11:00-1:00 – We drive to the staging site, make sure the gas tank is full. Grab some lunch at a fast food site, then snacks or a sandwich to keep in the vehicle for dinner.
1:00-3:00 – We wait. We check the website to see where we are staying for the night, listen to the chatter on VHF radio between teams, watch for updates on the SASSI (Situational Awareness Severe Storms Intercept) software – there is a chat site, and SASSI tracks all V2 vehicles. We talk to other team members, and mostly watch the sky. We are looking for the first sign of life in the atmosphere – a puffy cumulus cloud that starts poking up towards the sun.
3:00 – The cumulus clouds are growing, expanding, and looking more like cauliflower than fuzzy cotton balls. We get the word over radio and through the chat of the next gathering place – the refined target.
4:00 – When team leaders are confident of the ONE target storm, teams are deployed into position. Watching SASSI we can see each vehicle scatter to their appointed site. It can take up to an hour to get everyone in the right spot – radars need to find a flat site with no trees or hills to obstruct the radar beam. The mobile radars also need to try and stay on paved roads – they are so heavy they would sink on a gravel road after rain. Other teams – sticknets, mobile mesonet probes, particle probes race to deploy their instruments. The Mobile Mesonets drive back and forth in patterns taking measurements around in the stom the entire time.
8:30 – Sunset, and operations are usually ended. Teams with deployed instruments return and pick them up. Other teams stow the radars and head to the assigned hotel…sometimes several hours away.
9:00 – Eat dinner on the road, or the sandwich we snagged at the convenience store.
10:30 – Check into hotel, eat if we haven’t yet.
11:00 – Post updates on facebook, twitter, blogs, etc., answer emails.
12:00 a.m. – Sleep if you can suppress the adrenalin from the day!