Midwest Chasing

Snow’s coming down pretty heavily right now; around an hour ago I measured around a half an inch of fresh snow that had fallen. I’ll go out later and remeasure.

..WINTER STORM TO AFFECT THE AREA FRIDAY  

.A STORM SYSTEM CURRENTLY DIGGING INTO THE FOUR CORNERS REGION  
WILL MOVE INTO THE SOUTHERN PLAINS TONIGHT…AND THEN LIFT  
NORTHEAST INTO NORTHERN ILLINOIS ON FRIDAY. SNOW WILL OVERSPREAD  
NORTHERN ILLINOIS DURING THE MORNING HOURS ON FRIDAY…AND BECOME  
HEAVY AT TIMES FROM LATE MORNING THROUGH THE AFTERNOON HOURS. THE  
SNOW IS EXPECTED TO DISSIPATE TOWARD FRIDAY EVENING. TOTAL STORM  
ACCUMULATIONS OF 5 TO 7 INCHES ARE POSSIBLE ACROSS FAR NORTHERN  
ILLINOIS ON FRIDAY. 

I’ve purchased a Sigma 17-70 lens today from Sigma4Less. When it arrives I’ll post a bunch of examples on here.

The “Tornado Hunters” show is currently being shown on Court TV right now. This documentary is about “Outlaw” chasers Randy Hicks and Lanny Dean. It looks pretty good so far but I’m anticipating that the usual suspects will start bitching on Storm Track later tonight.

Lanny’s blog

Christmas is soon approaching and 2007 will end soon which means the chase season is slowly approaching. I’ve been looking at purchasing a better video camera because the one I currently have, a Panasonic PV-GS39 is terrible at low light and I do not like that the only way you can focus is through the joystick. Furthermore, you cannot focus to infinity like you can on some other cameras, like my old Digital8 Sony TRV230.

I’ve been  looking around eBay for a used Sony VX2000 or TRV900 after reading the reviews and seeing how they both are great at low light recording.

Also, I bought a copy of Storms of 2007; to see a preview of it check out this post on Dick McGowan’s blog.

..HEAVY SNOW WARNING IN EFFECT UNTIL 12 PM CST SUNDAY  

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN CHICAGO HAS ISSUED A HEAVY SNOW  
WARNING…WHICH IS IN EFFECT UNTIL 12 PM CST SUNDAY. THE SNOW  
ADVISORY IS NO LONGER IN EFFECT.   

LIGHT TO MODERATE SNOW WILL GRADUALLY INTENSIFY THROUGH THE  
EVENING HOURS…WITH MODERATE TO HEAVY SNOW CONTINUING THROUGH THE  
OVERNIGHT HOURS. STORM TOTAL SNOW ACCUMULATION IS EXPECTED TO  
RANGE FROM UP TO 6 INCHES ACROSS THE EVANSTON…WEST  
CHICAGO…AND MENDOTA AREAS…TO 6 TO 9 INCHES FROM CHICAGO AND  
THE SOUTHERN SUBURBS TO JOLIET TO MORRIS. THE INCREASING INTENSITY  
OF THE SNOW LATE THIS AFTERNOON INTO TONIGHT WILL MAKE FOR  
HAZARDOUS TRAVEL ACROSS THE AREA THIS EVENING INTO THE OVERNIGHT  
HOURS AS MANY ROADS BECOME SNOW PACKED. IN ADDITION TO THE HEAVY  
SNOW ACCUMULATION…NORTH WINDS WILL STRENGTHEN THROUGH THE  
EVENING WITH GUSTS TO 30 MPH POSSIBLE OVERNIGHT. THIS WILL RESULT  
IN AREAS OF BLOWING SNOW AND REDUCED VISIBILITIES. SNOW WILL TAPER  
TO LIGHT SNOW AND FLURRIES ON SUNDAY MORNING.  

…POTENTIAL FOR SIGNIFICANT ICE ACCUMULATIONS ACROSS NORTHERN   
ILLINOIS AND NORTHWEST INDIANA TUESDAY…  

.A DEVELOPING WINTER STORM WILL MOVE ACROSS NORTHERN ILLINOIS AND   
NORTHWEST INDIANA TUESDAY. AS WARM MOIST AIR MOVES NORTH OVER  
COLDER AIR AT THE SURFACE…FREEZING RAIN IS EXPECTED TO DEVELOP  
TUESDAY MORNING AND CONTINUE INTO TUESDAY AFTERNOON. THE  
PRECIPITATION IS EXPECTED TO END TUESDAY EVENING.  

Chuck Doswell posted another Open Letter on Storm Track which promptly erupted into flames:

Read the rest of this entry »