STORM TRACK: January 31, 1982 (Volume 5 Issue 2)

The Editor of Storm Track attended the 12th Conference on Severe Local Storms in San Antonio this month. It was great to meet old friends again and make some new ones. As with previous conferences, one had to read and listen with a practiced eye and ear to "separate the wheat from the chaff." Some papers presented new findings, others gave documentation to verify prior models, and several substantially re-invented the wheel by reporting long known storm characteristics as if discovered for the first time. And of course, there were films -- awesome slides and movies -- of twisting vortex columns, stretching and grinding -irresistably- beneath seething black cumulus oceans, inverted at flood tide . . . a world transformed! The Editor also showed some new slides, including several of a storm near Garden City (reported in more detail later in this issue), which generated some follow-up interest, by conference attendees and ST subscribers. The dominant memory from this Conference, however (like the last one attended in Omaha), is the easy camaraderie and friendship among chasers and the genuine interest in each other's storm experiences. The science is still young enough that unique storm encounters continue to confound and perplex. The recounting of "war stories" still commands a respectful silence by those trying to puzzle through what is really going on in that which is -at, once- the most common place and the most strange.