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My weather organization for the Mid Atlantic

Rusty Shackleford

Rusty Shackleford

Automotive M.D.
Wanted to post about my latest venture. You all have known for a while that I chase storms recreationally. When Sandy came through, I was reporting on behalf of a friend of mine who runs Mid America Storm Chasing (they are on facebook, too,) and decided to finally fire up my own organization called Southern PA Storm Watchers. Recruited a couple buds from back in the day to team up with me, as well as a friend from the Taurus club who is local. We chase and report on severe weather, as well as regular weather in the Mid Atlantic area. I should have my spotter certification very soon, and will get underway this season. Been doing weather classes for over a year now, actually, (may have mentioned that before,) and have learned a lot, so now it is no longer recreational for me. The reason I am posting this here is for anyone interested in following along with me throughout the season. Of course, I'll still be posting up pictures and whatnot here, but for more detailed and immediate reporting, I wanted to share the facebook page for anyone here who would like to follow. Hopefully Doc is fine with me having the link in my signature (not for profit, obviously, LOL) but if not, of course I'll remove it. If any of ya's have questions feel free to ask. I'll update this thread as I get my certification and complete more courses.

Also, I watch and report on big events across the country, too, so I invite any of you anywhere to come 'like' us and follow along.
 
Rusty, you'll be doing a great service to your community. Here in East Texas we rely heavily on our storm watchers especially for tornado spotting during heavy storms. Most of them belong to the Volunteer Fire Department and look on it as an extension of their job.

Kudos to you my friend.
 
EastTexFrank said:
Rusty, you'll be doing a great service to your community. Here in East Texas we rely heavily on our storm watchers especially for tornado spotting during heavy storms. Most of them belong to the Volunteer Fire Department and look on it as an extension of their job.

Kudos to you my friend.
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Thanks, Tex. It's amazing how few people know what Skywarn or spotters are. Almost nobody I talk to knows what the hell I'm talking about, but that's OK. Spotters do the behind-the-scenes type of weather, for good cause.
 
If I could afford it I would have a weather station up here on the roof. I can give a 3-5 minute visual warning for our local town as you can really see the weather moving in up on top like we are. I would like to have a good anemometer? to measure wind speeds. It likes to blast pretty good across here.
 
Yes, anemometer. I have a hand held one, but it's kinda cheap, not sure if it really measures accurately or not. I have a digital weather station in the house with a wireless monitor out on the porch, though it doesn't measure wind speed. Planning to piece together a more permanent weather station deal, but also to have it mobile so I can use it on the road. Pull over, slap it on the roof, and get immediate measurements on pressure, temp and wind speed.
 
Actually going out tomorrow on my day off to price out some laptops, and see what Best Buy can do to get me what I need. From what I hear they have a really good offer on financing right now.
 
The rain is just starting but it is sideways and nasty. Cats came right in with no coaxing tonight when we loaded the boiler.
 
Lots of rain today! Had to pass several roads with ponding today. But I did get myself scheduled in to get my spotter certification! That happens in May.
 
Stopping in with some shots from the storm on 4/19, our first chase of the season.
 

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And some video clips from the chase as well. There were some spots of really heavy rain, I didn't even catch the worst of it on camera. I could barely see past the hood of the car.




 
hey Rusty now that you are a part of sky warn you need to get a HAM license as they also have sky warn net works I occasionally check in to them when they com up on IRLP. we generally don't have much to report as bering sea is usually crappy any ways
 
once you get into HAM you will be amazed just what all you can do from aprs tracking to sending data over the airways. the data stuff works real well and only needs about 1/10 the signal strength.
 
Seen where the local government was watching your facebook page during the storms the other night when you lost power.
 
That is what it said on Facebook when I looked. The wife sends me your page. I got her to like it way back when you first started it. She checks it regularly or it just comes up or however that works.
 
muleman said:
That is what it said on Facebook when I looked. The wife sends me your page. I got her to like it way back when you first started it. She checks it regularly or it just comes up or however that works.
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Hm. I didn't know anything about the gubmint watching. That's interesting.
 
Do you get a lot of reflection off the windshield when driving? I have a round strobe that magnet mounts on the roof for my truck when plowing.
 
Nope. It lights the dash up below it from the reflection off the glass, but there is nothing impeding vision or any glare. It's a nice piece. Made of METAL and cost me less than 19 bucks on Amazon. Now to see how long it lasts when it's actually being used this season.

BTW, I'll be getting a new license plate for the first time since I started driving (still have the first release of the blue/white/yellow plates after they discontinued the blue with yellow letters.)
It's going to say SOPASW :D
 
This is the one I bought:

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Rupse-Amber-Strobe-Windscreen-Beacon/dp/B00932FBUU/ref=cm_cr-mr-title"]Amazon.com: Rupse 8 LED Amber Strobe Dash/ Deck/ Windscreen Light Bar Beacon: Car Electronics[/ame]
 
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