The Three Big Stories

1. Tropical Conference
Besides arriving later and leaving earlier than I would have liked thanks to having to take an airport shuttle, I had a smooth trip. I didn't think I prepared enough for my talk on Wednesday (less than 18 hours after I arrived), but it went OK. Only one person asked a question, and it was because we were talking about the prediction of cyclogenesis but never set a criterion to what that was. I didn't get a lot of feedback on my topic, but several people told me I did a good job. NC State had a large group there, and while none of my old friends attended, there were a few familiar faces, including one of my former professors. I hung out with that group some, and through them, I met some cool people from the University of Alabama-Huntsville. I played putt-putt with them one night, and then went with them to Disney on Friday. We were only able to do a half day at Magic Kingdom, but we hit all the major rides and sites, and it was a lot of fun. We were planning to go to Downtown Disney, but transportation and time issues forced us back to eating pizza poolside at the hotel. There were way too many Hawaiian shirts at this conference. It was cool to put famous names with faces though, and see the latest research in the field. Obviously I didn't get as much qual studying done as I had planned.

2. The Qual
I can't remember too much about classes other than I passed and the forecasting lab was a lot of fun and a good learning experience. So the main event: the qualification exam. I survived all the studying and pressure. The math killed me since I can't do a derivation to save my life, but most of the other questions weren't too bad. But I passed (or they had enough sympathy to keep me around), and I am glad to have that weight off my shoulders. We had a cookout afterwards, and then a little etc. to round the night out.

3. Camping Trip
Five of us headed down to the San Rafael Swell (I've been told some people call it the "Little Grand Canyon") for a little post-qual relaxation. This area is located in central Utah about 2.5 hours from SLC. I dropped a ton of money on equipment and hiking boots, but they will obviously serve me well in the future. Our campsite was about 20 miles down a dirt road from civilization (yet we still had cell service!). You're driving across a barren desert landscape when all of a sudden you're at the edge of a huge canyon. Our campsite (which was fee-free) was literally on the edge of a cliff. We did a lot of exploring of the area, although I don't think I would have been climbing up and down steep rocky canyon walls if it weren't for my crazy outdoorsy friends. We even found a hidden cave in one of the walls. There were also several ancient pictographs that are still visible on the walls. These canyons were jaw-dropping amazing. I had seen pictures of similar ones, but it's completely different in person. It got a little chilly at night, but otherwise it was a really fun trip, and I was only slightly sore afterwards.

All pictures have been posted on the Webshots page.

Tornado Near Home

I guess I need to write about this before it becomes "old news."

Last Monday (Apr. 28), the same day the beautiful yet destructive EF-3 wedge tornado tore through Suffolk, VA, about 130 miles to the east, an unexpected tornado hit the town of Virgilina. This town is in the southeastern part of my county, only about 20 minutes away from my house, and I drove through there every time I came home from NC State. It should also be noted that they are at the "triple point" of three NWS offices (Blacksburg, Wakefield, and Raleigh), so while adequate, radar coverage isn't superb. On top of that, this particular storm did not look tornadic at all, and rotation was not evident to me with a quick glance at radar velocities. I think this quote from the Gazette-Virginian shows that the NWS had the same predicament, and no warning was issued:

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Wilkins said Virgilina Volunteer Fire Department President Ralph Murray called the National Weather Service in Blacksburg immediately to tell them a tornado had just touched down in Virgilina.“They told him there hadn’t been anything on radar to indicate a tornado, and Ralph said, ‘“Well then you need to come down here,”’ Wilkins said.
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After the survey, it was rated an EF-1. Luckily there were no injuries. The full report (with radar images and damage photos) can be found at this link. I haven't had any time lately to do my own assessment of the synoptic and mesoscale setup... maybe eventually. Another example of how mother nature isn't always completely predictable.

***A full wrap up of Orlando and the qual (which I'm halfway through) will be posted sometime soon.***