It ain’t about how hard you hit, it is about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward, how much can you take and keep moving forward…
-Rocky

It’s when everything is absolutely wrong is when the test of who you really are comes..

Most of us in our lives are told at some point that we’re not good enough, and they do everything in their power to tell you why you’re going to fail. If you believe them, you become one of them. Do we want to believe what someone else says about us, or do we want to believe this internal voice that’s saying to us all the time, “you can do it… you can do it. God gave you this ability… Just keep trucking… Nobody can stop you…”

That’s where that real passion starts to get tested. That burning desire to prove to yourself that you can get it done. That you can come back. If you haven’t gotten it done, you’re determined with that passion to keep going until do.

Don’t be stifled by constraints that you think are there because they’re not…

You control your fate…

I’ve decided to use this blog a little more… Not only to update you during chase season, but a little more of my day-to-day life. As most of you know, I work in the media business. Sometimes, the newsroom itself could be a reality show of it’s own! But I’ve learned something working in this industry for just over a year. You really find out who you are… And what’s really important in life.

There comes a point in the news industry, I’ve learned where you become “numb” to some surroundings… Car wrecks, fires, people injured, even what I’ve seen in the damage path of a tornado. Now… i’m not sure what that means, that term “numb”. Maybe I just use the camera as a filter, and as long as I’m behind it, it’s not real world. Or maybe I have become somewhat immune to it. I mean, you see it day to day, maybe there’s a point that it doesn’t matter any more. Either way, I’m glad for it. I’ve seen some terrible things over the past year. But what always get’s me, are the joyous stories that make me the most emotional. In a world of bad.. where you hear of people’s shortcomings almost every single day, it’s nice to know there’s still good in this world.
I wont go into much more this time around, but I feel that maybe this blog could help someone through different times. And I feel that it might be important to share my struggles and adaptations that I’ve gone through with this passion of working in the news industry.
Ask anyone in the industry, and they say it gets in your blood. That once you’re really in, you’re hooked. Well folks, I’m living proof that thats true.
Until next time…

What a week!! been over 2,000 miles in just five days. Lots of long nights, early mornings, and hard miles. But I’ve came away with some INCREDIBLE footage. Had a couple of firsts, like a waterspout. Never experienced one of those before! I’ll go into more detail later, but wanted to share a few videos that I’ve put together over the past week. Hope you enjoy, there will be more later!

He’re a video from last Tuesday out in Eastern Oklahoma where we capture the elusive Eastern Oklahoma Hills tornado. This was around the Hanobia area:

This video is from Saturday around the Gainesville, Texas area… As hard as this storm tried, it never had the surface winds or the upper level support to produce the tornado. Some stellar wall cloud footage though!:

This video is a first for me. A waterspout across Cedar Creek Lake west of Gun Barrell City, Texas. The storm lifted for a short period, then set back down around the Mabank, Texas area. We caught the elephant trunk just northeas of Maybank where it lifted and then became intense again around the Ben Wheeler, Texas area.

Turning out to be a significant day across Kansas, Oklahoma, and North Texas

SPC has issued a MODERATE risk across most of Oklahoma, stretching into North Texas. Storms have the potential to produce High Winds, Extremely large hail, and strong Tornadoes.

Without getting very technical, a dryline is setting up along interstate 35 with Mid 60 dewpoints surging northward on the east side of the dryline producing ample fuel for supercell thunderstorms.

The dryline is expected to progress eastward later this afternoon, providing a firing mechanism for severe thunderstorms. Once storms fire, they will quickly become severe and have a high probability of producing destructive hail (larger than hen egg size), and tornadoes… Some possibly strong.

I will be heading out shortly to set up somewhere around the Ada, Oklahoma area. I think the play along I-40 southward is going to verify later this afternoon, and should set up for an explosive day.

Once again… the time to make your severe weather preparations is now. Have your weather radios programmed and be alert of your surroundings today… The weather has the potential to become dangerous this afternoon.

As always, live streaming video will be up at www.kten.com

I will update this blog later in the day as parameters come together.

A little different than a wether discusson, but important to me just as much….

It was on this day in 1974 that Hank Aaron hit his 715th career home run. Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s record, which stood for an incredible 39 years.

Aaron hit his 713th home run on the second last day of the 1973 season, forcing him to wait all winter for his chance to tie, and break, the record. During this time, he would receive numerous death threats as well as large amounts of hate mail from people who did not want to see a black man break Babe Ruth’s iconic record. Unfortunately for them, “Hammerin’ Hank” would break the record in the first week of the next season, hitting No. 715 off of Los Angeles Dodgers’ pitcher Al Downing.

In 2007, Barry Bonds hit career home run No. 756 to become baseball’s all-time home run king. However, Bonds’ 762 career home runs will always have an asterisk beside them, while Aaron’s will not.

Here is a clip of Aaron’s 715th home run.

It’s old school, sure, but there is little out there that’s more fitting for a day like today than the original 1994 TV commercial promoting what was then the brand-new Ballpark in Arlington … and 17 years later, here we still are:

SPC has issued a 5% across most of North Texas and Southern Oklahoma today…

Today could be one of those sleeper days that catches people off guard. With the advancement of a warm front to the north and a triple point just to our NW, ingredients have become favorable for thunderstorms capable of supercells.

I think the primary threat is going to be severe hail, but there will be a narrow opportunity for any storm that can ride the northern edge of the warm front to become surface based and produce a tornado.

If this was any further from my home, I probably wouldn’t chase it. However, it’s in my backyard, so I’m going to give it a shot.

If you’re local.. Tune in to KTEN for up to date weather information, and keep your weather radios handy.

As always, I will have a live feed on my website here and at www.kten.com

An interesting day to say the least! Picked up on supercells that started west of Sherman, Texas… Storms became surface based just south of Bells, Tx where the first signs of rotation appeared. Tracked the cells to West of Paris where the first tornado was reported. The cell was an HP beast by this time and there was no way we could have seen it from our vantage point… Followed the storms out east of Clarksville, Tx where another tornado hit a few houses and a FEMA trailer. Fortunately no one was injured.

Was a great day with absolutely textbook structure. It’s unusual to get a storm with that kind of structure this far east… You could literally see the storm rotating with beautiful striations in the clouds… If you got out in front of it, there was a greenish blue hue that would radiate out from the storm. Absolutely a beautiful storm. Although we never saw either of the 2 tornadoes, it was a great chase. Storm motions were manageable, and we had time to enjoy what we were looking at. Not to mention it was only a 2 hr trip back home…. I was home by 10:30!!!

I’m ready for another round!

Today has the potential to be a significant weather day across most of N Central and NE Texas.

A deepening Low Pressure system in West Texas will be advancing eastward and through the area today, bringing with it the chance for severe weather.  A more significant event appears to be unfolding across E Lousiana and W Mississippi. However, chasing storms in the thick forest it next to impossible.  With clearing out to the west expected to move into the area and deepening moisture, all of the ingredients are coming together for Thunderstorms, capable of large hail and a few tornadoes.

I will be chasing today, staying close to the Red River area East of I-35 and moving to the Arklatex area.

Today has the potential to be a good day.  It also has the potential to not be.  Only time will tell, but I’m willing to take my chances.

I will be updating Twitter and Facebook throughout the day.  You can follow me through the links on the right of my page.

About the time I was ready to sit down and write a blog on tomorrow, models threw out a fluke run (I hope). Nevertheless, tomorrow looks very interesting. And with it that close to home, I can’t turn down an opportunity for a storm… More to come tonight.