Musings and pictures from my Seattle Trip, January 2015

Greetings from 35,000 feet, somewhere over Oregon.

I have been lucky enough over my personal and professional career to have traveled to many places across this great country and world.

Recently, I found myself able to go to Seattle for a very important conference and on the last day of the conference, I was able to get out and take a few photos from across the Seattle area.  During this time, I took a trip with a good friend of mine to the top of the Space Needle, and we were in for quite the treat.  While we were waiting to get to the top, I was worried we would miss the sunset.  We were able to get up there with time to spare, and we were treated to one of the most beautiful and spectacular shows mother nature could put on.  

Good Morning Seattle!

From the top of the Space Needle, just as the sun was getting ready to set. 

Where the fog meets the city. 

This is one of my favorites from just before the sun set.

Wait, it gets better!

I played around with the color on this picture a little in Photoshop.  Can you tell? 

The mountain is almost a protector, watching over the city.  

Playing around in Photoshop again....which one do you like? 

Day is almost done...

A little spec on the horizon.

Here I go playing around with Photoshop again...

This picture does not do it justice to what it looked like. 

You knew it was an awesome sunset when the people who work at the Space Needle were stopping to take photos. 

It took me a while to get this exact shot with the Ferris Wheel lit up. 

Fair winds and following seas....

Little bit of a different take on the photo above. 

Sleepless in Seattle....

I think this is my favorite photo from the whole trip.

On my way home, I originally was going to go from Seattle to Portland to Minneapolis, and then home to Fargo.  Unfortunately, on the ground, it looked like this.

I wonder why we can't take off!

After a few (ok, more than a few hours) in airports, I finally ended the day in Salt Lake City.  Too bad on the way home, I broke out my phone and took some SPECTACULAR photos from 38,000 feet.  On different flights.

Eventually, I ended up in Salt Lake City.  In the morning, I was greeted with yet another spectacular day. 

Good morning Salt Lake!

Finally, after a couple of flights, two days, and thousands of miles in the air later, I was on my way home.  

As I reflect on my trip home, I think of a few things.  One, how happy I would be to know that night I would be sleeping in my own bed, to see my family, my dog who I know missed me, and two, the great conference I was just at.  I was lucky enough to meet with and talk to some of the smartest and most talented minds on the planet.  I also thought of something a Delta gate agent at Salt Lake City said to me.  "Sir, I don't know how calm you can be after what we just put you through." I replied, "Why would I be mad?  Getting mad solves nothing.  You're making sure I get home in one piece, you're putting me up in a really nice hotel tonight, and I got to see some of the most wonderful and beautiful sights this country has to offer.", as I whipped out my cell phone and showed him some of the pictures.  I look at how lucky I've been.  I was lucky enough to be on a Reality TV show.  I have a great family, who no matter what happens through our ups and downs have always been there.  I have a great stepmom and stepfamily who I have a great relationship with.  I have friends all over the world, so no matter where I go, I never really am alone.  To the world, I may not be someone, but to my son, I am the world.  I've fought cancer, and won.  I have a house, two great jobs, and I get to live out my childhood dream of being a weather guy on TV.  I truly am blessed. 

Our country is full of anger - anger over taxes, jobs, who has money, who doesn't have money, who has too much money, healthcare, measles, delayed flights, sickness, drugs, education, celebrities and selfies, you name it. Would it hurt us to take some time for ourselves, and instead of being mad and angry at the world, stop to look at how beautiful it truly is?  

9-20-14 Tornado Warned Storms in Sargent County, ND

We got one more in us for the year I think!

After a day which left most meteorologists scratching their heads with EF-1 tornadoes in NW Minnesota,  I was bound and determined not to let this day pass me by.

After bugging Robert this morning saying "LET'S GO!  ONE MORE BEFORE THE SOONER GAME!"  (Ok, in reality, we were texting Apollo 13-style countdowns to each other)  we left.

Not long thereafter, we started paying really close attention to the storm in Dickey County.

As we approached, it became severe, and then Tornado warned.  Unfortunetly we were never able to see the main updraft base at first when the couplet on radar looked the most pronounced.

Nice shelf along the cold front!

It was a mean looking shelf.  I was actually somewhat shocked none of the danglies were called in as funnels/tornadoes.

We crossed the border into SD and after seeing some pretty decent piles of hail along the side of the road and sending in a quick report, we came across this:

Now, this was attached to the cloud base, and it was just hanging out.  We stopped to take one more quick shot:

And quickly realized the storm potential for the day was pretty much done.  The cold front had caught up and was going to eat up the rest of the storms.  There was still going to be some pretty good wind out ahead of it, but the system was moving at 50mph+, which makes keeping up with the storms, much less getting ahead of them, next to impossible, so Robert and I called it a day.

Not too bad of a day when you go leave the house at Noon, get on a tornado warned storm, and then get home in time to see Sooner Football!

The question now posed, is this the last chase day of 2014?  We know the temps are going to warm back up into the 80's this week, so the temps need to come back down at some point....but will they?

8-23-14 Tornado near Cresbard, SD

This day started off like no other.  Zero tornadoes seen for Robert.

We changed that today.

I'll spare you most of the details, and get straight to the awesome pics!

Nice Shelf outside of Orient, SD

As we came up on the storm (after harassing Skip Talbot) it looked rather shelfy.

But, that would change as we got further along in the day.

Or not.  Still really Shelfy!  But, that just means time for us to goof off since we were able to meet up with my really good friend Bill Doms and Joel Lampe and Mark.

Let's see those pearly whites Joel! 

Lots of danglies along the leading edge.  But, would it do anything? 

As we kept watching the storm, it kept acting like there was enough shear to get it to do something. 

Not what you think it is....

It would even go on to produce some good scud nadoes! 

Robert, scanning the skies like a DOW!

We ended up having to go a little north at this point.  The storm was starting to spin, and we all knew what that meant...GAME ON! 

A few miles up the road, it dropped one. 

Hrm...it's not moving left or right...but it looks like it's getting bigger....I wonder what that means...

And then we pulled off on this road and watched the tornado...and it wasn't moving left or right.  

A minute or so later....

IT'S GETTIN' BIGGER CAP'N!

Yep, time to move! 

We didn't even get a chance to get a picture of Robert in front of it.  It was one of those where we were just in awe of what we were seeing.  The rain curtains wrapping around it, and then when it went by us, we could hear the roar.  It's a sound when you're a chaser you don't forget.  You don't always get to hear it, and in our case, we could.  Some people describe it like a freight train, but not all tornadoes sound alike.  Bill Doms has an excellent photo of both Robert and I in front of it - visit it at http://www.mnwxchaser.com/2014images/14august23.html if you haven't already. 

I AIN'T DONE YET!

We also happened to catch the end of this tornado as well just after we cleared the trees.  A pretty neat day!  

As we were wrapping things up for the day, we did get a nice shot of a shelf cloud.  It was still tornado warned at this point, but really we couldn't see the updraft base any more. 

This day was pretty memorable for me, since I was lucky enough to be there when Robert saw his first tornado, and even able to see it next to my best friend Bill.  A pretty happy day for everyone!  It's not every day you get to experience something like this.  No matter how many tornadoes I ever see, no matter the storms, this one in particular will always be special.