This severe storm produced a beautiful shelf cloud that extended over the Atlantic Ocean near Patrick Air Force Base. Photo by Chris Kridler, ChrisKridler.com, SkyDiary.com

I’m tired … it’s late … and I have to get my sleep schedule turned around before my epic drive to Tornado Alley in a couple of days. But I had to post images and video from Thursday’s chase of a beautiful severe storm in Brevard County, Florida. Find the photos and video here.

This tower building south of a storm in Port St. John, Florida, on May 15, 2012, actually showed rotation for a short time. Note the smudge of smoke at the horizon, from a fire caused by lightning.

It’s one of those Mays when Florida seems to be getting as much or more weather as Tornado Alley – at least this week. I’ve had chases in past years when I was getting a sunburn in the Plains as I watched amazing weather unfold in Florida. Well, I’ve held off on my Plains storm chase this year because of the weird pattern, so I’ve had a chance to do some chasing at home. It looks like I’ll head out to the Plains in a few days, however – FINALLY – but in the meantime, here’s some Florida action: my chase report from May 15, with photos and video. Florida storms tend to be more subtle than those stunning Plains supercells, but they’re beautiful, too. And we might have more today.

You know, I really thought this would be one year when I wouldn’t have to cut my storm-chase trip to Tornado Alley short because of my schedule and miss some big event. I thought I’d be chasing by the first week of May and could even go a couple of weeks into June if the pattern remained stupendous. Only it’s stupendous in a totally different way. After really early season events that I couldn’t chase because of other commitments, the pattern has afforded very few storms this month, and I’m still in Florida, playing the waiting game. Chances are, the action could pick up again at the end of this month, or in June, but I have to be back in Florida mid-June for, yes, obligations. Because I just can’t block off two or three months for chasing storms at this point in my life.

Tornado destroys a house in Attica, Kansas, on May 12, 2004. Photo (c) Chris Kridler, ChrisKridler.com, SkyDiary.com

What’s giving me the mopes? Long-range computer models. There’s an old saying in chasing: Live by the models, die by the models. You can’t rely on them too much. But they’re the next best thing to a crystal ball, so models, along with a feel for climate fluctuations and recurring patterns, and instinct are about all we have to go on. I’ve been obsessing over the GFS and the European models, which still haven’t figured out the end of the month but have been trending toward a ridge, or at least an extreme northern path for the business end of the jet stream in a possibly zonal pattern, with embedded short-wave troughs that may produce weather. Occasionally a GFS run will pull a trough (desirable for storms) out of its goodie bag, but it’s all fiction past a few days. No matter what I say now, this outlook may change in five minutes.

May 12 is what my chaser friends call “the anniversary.” For a small group of us, it marks the anniversary of two big events – the May 12, 2004, Attica, Kansas, tornadoes, one of which destroyed a house less than a half-mile away from us, and the May 12, 2005, tornado and hail barrage near South Plains, Texas. I’ve been pulling choice video from my archive and posting it to my YouTube channel. Today, I’m posting a 10-minute, raw-video cut of the Attica, Kansas, tornadoes. Dave Lewison was in my car, and Pete Ventre was driving Scott McPartland in Scott’s car. The video is amusing for its stressed-out dialogue as we try to avoid baseball-size hail, maintain position without getting too close, and narrowly miss two satellite tornadoes that briefly blocked our escape route. There’s also a sighting of the early TIV, Sean Casey’s Tornado Intercept Vehicle.

Meanwhile … it’s pretty quiet. I’ve done almost all the tinkering my chase gear requires. I’m working on the sequel to my novel “Funnel Vision,” which at least affords the excitement of fictional storm chasing. But it’s May. We should be experiencing the real thing.

This is a video grab of a lightning bolt shooting out of a storm in West Melbourne, Florida, on May 7, 2012. Photo by Chris Kridler, chriskridler.com, skydiary.com

I chased storms near home in Brevard County, Florida, on Monday. It was a good way to work out my gear, in hopes that I might actually have a chance to use it in Tornado Alley soon. The pattern in the Plains is not conducive to widespread severe weather, and it appears conditions will remain that way for a while. So … I chased lightning storms, and mostly messy storms, around the Space Coast. There was one nice storm in West Melbourne that had surprisingly interesting structure for a while, along with intense lightning. I’ve featured that storm in a video on a page with photos on my sister site, SkyDiary.com, which is storm-chasing central. See the chase account here.

This 1950s car was one of the entries in the Vintage Kulture show on May 6, 2012. Photo by Chris Kridler, chriskridler.com

The sun sets amid dying storms over the St. Johns River in east-central Florida on May 6, 2012. Photo by Chris Kridler, chriskridler.com, skydiary.com

I’m in the mood to play with photos, since I’m anticipating my upcoming storm-chasing safari. While I await a better weather pattern, I’m keeping occupied with photo opps at home in Florida, like this pretty sunset Sunday amid dying storms over the St. Johns River. We desperately need any rain we can get, and I’m hoping Monday will be more productive.

Cool old cars line up for the Vintage Kulture car show in Cocoa Village, Florida, on May 6, 2012. Photo by Chris Kridler, chriskridler.com

But since it was beautiful for most of Sunday, we went to a local car show with friends. Vintage Kulture’s event in Cocoa Village was a feast for the eyes and imagination. I love shooting the retro-futuristic lines of these cars and giving them even more vintage flavor in processing.

When there are no storms, my camera turns to scenery, like this Oklahoma shack I snapped in 2009. Photo by Chris Kridler, chriskridler.com

I’ve chased storms every year, to some degree, since 1997. By chasing storms, I mean I’ve headed to Tornado Alley to chase the big storms, the grand, rotating supercells that draw me out there year after year. But I’ve always come from the East Coast, and that’s where the challenge lies when scheduling a storm chase.

A few people have the freedom and money to fly out to chase whenever a system looks really good. Or they already live in Tornado Alley; several years ago, I looked into moving to Oklahoma from Maryland, but I never really found the perfect job and ended up moving to Florida’s Lightning Alley instead. At least we have some picturesque storms here, and some spectacular lightning, albeit not as frequent as a photographer would like.

So I’m still having to plan my chasecations, as we outlanders call them. At least I don’t have a strict job-regimented schedule now, but I am working as a freelancer, so I still have to schedule work and think about the long-term costs of a chase trip. And that meant I couldn’t go to the Plains for the April 14 outbreak. What all these dreary details boil down to is that I set May aside for my chasecation, but now, the pattern stinks for storms.

Oh, yes, there will be storms. There might even be a few astounding ones, and a few tornadoes, in these first couple of weeks of May. But the outlook for the next couple of weeks doesn’t promise a great deal of severe weather, especially not in the Southern Plains, which is ideal chasing territory. So I’ve put off my chasecation until the pattern improves, in hopes that the jet stream will dip down to where it’s supposed to be in spring.

Waiting is actually a horrible gamble, because some years, the pattern shuts off storms completely. You get the summer “death ridge” or equivalent, and you might as well just stay home. So I’m hoping my gamble pays off as I sit at home, watching storms develop here and there, and watching the computer models evolve. I’m ready for the chase, but the atmosphere isn’t ready for me.

Movie poster for Chris Kridler's documentary 'Chasing Reality'

“Chasing Reality” visited Muskogee, Oklahoma, without me last weekend, during the Bare Bones International Film & Music Festival. Last fall it won best documentary at the Melbourne Independent Filmmakers Festival here on Florida’s Space Coast. Now that it’s traveled a bit, I’ve posted it on YouTube (below).

I made this film in one day, or over several years, depending on your perspective. I used some of my archival footage of storms and tornadoes, but I also interviewed a group of friends and chasers during a typical marginal chase day that took us from Kansas into southern Nebraska. I wanted to show how much driving, bad food and waiting around were involved in getting those few seconds of amazing footage – and that not every chase is awesome or extreme. But I still think every chase is awe-inspiring, in its way, because I love the freedom of following the weather and exploring the beautiful Great Plains.

Here’s the movie. It’s just over 14 minutes. Don’t forget to check the quality setting – the gear symbol in the lower right of the movie window – and choose 720p HD if your connection allows it.

Lightning amid the mammatus in southern Nebraska on May 30, 2011. Photo by Chris Kridler, chriskridler.com

Let’s start with the literary fun – please stop by the fabulous Coco’s in Cocoa Village on Saturday during the gallery walk. The whole event is fun and free, and at Coco’s (in the Threadneedle Mall next to Ossorio’s), I’ll be signing copies of my novel “Funnel Vision.” Ready for a little storm-chasing adventure? I’ll be there from about 4 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Meanwhile, I’ve been playing with photos and have created a new gallery/slide show of my lightning photography. Click to check it out!

This storm rolled over Boynton Beach, Florida, during a storm chaser party on March 31, 2012. Photo by Chris Kridler, chriskridler.com

May is a month away – and for me, that means my annual Tornado Alley trip is about that far away, too. I’ll likely head out with the first good system, but it will be after May 1, when I am speaking to the Camera Club of Brevard about photographing storms and storm chasing.

Saturday was a good warmup. That’s when Jim Leonard played host to a storm chaser gathering in Boynton Beach, Florida. There was good food, lots of good storm video, and lots of tale-telling, of course. Enhancing the experience were some pretty little storms that rolled through.

I posted a few photos on my sister site, SkyDiary.com, where a lot of my old chase logs live. You’ll notice a lot of cross-linking, and this blog feeds to ChrisKridler.com and SkyDiary.com. But I’ll still post chase photos from day to day at the Sky Diary site while blogging in both places, come May. May, when a girl’s thoughts turn to tornadoes.