Going to Midland

Added: 2026-05-26

[00:00:15]All right.

[00:00:17]All right. We're here actually. Hold on a minute. Is this not No, it is. It's fine.

[00:00:27]All right. Yeah, it's working fine. I don't know what the hell's wrong with there. So, I have to uh stop at another gas station. And I was just at another gas station, but I have to stop at another one because um that one, the soda fountain was garbage.

[00:00:44]So I need to get something to drink before I die.

[00:00:48]So I had to go nine miles down to a different one because the that was a terrible gas station up there in Toka. God, no. Never again.

[00:01:02]So, I'm heading uh to the south, but we're just taking a little side trip here because I've got to get something to drink that isn't uh carbonated water or water with corn syrup in it.

[00:01:21]Oh, look, an airplane.

[00:01:26]You guys probably can't see it too well.

[00:01:30]right in the middle. Can you see?

[00:01:33]Probably not.

[00:01:37]There you can see it.

[00:01:44]Okay. Anyway, well, that was cool. So, I got to stop. This was an absolutely horrible gas station that I stopped at.

[00:01:52]Um, you know when you pull up to one and it's run down and like it it's just you know how you like you pull up to a gas station and you know it's a [ __ ] hole.

[00:02:02]That was this place. But I needed gas.

[00:02:06]It's a little bit different in Texas though because sometimes they all look like [ __ ] holes. Uh but they're all fine. Like this one up here. This one's fine. I've been here before.

[00:02:18]Couple showers and storms popping up over there south of Roswell and then also up by Clovis.

[00:02:43]Uh we did not go out there to see the world's biggest pistachio nut. I apologize.

[00:02:49]Um, I didn't think anything was going to happen. Nothing really has happened.

[00:02:53]We're not missing anything.

[00:02:55]Where This isn't Andrews, is it? No, this is O'Donnell. Okay.

[00:03:09]You're probably going to lose the audio for a sec, but I have to run in and get something to drink very quickly.

[00:03:14]Don't go anywhere. I'm not Yeah, [ __ ] Easy. Yeah. [ __ ] that place.

[00:03:20]Be right back.

[00:03:26]Make this as quick as I can.

[00:03:40]>> Those are fat boys.

[00:03:43]>> Okay.

[00:03:44]>> Is that what you want?

[00:03:51]Jesus Christ.

[00:03:56]>> What a toilet.

[00:04:00]>> I could make you special. Blah blah blah blah blah.

[00:04:12]>> Oh, Jesus Christ.

[00:04:27]And you want to get this chicken.

[00:04:31]>> Okay.

[00:04:33]>> Regular chicken.

[00:04:35]>> Yeah, regular chicken.

[00:05:46]It's beautiful.

[00:06:01]What's this?

[00:06:02]>> Yeah, just 319.

[00:06:09]>> The receipt. No, >> I'm good. Thanks.

[00:06:11]>> Have a good one.

[00:06:11]>> All right. You too.

[00:06:15]>> Oh my god. That [ __ ] BF infestation over there. Jesus Christ.

[00:06:24]Goddamn beehive in the [ __ ] trash can or something over there. There's like 7,000 bees. This place is trying to kill me.

[00:06:32]Freaking grandpa in there can't decide which chicken he wants. And his wife's getting pissed off at him. It's like, "Oh, buddy, just pick out your chicken.

[00:06:41]I don't want chicken nuggets or chicken tenders." Oh, buddy. It's all the same.

[00:06:46]Like, your wife is sick of you. She wants to go. She's getting pissy.

[00:06:53]I always get stuck behind the people that are like, you know, it's not the customer's fault. I want to make that very clear. When you're waiting at a a a place like this, it's not the customer's fault that they're taking too long in the line. It's kind of the place's fault when they don't have like people cuz they had two other people in there just standing there staring at this one kid trying to check everybody out. It's like, why don't you help the poor kid? But whatever. Um, freaking grandpa there. I always get stuck behind the one that's got to balance their checkbook at the counter, you know, pays with a debit card, but then has to write it down in the checkbook and then balance the checkbook, like start doing the math and everything. I'm just like, oh my goodness. Like, I just have one bottle of drink. Like, damn it. Every time. And, you know, that's fine. I mean, if if you want to balance your checkbook at the counter, that's one thing. I get it. You know, that's how we used to do things, you know, 20 years ago, which is fine. It's just I always seem to be the one that gets stuck behind that. Um I'm never the one that's in front of that customer.

[00:07:54]I'm always the one that's behind that customer every time. I'm not quite sure why.

[00:08:02]Um again, you know, not not blaming the old dude or whatever. It's just I I feel bad for the kid at the register because there's a line in there that's growing to be like 50 people long and it's one kid and the other the one there is sitting there playing with her pack of cigarettes and the other one's sitting there like scrolling through Tik Tok or something. I'm like why don't you help the poor kid? Like clearly because the guy you could tell this kid was getting a little overwhelmed with the checkbook pens. He kept looking at me like oh my god. I'm just like whatever.

[00:08:34]I walked in there and I saw that and I'm like, "Oh god, we're arguing over what kind of chicken." Oh boy. This is This is going to be a checkbook balancer.

[00:08:41]Sure as [ __ ] it was a checkbook balancer.

[00:08:50]Thanks for your super chats, folks.

[00:08:52]Seriously, I see a couple came in. The counter is not working and it's also not showing me who sent what, but I will see them at the end of the stream because I get an email like 20 minutes after the stream with all the super chats and stuff. So, something's wrong with the YouTube uh super chat thing. I don't know if you noticed that, but it still says zero.

[00:09:14]I was doing that to other streamers, too.

[00:09:28]Yeah. Hello everybody. Welcome everyone.

[00:09:29]Unless your name is Ryan Woodyard or Jeremy What's his nuts? Everybody else, welcome.

[00:09:38]I'm in a [ __ ] mood today, so that means it's going to be an entertaining live stream. Uh, I have seen a couple of those little dust devil things out here, however. Oh my god, there's one right there.

[00:09:50]Oh my god.

[00:09:58]It's not a tractor. It is a legit little dust devil right there. Twins.

[00:10:04]Jesus, man. They're freaking everywhere out here. It's really dry out here, isn't it?

[00:10:10]God dang. It shouldn't be this dry out here.

[00:10:14]You see these all the time down here, but not in the numbers that we've been seeing over the past few days. Like by god, it's like they are literally everywhere. Normally there's like one or two here and there.

[00:10:28]Oh yeah. Anyway, so that that's what I was just talking about. I was say I've seen several of those on the way down, but I just couldn't uh stop quick enough.

[00:10:43]You could spend, honestly, we probably could spend a day out here just watching those. I think those are cool. I mean, I know it's kind of lame, but I think they're cool.

[00:11:00]Yeah. So, tomorrow we've got a risk of tornadoes down there by Fort Stockton.

[00:11:06]So, I'm going to head to Midland tonight.

[00:11:10]I think that's the best call.

[00:11:13]That's where we're headed, actually. I mean, I'm sure you figured that out via the title.

[00:11:39]Hotels in Midland are pretty cheap.

[00:11:44]I was in Lach last night, but there's no reason I I just don't see a reason to stay in Lach today because I don't for doing what we do, folks. Like I have to be to these target areas prior to there actually being storms. You know, we can't be rolling in late. So, oh, I know, Todd.

[00:12:12]I know.

[00:12:14]Trust me.

[00:12:19]It goes back to what I always say, like if you want to trash talk people, that's perfectly fine. But you got to have a valid reason.

[00:12:27]Have not made any U-turns yet today.

[00:12:38]Yeah, I can get a hotel tonight for less than 100 bucks in Midland.

[00:13:01]I think I'm like an hour away.

[00:13:03]I really wish, you know, hindsight, we should have went to Alamagordo and seen the world's giant pistachio nut because if you direct your attention to radar Omega, you will notice that there is a storm directly over Alam Magordo.

[00:13:21]Yep.

[00:13:23]Go figure.

[00:13:26]Whoops. My bad. Just the models just weren't I, you know, they trimmed the marginal risk. They took a lot of the marginal risk away.

[00:13:35]So I thought, yeah, never mind.

[00:13:48]Should have went out there.

[00:13:50]The thing is, tomorrow might be an early day. Might start as early as 1 or 2 p.m., which is frequently how it works out here.

[00:13:58]I was afraid if we were in Elmagoro, I'd have to get all the way back to like Roswell or something tonight and then Roswell to Fort Stockton's another four hours. I'm like, ah, dang, that's really going to be kind of cutting it a little close cuz there's not really much. So, if you look at SPC, they don't really talk about any sort of risk areas, but if you look at some of the models, um, especially like the NAM model, I think that we're going to have a chase day on Wednesday as well. I think we'll be able to find a storm somewhere up there in either the northern Texas panhandle, southeast Colorado, maybe also over there like southeast New Mexico could be a target also like Roswell. I'm just not sure yet. But it does look like there should be moisture and most of the models are trying to convect some sort of storm.

[00:14:46]So I would imagine that we can do something Wednesday, but it is unseasonably quiet.

[00:14:58]Now, there's a lot of people that are like, "Oh, there's an Omega block and blah blah blah blah blah." Yeah, cool.

[00:15:04]Well, you know, we've proven in the past couple of days in Leach that you don't need a uh you don't need a a disturbance coming through at 500 millibars to give you a severe weather event, but there will be stuff to chase. It's just it's really hard to pick the targets out. Um it's a little bit of luck. You almost have to just kind of show up and hope something happens.

[00:15:39]Um because what was it three days ago in Leach? It was supposed to be crap and we had that really pretty storm and there was even a shortlived tornado with it.

[00:15:49]So or land spot, whatever the thing stupid thing was.

[00:15:52]So, I mean, there's that.

[00:16:05]I do think that it'll get a little bit busier after the first like 3 days of June. Um, I hope so because we haven't even really done anything with our Rise 26 mission. I mean, we have like four times. I mean, we it just it makes no sense to bring everybody out here when it's not doing anything. So, we really need June to produce something for us, but it it should. Um, it's very unseasonable. And in fact, I never ever ever recall a single year where it was this lacking in activity in April and May or March for that matter.

[00:16:48]And this is my year number 12. So this is a 1 in 12 year thing I guess which is fine. But I have a feeling that we'll probably make up for it in June and July because some of the long range models are actually really hot with severe weather potential all the way through June. And if you look at climatology, I I think July is going to be really busy, too.

[00:17:10]Last year July wasn't very busy, but I think this year it's going to be.

[00:17:18]Um, July can actually be one of my favorite months.

[00:17:32]You can get some really uh really pretty storms out in eastern Colorado, Texas panhandle.

[00:17:42]So, I look forward to Damn it. I look forward to July.

[00:17:54]August is a good month for me, too. I've had good luck in August.

[00:17:58]September is hit or miss. Um, I tell you what, I haven't actually chased a lot of severe weather in the month of September because historically, we're usually dealing with something tropical or getting ready for something tropical.

[00:18:12]But we got to do something because we are very very very very very very close to uh really pushing uh what we're doing with uh the weather balloons, the mission, all that ahead. Um we were going to launch our app May 7th, but I kind of held off and actually build more features into it. Now I'm just waiting for it to get a little bit more active and we'll open the floodgates on that and I think that's going to help as well. Um, I had an interesting conversation with somebody yesterday.

[00:18:45]Um, a lot of people are not chasing these [ __ ] events, which like I get it. I mean, I guess I can't blame them, but it's really kind of leaving the door open for like people like us that don't really try to Oh, it's like what Corey Gerkin says, don't try to make a spotlight out of ourselves or whatever. And I think that's the best way to say it, but it kind of leaves the door open for us that are out here for reasons of enjoyment and leisure and also providing a service. kind of leaves the door open for us to develop a little bit more of an audience and reach some new people because um especially with Facebook and I actually think that's uh mostly thanks to uh Ryan, Chief, Police Chief Ryan Woodyard uh tagging my page and everything. Um but we've actually gotten a lot of followers. We've gotten over uh 7,200 followers in the past nine days or no eight seven. Yeah, eight days. in the past eight days on Facebook. All new people and you know YouTube, we're getting a lot of new people over here too, which is good because it's not all about the views and the audience. Um, but it's important that because of what we do and it being crowdfunded, it's important that we reach, you know, as many people as possible.

[00:20:10]And uh, it seems like we are being able to do that. Kind of reminds me of 2022 23.

[00:20:23]>> Kind of reminds me of the old days that aren't really old days. They're just three years ago when uh yeah, all you really had to do was go out here and enjoy yourself and have a good time with the audience. But now it's like people are trying to be cutthroat for absolutely zero reason.

[00:20:41]And it's just a shame really.

[00:20:44]But it's kind of been uh nice and kind of back to the old ways here the past couple of weeks. Honestly, it really separates the people that are passionate versus the ones that aren't because at least when it comes to like the live streaming and stuff, the people that you see out here on these kind of garbage days, they're the ones that really do love what they do. And a lot of times the people that sit it out and just trash talk the severe weather event. Oh, that's crap. you shouldn't bother with that. A lot of times those are the people that are just out here for the audience or for the the attention, I guess. And it's nice to see some people out here, you know, other streamers that are feel like they're uh good at what they do without being fake.

[00:21:34]And it's it's nice to see everybody getting a chance to go back to the way it used to be.

[00:21:46]A [ __ ] I need to be over here. Uhoh. I crossed a solid white line. Uhoh. Uhoh.

[00:21:52]Somebody better put it on Facebook.

[00:21:56]Not safe.

[00:22:07]But I tell you what, it is a little I'll be honest with you, it's a little bit depressing.

[00:22:11]And a lot of it is because of how slow this past winter has been. You know, ever since I'm going to say the end of July of last year, it's just been slow. Like abnormally slow. Um not necessarily so much lately, but like the winter was quiet for severe weather.

[00:22:38]We had some snowstorms. Like severe weather was quiet. It was just not a good year for people that don't like winter. Let's put it that way. At least, you know, people doing my job that don't like winter. Not a good year because you're just kind of stuck doing winter. Um, you know, that's what's nice usually in the winter months is you get some severe weather setups down south.

[00:23:00]Usually there's at least one a week, if not two or three. So, you get a chance to get out of winter for a second or two and that didn't happen. And it really is honestly like literally legitimately emotionally depressing. It's just like, oh my god, like this is [ __ ] Like I was about ready to drive to South Florida and just like sit because it was it's I don't I don't do winter. I I don't do that. Um, but it's I can get away with it because I'm usually leaving winter for a couple of days at a time here and there to do this and uh we just didn't have that. So, I think because the fall and winter season were so slow and uneventful, it really makes severe seasons seem worse because it's kind of like, wow, when was the last time we did anything eventful, you know? And it's like you have to go back about a year and it kind of is depressing because it's like well [ __ ] before you know it we're going to be dealing with snowstorms again. But the chances that we get another winter like we did this 2025 into 2026 are very slim. I mean I've never seen that. I've never not been going after tornadoes in Mississippi or Louisiana at least twice a month in January and February and at least probably 10 times in December and March. I mean, that almost never happens. It's almost always a guarantee down there. So, obviously, we don't want to see, you know, people getting hit by tornadoes all the time, but it was just an abnormally uneventful year for that.

[00:24:32]So, the ch, you know, the hope, the hopefulness of this is, you know, I doubt that we ever get, you know, at least this year, I doubt that we get a year like that again.

[00:24:41]Um, if we do, that's going to suck. I doubt it. But just a really strange, uh, weather pattern that we've been in. And uh a lot of people that haven't been around for very long um probably I don't know if they think this is normal or what but I've never I've never felt like I've done so little ever.

[00:25:05]We expected to have, you know, probably over a thousand manh hours into May so far with our team and I think we're at 200.

[00:25:20]You know, it's just but June I'm sure will pick up. July, you know, July is also an underrated month because those a lot of times are low-end severe weather risks that a lot of folks don't go for because it's like a slight risk or marginal risk or something in East Colorado, West Nebraska or whatever. A lot of people don't go for those because it's too far of a drive. They just don't feel like it's worth it. Um, but I tell you what, they almost always are worth it. You just got to show up. So, you usually don't have big like severe weather outbreaks and stuff that time of the year, but you definitely will get, you know, meaningful events that are worth going for.

[00:25:57]Yeah, we didn't even have really a hurricane season last year, at least not for the US. We had that nor easter thing that was the uh about the Well, I guess there was there's two of them, wasn't there? We had whatever. We had the North Carolina like noraster wannabe hurricane thing. wanted to be a tropical depression but wasn't. We had that was uh that was awful. Let me tell you that was a terrible drive because that was like 18 hours for me to get out there and it's just awful. You got to I see I hate Ohio and you know if that offends you I'm sorry. I just I hate absolutely hate Ohio and you got to drive through Ohio.

[00:26:44]You're stuck in Ohio for like 10 hours and you got to drive through West Virginia which isn't terrible. But then you got to drive through the mountains and you're driving like 30 m an hour for like, you know, 6 hours straight it seems like and you can't get anywhere and then traffic sucks when you get into North Carolina. Like that drive sucked.

[00:27:00]>> Absolutely sucked.

[00:27:04]I hate driving east.

[00:27:15]This is very unusually quiet tornado wise for May very much. But just storms in general, you know. It's not necessarily just the tornadoes either. I could give a crap less about the tornadoes. It's just storms in general.

[00:27:32]It's been it's been difficult to get organized severe weather. And right now we're in this weather pattern where there's a lot of high pressure. So it prevents storms from forming, but you can get severe weather and tornadoes and all sorts of stuff like that during high pressure. It's just a you're not going to get big widespread weather events.

[00:27:50]It's going to be small >> smaller scale um harder to forecast >> kind of daybyday type stuff.

[00:28:09]I mean, this is my first time down to Midland this year at all. I haven't been to Midland since uh I think it was last August, July, which is really saying something.

[00:28:22]Usually, we're down here a quite a few times, but I like it down here. A lot of people don't, but I I like it.

[00:28:56]Tomorrow is probably going to be a somewhat frustrating day.

[00:29:00]Because the tornado potential is likely going to be in that road hole south of Fort Stockton, like between Fort Stockton and Sanderson.

[00:29:09]Like it's it's not going to be what we're used to.

[00:29:21]But I'll take it, you know. I I will take basically anything at this point.

[00:29:46]I am not going to be picky at this point. Just I'll do something and be happy with it.

[00:29:55]I don't know what's going on here. Is people just flying all over the road here. You can't pick a lane.

[00:30:47]kind of an early start to this drive. I was going to hang around Leach for a while, but I thought, nah, I'll just get down here cuz it's a two it's a two-hour drive.

[00:31:01]It is nice though to spend some time in this part of Texas because I was starting to worry we weren't going to get to But three years ago, we had that we had that like three-w weekek stretch.

[00:31:14]Every severe weather event was east central New Mexico.

[00:31:19]It was like Santa Rosa, Fort Sar, Clovis, over to Lach. And man, that was great. I wish we could go back to that because I don't particularly like Oklahoma and Kansas that much. I would rather be out here in the higher terrain. It's more open.

[00:31:43]Yeah, there's fewer roads, but it's more open.

[00:31:46]I feel like it's more what this is meant to be versus just having to drive through towns all the time.

[00:31:55]Less populated.

[00:32:57]If it stays kind of slow like this, it should give us the opportunity to actually go out to like Arizona for the monsoon season.

[00:33:04]the past uh three years I haven't been able to I've really I've intended on it the past three years but we just haven't been able to get it to go actually past four years just haven't been able to get it to work out because there's been something else going on but I tell you what if it doesn't pick up the end of June we might be shipping out that way which whatever I mean be something I had intentions to take us out there it's just it hasn't worked out Because you know that's a 2 and 1/2 week ordeal as it is because it's probably 3 to 4 days to drive out there from any given place. Well, depending how far you are, at least 2 and 1/2 days, but you know, you got 5 days of solid driving, you know, between there and back and then whatever else you do out there.

[00:33:54]There's nothing on the radar to look at right now. It's empty.

[00:35:11]Nothing's causing the slow. It's just it's just the weather.

[00:35:15]That's all. It just It's just the way things work, you know? There there's no big problem causing slow or active weather. It's just the way that the atmosphere moves around. It there's no reason. It's just quiet. It just it is what it is. You know, there's there's many moving parts to weather. You know, it's just there there's nothing, you know, to point a finger at. It's just the weather.

[00:35:41]It happens.

[00:35:47]Don't remember a year like this though, that's for sure.

[00:35:54]There's a meoscale disc. I don't understand this. So WPC put out a meoscale discussion about flash flooding and excessive rainfall and it goes from like Midland Texas all the way to San Antonio. But I don't understand why it's out there all the way this far west because if you look at like the HR models and stuff, it's not uh it's not showing any preset. I don't I I'm really confused by that mess scale discussion.

[00:36:32]Not sure why it's there.

[00:36:36]Like it definitely I mean we're in it right now. It definitely does not look like flooding rain.

[00:36:43]HR doesn't really show much for rain in the area either. So even in a few hours.

[00:36:48]So I don't know what's going on with that. That confuses me.

[00:37:13]I think our storms fire up around uh probably 3:00 tomorrow if I had to guess.

[00:37:57]This is the first time I've been down here, though. The last time that we were out this way, uh, or the last time that we Well, we were down We were down here somewhere a couple weeks ago, though, but I don't remember where. Was it uh we were a little bit we were east of here, weren't we? We were over there by like junction or something.

[00:38:21]Eualdi, what? I don't know. But regardless, um the last time that we were actually in Fort Stockton was I believe it was October. Last October Heat. Heat.

[00:39:21]Yeah. I don't know.

[00:39:38]No, the last time that we went down to the uh that Big Ben National Park was two years ago.

[00:39:45]Maybe even three. It might have been three. I'm trying to think.

[00:39:52]It was three. No, two. It was two. It wasn't last. No, it was three. That was three years ago, believe it or not.

[00:40:31]But I don't know that messoscale discussion is interesting because they talk about, you know, that flash flooding rainfall.

[00:40:38]It's dry as bone out here. Like I'm I'm very confused by that. Farther to the east, it makes sense, but I don't know why they drew it so far west here because none of the models show any rain.

[00:40:48]So, I'm really confused by that because if that truly is a risk today, then we're in the right spot because Midland and Odessa, they're right next to each other. They both flood like crazy.

[00:41:01]Every time it rains, but I don't I don't think it's going to rain. I really don't understand why.

[00:41:07]Well, sorry. I don't have I'm not stomping on the brakes for you. Not with those tires. That looks ridiculous.

[00:41:24]I was really, really, really hoping we would get something to go after yesterday. You know, those the HR model had those little storms firing up by Lach around 5 or 6:00 and they did. Um, they just weren't.

[00:41:39]I mean, they lasted for about 6 seconds and that was about it.

[00:41:45]was hoping we'd have something to go for today, too. And in hindsight, we did if we would have went over there to the world's biggest pistachio nut for Christ's sakes. Um, we would have had some storms to chase. But the reason, like I said, the reason I didn't is because honestly, they took away the marginal risk for Alamagordo and they trimmed it further off to the west. And I thought, well, that's not a good sign.

[00:42:09]And uh I thought, man, that's going to suck, you know, driving four and a because it was four and a half hours away. It would have been four and a half hour drive.

[00:42:19]Wouldn't have been a big deal. It could have left at 10:00. Could have been there by right about now.

[00:42:27]But it's like we could have got out there, but then, you know, you'd probably screw around until 6:00 or 7 and then you're not getting to a hotel by midnight again. that probably honestly the only choice would probably be to go to Midland because I mean unless you want to go to like Roswell I don't I don't know if Carl'sbad even has a Hampton in but I haven't been to Carl'sbad for probably two years now but you almost have to go all the way to Midland because there ain't squat for hotel options.

[00:42:58]Um and tomorrow could go early. I know the HRR model shows it at like 3 or 4 p.m., but the higher terrain, these storms usually fire up on the east side of the Davis Mountains out there, which is west of Port Stockton. It's where I 10 and I 20 come together.

[00:43:18]And it always goes early. It's always like 2 hours earlier than you think.

[00:44:19]That's the side of the road.

[00:44:40]But yeah, sometimes these uh West Texas days can be really really worth it.

[00:44:47]Seen a lot of pretty storms out here.

[00:44:48]The storms usually move pretty slow too.

[00:45:38]Yeah, I'm kind of over this year already, honestly. Like, I'm kind of over it like I'm ready for next year.

[00:45:47]It was weird. You know, we spent all that time in Illinois. And it seems like all we could do was get Illinois and Iowa back in late March and then April was pretty pathetic.

[00:47:46]I almost went all the way to Fort Stockton. I almost booked a hotel down there, but I didn't want to drive an extra hour and a half. I figured Midland's good enough. Get there about 4.

[00:48:05]That's That's plenty fine.

[00:48:29]There's a lot of oil field work down here.

[00:49:18]Yeah, I like Fort Stockton.

[00:49:25]It was 2024. Yeah, it was 2024 was a really good year for the Fort Stockton area for severe weather. I mean, I was down there probably eight times in May. And if you think about how much you chase in May, I mean, maybe not this year, but in a normal year, you know, you got like 30 31 days or whatever. And uh you're probably chasing 26 of those days. So if you're down there for eight days, that's pretty significant because 2023 was the Clovis year.

[00:49:57]Actually, no, it wasn't. Was 2022, wasn't it? No, it wasn't. Wait a minute.

[00:50:03]Yeah. No, it was. So 2023 was the Clovis year where everything was out by Clovis and Fort Sar, which is really pretty. I honestly hope that we get to go back out there this year. I hope we don't get screwed out of that.

[00:50:17]But that was last year. And then or no, that was 2023. And then 2024 was the year we ended up in Fort Stockton Lot, but it was also Abalene.

[00:50:26]Feel like everything was in freaking Abalene.

[00:51:16]We kind of got screwed out of eastern New Mexico last year, too.

[00:51:21]Hopefully, we don't get screwed out of it this year. That's usually a pretty uh pretty common thing far eastern New Mexico around uh usually around the end of April and then again toward the end of May into June like uh I remember a lot of times you know it's uh you end up with a pretty storm that's up starts up there by like Carl'sbad or something and then you end up following it all the way to like Kermit.

[00:51:55]We just haven't had like we haven't had that opportunity this year. There hasn't been I'm I'm dead serious. There hasn't been that really really amazing storm where you just sit there for like three hours and watch it. We haven't had that. Usually that happens several times a year, but we haven't had that. We've had some pretty ones here and there, but we haven't had Oh, last year I think it was May 5th or 6th or something. Um, I'm pretty sure it was in the panhandle of uh No, it wasn't. It was East New Mexico.

[00:52:29]Uh, it was it was either far eastern New Mexico or the far western Texas panhandle. One of the two. We had a really pretty storm. You just sat and watched it.

[00:52:42]And then a couple days after that, we had another one. And then some of you guys remember that really nice one we had in Mcook in 2024.

[00:52:52]We just haven't had that. It's been a really messed up year. I tell you what.

[00:52:56]Weird.

[00:52:59]I don't know what to do with it.

[00:53:45]Continue for 15 miles.

[00:54:51]Man, we should have went out to New Mexico. God dang it.

[00:54:59]That's all right. We're not missing a lot. Just trying to take what we can get out here. You got to make the best of these days because without a whole lot happening, you really got to kind of take a risk and just go out there. The problem is this is like the worst year for this crap because uh the gas prices are absolutely ridiculous. So, it's like you're you're out here so you're going to blow the money on the hotels. It would be nice if you had a storm to go chase to help make up for the fuel you're already spending out here, but whatever.

[00:55:30]I did pay uh $379 for gas though when I got gas before I went live, which is better than $4 and something, which was common up there in Kansas. So, I don't know if it's gone down or if it's just because it's Texas, but I'll take anything I can get.

[00:55:55]See, when I bought this thing, I didn't know that I had to run the midgrade in it.

[00:56:04]Like, you have to run the uh the 91 midgrade in here or you have all sorts of spark knock.

[00:56:12]Like, it honestly sounds like a piston's going to come out the side of the engine. It's just it's horrible spark knock. It just it it it just doesn't uh just doesn't detonate. Right. But out here because of the higher elevation, cuz we're at like 3,000 ft, you can get away with 87 because with the fuel at higher elevation, 87 almost comes out. It basically acts like a higher octane, like a 91. But as soon as we get out of the higher terrain, I got to keep putting 91 in it. So out here, you've got 85 and then 80. No, up there it was 86. We've got 86 because of the terrain and then 87. But 87 almost behaves like the 91 out here. So that does help a little bit. But Jesus Christ, this gas is ridiculous.

[00:57:00]Stupid is what it is.

[00:57:08]I'm very thankful that I get around 20 miles a gallon.

[00:57:13]That's about what I get right now. It's more like 18 and a half, but we're driving into a hell of a headwind.

[00:57:19]So, around 20, you know, I it could be a lot worse.

[00:57:26]So, I'm thankful I get about 20, but it has gone down. Okay. Well, that's we'll take what we can get.

[00:57:40]It's just stupid. I mean, there's so much other stuff that we could be doing with the extra $25 to $30 a tank, cuz that's what it is. This is a 26gallon fuel tank. Gas is over a dollar more expensive than it was when I bought this. Somebody challenged me on that on Facebook. They were like, "You stupid Trumper." And I'm just like, "I don't think that has anything to do with this, but okay." Like what what is like first of all, how do you know that? Second of all, like what what this guy's like because what this guy was saying contraindic contradicts what he was his point, but he's like, you stupid Trumper, there's no way that you're spending an additional $25 to $30 a tank on gas. That doesn't make any sense.

[00:58:31]Like, yes it does. When I bought the car in March, gas was like $2.89.

[00:58:38]Now gas is about $4 every time I go to buy it. $4 minus $2.89 is over a dollar, right? And if I've got a 26gallon tank, when I fill it completely up, that's over $26. So it is 25 to $30 more a tank. Like that. That's simple math, right? Like I'm not the only one that's coming up with that answer, correct? So it's about 30 bucks more a tank. And uh to be fair, I can go 500 and something miles a tank, but holy smokes, guys. Like, you wouldn't think in the grand scheme of things that you would notice an extra $20 bill going out the door here and there. But when there's a, you know, a $30 that extra $30 that wasn't going out the door going out the door at least once every day the entire month of May, you start to really notice it. And on days where you're chasing when you're going through two or three tanks of gas or whatever, then you really really start noticing it.

[00:59:41]But, you know, basically every day is almost every day is a fill up. And even if you just go on the low end of that, just say 25 bucks. And let's just say you do that 28 times, I mean, you that's it's going to be close at least an extra $700, $800 in fuel. I mean, you you definitely notice it. It doesn't put you out of business, but it sure as hell makes things a lot harder.

[01:00:07]Well, the so the price of gas is going to be slow to respond because you know my understanding is yeah the the fuel the oil price went down but now every it's a trickle down effect. You know everybody's already a lot of these gas is already paid for whether it's in a truck in a fuel station or in a refinery or whatever. You know, gas is already paid for off of the oil that was paid for that when it was more expensive. And now we got to sit and wait and hope that we don't have another goddamn national crisis that we shouldn't even be involved in. But, you know, it's one if it's not one crisis, it's another. If it's not Ebola, it's CO. If it's not CO, it's Ukraine. If it's not Ukraine, it's Iran. And if it's not Iran, it's the [ __ ] hecta virus. So, hold on, people, because now here comes the hecta virus.

[01:01:00]If hectavirus does what CO did, then our gas should go down to like a$118 because I paid $118 for gas at a Murphy gas station in Oklahoma during that whole mess. It was great. It's like 13 bucks for the tank.

[01:01:14]I'm just kidding. I don't think that we have hecta virus. But I thought I had hectavirus the other day. It was as bad as as I was an allergy attack or something. But man, I thought I had the hecta virus. And I put it on Facebook and there were a lot of people that were legitimately offended. I just, it was a joke. I thought it was funny. I said, "Hey guys, I think I have the hecta virus." There was a bunch of people that are like, "You're such a stupid idiot.

[01:01:37]Oh, you're so stupid for thinking that."

[01:01:39]I'm just like, "Dude, it's a joke." Holy [ __ ] Calm down. It's okay.

[01:01:45]Freaking hectirus. I swear to God.

[01:01:49]Bird flu.

[01:01:51]Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I forgot about Cuba.

[01:01:53]Cuba will come after the hecta virus though. Don't worry. We We got to clear the hectavirus first. Maybe we'll give hecttovirus to Cuba and they can have their own crisis. I don't know.

[01:02:05]You're right. I did see that Ebola is having another flare up or something.

[01:02:10]Maybe it's cuz we were talking about it.

[01:02:12]Maybe we uh got the algorithm working.

[01:02:28]Hope you guys don't have the hectavirus.

[01:02:36]I think I got the hectavirus from that Hampton Inn uh LV, the one that I had them launch the investigation on. Did you guys see some meathead started a whole thing? I made that post on Facebook. It was like satire. It was like an AI image with a Hilton hotel and it had like a magnifying glass and it said like investigation on it. It was supposed to be a joke and I made that post where I was like, "Hey guys, I did it. I got a you know, I got Hampton in being investigated here and I got refunded. You know, it was it was clearly supposed to be funny." And uh some guy is like, "You're such an idiot.

[01:03:18]You made a you posted a picture of and said you said Hilton, but then you said Hampton. Like you're clearly making this all up." And then somebody was like, "Dude, Hampton in is a Hilton brand."

[01:03:29]And the guy's like, "Nuh-uh."

[01:03:32]Like, "Yeah, it is."

[01:03:35]Jesus Christ. Like, where do I find these people? Like, you know, 99% of the audience is great, but that 1% like where the hell are they coming from?

[01:03:54]All right. All right, I got to make sure I go the right way here cuz Midland is actually a lot bigger than it looks or you would think. Odessa, I think Odessa is actually bigger.

[01:04:08]Um, pretty sure I got to turn up here, but we're basically here. We just got to get on the other side of town.

[01:04:21]But this place is usually good for cheap hotels unless there's something going on because then they get expensive. But usually, you know, Hampton in down here is like a 100 bucks, 110, which is fine.

[01:04:34]I mean, that's all right.

[01:04:37]And the next light turn left.

[01:04:55]Man, I remember that big storm we had down here that uh I think it was May 21st. It also might have been the 23rd or the 25th or the 26th. It was one of those dates.

[01:05:09]Um, but it was 2024.

[01:05:13]Jesus, I can't. God dang, that was two years ago already. Jesus God. Yeah, two years ago. Uh, you guys remember the really, really big supercell with the tornado? I mean, no, nobody cared about the tornado. It was just the fact the big supercell because it was like a dust storm with a tornado. It was really cool. It was uh it was the day that they issued the tornado emergency for the Dust Devil. Um there was like a dust devil landspout looking thing by the airport and for some stupid reason some bonehead decided to issue a tornado emergency for it and there really wasn't um any threat to anybody. It was like a dust devil thing.

[01:05:52]Yeah. But so yeah, there was that incident but it was the same day but it wasn't that tornado. So, it was I think we went south out of Odessa, but we ended up on I think we were on 349, uh, Highway 349 there, south of Midland, I think, when that thing came across or something.

[01:06:14]And that was really pretty. I'll never forget that day. That's still one of my favorite days ever because we got the entire, you know, you could see the entire storm and the dust storm and the tornado. It was really cool. So hopefully we could squeeze something like that out here. But man, it's just been >> something because I don't like these days. I I hate Illinois and Iowa and these days where you're up in the Midwest and stuff because it's always a fast storm motion >> and you don't enjoy it because you got to drive 78 m. Watch this guy below that stop sign. Oh no, maybe not. You got to drive like 75 freaking miles an hour everywhere to get around. It's just it's not enjoyable. But you come out here and storm motions are usually, you know, no more than 30 miles an hour usually. Um, they can be, but usually you're between 15 and 30 miles an hour. Much more manageable.

[01:07:09]Um, it's wide open. You can actually see. You don't have to worry about going through town. It's just it's nicer.

[01:07:18]Um, but there's been years past where I you almost could have got a damn apartment here for the month and just stayed in Midland and been close to everything because usually West Texas is active. It just hasn't been this year. But everything seems really dry down here. I don't know if there's any actual like drought status or anything, but it does seem really really dry out here, which makes sense.

[01:07:47]You know, we're not We didn't really get much for a storm season. Now it's dry as hell.

[01:07:55]The whole like Texas panhandle on the way down seems dry as hell.

[01:08:00]I mean, those fires and everything's just dry. Really dry.

[01:08:40]Feel like there should have been a stop sign there because there's like a stop.

[01:08:52]There's like a line where you're supposed to stop. There's no stop sign.

[01:08:57]Maybe there is and it got knocked over.

[01:08:58]I don't know.

[01:09:07]But anyway, I'm almost there. I really do think that tomorrow should be a good day. I just hope that that morning there's going to be some showers that move through in the morning and I really hope they don't screw the whole day up because I'm going to probably cry if we came all the way down here for nothing.

[01:09:20]But we should be able to make something happen tomorrow.

[01:09:29]There is also a possibility that we'll be live later tonight. If we do get some like popup thunderstorms or showers or something out here that are kind of pretty before dark, we'll we'll probably go after them. And I only say that because they've got that S or WPC mezoscale discussion out for the flooding potential.

[01:09:50]>> I don't see any models that show any rain, let alone flooding. I don't understand what that's about.

[01:09:58]They're seeing something that I'm not.

[01:10:00]It's whatever. But, you know, if if there are thunderstorms that happen and it's something, we'll go out for it. I do see that there's a cluster up there by Clovis.

[01:10:12]God dang it. We probably could have went out to [ __ ] God dang it. We really [ __ ] today up, didn't we? We could have went out to Clovis. Those are just crappy little showers, but I bet they're pretty.

[01:10:23]Um there's also that cluster that's over there by Carl'sbad and there's another stronger shower down there by uh Bal Maria or whatever down at the I 10 I20 split.

[01:10:40]Maybe we'll get something to form here in between that would be all right.

[01:11:08]So today might be salvaged maybe because it doesn't the standards are much lower out here. So like when you're in Louisiana or Mississippi or something like you don't think twice about just general thunderstorms are like a marginal risk. Like you don't even care about that when you're chasing. But out here you do because it doesn't it's not necessarily the severity or the strength of the storm.

[01:11:38]It's just the fact that you can get a storm out here because they're almost always really pretty as you can see for like 700 freaking miles. Stormchasing is much more forgiving out here.

[01:12:20]So, we'll probably plan a uh weather balloon launch for tomorrow because I want to get a uh if tomorrow was a tornado day, we might as well see what we can God, this road sucks.

[01:13:37]It's hot down here. I got 86 on the car.

[01:13:42]I think the car runs a little cool, too.

[01:13:54]Probably damn near 90 when you're in the sun.

[01:14:52]I don't know why we're honking. We're all going.

[01:14:58]Jesus.

[01:15:11]Okay. Well, I'm basically here. So, uh I'm going to go and figure things out. I'll probably have an update a little bit later.

[01:15:21]Not ruling out the possibility that there's something to do tonight. Not super likely, but it's possible.

[01:15:47]All right, everybody. Well, that was actually we made good time. I mean, I think I left this is like a it's supposed to be an hour and 57 minute drive, but I feel like I made it a little bit quicker than that from Leick.

[01:16:15]So, I don't know.

[01:16:29]made pretty decent time. Not really in a hurry, but it's nice to get down here before 5:00.

[01:16:37]Um, this is one of the few days, even though it's been a little bit slow, this is one of the very few times that I've actually been able to get to a hotel before like 10 or 11 at night.

[01:16:46]just lots of driving. Even though it's been kind of a slow year, there's been a lot of driving, a lot of bouncing between target areas.

[01:16:56]So, I hope you guys have a good night. I will uh get a stream scheduled for tomorrow when I can, but I would expect something to be live by at least 2 o'clock in the afternoon at the latest, maybe later. I mean, I just I think that things are going to go up early. All right, everybody. You guys have a good night and I will talk to