Spotter Network activity movie for 4/24

[Tony Perkins]

The following links to a movie of Spotter Network activity for the entire day of 4/24/08. It's interesting to watch the southward creeping during the day, and then the decisions to go for it or go home once the storm initiated.

http://antcam.f5chaser.com/archive/2008-04-24/index.html

[Brendon Lindsey]

Ha I happened to target Pratt, Ks . Nothing but blue skys =/

[Van DeWald]

That is a great movie! Kind of reminds me of that clip from a couple years back of the Fedex planes flying into Memphis, trying to fly around/beat the squall line that was also moving into the area.

[Chris Frost]

Yeah, I was watching SN last night too. Not only was interesting to see people choosing their respective targets, but, it was also fun to see how long chasers were gonna hang with the N Kansas supercell.

[CHris Whitehead]

That is a great movie! Kind of reminds me of that clip from a couple years back of the Fedex plains flying into Memphis, trying to fly around/beat the squall line that was also moving into the area.

My dad might have been one of those flying the plains. I never heard of this video. Where and when is it?

[Van DeWald]

Chris,

Here's a link:
http://www.fugly.com/videos/5255/fedex_thunderstorm_ops_memphis.html

Tony, you should put some great music to that SpotterNetwork video.

Van

[J Kinkaid]

Ants marching by Dave Mathews Band would be great for that video

[Bob Schafer]

Dang it! I would love to watch that vid, but WMP says it is missing a codec (Vista). As I said in my report from last night, I swear it seems like every 30 minutes I found myself 5 miles NE of a new "hook". I wish I could watch myself getting chased clear across NE/KS all night long on there. I believe I'd be the one starting near McCook. I spent at LEAST 4 solid hours driving through 50+ mph gusts and blowing dust and tumbleweeds. No joke. It got old.

[Dustin Wilcox]

Thats awesome... Is there any way it can be slowed down?

[Mike Peregrine]

Bob - looks like you'll need the Xvid codec ... you can download it here: http://www.xvid.org/

I was also paying attention to the positioning last night. There were a lot of good choices, even in the bust zone. I had windows with most of the live feeds open together. All of them were entertaining, even the blue sky tour of Greensburg.

I'm impressed with how long people stuck with the Hill City storm ... I checked back really late (had to have been close to midnight), and there were still several chasers on it.

[J Kinkaid]

Download VLC player cause it will play anything

[Tony Perkins]

Google for the Xvid codec and you should find one. I'll get a wmv version on there too.

Note: The video resolution is too big for MPEG1 (1024x768)

[Shane Adams]

Seems like it'd be easier to just make the video in MPeg format.

[Bob Schafer]

Bob - looks like you'll need the Xvid codec ... you can download it here: http://www.xvid.org/

Well, thanks, Mike, but I went to download it, and geez, it wants to install shortcuts and everything. Never mind.

[Mike Hollingshead]

That is funny. The Hill City storm makes me think of Pac Man for some reason.

[Tyler Allison]

Hey! Can I host that over on the SpotterNetwork website?!?!

[Christopher Rice]

LOL funny video! Need PAC MAN sounds to go with it! I started out from OKC from chase night before, went to the Twister Museum in Wakita in the morning, hung for a few in Pratt, KS, then went on to chase tornado warned cells N of Hays,KS all the way back to Missouri (home at 5:30am). I probably beat everyone in mileage for the day... Not that I'm proud of it! That's ok - I'd do it all over again - probably next Thursday. I had a blast!

[Tony Perkins]

Sure, do with it as you wish.

Hey! Can I host that over on the SpotterNetwork website?!?!

[KMcCallister]

The following links to a movie of Spotter Network activity for the entire day of 4/24/08. It's interesting to watch the southward creeping during the day, and then the decisions to go for it or go home once the storm initiated.

http://antcam.f5chaser.com/archive/2008-04-24/index.html


Excellent! Very entertaining! I look forward to seeing more in the future.

[Johnathan Brouwer]

Tony,

Very good job. I agree it is interesting to see how the chasers move around and get into position..

What did you use to make this? I have a program called snagit.

[Marko Korosec]

lol awesome thing! Like Mike said already, reminds me of pac-man as well.

But its interesting to see how people are working on strategies, choosing positions and also (although its a sad story) good catch on desperated chasers moving home southwards from capped south KS.

Well done, Tony!

[George Grant]

Heh, you immortalized my sad trip around Nebraska. I had to work until 12:30pm Thursday, so you'll see me as the last one to pull outta Omaha. You can see me drive around in circles between Kearney and Odessa as I try to figure out where I'm leaking coolant. After sitting at the Shell off I-80 for a bit, the leak slowed to a slight drip. Went west to US183, dropped down to US6 and on to Arapahoe. There I stopped for a strong smell of coolant and opened the hood to find it spitting off the serpentine belt. Yeaaa! Bought four jugs of pre-mix, filled er up, and nursed it into McCook. I hadn't checked my radar in awhile for the stress of thinking I'm walking or hitching. Looked at GR3 in McCook only to see "The Cell" had split right and forsake its former ne-ward path. Sigh. Back home along US6 to Milford and I80 home at 55-60mph. Had quite a lightning show to my south as storms fired along the NE/KS border. Now had I taken NE4 to US136 I might have been in the Tecumseh/Johnson area about the time...

Good job on the movie, Tony.

Geo

[Tony Perkins]

What did you use to make this?

GRL3 is set to FTP it's current image to a Linux server. The Linux server then grabs that current image every 5 minutes, adds it to an archive directory of sequentially numbered images, and then assembles it into a movie and animated gif. I wouldn't know how to do this after the fact, you just need to be lucky in what happens during the day and what site you're centered on.