May 19th,
2013
Today I chased with Mike Mezeul II in Northeast and East Central Oklahoma near Stroud. Today we observed 2 tornadoes from a significant distance along and north of I40 in Eastern Oklahoma. We observed a cone tornado from a distance near Cushing Oklahoma before it disappeared into a rain curtain. We then dropped South to intercept the Shawnee storm. While traveling south we observed nickle size hail and began to encounter small tree branches and twigs falling from the sky. We finally made it to the South end of the storm as it was starting to cycle. We briefly observed a poorly contrasted large rain wrapped wedge tornado as it disappeared into the rain. This storm continued east into far Eastern Oklahoma and we called off our chase.   Left: Shawnee Damage, Right: Rain-Wrapped wedge tornado moving NE out of Shawnee
May 20th,
2013
Today I chased with my wife Shelbi. We raced north out of North Texas along I35 around 4pm. At this time Moore, Oklahoma was being raveged by an EF5 Tornado. We intercepted the southern storms near Gainesville and Lindsey, Texas. We passed Tim Samaras and Reed Timmer while observing intense outflow winds and some storm structure. A rapid rotating wall cloud was observed West of Lindsey. Nothing else of significance was observed today.
May 28th,
2013
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Today was a Travel day for Project HailSTONE 2013. Mike Mezeul II, Maegan Rachelle, and myself stopped through Moore, Oklahoma to document the EF5 tornado damage from earlier in the week. What we saw was absolutely heartbreaking. Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Oklahoma.
  Left and Right: Moore, Oklahoma EF5 Damage
  Left and Right: Moore, Oklahoma EF5 Damage
  Left and Right: Moore, Oklahoma EF5 Damage
May 29th,
2013
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Today was Day 1 with Project HailSTONE. Today I chased with Scott Currens. We observed some impressive storm structure, a few wall clouds and hail. We did notice a research aircraft, or seeding aircraft flying through the base of the supercell. Nothing else of significance was observed.
  HailSTONE 2013
 Project HailSTONE 2013
May 30th,
2013
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Today was Day 2 with Project HailSTONE 2013. Chase documentation and updates will be light during the project as it is fairly high-speed and fast paced. Today I chased with Scott Currens. We left Dodge City today around 10AM and headed South to target near Perry, Oklahoma. Scott and myself observed hail, some gorgeous structure as well as a very brief and weak Tornado near Prague, Oklahoma. We assisted in a vehicle-in-the-mud recover at the end of the day.
  Left and Right: Project HailSTONE 2013
May 31st,
2013
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Today was Day 3 with Project HailSTONE 2013. Today I chased with Mike Mezeul II and Maegan Rachelle. We left our current location for the night and advanced towards our target near Chickasha, Oklahoma. We planned to target near Mountain View, Oklahoma today. Todays setup had the potential to be an explosive severe weather day, and it was. We were initially on the El Reno storm as it developed and matured, but watched from a distance as it became tornado warned and moved East along I40 towards Oklahoma City. We chose not to pursue this storm since it was headed down the freeway into congested traffic towards a major metropolitan area. We instead chose to go Southwest and play the storms developing a little further down the dryline. We observed and recorded the largest hail of the 2013 Project thus far, as well as incredible storm structure. We then turned back north towards Oklahoma City and ran into evacuee-like traffic leaving Oklahoma City. I40 was also closed near El Reno and Union City where the tornado had crossed the highway. Our chase day ended at 81 and 152 near Union City where we observed very turbulent outflow and the continuous evacuation traffic. We turned back south and Stayed in Denton, Texas for the night. My heart goes out to the families of Tim and Paul Samaras, as well as Carl Young and others who passed away from this tornado. These men we're professionals and chased for the science. These were the good guys, and the fact that it happened to them (or anyone for that matter) is absolutely heartbreaking. Our thoughts and prayers go out to everyone effected.
 
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