NSCC Music Presentation For 2006 (Chases Until 2005)
Music Video For June 12, 2005 TX Tornadoes

	How cold was it during the annual storm chaser convention in Denver this year of 2006? Cold - Really cold! In this picture, I am driving to the Radisson Denver Southeast off Parker Road (near Aurora, Colorado) at about 7 AM. Note the light dusting of snow and "vapor" emitted from the vehicle in front of me. More impressive, the rental vehicle's thermometor shows -12 degrees (F) as shown in the inset. Areas of the Denver area seen record low temperatures of -19 degrees that same day!
	Here is a picture of my vendor table setup for the sale of both storm and hurricane chasing DVD's at the convention.
	The convention officially starts at 7:30 AM on February 18, 2006 and runs until 4 PM the next day. There were many guest speakers for this year, ranging from amateur chasers to scientists and researchers.
	Turnout was fantastic during the 2006 chaser convention, with well over 200 people. There were the presentations ofcourse, but there was also a great banquet dinner, chaser video night, vendor sales, and many other chaser-related "show and tell" activities.
	Here is a picture of a "powerless" convention! Lights went out at the entire hotel and parts of Aurora, Colorado because of a "rolling blackout". These are common during extreme cold weather (remember, it was 10-15 BELOW outside). After a tinkering with a UPS power supply, the presentations were up and running before power came back on a half hour or so later.
	Here is one of the many ventor booths and tables, which were in an adjacent convention center room. In this picture, we can also see an interesting "hail pad" invention by CoCORaHS (Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow network). The hail pad is basically a very inexpensive aluminum-foil covered section of Styrofoam that dents in hail and gives a great analysis of the hail size after being deployed in a hail storm.
	This is a picture of Josh Wurman doing a great presentation on high-resolution radar images and analysis. The graphic behind him is a DOW (Doppler On Wheels) image of a boundary-layer velocity field from a chase / study of hurricane Rita in September 2005, and was one of many incredible radar images he displayed.
	Here is the two DOW (Doppler On Wheels) trucks in front of the Radisson hotel where the convention was held at. Not many people outside this time as it "warmed up" to zero degrees (F) during the afternoon. The phased-array unit is in the foreground with the "square" radar dish. The other DOW truck is in the background and in front of the phased array truck.
	Chaser Dan Robinson was nice enough to bring along his Van De Graaff generator and put it on display at the convention! It generates up to 400,000 volts of static electricity and can produce (relatively) safe sparks up to 5" long. Touching it is like touching a doorknob after walking across a carpet on a dry day - Zap!
	Here is a picture of a woman with long hair on an insulated platform and with her hands on the top terminal of Dan's VDG (Van De Graaff) generator. Notice the hair starting to stand on end?
	Doug Kiesling draws a small arc (miniature "lightning" bolt) to his hand off the top terminal of Dan's VDG electrostatic generator ... We all tried this, and it feels no more than the "pin prick" feeling of getting shocked when touching a doorknob after walking across a carpet. Made a cool photo effect, though.
	Charles Doswell also was at the convention and did a fantastic speech about "responsible chasing", bringing up some very good points.
	Here is the famous Hardened Insitu Tornado PRobe (HITPR) in my hands at Tim Samaras takes my picture. This is the actual probe that measured a 100 MB pressure drop in the Manchester, SD tornado in June of 2004. The "Chinamen's hat" shaped unit here is 1/4" bullet proof steel with high-visibility red baked enamel finish. The holes near the top are ports to sensors inside that measure both static (barometric) and dynamic (pitot) pressures about a 360 degree azimuth. There is also a "media" probe that is twice the size of this one that collected in-situ video of a tornado!

	The hurricane seminar for Palm Beach County, Florida was held on May 9, 2006 at the Shuffle Board Club building near City Hall in Lake Worth. About 40 to 50 people turned out for this event. This is a view of the seminar before it started at 7:30 PM that evening.
	The newly completed "Weatherlab IV" portable weather platform, made its first debut for public display at the hurricane seminar.
	Steve Weagel, chief meteorologist at Channel 5 in West Palm Beach, did a great presentation on hurricanes with emphasis on 2004 and 2005 activity.
	Chairman of Generac, a provider of full home (and full business) generators, talks about how you can prepare for a storm (or power outage) by having your home (or business) protected by a full building, permanently installed and self-contained generator system.
	The Palm Beach fire chief also gave a persuasive speech on how seriously one must be prepared for a hurricane. He stressed the need to be self-sufficient for at least 5-7 days, including stocking up on food, water, medicine, etc.
	Here is a picture of myself showing my presentation. My job here was first to introduce who I am, then show the people at the seminar just how serious a hurricane could get! I displayed the brute force of hurricane Katrina in Mississippi and ran a presentation on the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons with alarming statistics. Many people were convinced to actually evacuating after seeing the Katrina footage, this is how hurricane chasing can actually SAVE lives.
	Represenatives from Home Depot had their own display on hurricane supplies and building materials and were happy to answer any questions about hurricane preparedness, as well as what to do after the storm.
	Here is another display where some volunteers brought in just about every hurricane supply you can think of. Believe it or not, this is what YOUR hurricane supply list SHOULD look like. Remember, you may need to be self sufficient for 5-7 days in the event of a hurricane disaster.

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