MovingPictures

My Weight Loss, 510 Pounds to 248 Pounds...

Mother Nature Makes Beauty out of Pollution...

Photo shot in the Key Bank parking lot in Fremont, Ohio.

A Down Day BBQ, Recharged for Tomorrow's Chase...

Niccolo Ubalducci from the Italian Storm Chasers enjoys his steak.

We drove South from our overnight stay in Valentine, Nebraska to the small Kansas town of Colby. We found a cheap but nice motel and executed our BBQ plan flawlessly. My brother Matt manned the grills along with the help of Chris Howell and Niccolo Ubalducci from Italy. The beef was quickly consumed and some adult beverages consumed. As of right now the SPC day 1 outlook shows a 10% hatched chance for tornadoes and a whole lot of chase fun...

Chris Howell and Matt Kassawara look at forecast pages for the chase.

Nicollo Ubalducci looks at the forecast.

Nice Surprise Structure After Dark...

Tonight we got a little after dark surprise shelf cloud which was being lit up by lightning near Mitchell, South Dakota. See my other photos from today, CLICK HERE. 

G-Form Extreme iPad Case, in my Hands, in Time...

The G-Form Extreme iPad Sleeve on my desk today.

With the help of Cathy from G-Form, I now have in my hot little hands one of their newest products to protect my iPad for my upcoming storm chase into the plains, before its official release. The G-Form iPad Extreme Sleeve™ protects your iPad or iPad2 from impact by utilizing RPT-Reactive Protection Technology, a combination of PORON® XRD™ material and proprietary G-Form design and manufacturing. The Extreme Sleeve™ is water-resistant, soft, flexible, lightweight and changes its molecular structure on impact. Cathy tells me it is a bit of miracle molecular manipulation that makes the sleeve so impact resistant. They have a bunch of great products and I recommend a visit to their website.

On the Ground for 450 Miles, Four States, no words...

Image by Brian Tang.

No words can describe the radar montage of the most impressive supercell from 04/27/11 massive tornado outbreak. This cell traveled about 450 miles and lasted over 8 hours, and was on the ground through four states! It also was responsible for the large, violent tornado that caused the destruction in Tuscaloosa, the North side of Birmingham, Alabama and a number of other cities in its destructive. NOAA has put up a special webpage on the April 2011 tornado information page.

An image of the tornado as Tuscaloosa, AL, the big purple dot is the debris ball.

The National Weather Service preliminary tornado track map fro 04/27/11.

04/27/11 Tornado Outbreak Captured from Space...

Photo of the Day - Knee High by the 4th...

My son Noah walks past a corn field near Attica, Ohio where the corn has been much more than knee high by the 4th of July...

Space Weather News...

COLLIDING SATELLITES: Experts are calling it an "unprecedented event." Two large satellites have collided in Earth orbit. Kosmos 2251 crashed into Iridium 33 on Tuesday, Feb. 10th, approximately 800 km over northern Siberia; both were destroyed.  The resulting clouds of debris contain more than 500 fragments, significantly increasing the orbital debris population at altitudes where the collision occurred.  The Air Force Space Surveillance Radar is monitoring the clouds as they pass over the radar facility in Texas.  We, in turn, are monitoring signals from the radar and you may be able to hear debris "pings" by tuning in to our live audio feed. This is a story that will unfold in the days ahead as researchers study the evolution of the debris clouds and piece together the details of the collision.  Stay tuned to SpaceWeather.com for full coverage.

The Shortest (and Coldest) Day of the Year...

I must admit, December 21st has always been one of my favorite days of the winter months. Although it is the shortest day of the year, it also marks the time that the days start to get longer. This also means that Spring and the storm chasing season will be getting here in a very short time. The druids always celebrated the different solstices sometimes by dancing naked in the woods, but I hate to say that they would freeze off some very private body parts if they did it in the vicinity of Fremont, Ohio tonight. The temp right now is -1 Degree F, in this winter wonderland. The sunset tonight was at 5:06 p.m. and I took this photo of Orion (I am pretty sure), virtually in the dark, with my new 5D Mark II, at 3200 ISO at 1/5th of a second at f/2.8.

Update on the Canadian Meteor, Parts Found...

Update on the Canadian Meteor video from one of my previous posts. See the update story click HERE.

Tsunami warning lifted off Indonesia...

A powerful earthquake struck an area off northern Sulawesi in Indonesia early on Monday, causing a brief tsunami warning and triggering panic among residents in parts of the island before being cancelled.

Remembering the Nov. 10th 2002 Tornado Outbreak...

It was a Sunday, like many other days off, except it was my 40th birthday. I was setting at home chomping at the bit to hit the road, watching storms develop on my computer in my office. The Storm Prediction Center had just upgraded a Moderate Risk for Ohio to a High Risk. I saw a huge cell that was moving NE from Hancock County, towards Tiffin, Ohio. I jumped into my truck and headed south on SR 53, a direct route towards Tiffin, and was met by some amazing cloud-to-cloud lightning and wind gusts to about 60 mph.

I approached Tiffin, Ohio and I skirted the north part of town along Second St. and stopped quickly to photograph a group of bar patrons looking up at the ominous sky. As I as shooting that, I got knocked on the head, by what I thought was a walnut, but I discovered was golf-ball sized hail. The air was still but hail was falling like I had never seen in Ohio before.

I looked to the south and saw several funnel clouds swirling around each other. In the distance, two funnels pulled down from the cloud base and formed one. I turned the corner from 2nd street, south onto Nelson Street just as a funnel dropped from the sky over what looked like downtown Tiffin. I threw my truck into park right in the middle of the road, braced myself on the open door, I got about 10 frames off of the tornado before the whole town went black. The tornado turned from white to black, the second it touched the ground.  I tried to get in behind the tornado and was blown from one lane of the road to the other in a second. I gave up my pursuit at that time, because I did not know if there were other tornadoes in the area, and it was too dark. I headed in the direction of the first hit of the tornado. As I drove south, I topped a hill, and a tree blew down over the road. I slammed on the brakes and skidded into the outer branches, no harm done, just a good scare. I back-tracked and found the initial touchdown, it hit a subdivision and completely demolished several homes, one of the houses' second story and roof were over 100 feet from the foundation. I was there before the rescue personnel and photographed people digging through the foundation for survivors. Fortunately, the only fatality was a dog. I shot some damage and then headed towards Fostoria, Ohio, which was also hit and then to Port Clinton, Ohio.

The next day I shot damage in Republic, Fostoria, Tiffin, and Port Clinton, Ohio tallied 5 fatalities that night. At least 35 people were killed and more than 200 were injured after this outbreak of tornadoes lashed the eastern United States. Tornadoes flattening entire communities from the Gulf of Mexico to the Great Lakes in one of the worst storms to hit the region for a decade.

The tornado reported in Van Wert County in 2002 was a violent F4 tornado with 2 fatalities. There were also reported tornadoes in Paulding County and Putnam County in Ohio. Both of these tornadoes were a severe F3 tornado and there were 2 fatalities near Continental, Ohio. Overall, five people were killed because of these violent storms in Van Wert, Putnam, and Seneca County.

The November 10, 2002 tornadoes were reported in several counties of Ohio including Putnam County and Van Wert County also Seneca, Hancock, and Huron and Erie Counties. All schools in Van Wert County were canceled on November 11 (including Van Wert City Schools, Crestview, and Lincolnview schools). Van Wert city schools were closed on the 12th and 13th. The schools were also delayed on November 14th and 15th.

Then Governor Bob Taft declared a state of emergency for Van Wert County and Ottawa County because of the violent tornadoes that hit northwest Ohio. After the tornado event in NW Ohio I became close friends with many of the victims. Many copies of my tornado photo from the November 10th Tiffin tornado, hangs on the rebuilt walls of homes as a reminder of what Mother Nature can serve up in the blink of an eye, and also how quickly lives can change for us all.My tornado photo from that day ended up being one of Time/Life Magazine's Photos of the Year in 2002. At that point in time this photo, shot 20 miles from my home, was one of my best tornado shots, despite all the time I spent in the plains chasing with my group MESO. Since then we have traveled many miles and survived Silverton, TX, Attica, KS, and Greensburg, KS, and will be heading out to the plains again next Spring for our 12th year together.

See more of my storm chasing photos HERE.

Photos from the evening of November 10th and aftermath on the 11th.

A Rotting Bigfoot or a Smelly Fish Story...

The "Bigfoot" carcass in a freezer in an undisclosed location in Georgia.

Ever since I was a little kid, I have been fascinated by the unknown, Bigfoot, ghosts, aliens, UFO's, the Loch Ness Monster and the like. The thought of something out there that is undiscovered, living unchanged for thousands, maybe millions of years interested me. The recent news out of Georgia that a Bigfoot possibly was found dead in the woods, brought that kid in me back to the surface. I read the reports on the NY Times website and CNN, which was unusual, considering neither of these organizations have ever touched the topic of Bigfoot with a ten-foot pole. Fox news has had a bunch of fun with the story today, and their morning anchor Megan Kelly was invited to the autopsy on Monday by one of the founders. I really hope she takes them up on the offer. The press conference showed photos of the mouth and teeth, and a shot of a Bigfoot walking parallel to them as they removed the body from the woods.

Who knows, I guess we all will sooner or later. What will this mean to humanity as we know it today if this story is true? Will this have every hiker looking over their shoulders as they tromp through the woods? Or will it have every Bubba in Georgia oiling up his shotgun and donning camouflage, grabbing his spotlight and heading out into the woods for some late night target practice. What happens if Bubba gets one, will he drink a six pack while sitting on the carcass and then take it to Jed's Taxidermy to be mounted, or will he be charged with "Mankind Slaughter" by an overzealous prosecuting attorney in Atlanta, wanting to make a name for himself and then run for the US Senate someday?

Personally, I hope it is true. It will add a few more chills to the movie Legend of Boogie Creek that scared the hell out of me as a kid, knowing it is a little bit closer to real. I just wonder if Neil Armstrong had Bigfoot on mind as he left his large spacesuit boot print on the moon as he said the immortal words, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." Oh, maybe not - remember there are those nuts that say the moon landing was not real either...

Above left; the footprint of Neil Armstrong left on the moon. Above right; a plaster cast of a Bigfoot print left in Oregon. Is it a coincidence both these controversial stories iconic images are footprints? Who knows maybe it is another of those government cover-ups...

Just a side note: I went over 40,000 hits to my blog, MovingPictures today, thanks to all the readers who stop by occasionally, thanks, I appreciate it...

Journey to the Moon Even Better 39 Years Later...

A year and a half before I was born in May 25th, 1961; President John F. Kennedy set the goal to put a man on the moon before the end of the decade.

"We shall send to the moon, 240,000 miles away, a giant rocket, more than 300 feet tall, made of new metal alloys, some of which have not been invented, fitted together with a precision better than the finest watch, on an untried mission, to an unknown celestial body, and then return it safely to earth, reentering the atmosphere at speeds over 25,000 mph, causing heat of about half that of the temperature of the sun, almost as hot as it is here today, and do all this and do all this and do it right, and do it first, before this decade is out, and we must be bold." - John F. Kennedy

On July 20th, 1969, at 10:56 p.m. EDT, Ohioan Neil Armstrong is ready to plant the first human foot on another world. I remember my father waking me up and bring me down to the living room to watch Armstrong set foot on the moon. We sat on the floor, watching the old TV, wrapped in blankets and half awake. I seem to remember mom making popcorn, which made this seem like something surreal out of the movies. My Aunt Dorothy had a ceramic shop in Attica, and after the landing she made ash trays in the shape of the first footprint on the moon with Neil Armstrong's famous quote on it. My dad helped he make the mold for it; I still have on of these ash trays today.

Maybe I was too young in 1969 to truly appreciate what Neil Armstrong and all the other Apollo astronauts did, and how risky the trip to the moon really was at the time. "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." Truer words were never spoken.

I have been watching the series on the Discovery Channel called When We Left Earth. Another show I recommend on the Discovery Channel is In the Shadow of the Moon, a Ron Howard production. Both are a chronicle of NASA space history and the steps man took to make it possible to set foot on the moon. I now appreciate more than ever what these astronauts, and NASA did with the little bit of technology they had at the time. It is amazing that I probably have more computing power in my iPod and GPS that hey did in the lunar lander. There were so many unknowns at the time and it did not seem to bother any of the astronauts, the just did as they were trained and told. Neil Armstrong flew the LEM from the initial landing spot to a smoother spot on the moon and landed it with just second worth of fuel. It just amazes me. I watch the footage, reporters with typewriters on their laps, photographers with old film cameras. We have come a long way baby...

I have always been fascinated by space travel, astronomy and the like. I saw the first space shuttle launch while on my senior trip in Florida. I had a nice long elevator ride with John Glenn, and his wife Annie at the Republican National Convention in Chicago, when the elevator got stuck between floors. I have covered two space shuttle tragedies in my career as a journalist. The first being the explosion of the Challenger on January 28, 1986 when I worked at the Lewiston, ME, Sun-Journal. This hit New England really hard because the crew included Christa McAuliff, a school teacher from Concord, NH. This was a very sad day in my career because we covered this story closely. The second space shuttle story I covered was the Columbia disaster on February 1, 2003. I was sent to Woodville, Ohio, home of shuttle astronaut Terrence "Tom" Henricks, to cover the reaction.

Over the years, some have offered up the theory that the moon landings have been faked, it is amazing to me that these people would try to demean the risk and amazing human accomplishment these brave souls did in the name of the United States. I think the best rebuttal to this theory was simply put by Gene Cernan, the last astronaut to set foot on the moon.

"Truth needs no defense. Nobody, nobody can ever take the footsteps I made on the surface of the moon away from me." - Gene Cernan, the last man ever to set foot on the moon December 19th, 1972.

NASA archives photo

Surprise, Surprise, Sunrise...

For those of you looking forward to the first day of summer tomorrow, surprise, it's already here! Most years summer begins on June 21st, thanks to leap year,
it has arrived a day early. Summer this year begins June 20th at 7:59 p.m. The shortest day of last year which was December 22, 2007. That day had just 9 hours and 17 minutes of daylight with a sunrise at 8:07 a.m. and a sunset at 5:24 p.m. Today, this June 20th there will be 15 hours and 4 minutes of daylight with
a sunrise at 6:17 a.m. and a sunset at 9:21 p.m. This scenario will not happen again until the year 2012; and we all know what people are saying about the year 2012 and the end of the Mayan calendar....

Guiness "World Record" Tornado (Indoor & Artificial)...

Guess Dorothy & Toto would not have too much to fear from this "techno tube."