Eric Tomjack

Weather enthusiast with a great appreciation for the power of the atmosphere 🌪️

[Eric Tomjack @EricTomjackWX]

First is video I’ve never posted before of the 4-26-24 Elkhorn EF4 as it condensed just before the town. Second video as it passed right beside me. Such a surreal experience, so glad I’ve been inspired to pursue meteorology. #wxtwitter #tornado #newx #supercell @tornadicwonder

[Eric Tomjack @EricTomjackWX]

10/10 book, a very detailed account of the strange life led by Chris McCandless in his last couple years. A tragic end to a beautiful story, makes me want to go back to Alaska

[Eric Tomjack @EricTomjackWX]

Hell yeah

[Eric Tomjack @EricTomjackWX]

Enderlin mentioned

[Eric Tomjack @EricTomjackWX]

@swrightCO Is this the story of Colorado storms? They leave the foothills and die completely?

[Max Archer @MaxArcherWX]

This lightning in OKC is insane!!!

[Eric Tomjack @EricTomjackWX]

@swrightCO Where is this

[Eric Tomjack @EricTomjackWX]

The moon is absolutely beautiful tonight

[Clint Hendricks IV 🌪️ @Clint_wx]

This storm last night near Horton, KS was breathtaking! #KSwx

[Eric Tomjack @EricTomjackWX]

@swrightCO During the week shouldn’t be bad, but if you’re chasing on the weekend you’re better off stopping at the loaf n jug across the street. I work at the Johnstown Buc-ee’s every weekend and the crowd is absolutely crazy most of the day fri-sun

[KETV NewsWatch 7 @KETV]

A driver crashed through fences and backyards during a chase in Sarpy County, leading Nebraska State Patrol troopers through a neighborhood as backyard security cameras captured it all on video. @bethcarlsontv has more: https://t.co/s0kRRmGynD

[Eric Tomjack @EricTomjackWX]

The Jupiter-Venus conjunction was quite impressive even in the middle of town

[Eric Tomjack @EricTomjackWX]

What are we doing

[Daniel Shaw @DanielShawAU]

It was fun running into our German friends on a rural backroad in Canada. Always cherish these memories and the friends we make along the way. The storms are only one part of the journey.

[Unwetterjaeger @unwetterjager]

@DanielShawAU Was a pleasure to meet you! Here is a livestream clip of your amazing german 😍https://t.co/vXnLI0VQuX

[Eric Tomjack @EricTomjackWX]

@GumryWX @swrightCO Y’all ever listened to “I Like Birds” by Eels? Every time I play it I think of y’all haha

[Eric Tomjack @EricTomjackWX]

Looks like a sizeable fire ongoing ESE of Johnstown,CO

[Nashville Zoo @NashvilleZoo]

Stand with us to protect the future of Nashville Zoo.

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[Vincent Ledvina @Vincent_Ledvina]

Here's how this might go over in the short-term now that our CME has hit:

The shock is what we just saw. It's one moment in time when the CME hits Earth. Our CME (or at least the first one if the X1 is following behind? Unknown at this point) impacted with a velocity of ~ 550 km/s, not too shabby but FAR from the 1000+ km/s NOAA SWPC was calling for. Bt =~ 20 nT which is probably good for G2-G3 storming if we get -Bz throughout the night. This could get better or worse as time goes on. Mid-latitude auroral displays are certainly possible now that our CME is here, but the solar wind has to behave.

The CME is going to slam Earth when it's fast asleep. Bz has been north for some time before the CME arrived at our L1 satellites. Imagine how long it would take you to wake up if your alarm went off at 6 am after getting home from the bars at 2 am (definitely not speaking from experience). It's going to take a bit of time to get the aurora stirred up even when -Bz starts swinging in, but from right now, the CME itself is still ~30 min out from hitting our magnetosphere. So at a minimum, we won't see ANY reaction to the CME for 30 min. Then, it may take another ~30 min or so for things to get grooving once we see sustained, negative Bz. 30+30=60 min for aurora to really start moving at all from now (9:45 pm ish PDT). Things don't happen instantly when a CME hits, especially for a moderate impact on a cold magnetosphere with leading +Bz sheath.

About the sheath: the first real part of the CME Is the sheath which is usually full of messy, turbulent solar wind with lots of + and - Bz. This can be good for pumping up auroral displays, but -Bz really helps as we all know. 30-60 min sustained -Bz is ideal to give the aurora time to build and expand further equatorward. We are likely in the sheath now.

After the sheath, most CMEs have magnetic cores which you can see in solar wind data by a "smooth" (not super jittery) Bt and Bz. It honestly looks like we got slammed by the core immediately with this CME, but that would be highly unusual. We just have to see how things develop per usual. But, during the core, it is possible to get either really lucky or really unlucky with the Bz depending on how the mangnetic fields inside the CME are twisted. Sometimes, an early Bz north core can swing dramatically southward, and vice versa Other times, it's all south or all north.

It's a bit of an art to reading these things, but this is the usual pattern, and like all space weather events things rarely adhere to the "classic" scenarios. Take into account that this may be a combination of 2+ CMEs and things get weird. For now, although we have our CME (finally!), the Bz is north, and we are still waiting for it to even hit our magnetosphere.

I suggest watching webcams regardless of what is happening with the solar wind since the skies don't lie. It's good to have a ground-truth of what's going on: https://t.co/OZU97ouTfE

[Eric Tomjack @EricTomjackWX]

Holy shit Chugwater 😭

[Eric Tomjack @EricTomjackWX]

@swrightCO That’s not a bad idea actually, I’d be too worried about the clouds out East tonight though. I’m planning to hit up a spot NE of Chugwater that I learned about from none other than the mayor of Chugwater himself

[Eric Tomjack @EricTomjackWX]

Somebody please tell me if I should or should not drive 2 hours to look for aurora?!?!