That’s me standing at the Florida state sign next to my Weather Wolf; yes, for the first time in my life, I drove from Colorado to Florida. Multiple weather assignments in a short duration of time warranted this over trying to juggle flights and travel logistics. Thus, I spent two days hauling from my northern Colorado house to Florida to cover the failed tornado outbreak of Hurricane Isaias. We got moved over to the potential tornado threat on landfall day, thus I did not intercept the eyewall, which ultimately yielded a failed intercept as there were no tornadoes on landfall day. We scrapped the Carolinas the following day to get ourselves back west for the midweek storm chasing chances in the Plains.
No real regrets, given the circumstances, it made sense to do at the time, and obviously hindsight is 20/20, but it was a worthy sacrifice, would’ve been more so had it panned out, but it made sense at the time and I do not regret the choice.
Tropical storm/Hurricane intercepts still aren’t high on my todo list. I think the hesitation and rookie feelings have all but gone, I just don’t get a huge thrill out of them. They’re definitely ‘part of the job’ for me, one I won’t miss much when it’s no longer a job requirement. Still, when I am there, I like to contribute in some way, even if the weather doesn’t, and I happily did make a contribution regardless of all the fun I missed elsewhere.
Regardless, the last state in the lower 48 I needed a sign shot for, which I obtained in 2021, was five years later the furthest, one-way trip I have driven from home. That counts for something…