Charlesimages-Stormedia

What’s On My Storm Chasing Playlist?

Chuck — Wed, 15 May 2013 22:20:52 +0000

If you know me, you know that I love music. I listen to it whenever I get the chance, and sometimes that’s all day. I will listen to a variety of music. Rock, metal, rap, hip hop, pop, country, a little bit of everything. But most of the time you will find me jamming out to some good rock and metal tracks from bands like Metallica, Megadeth, Avenged Sevenfold, Pantera, Lamb of God, Rob Zombie and more. During the chase with Michael Phelps last year, a lot of you got to experience my taste in music. Specifically on the last day of the tour, when I was “DJ Chuck” for the trip back to Bob’s place. I had a blast by the way, and cannot wait to do that all again one day. Maybe 2014 or 2015.

I have updated my Storm Chasing Playlist recently, and I feel that since so many of you enjoyed what you heard last time, I would share with you songs from my playlist, right here on my website. Some of these you may have heard during the chase last year, but there are some new ones in here. So I present to you DJ Chuck’s Storm Chasing Playlist! Enjoy.

Going to round this set out with my official chasing song!

Showery Sunset 5/14/13

Chuck — Wed, 15 May 2013 05:55:19 +0000

The day began with plentiful sunshine and warm temperatures, but later in the afternoon and evening, some elevated clouds with scattered rain showers and virga moved in. This was the general weather scenario through sunset and beyond. So I was anticipating a decent chance of some sunset photography. I decided to stay home for this photography session as I felt I had a decent view from the balcony. As the evening progressed, what I thought was going to be a relatively boring day, started turning into a good chance to shoot some amazing photos. The showers and clouds cooperated very well, and the following set of 12 photos shows just how stunning and amazing this sunset was. One of the best sunsets I’ve ever had the pleasure of photographing. Enjoy these photos, and feel free to share this article with your friends! (click any photo to enlarge)

The New CISTORMEDIA.com!

Chuck — Sun, 12 May 2013 20:01:30 +0000

Hello everyone! Welcome to the new The New CISTORMEDIA.com! After a year of successful hosting with Tim Patterson, who I thank very much for all he has done, I decided to make the switch to Dryline Hosting as the permanent, new home of Charlesimages-Stormedia.

I have combed through the site a couple of different times now, working out the bugs from the switch, and I think it’s stable enough to get back to work as usual. As always, if you experience any problems with the site, feel free to email me using the Contact Form Page.

Reasons For Switching: Let’s face it, nobody wants to try to type Charlesimages-Stormedia into the search bar. It’s far too long, and very difficult to try to remember how it’s typed out.

Here are some real accounts that have taken place over time:

Are there two M’s in Stormedia?
Is there a hyphen between Charlesimages?
Is it all one word?
What’s the link to Storm Media?
What’s the link to Charles Image?
I got this from Charles Storm media.
Linked from Charles image stormedia.

…and many more. Although I will not be changing my brand name, I did decide to change the URL. With loads of help from David Drummond of Dryline Media, we were able to get this new venture up and running! I thank him for his patience, as I was, let’s just say, very much a n00b when it comes to the behind the scenes stuff. I can make my website look however I want to, add and configure plugins, and html, etc without a problem. But I don’t know a whole heck of a lot about all the behind the scenes stuff, but with David’s help, I am learning fast.

This switch of course means that Charlesimages-Stormedia.com merchandise is going to expire soon, so if you’d like to own a product with that piece of history on it, then head on over to my Online Store. Anything with www.charlesimages-stormedia.com on it will be changing soon!

I have a number of new and exciting things for all of you this year. I have a few more details to work out before I can take off with the new stuff, but once I do, you will want to be a part of this. So let’s hear it for the new adventure, CISTORMEDIA.com! Check out the screenshot below, we almost made it to 1,000 likes on the site! But now those like, tweet, and share counts are back to, or near 0! Let’s make this site look like the happening place, go to the Home Page and show some love, social media style!! Let’s see if we can grow CISTORMEDIA.com even BIGGER than it’s predecessor! Thanks for all your continued support!

Pea Sized Hailstorm (VIDEO + PHOTOS)

Chuck — Wed, 01 May 2013 04:53:55 +0000

A “General Thunderstorm Risk” area was posted for lower Michigan by the SPC (Storm Prediction Center) for April 30, 2013. The HRRR was forecasting a band of elevated showers and thunderstorms to begin developing between 6AM and 9AM across west Michigan. It’s safe to say the HRRR forecast not only verified, but also ended up underdone as the storms intensified a bit more than expected. All of the storms remained non-severe to my knowledge, but several of them produced small hail. The main line came through my area, and then began to back build. This back building led to more storms developing, and one of those produced a decent amount of pea sized hail.

Below are two radar screenshots of the stronger cell that produced the hail. On the left is the VIL (Vertically Integrated Liquid) and on the right the Base Reflectivity a couple of steps ahead of the VIL showing the core dropping out of the storm cell, which was resulted in the hail.

I filmed it all from my balcony. Videos and photos are below. The easiest storm intercepts of all are the ones you can sit at home and wait for. The first video is mostly thunder, lightning and rain. That storm also produced some small hail. The second video is of the hailstorm. Below that are images from the event which include turbulent looking clouds after each storm, and also some pictures of the hail. There’s a sunset at the end too, a must see, it was gorgeous. Feel free to share this article with friends!

Crazy Snow Squall! (VIDEO + PHOTOS)

Chuck — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 02:42:24 +0000

On 4/19/13 a cold pool from a strong low pressure system overspread the west Michigan area in the afternoon hours. Some breaks in the clouds allowed for some daytime heating which resulted in diurnal convective mixed precipitation showers. The majority of which ended up being snow showers, but there was also snow grains, graupel, sleet, and some rain mixing into some of them. There were some decent wind gusts with some of the cells. A couple of small, but potent, squall lines developed during the course of the afternoon. One of the stronger squalls hit me in Greenville, MI. The WRF-NMM was predicting this scenario in it’s 22 hour forecast seen below. It shows mixed precipitation showers, some being strong, over the west Michigan area in the afternoon hours. This forecast absolutely verified. Right next to the WRF-NMM image is an image of the radar as the squall line moved through my location around 5:00PM EDT. (click images to enlarge) Some of these radar returns topped 40dbz during the squall’s life cycle.

The squall began as graupel, then quickly turned to snow, and much of it was a granular type of snow with not much real form to it. It was almost sleet, but not quite. An interesting day to say the least. The wind was gusting pretty hard as well, which limited visibility for drivers, and also made just being outdoors in the elements a challenge. One person was riding their bicycle in this squall (on video and in photos below). Luckily this individual was appropriately dressed. Neon green with reflective strips. A very nice day after promises of severe weather had failed on the warm side of the storm system. Below is a video of the crazy snow squall, and also several photos. The Crocuses which were wide open in the rain and warmth the day before were closed up with snow all over, and around them. (click any photo to enlarge) Feel free to share this article with your friends!!

Heavy Rain, Rural Flooding, and Crocus Flowers

Chuck — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 02:08:01 +0000

After watching computer models like a hawk, forecasting and pinpointing until my brain was fried, and losing a ton of sleep, came today (Thursday). The SPC had us in a Moderate Risk. All signs pointed to high winds, hail, and tornadoes, except for a couple of minor details. Overnight (Wednesday into Thursday) more precipitation than previously anticipated developed and trained over the area. This never allowed the atmosphere to destabilize properly. I awoke to a Tornado Watch and a severe warned line of thunderstorms blasting into west Michigan in the late AM hours, only to die off and nothing ever re-fired in my area after that. The Tornado Watch was quickly canceled as well. I saw this scenario possibly coming to fruition in the early AM hours of Thursday (4/18/13) so I called off the chase for today. A smart move on my part, as I would have busted horribly.

Heavy rain was the headline, along with flooding. We picked up a substantial amount of rainfall from this system. In fact, it is still raining with more on the way as I type this (9:48PM EDT) The final rainfall totals from this system should range between 3 and 5 inches, with some areas having locally higher amounts. What’s to follow this? Snow, that’s right, snow. But hopefully something photogenic comes of it. *fingers crossed*

Today I spent time getting footage of the flood waters, and I also stumbled upon some Crocuses. (Read about Crocuses here)

The video is embedded first and it starts off with some relaxing heavier rain and distant thunder. Photos are in order of me taking them. (click any image to enlarge) Enjoy, and feel free to share this article!!

Marfa, TX Storm Chasing Footage on 60 Minutes! (VIDEO)

Chuck — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 19:22:41 +0000

In case you missed it last night, my storm chasing footage from Marfa, TX was aired on 60 Minutes! I would have gotten the word out, but had been told that the airing was moved to April 21st. Fortunately though, the Marfa story can be found on www.cbsnews.com! I have embedded the video below so you can watch it right here if you’d rather. It’s a very nice story about Marfa, TX. A place I would definitely return to and spend more time in one day. The weather down there certainly is like nothing I’ve ever seen before. It has a certain special feel to it. I have included my full chase video below the 60 Minutes video, and a few photos below that as well! Enjoy!
Feel free to share this blog article with your friends!!

Below is the full chase video from Marfa, TX. Photos are below the video, enjoy!

Insane Thunder and Lightning!! (VIDEO)

Chuck — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 22:22:13 +0000

After a long winter, a late running winter, we finally got some good thunderstorms here in Michigan today (4/9/13) These were elevated along and north of a warm front situated to our south. This afternoon I recorded some of the very best thunder I have ever heard. Loud, and in your face. This video is worth the watch!! To the left is a screen shot of GRlevel3. You can see the concentration of lightning fairly well. The cell didn’t look like much on radar, but the lightning literally, spoke for itself. More storms possible this week.

Below is a very cool image from my friend Cort Scholten showing a low pressure on radar and also on velocity. This was a secondary wave of thunderstorms and rain that moved through the area this afternoon. Thanks Cort!

Corkscrew Vortex Contrail, Sunset, and Clouds

Chuck — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 23:46:52 +0000

On the evening of March 30, 2013, I noticed some contrails and high clouds at sunset. I decided to grab my camera and see what sort of things I could capture. Another large aircraft leaving a thick contrail behind it began to pass through an old diffusing contrail. This definitely made for a few nice photo opportunities. I was pleased with what I had shot, but it’s what I saw when I was reviewing my images later that night that really got me excited. Little did I know, the contrail from this larger plane turned into a long corkscrew vortex! If I had known this while I was shooting, I would have snapped more pictures, but this definitely came as a nice surprise to me. Sometimes a little boredom and some contrails can go a long way! I snapped 5 images in total. The images below are in order of me taking them. The 5th image is a cropped version of the 4th to show details. The corkscrew vortex is second to last in the series. Pretty cool score to a random boredom driven photo shoot if I do say so myself. Enjoy!!

Learn more about Contrails.

Moon Photos: My Best Moon Photo to Date!

Chuck — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 04:34:08 +0000

March is the month of the full “Worm Moon”. Other names it is commonly called include the “Storm Moon” or “Sap Moon”. You can read all about the Worm Moon by Clicking Here. See a list of moon names for 2013 by Clicking Here.

Last night (3/30/13) I captured the best moon photo I have ever captured. I also captured several others, but this one in particular is my favorite of them all. The moon was very bright, so I was able to shoot with a lower ISO and F stop, and a higher shutter speed to reduce blur. The quality of these images was fantastic. My best set of moon images to date. I used my tripod for this occasion as well. This is turned out to be a successful test for my Canon PowerShot SX40 HS as well. I stretched the zoom thresholds way further than I normally do. The first image is the winner for my best shot ever of the moon. The second was shot at 35x (optical zoom threshold) the third was shot somewhere around 55x. The 4th image below was zoomed in a whopping 140x! Have to love those long zoom cameras! No fancy lenses required, just a point and shoot camera was used for this set of images. Hope you enjoy!! (Click any image for a larger view)