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Cameron Nixon

@cameronjnixon.bsky.social

3.4K followers 250 following 370 posts

I study storms and chase them Co-founder of https://chasearchive.com/ Research scientist, Ph.D. (severe storm environments and interactions) Norman, OK https://cameronjnixon.wordpress.com/

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Cameron Nixon @cameronjnixon.bsky.social · Feb 15

Chase archive @chasearchive.bsky.social
is now LIVE 🌪🌪

Come explore some of the greatest chases in the Great Plains chasearchive.com

Storm Chase Archive - The Ultimate Catalog of Storm Chases

Explore the biggest storm chase collection on the web, featuring tornadoes, hurricanes, and awe-inspiring weather phenomena.

chasearchive.com

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Cameron Nixon @cameronjnixon.bsky.social · 14h

Can confirm it was a late report, late by almost an hour. These are the kinds of things that grind my gears!!

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Cameron Nixon @cameronjnixon.bsky.social · 14h

a bit different using this sort of events-based dataset. Also, I actually know a student here at OU who is thinking of looking into modifying MESH based on the background thermodynamic/kinematic environment....

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Cameron Nixon @cameronjnixon.bsky.social · 14h

Bingo!! One really interesting thing I'm finding-- MESH bias varies considerably from the cool season to the warm season (esp. August/September), where warm/moist season storms tend to have very high MESH but the smallest hail. I'd imagine our basic climatology of hailstorms could look quite...

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Cameron Nixon @cameronjnixon.bsky.social · 14h

Interesting!! I need to dig into this more to figure out the issue; I can confirm I'm not exactly missing it, but it didn't map to the swath correctly. This can happen with late reports. I'll look into this. Thank you so much for pointing this out!!

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Cameron Nixon @cameronjnixon.bsky.social · 17h

Actual hail swaths per MRMS MESH >= .75", colored by measured hail size. I'm not sure when the world will be ready for this kind of data but it sure is sweet

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Cameron Nixon @cameronjnixon.bsky.social · 7d

I'm actually using Nathan's MESH dataset for this!! I'm essentially just stringing reports together with MESH data. If I write a paper on this I intend to compare the two climatologies.

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Cameron Nixon @cameronjnixon.bsky.social · 7d

🤣Just for you, here's the whole West Coast and intermountain west!! Several nice swaths in there, many unreported

Cameron Nixon @cameronjnixon.bsky.social · 8d

I'm terrified tbh

Cameron Nixon @cameronjnixon.bsky.social · 8d

By a long shot. I'm also starting to wonder though if reporting is just getting so much better as the chaser community grows

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Cameron Nixon @cameronjnixon.bsky.social · 8d

Patience, lol

Cameron Nixon @cameronjnixon.bsky.social · 8d

Lol I had the exact same thought. It'll probably be awhile before this becomes "operational", but I'd also love to see this on an interactive map

Cameron Nixon @cameronjnixon.bsky.social · 8d

Some insights:

- High Plains are king (but things tame a bit near the mountains)

- Southeast struggles with swaths

- northwest flow is king (most noteworthy hail tracks move NW-to-SE, unlike tornadoes)

- still some significant reporting gaps (esp. SE NM into SW TX)

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Cameron Nixon @cameronjnixon.bsky.social · 8d

Here it is. The last 10 years of hail events across the U.S. using my prototype hail tracking algorithm!

Hoping to build out a more robust climatology of hailstorms like we have for tornadoes.

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Cameron Nixon @cameronjnixon.bsky.social · 28d

b/w hail-producing and non-hail-producing non-tornadic storms. So in other words, storms in these high-moisture environments tend not to produce hail even when there's no tornado. There are also several potential physical reasons for this (melting, embryo competition, SLW content, etc.)

Cameron Nixon @cameronjnixon.bsky.social · 28d

This is a really important question that has plagued a lot of my work though, as it's very difficult to prove one way or another if this reporting bias is real. If it's any consolation though, I've found that these moisture differences between hail-producing and non-hail storms are still prevalent..

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Cameron Nixon @cameronjnixon.bsky.social · 28d

Hey Robin, you actually inspired me to send out a little "post-chase survey" from the folks who were there! Some interesting responses: x.com/CameronJNixo...

This is of course the best I could do, but most folks saw no hail despite being in/near the core for a long duration.

Cameron Nixon on X: "Chasers: did you chase Sunday's event in SD/ND? Were you in the position to see hail, and was there any hail? Even small stuff? Trying to confirm that this reports map represents a real dearth of hail or simply underreporting due to ongoing tornadoes @JordanHallWX @AaronRigsbyOSC https://t.co/ftMO1KaqLv" / X

Chasers: did you chase Sunday's event in SD/ND? Were you in the position to see hail, and was there any hail? Even small stuff? Trying to confirm that this reports map represents a real dearth of hail or simply underreporting due to ongoing tornadoes @JordanHallWX @AaronRigsbyOSC https://t.co/ftMO1KaqLv

x.com

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Cameron Nixon @cameronjnixon.bsky.social · Sep 15

A rarity for the northern plains: 22 tornado reports but only 1 hail report. This tracks with the evident tropical-like near-MCV environment: warm and nearly saturated low-levels with deep inflow layers and surface-based buoyancy are rarely favorable for severe hail.

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Cameron Nixon @cameronjnixon.bsky.social · Sep 14

This is wild. Reminds me of the convective mode I've observed when a hurricane eye contracts so tightly that it's effectively a supercell.

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Cameron Nixon @cameronjnixon.bsky.social · Aug 24

Thanks!! 😄

Cameron Nixon @cameronjnixon.bsky.social · Aug 24

When I'm not chasing or rockhounding, I'm gathering vintage things and "nature knick-knacks" for my home. Really loving how my living room is coming along lately!

(yes, that's a tumbleweed lol)

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Cameron Nixon @cameronjnixon.bsky.social · Aug 22

Ah you've discovered my problem too 🤣🤣 #hodojesus

Cameron Nixon @cameronjnixon.bsky.social · Aug 22

Just MESH! But instead of using the MESH swaths and their values themselves, I'm just using their footprints to string observed reports together. (The grey ones though are the rough start/endpoints of mesh swaths with no reports)

Cameron Nixon @cameronjnixon.bsky.social · Aug 22

Some preliminary output from the hail tracker!! Look at all those tracks. Also pay close attention to all the potential tracks that went un-reported (grey). Pretty stoked to even imagine this as a future operational product.

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Cameron Nixon @cameronjnixon.bsky.social · Aug 7

Right

Cameron Nixon @cameronjnixon.bsky.social · Aug 6

My goal is to consider all our thousands of reports in a more meaningful, swath-like way (like tornado tracks), while also considering potentially un-reported events (similar to EFU tornadoes, in grey). I hope this data will improve the training of forecast models and the prediction of these events.

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