Been on hold

All projects have been on hold for the last 2 to 3 weeks since the old Taurus bit the dust. I finally lost the transmission on the way to work and had smoke pouring out and with 236,000+ on the oddometer there's no way she's getting fixed.

The rest of the time has been spent finding a new car and going through that nightmare. New or Used was the question and I finally ended up with a 2006 Hyundai Elantra for the value and a killer warranty. I like it more everytime I drive it.

Now that that's settled I plan to get on with things as posted before.

Done for now

I'm finally done getting my 2000-2003 tapes over to DVD. The new DVD's are available on chaseone.com at the same old price.

Now on the the 2005-2006 stuff.

Old tapes to DVD

I'm halfway through a new project that's been a long time coming. I'm transferring all of my old chase tapes to DVD. I'm starting with the 2000 through 2003 tapes and I'm done with 2000 and 2001 now. I should have 2002 and 2003 done this week.

As soon as I'm done with these 4 tapes I plan to put together a 2005-2006 DVD since I think there's enough material for that. Then I'll go back and probably take care of the 1991-1999 stuff.

These DVD versions will be offered on chaseone.com, as available for the same price as the tapes, $15.00 + S&H

I figured it was about time to get these over to DVD before the old master tapes wear out and everything was lost.

Finally some relief!

With a weak front forecast to pass through North Texas tomorrow giving much needed relief a reflection is due. So how does this heat wave rank?

Yes it's been very hot across a broad section of the US with records set. An all time record for any day of 117˚F at Pierre, SD stands out. Yes it was extremely hot farther north than you'd expect. But anyone who experienced the heat wave of 1980 knows this episode doesn't compare at all.

Here in DFW we had 69 days above 100˚F between June 23rd and September 6th with 42 in a row at one point. The worst was June 26th and 27th when it hit 113˚ on both days. An all-time record. Sticking your arm out the car window had the same effect as sticking it in your oven. We broke or tied records 29 times.

It was hot all over the southern plains where Wichita Falls hit 119°F, Memphis hit 108°F with 15 days straight above 100°F, Kansas City stayed above 100°F for 17 days straight.

The worst statistic of all was the death toll. This heat wave took the lives of between 1250 and 10,000 people nationwide. Even on the low end of this scale this was the true disaster.

So bring on the relief tomorrow and get us out of the triple digits. Let's hope we've seen the last of them for 2006. I'm not betting on it. And when you start moaning about how hot it feels and start debating about whether it's because of "Global Warming" think back and remember.

My best chase of the year

April 15th was probably my best chase of the year being that I left for my target the day before to be in place. I drove to Wichita, KS the day before then on to southeast Nebraska and the Beatrice tornado.

Still I wasn't able to get as close as others (not that I wanted to get as close as some) and was only able to shoot video as the first tornado was down. It was already raining and all I could do was find a place to pull off, grab the camera and start shooting. No time for a tripod.

At first there appeared to be only one tornado with this storm but the NWS survey revealed a 30+ mile damage path. A review of my video shows the original meso wrapping in rain and another larger tornado developing inside.

Even with all this I had a blast and ran into Jimmy Deguara and his group from down under. This seems to happen quite often. It was great to see old friends that came such a long way.