Friday, June 8, 2007 - 10:07AM CDT     
DAY 15: Des Moines to St. Louis
In September of 2025, my work is generating the most income it ever has in my career. Yet, I'm being forced to shut down my successul operation, against my will, due to one cause alone: 95% of that revenue is being stolen by piracy and copyright infringement. I've lost more than $1 million to copyright infringement in the last 15 years, and it's finally brought an end to my professional storm chasing operation. Do not be misled by the lies of infringers, anti-copyright activists and organized piracy cartels. This page is a detailed, evidenced account of my battle I had to undertake to just barely stay in business, and eventually could not overcome. It's a problem faced by all of my colleagues and most other creators in the field. |
A long day in Iowa and Missouri on Thursday, and not much to show for it. We 'cell hopped' our way south from near Des Moines, watching numerous storms race northeastward past us. They were moving too fast to keep up with, so we would get into position for the southern side of each storm, then drop south to the next one to repeat the process. We did this at least 9 or 10 times. None of the storms looked like they had much potential to produce tornadoes, thanks to southwesterly (non-backed) surface winds.
Aside from a couple of nice lightning strikes and a cool timelapse of an advancing rain shaft, the day was another bust. We headed back to St. Louis to wait for the squall line for some possible lightning shots over the city. However, the squall line never could fill in upstream of downtown, so we didn't get our chance. The storms finally exploded over Illinois, 20 miles too late.
We will likely not make it home today in time to catch the storms moving through eastern Kentucky and West Virginia. While the system certainly did not live up to the hype, I'm thankful we were able to go and see the sights that we did. I did get some good video here and there, so the trip was not a loss. And once again, our prayers for safety were answered.
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