June 22, 2011 Louisville-Jefferson County, KY Storm Chase Highlights

[michie3100]

omg pakesboy that is where i live

[ChristineThePikachu]

The first person who disliked this should get punched in the face.

[pakesboy]

I live in louisville, in the st. matthews area.

[Puppylove5274]

this happened on my dad's birthday

[kycruisecrazy]

Love the video. You did the same thing I did. I came in from Bullitt Co to video. I told myself to head no further north on 65 then Fern Valley Rd. LOL

[jw870206]

@kycruisecrazy If there was going to be so much tornado activity in J-Town, I really wish it had happened earlier instead of at night.

[jw870206]

@kycruisecrazy I would have been all over the J-Town activity if it had happened in the daylight, but one thing I will never do is spot/chase at night anywhere at all, let alone in Kentucky. That's a major accident waiting to happen. When the daylight really started to fade, I was in the far east end again on Storm #2, I went straight home.

[ironmaidenequalsbest]

alot of the state got real lucky like i live in the polo fields neighborhood past middletown down shelbyville road and they were saying my street name on the news that we were in the worst part but yet no touchdown. clouds were scary tho lol

[jw870206]

@ironmaidenequalsbest The reports come into the station after the fact, usually, and the radar isn't pinpoint accurate, but it's very close. Yes, there was a lot of luck involved. Ground truth reports are the best thing to have...even better than radar. In the next ten years, I hope, we'll be seeing the next big improvement in weather radar—the best since NEXRAD was completed.

[jw870206]

@ironmaidenequalsbest That day a lot of it was just concentrated in the immediate Louisville area and areas immediately surrounding Louisville Metro. The atmosphere was just ripe for storms to develop. I didn't know the winds were good enough, though. If anything, the event was an anomaly—a matter of right place right time or wrong place wrong time, depending on what side you prefer to be. For me it was right place right time, but hoping that no one gets hurt or killed.

[62636263c]

It is too difficult to chase in the metro area. Traffic and signal lights cause too much stop and go to keep up and can cause you to be in the path at times. Good job keeping ahead of it.

[jw870206]

@62636263c You forgot the slow drivers panicking, "Oh my God!!! There it is!!! I'm gonna drive slow!!!" lol But despite some of the footage I managed to get (I still have some that I should have edited into this video, and I'm kicking myself over not putting it in) I considered this chase somewhat of a failure; however, I wasn't dealing with large, damaging, long track tornadoes. Instead I was dealing with supercells that would spin up brief tornadoes almost as if they were on a squall line.

[jw870206]

@62636263c But, I do appreciate your comment. I was lucky to have a second chance, because I missed that first storm, pretty much. That was the one I really wished I had gone after, but I sat on it until it was pretty much past my location. I was really lucky on this chase because it was my first real chase; I was on my own (bad idea); I was in a metropolitan area; there's trees everywhere; there were multiple storms; I didn't get blown off the road, and the storms were moving along major roads.

[jw870206]

@TwilightLovesJacob26 Yep.

[turma143]

this morning wave 3 said the first touchdown of a tornado was at papa johns cardinal staidium, but on ur radio it said the first touchdown of a tornado was at church hill downs, so im not sure witch one is right and witch one is wrong.

[jw870206]

@turma143 Initial reports can be wrong. Once damage surveys are conducted, everything is made official and is clarified. At the time I was shooting this video, they believed that Churchill Downs was where the first touchdown took place. Since The Downs are so close PPJCS I can see where that mix up may have happened.

[62636263c]

@turma143 Those are right next to each other.

[turma143]

i saw rotaion were i lived last night i was thinking there was going to be a 3rd storm but we got lucky. It scared the crap out of me

[maverick12212000]

so how do you get your iphone video to show up wide like that? All of the ones I have posted are very narrow with huge margins on each side.

[jw870206]

@maverick12212000 You shoot the video holding the phone sideways, but make sure you do it so that the bottom of the phone (where you plug in the cord) is on the right and the top of the phone is on the left. Otherwise, it will shoot the video upside down. I learned that the hard way, lol.

[LouisvilleTorn8o]

Was that the Lyndon VFD 3T22 in the first activation?

It's a shame that that downpour ruined the ambiance in the second one. 

[jw870206]

@LouisvilleTorn8o Yes that was Lyndon VFD 3T22. I was driving away from it, hence the drop in pitch due to the Doppler Effect.

[jw870206]

@LouisvilleTorn8o With this vid, I was more focused on seeing any rotation, funnel clouds or tornado activity. Tyler's vid was more focused on catching siren activations.

[jw870206]

@LouisvilleTorn8o I didn't pass it during the first activation. I think it may have been either the second or third activation.