2022 10/13

Southwest Michigan AMS/NWA
13 October 2022
West Michigan Aviation Academy
5363 44th St
Grand Rapids, MI 49512

President Cort Scholten called the meeting to order at 7:00. There were 12 people in attendance. Each person present introduced themselves and how they are involved with weather and/or their interest in weather. Treasurer Andy Schutt was unable to be present, so Vice-President Kim Scholten presented the treasurer’s report. There is currently $100.00 in checking and $843.24 in savings for a total of $943.24. We currently have 8 paid members for this year.

Our speaker for the evening was Megan Dodson, a meteorologist from the Northern Indiana National Weather Service office, along with club President Cort Scholten. They presented on the series of tornadoes near Morton, TX earlier this year in May and their experiences chasing them.

Cort and Megan first began with introducing themselves and their histories and interests in weather, both being interested in weather since a very young age.  Their interests eventually merged in both attending Central Michigan University in order to obtain Meteorology degrees and then both earning jobs in the National Weather Service. Cort has been chasing storms and tornadoes since 2011, with Megan having seen her first tornado this year with the Morton, TX tornado she was here to talk about.

The third day, May 23rd, brought the trip to western Texas. Megan described the area of the Caprock Escarpment and how the elevation change there provides a way for low level moisture to pack up against it and become a focus for thunderstorm development through upslope flow (additional lift). Megan also described the drought conditions that west Texas was experiencing at the time, a D4 drought, which is considered exceptional drought. A quick refresher was given for those in the room on the various ingredients needed in order for thunderstorm development (lift, moisture, instability, and wind shear). This was followed by an analysis of the upper air conditions shown in the models for the day, as well as the upper air sounding from the balloon launched in Amarillo earlier in the day, to explain why the particular area was chosen to look for storms and hopefully tornadoes.

Megan put together a map of the chase that day, providing photos and videos (with radar imagery explained by Cort) from each location on her map. An unusual aspect of this particular chase was the extreme amount of dust blowing in the air due to the extreme drought. This led to little to no visibility in some cases. Surprisingly, though, the dust all cleared out right as a large, nearly stationary, tornado began to touch down in a field to the north. This being Megan’s first tornado, she took a selfie with the tornado that went viral on Twitter (compared to her usual tweets) and led to media interviews. 

As they were heading to Lubbock for the night, the vehicle got assaulted by a large tumbleweed blowing in the strong storm inflow which dented the windshield frame of the vehicle. Megan then continued the story of the rest of her trip. This included a visit to the San Angelo, TX NWS office, Megan’s first experience with hail larger than 2 inches, the Twister Museum in Wakita, OK, the Big Well in Greensburg, KS, Carhenge in Nebraska, Custer State Park in SD, and Mount Rushmore. The trip concluded with a couple of storm chases in South Dakota and Nebraska before heading back home to Indiana.

The presentation concluded at 8:06 and the floor was opened to questions. A high school student asked the members in attendance how best to  prepare for college in pursuit of a focus in meteorology, and many ideas were shared. The meeting then adjourned.