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.