I just wanted to update this as there has been no new activity on the blog for a couple weeks. As you already know, I packed up my entire life and moved it across country to Norman, Oklahoma. I arrived in Oklahoma on my birthday, the 28th.

After signing the lease and getting the keys to my apartment, my parents and I got my stuff moved in within a couple hours. Caruso, my cat, was also very happy the long journey back to Oklahoma (for him) was over.

I started work last Monday at my new job. The company I am working for is Weather Decision Technologies, based in Norman. They are on the campus of OU (Oklahoma University) across the street from the National Weather Center which houses the Storm Prediction Center, National Severe Storms Lab, National Weather Service Norman office, and the Warning Decision Training Branch along with the OU School of Meteorology. This is my view when I walk in each morning -

My cube is nearby a large window which is on the side of the building that faces the National Weather Center along with the OUN Sounding site, the OU/NWC Doppler, and the Mesonet & ASOS stations which are right outside. Definitely the center of all things weather.

I am working in the IT department, which is what I truly like to do for work. It's the best of all worlds for me - Living in Norman, OK for a weather company doing what I am good at - IT work.

Well as the title of this blog says, I am making a move to the heart of Tornado Alley - Norman, Oklahoma. I have accepted a job with a weather data company based in Norman, OK, and will be doing IT SysAdmin work with them. It's an absolutely incredible opportunity that I'd have been a fool to pass up, and I will now be living where I want to live.

As my tweets have mentioned, I am currently at Steve Miller OK's house in Moore, OK. I came down for a couple days to get my apartment situation worked out and start getting things ready for my full move, which should be on or around July 26-28.

I have to admit, it will be strange leaving my current employer, Liquid Web, after almost 5 years. I loved my job to death, and it's probably one of the main reasons I stuck around Michigan as long as I did. The desire to live in another state a lot closer to my passion is what fueled this move, however. Now I'm going to be at ground zero for storm chasing.

I start my new job on August 2nd, and it seems like I will fit right into the group of people I will be working with. I know there is going to be a lot of cultural changes that I will have to get used to living down here. I am looking forward to it, however!

If any of you are passing through the Oklahoma City area, feel free to give me a shout!

I am currently still in Michigan, driving towards Chicago for my 6:40 am flight out of Chicago Midway to Oklahoma City. Adam Lucio and Danny Neal will be picking me up in Oklahoma City and I will be chasing with them today. The forecast has been looking good, with only MINOR things to complain about. It looks like things are coming together for another tornado outbreak.

A POTENTIALLY SIGNIFICANT SEVERE WEATHER OUTBREAK APPEARS INCREASINGLY LIKELY ACROSS PARTS OF OKLAHOMA
...
UNLIKE MAY 10...WEAKER FLOW REGIME RESULTS IN SLOWER STORM/BUNKERS CELL MOTION OF ENE AROUND 25 KT...AS OPPOSED TO ENE AT 50KT. FURTHERMORE...INSTABILITY APPEARS A BIT WEAKER. NONETHELESS...A POTENTIALLY VOLATILE STRONG TORNADO SITUATION MAY EVOLVE ACROSS PORTIONS OF CNTRL OK DURING THE AFTERNOON..

I will most likely NOT be streaming, but you can still follow along with my location on the live chase cam page. If you wish to see our live stream, check out Adam Lucio or Danny Neal at ChaserTV.

As hyped, here is the amazing video I captured on Monday from the multivortex tornado south of Wakita, OK during the Oklahoma Tornado Outbreak! As you can see, we have a small funnel descend at the beginning and touch down briefly, then a new meso forms and drops a large multivortex tornado with a satellite tornado. We have to reposition as we were quite close (less than 1 mile).

I will be posting a full chase account for Monday along with one for last Friday, Tuesday and Wednesday as well this weekend. It appears the weather could get active again the second half of next week. My chase plans are somewhat a bit in the air since I am running a bit low on PTO at work, but we will see what I can work out.

I had an amazing day yesterday in the High Risk in Oklahoma. Eric Treece and I observed 5 tornadoes throughout the day including a multivortex violent tornado and a satellite tornado.

We ended the night near Fort Smith, Arkansas. My update today is going to be short, but Eric Treece, Scott Bennett and I are out chasing today. We are currently in Carnegie, OK waiting on initiation. Mesoanalysis shows upwards of 6000 J/KG of SBCAPE along with lower level shear levels that could easily produce a big tornado if a storm is able to fire.

My live stream is up on my Live ChaseCam Page.

I will get video and full chase accounts posted either tonight or sometime this weekend.

So I have been a little late in getting this blog entry back up. I have returned back to Michigan and spent the last 7 days working. I will have more about the trip later, including my trip down to San Antonio for the Alamo Bowl which featured the Texas Tech Red Raiders vs the Michigan State Spartans. I hate Michigan State, and wore some Michigan stuff and yelled Go Blue at a lot of State fans. It was good fun, and a great game.

The real reason for this entry is that I finally got around to dumping video off my video camera from midnight on New Years right at the start of 2010. The fireworks display was brought to you by Steve Miller, Bob Hall, Aaron Cunningham and yours truly and included 1409 explosions - 115 Roman Candles, 14 Bottle Rockets, 200 Saturn Missles, 25 mortars and a 20 shot cake.

This weekend I drove to Oklahoma City with Adam Lucio and Danny Neal, but came back with an extra member for my apartment. I brought back Steve Miller's cat Caruso.

Caruso is an 8 year old oci-cat with a great personality for a cat. He survived the 1000 mile trek without a problem, not getting angry with me until I was almost to Lansing. This is the first pet I have owned myself, so consider me a new pet owner. It's the first time I've ever really had a chance to take care of a cat.

On his adoption paperwork that Steve gave me, it says Caruso is a loud cat that likes to talk a lot. That is really true. He has been meowing at me a lot since I got him home.

I will be leaving Thursday night and heading down to Moore, OK for the 2009 National Weather Festival which takes place on Saturday at the National Weather Center in Norman. I will be accompanied by my storm chaser friends Danny Neal and Adam Lucio.

For everyone that will be there, I look forward to seeing you. It should be a good gathering of chasers and weather enthusiasts alike. I will most likely be streaming the event live on ChaserTV and this web site.

I've also noticed a huge increase in web traffic ever since the October 18th premiere of the Discovery Channel's Storm Chasers series. This past episode featured the May 5, 2009 supercell near Breckenridge, TX. Here's my video from that day: