I hope everyone enjoyed the 3rd episode!  Personally, I was curled up in the fetal position in agony during most of it, but don't worry, the next episode is when the real action starts and will be non-stop tornado intercept insanity from here on out.  It was difficult to watch the Joel situation unfold...One thing that was not shown is that he continually backed out of 5-6 chases before the one shown in this episode, and if we executed on his schedule, we only would have seen a few tornadoes last season.  He has several priorities that are higher than storm chasing, and  I can't continually devote all my energy to convincing him to chase the "marginal" setups, especially when those are when we've seen some of our best tornadoes in the past.  Over the last several years, I've had to go on many solo storm chases as far north as the Canadian Border because I couldn't convince him to chase, and it's very difficult to pull the all-night drives solo with a chase the next day.  That's one of the main reasons Chris moved down from Michigan, so I could have a dependable chase partner with equivalent passion for seeing tornadoes and executing our scientific goals.  Of course, Joel and I are still really good friends, and hopefully he'll be back behind the wheel of the Dominator next season..

Next episode shows the Kirksville, MO tornado, and it will feature some TVN footage from inside the tornado that has not yet been released!  So be sure to tune in.  This was our first intercept with the radar on top of the vehicle, and we had it pointed horizontally to calibrate.  We then returned it to Radiance Technologies to fine-tune, and had two intercepts on June 15 and 17 with it pointed in the vertical.  Once those episodes air, I'll share some of the vertical wind results we collected in those tornadoes.

Discovery also just released a new behind-the-scenes clip showing camera operator/producer Chris Whiteneck in the field!  He has been in the back of the Dominator for the last two seasons, and is definitely one of the best camera operators in the world - working for Dirty Jobs and Deadliest Catch before Storm Chasers.  To watch this clip, click on the link below and select the "Mobile Storm Chasing Office" video...

http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/storm-chasers-behind-the-chase/