First V2 operations day of 2010

After much anticipation, and several rounds of frisbee, we had our first operational deployment of V2 today. No tornadoes, but we did intercept a storm that intermittently showed signs of rotation, and all in all had a good first operations day for the sounding teams.

We started our day in Hays, KS, where my team (NCAR1) and one of the other teams (NSSL1) launched a pre-storm sounding to see how the environment was evolving early in the afternoon.

Here are Bill, Matt (Dr. Parker) and Johannes watching the balloon sail into the sky just after launch.




A few hours later, Bill (from NCAR) and I headed west on I-70 to a lovely rest stop by mile marker 97 to launch a second pre-storm sounding, in the hopes of finding a more favorable environment for storms. On a side note, I'm planning a future adventure to find out why there's a Tomcat parked alongside I-70 in Wakeeney, KS.

This picture begs the question, "Why is this fellow squinting into the sun whilst his sunglasses sit uselessly on his hat?"




And while it might not look graceful, I still managed to get the balloon airborne.





Eventually the atmosphere cooperated and produced a storm. The first of several, in fact to develop along frontal boundary that was located across northern KS. Unfortunately, the later storms developed after dark, so aside from providing us with some cool lightning on the way to the hotel, they were of little use to the V2 project.

Here's our target storm, as Bill and I approach from the southwest.




Tomorrow looks to be a travel day, as we're likely heading south to get into position for further operations later in the weekend or early next week!