I don't think we're in Kansas anymore

So the National Weather Service has unleashed some amazing radar imaging systems for us armchair chasers. The new radar actually allows you to see warning boxes on top of the storm cells so you can see which particular cell is producing the warning. It also has county lines and major roads so you can pinpoint exactly where the storm is located. You can also loop the imaging so you can see the supercells form right before your eyes. The best feature: wind velocity relative to the storms. There are two different colors: one designates wind blowing away from the radar center and one for wind blowing toward the radar. Where the two winds converge, you often have circulation (which could be an indication of a forming tornado). Although on a smaller scale, this type of imaging is what they use at the Storm Prediction Center in Norman Oklahoma to issue a warning for a Doppler indicated tornado. Today was a great day to see this stuff in action: a surface low near the Great Lakes region was drawing all sorts of warm air ahead of an approaching cold front, resulting in a highly unstable air mass in the south. Awesome.

It is going to be a fantastic tornado season.

I'm going to have start taking my laptop to class more often.