 13 days. The blog posts will cover forecasted targets for severe weather,as well as chase day recaps and just our entire journey as us students experience cool things along the way. For those in the ‘twitterverse’ we will aslo be frequently updating our trip @wkustormchase on twitter.
Our journey began yesterday by leaving from Bowling Green, and ended last night ,after 600 miles of driving, in Kansas City, MO. Maybe its a precursor of things to come, but we got to drive through a weak squall line on the way out. At sunset, we were treated to a great view of yesterdays solar eclipse.
Today is being treated as another driving day as we target the Dakotas for tomorrow. A low pressure center is forecast to deepen as moisture begins to return along the front range. Full details will be blogged tomorrow, but this appears to be our first chase-able day. Sufficient instability, forecasted dew points in the 60’s, as well as ample shear, will provide an environment conducive to severe convection. Stay tuned !