Christine Hudnall

Mike Hollingshead’s Storm Structure 101 DVD

Price:$25.00 (Includes everything - shipping, handling & postage)

Length: 1:51:30 (Including intro & credits)

Best Part: The final panning shot at end of credits - Simply amazing, beautiful, fascinating and terrifying to look at!

Worst Part: Knowing Mike was filming and driving at the same time!

Ordering: Extremely easy using PayPal. No need to have an account with them even, although I have since 2002, but still, even without one it is easy.

Shipping: Super fast! I ordered it late Tuesday afternoon (after 5pm EDT) and received it in the mail Friday (mine arrives around 12:30pm EDT). Not too shabby! It arrived in a padded envelope which is cool, and since it wasn’t torn up I can reuse it. :D

DVD Case: Thank you Mike! Why? For sending it in a case that doesn’t take up a lot of room on the shelf and for having a case that makes it easy to get the DVD out of it. No scraped or bruised knuckles, no bending of the DVD trying to pry it out. Just push the button (easier against hard surface) and pick up the DVD. That simple.

DVD: There are several sections to the DVD which you can jump to or play the whole thing. My suggestion is the first time watching (maybe even the first two times), and yes, you will want to watch it more than once, is to view the whole video in its entirety. After that jump to individual sections as you like. Be prepared with the pause button though! And if your player has slow-motion fast forward there are some parts when you will want to use it, especially on the scrolling text.

I enjoyed that Mike includes not only storm structures, but some very basics of forecasting and what he uses to get to that point. He doesn’t delve deep into the how’s of it, but gives enough to wet your appetite and want to learn more. I’m sure if there were enough time he would have gone further with it, but there is only so much that can fit onto a DVD - and he did have to include other stuff. It’s Storm Structure 101, not Forecasting 101. ;~)

Some of the things that I liked best:

• Basics of what to look for - be it the storms themselves (and he teaches throughout the whole video what you are looking at), surface & air plots, CAPE, convergence, wind shear, instability, moisture and more.
• He doesn’t overlay/include music over the whole video. Thank you! During the basic teachings near the beginning, the intro and the credits are pretty much the only places with music. Thankfully the rest of the video is natural sounds: rain, blowing wind, Mike talking, birds chirping, etc. And because he does this you really feel as if you are right there experiencing the same as he is. My only gripe is that he couldn’t bottle the wind and the smells of the storm to go with it. :D
• Mike telling us and showing us through add-ins what we are seeing during the chases.
• The storms themselves. Living in Florida we don’t normally get to see the ‘big’ picture of storms since there is not a whole lot of places that have giant open spaces. So being able to see the structures and what he was seeing at the time was amazing. Not sure I would want to capture tornadoes, well maybe if I knew that noone or nothing was getting hurt, but I know that I definitely want to go out and capture the structures themselves. They are just amazing, fascinating and mesmerizing. There is a reason they are called flying saucers, because that is exactly what they look like. Mind boggling!

Some of the things I liked least:

• The windshield wipers running when there was no rain. *laughs* It was like listening to nails on a chalkboard.
• The dinging sound when car door was held open. ;)
• Forecasting basics - not enough (already covered above) and the chases - not enough! So, it’s a really good thing that I’ve already put in my order for his other video, Instability Released. Can’t wait for that to arrive!

Overall impression: Absolutely worth the money! My nitpiks are just that, nitpiks, and they are only because I wasn’t there to experience it for myself. :D But through the video, we get to experience the visual, just not the emotional, although there were times when it was, like Mike driving and filming while on wrong side of road, and that last panning shot of a very large storm in Bartlett, Nebraska. WOW.

It is only August 4th and it is already busy!

We’ve had a solar eclipse, lightning struck spectators watching a race in Norway, an avalanche on Pakistan’s K2 has killed 11 climbers so far, NWS Storm Prediction Center has updated the confirmed tornado totals - 994 confirmed so far with 33 confirmed deaths - and of those 994, 447 of them were from May. And I’m sure a lot more…

Speaking of tornadoes - It is now August 4th - and we have had none so far this month.

Oops - did I forget to mention Tropical Storm Edouard? Well, as of yesterday (August 3rd), he was a low pressure that had a low-level circulation near the center. So the Hurricane Hunters were sent to check it out and their findings were:

INDICATE THAT THE CIRCULATION IS WELL-DEFINED ENOUGH FOR THE LOW TO BE DESIGNATED A TROPICAL DEPRESSION. THE AIRCRAFT HAS REPORTED MAXIMUM FLIGHT LEVEL WINDS OF 36 KT AND A MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE OF 1007 MB.

So, now we have a tropical depression - but wait - even that has changed. Which is where we are at as of right this minute, Tropical Storm Edouard. And as we all know, that can change anytime, just as there will be strengthening and weakening of most tropical systems before landfall. It is just the way it is.

I knew if I waited long enough that the newest update would be out - and here you go…

ZCZC MIATCPAT5 ALL
TTAA00 KNHC DDHHMM
BULLETIN
TROPICAL STORM EDOUARD INTERMEDIATE ADVISORY NUMBER 4A
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL AL052008
700 AM CDT MON AUG 04 2008

…EDOUARD CONTINUES WESTWARD WITH NO CHANGE IN STRENGTH…

A TROPICAL STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM THE MOUTH OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER WESTWARD TO SAN LUIS PASS. A TROPICAL STORM WARNING MEANS THAT TROPICAL STORM CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED WITHIN THE WARNING AREA WITHIN THE NEXT 24 HOURS.

A HURRICANE WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM WEST OF INTRACOASTAL CITY LOUISIANA TO PORT O’CONNOR TEXAS. A HURRICANE WATCH MEANS THAT HURRICANE CONDITIONS ARE POSSIBLE WITHIN THE WATCH AREA…GENERALLY WITHIN 36 HOURS.

FOR STORM INFORMATION SPECIFIC TO YOUR AREA…INCLUDING POSSIBLE INLAND WATCHES AND WARNINGS…PLEASE MONITOR PRODUCTS ISSUED BY YOUR LOCAL WEATHER OFFICE.

AT 700 AM CDT…1200Z…THE CENTER OF TROPICAL STORM EDOUARD WAS LOCATED NEAR LATITUDE 28.1 NORTH…LONGITUDE 90.3 WEST OR ABOUT 80 MILES…135 KM…SOUTH-SOUTHWEST OF GRAND ISLE LOUISIANA AND ABOUT 285 MILES…460 KM…EAST-SOUTHEAST OF GALVESTON TEXAS.

EDOUARD IS MOVING TOWARD THE WEST NEAR 8 MPH…13 KM/HR. A TURN TO THE WEST-NORTHWEST IS EXPECTED TODAY…WITH A WEST-NORTHWESTWARD MOTION EXPECTED TO CONTINUE ON TUESDAY. BY TUESDAY MORNING THE CENTER OF EDOUARD IS EXPECTED TO BE VERY NEAR THE UPPER TEXAS COAST OR THE COAST OF SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA

MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS ARE NEAR 50 MPH…85 KM/HR…WITH HIGHER GUSTS. SOME INCREASE IN STRENGTH IS EXPECTED DURING THE NEXT 24 HOURS…AND EDOUARD COULD BE NEARING HURRICANE STRENGTH BEFORE REACHING THE COASTLINE.

TROPICAL STORM FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 35 MILES…55 KM FROM THE CENTER.

THE LATEST MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE REPORTED BY AN AIR FORCE HURRICANE HUNTER PLANE WAS 1002 MB…29.59 INCHES.

A STORM SURGE OF 2 TO 4 FT ABOVE NORMAL TIDE LEVELS CAN BE EXPECTED IN THE WARNING AREA IN AREAS OF ONSHORE WINDS.

EDOUARD IS EXPECTED TO PRODUCE TOTAL RAIN ACCUMULATIONS OF 2 TO 4 INCHES ALONG PORTIONS OF THE LOUISIANA COASTAL COUNTIES INTO SOUTHEASTERN TEXAS. ISOLATED MAXIMUM AMOUNTS OF 6 INCHES ARE POSSIBLE OVER SOUTHEASTERN TEXAS.

ISOLATED TORNADOES ARE POSSIBLE OVER PORTIONS OF SOUTHERN LOUISIANA AND THE UPPER TEXAS COAST LATER TODAY.

REPEATING THE 700 AM CDT POSITION…28.1 N…90.3 W. MOVEMENT TOWARD…WEST NEAR 8 MPH. MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS…50 MPH. MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE…1002 MB.

THE NEXT ADVISORY WILL BE ISSUED BY THE NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER AT 1000 AM CDT.
FORECASTER FRANKLIN

http://www.nrlmry.navy.mil/TC.html

Whew… I need to catch my breath now - oh wait, I’m in Florida, there is no catching your breath, the air sucks it right out of you. Hmmm, Alaska is looking better and better. :-)

Wouldn’t you just know it - a brief tornado touchdown in my town, not just my county, but my town, and do I get a picture of it? No! I could just - oh I don’t know, growl at someone.

From what we heard, there was supposedly two tornadoes spotted. One in Sebring, and another coming into Highlands County from Desoto County. I’ve not seen any verification of the second one, but the first one did briefly touchdown out in Spring Lake.

I didn’t get to see it, not for lack of trying though. What I did see though was some beautiful rotation right above my house. Nothing became of it, but it was cool and a little scary to watch.

I so need to get updated video camera and a data card for laptop…

Meanwhile - out in the far Atlantic, there is a wave coming off coast of Africa that is being watched.