A Day Full of Meaningful Experiences and Humbling Reminders of the Power of Mother Nature

For the most part we stayed in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma for the day. Despite being in this general area all day it was a very busy day packed with tons of things to do. First thing in the morning we stopped at the Storm Prediction Center to get a tour. The tour took a total of about an hour and we all learned a lot. Here are some photos from our experience at the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma.

Here we are learning a little bit about the types of radar vehicles that the SPC uses. We also were told a little bit about up and coming radar advances and ideas.

Here you can see 3 out of the 4 radar vehicles that the SPC houses. The 4th one is unfortunately out for repair.

Perhaps my favorite type of radar vehicle, the Mesonet vehicle. These vans drive as close as possible (with being as safe as possible) to a storm and collect data of what's happening inside the storm.

The view from the Oklahoma University Student Weather Center at the National Weather Center Building.

Here is a group shot of us at the SPC in front of some abstract art. It's a tornado!

I believe that the photos above can pretty accurately show most of our trip. I do have a lot more photos to share, but to put them all in here would make this post extremely long, therefore I only chose a select few.

After touring the SPC we drove through Moore, Oklahoma to see the remnants of the tornado damage that was left from last year's devastating EF5 tornado. There were still a few reminders of what destruction had occurred that day, such as the destroyed medical center, which now resides in temporary white buildings in the lot of where the old medical center used to stand. Also a small housing development across the street from where the medical center once stood is still being repaired and rebuilt. Every time I see one of these areas that have been devastated by a tornado I just can't help but to stop and reflect on what these people may be feeling and how they felt that day. If I could ask you, the reader, one favor it would be this; Take a second to ponder what you would do in this situation. How would you feel? What thoughts would cross your mind? How would you react to this situation? Those are just a few things that I feel would be worth thinking about. This is a very sensitive topic in these towns and we must be respectful of the trauma they have been through. 

The next stop on our travels for today was something very near and dear to my heart. It's something that I have been wanting to get a chance to see since hearing that it was there. I am talking about visiting the Twistex memorial. Our group got the opportunity to do that today, and I believe that it is an opportunity that we would have never gotten had we not been on this tour. I want to thank Jason, for all of us, for making this happen. To be able to memorialize three wonderful guys who really were in this field to improve the data and research is just a wonderful opportunity. I personally did not know Tim, but Jason did, and the conversations that we had about him made me feel Tim's essence.

 I am trying to keep this blog as more of a group thing, but I really wanted to mention how much I aspired to be like Tim.  As a young person interested in severe storms, I looked up to him and admired him. Oh, how I wanted to one day meet him. That dream was taken away from me when the 2013, 2.6 mile wide,  EF3 El Reno tornado so unforgivingly took the lives of these three wonderful men. To be able to pay my respects to Tim, Paul and Carl, truly did mean the world to me. More than anyone can ever know. This is an experience that will stay with me, and I'm sure every single person in this group, for the rest of our lives. It's a reminder that no matter how skilled you are, these storms are utterly unpredictable and dangerous. Even the best of the best can get caught in one, and that was proved true when the experienced Twistex team perished in this monster tornado. In the photo below we see Jason paying his respects to Tim, Paul, and Carl, and documenting the Twistex Road Side Memorial site.

In the photo below, I am personally paying tribute to the Twistex team. Thank you to Travis for documenting this very special moment for me.

I guess all that's left to say is that today was a day filled of very meaningful experiences for our group and we are all happy that we got the opportunity to feel what we felt and see what we saw. It really opens your eyes and makes you think a little deeper and reminds you to just appreciate your life. One day you may be here, and the next you may be gone, like the Twistex Team. I'll let you take that all in and ponder it for a little while...

The plan for tomorrow is to have a meeting at 9:15 am to get talking about some upcoming chase opportunities. I'll update again as soon as possible.