IHOP 2002
The International
H2O Project (IHOP_2002) occurred during May and June 2002 in Oklahoma, Texas,
and Kansas. It was the largest-ever weather field experiment to date. I was one of the
lucky four Penn State undergraduates that was invited to participate. As part
of a group based out of Norman, OK, I drove a mobile mesonet, a car equipped
with meteorological measuring equipment. When we met up with a group based
out of Liberal, KS, we were a fleet of at least 22 vehicles - 9 mobile
mesonets (probes), 4 radar trucks, 3 mobile sounding systems, a radar scout
vehicle, a photography vehicle, a Field Coordinator van to guide us all, and a
few other vehicles that I can't even remember what they did.
As I heard a follow IHOPper explain, we weren't chasing tornadoes, we were
chasing water vapor. More scientifically, we were studying gradients across dry
lines and fronts. But I won't bore you with details. Pictures can tell the story
better! (When I first started scanning pictures, I was going attempt to scan
them all, but decided otherwise. So there are a lot of pictures from the first
few days, but from then on I just picked my favorites.)
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May 11 - McDonald's over the interstate
May 15 - In the first few days, we visited the
Oklahoma City
National Memorial. It is the site of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building,
which was bombed on April 19, 1995. It is truly an amazing memorial. Each piece
of the memorial represents something of the past. The
reflecting pool was the street and the grassy area was the building. Each chair
represents a victim of the attack. The two gates have written on them 9:01 and
9:03, the minutes before and after the attack.
May 15 - Sunset at the Oklahoma City National Memorial. The building in the background
survived the bombing, but cracks are visible on it.
May 15 - Oklahoma City National Memorial - Each empty chair represents a victim of the
bombing. Smaller chairs were made for the children.
May 15 - Oklahoma City National Memorial - One of the time gates that is used to enter
the memorial.
May 15 - Oklahoma City National Memorial - The empty chairs and the 9:01 gate.
May 15 - Oklahoma City National Memorial - The Survivor Tree can be seen on the right
side of this picture. It survived the bombing.
May 15 - Oklahoma City National Memorial - Family, friends, and visitors leave mementos
on the fence outside of the memorial.
May 15 - Oklahoma City National Memorial
We come to remember
Those who were killed, those who survived and those changed forever.
May all who leave here know the impact of violence.
May this memorial offer comfort, strength, peace, hope and serenity.
May 15 - Oklahoma City National Memorial
May 15 - Oklahoma City National Memorial - Water fountain behind the memorial
May 15 - Oklahoma City National Memorial - Children's area outside of the museum
May 15 - Oklahoma City National Memorial - Children's drawings
May 15 - Oklahoma City National Memorial - The empty chairs lit up at night
May 15 - Oklahoma City National Memorial - Sunset
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