Bevis Bigfoot?

Normally, I use youtube to watch music videos and maybe catch a newsworthy event here and there. Recently, I was searching for video footage of the tornadoes in Iowa, and came across this humorous bit. Some of my favorite quotes include:
"get a background in fire and stuff"
"wake up way early"
"busting stuff out"
"work ten to eight hours"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-Sj15oQnXE

Rough Weekend in Iowa

Unfortunately, the perfect severe weather set up developed across Iowa on the May 25 resulting in numerous tornadoes across the state. One of these tornadoes was particularly strong, tracking for over 40 miles on the ground and destroying portions of Parkersburg and New Hartford. This tornado was rated EF-5 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale. This is the first F5 tornado in the state of Iowa since the Jordan IA tornado on June 13, 1976. My thoughts and prayers go out to the victims of these storms. For pictures and video of the storms and damage, please see:
http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/cases/080525/

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/crnews/display_story.php?wfo=dmx&storyid=14909&source=0

May 18th Flight

Here are a few pictures Kyle took of the flight I had on May 18th. What a great night to fly!

Wedding and Storm Chasing

This past Saturday, I traveled down to Lincoln, NE for Jenni's (one of our summer interns) wedding. Congratulations Zach and Jenni!! Jenni, if you see this, send me an email and I will send you the pictures I took. On the way back to Sioux Falls, I had planned to storm chase with a warm front situated just to my north and dry line moving through. The shear in the atmosphere was incredibly strong, but there was not enough moisture in the atmosphere to create sufficiently strong updrafts and the storms died. The picture below tells the story...

New door!

Before

After

After several weeks of delays, my new front door has finally arrived! It took nearly six hours to install the door, but I am VERY happy with the finished product.

You may notice in the after photo that the project is not quite done yet. The brick molding for the door did not come with the door as expected, so I am expecting that to come in a few short weeks.

In other news, spring has finally sprung here and my tree in the backyard has finally begun to flower. Too bad the blossoms won't stay on the tree very long in all this wind. Check out the bee pollinating the flowers in the second photo.

Has Spring FINALLY Arrived?

This spring has been just downright pathetic. We have yet to reach 80 degrees this year, however, that may change by next week (we can only hope). Then I may be able to remove the flannel sheets from my bed.

Despite temperatures in the 50s and semi-wet grounds, last Sunday evening was a great night to fly up here. Winds were out of the south at 5-7 knots. I took off at Tuthill with Duane, Jon and Linda, and we all had a nice hour plus flight landing north of I-90. I did what I could to fly towards my neighborhood, and made it to Washington High School before flying north for the remainder of the flight. In true fashion, I once again forgot my camera, but fortunately, my crew remembered theirs. I will try to post a picture or two as them become available.

Speaking of ballooning, Kay West recently bought a new balloon and had its maiden voyage Wednesday night. It was a great night to fly, and I would have joined her in the air if I had enough time to find crew after work.







My front door has finally come in!! I am on day shifts this week, so it is tough to schedule work on my house when I am gone. Next week I am on evenings, so I am hoping we will be able to get the door installed early next week prior to the potential severe weather outbreak late next week.





Finally, a blog entry would not be an entry without an update on the tumbleweeds. Above is a picture of the tumbleweed gathering on my front lawn Monday afternoon. Unfortunately, they seemed to enjoy hanging out on my driveway, so I had to physically remove all of them later that evening. I have also made a bunch of phone calls, and have finally spoke to the developer of the property from which they are originating. I guess several of my neighbors have complained (imagine that), and they are hoping to cover the tumbleweeds with a grader next week if the weather warms up...come on 80s!!!

Severe Weather Season Begins...

Geek alert! Severe weather season began in southeastern South Dakota the other night. Originally, we were not sure storms were going to develop because of a sizable cap across the area, however, as the surface boundary lifted north the cap weakened and storms rapidly developed. I was the coordinator for the event. It brought back memories of May 5, 2007, when I barely had time think as 25 tornadoes impacted southeastern South Dakota. While this was a much smaller outbreak, the city of Sioux Falls was directly impacted tripling the workload. I created a summary of the events which can be found at: http://www.crh.noaa.gov/fsd/?n=tor2008may01

Also, a week ago I ran in my first 5K road race in over three years. With winter just wanting to continue and snow in Sioux Falls the day before the race, the course itself was quite icy. In addition, strong northwest winds during the race created wind chills in the 20s. I have never had to battle with either of these in a race before, but ended up fairing ok with a time of 24:28. This was just above the 10th percentile of all race participants. For a full breakdown on the race, go to http://www.washingtonpavilion.org/sciencediscoverycenter/events/wellnessfestival5K.cfm

In completely unrelated news, have still not had an opportunity to fly lately. Was thinking of flying tonight, but mixing prevailed and winds stayed gusty longer than I would have preferred. At least it is looking warmer this week, so maybe just maybe, the plants will begin budding.