Anticipation...

I'm still on UK time and wide awake at 3 a.m. which is a pain bearing in mind how arduous this week is going to be. Anyway, at least it gives me the chance to add a few words to this blog.

We had the briefing yesterday and it looks a promising week. Today the target area is eastern Colorado so it will be a shortish drive and no doubt there will be lots of waiting around waiting for storms to fire up. There is activity expected on most days with Thursday looking "potentially ominous" according to the National Weather Service. They also mentioned similarities to 1974 in their briefing which was the biggest tornado outbreak in modern US history. I'll try not to get too excited - these things will frustrate you if they can.

As usual many of the chasers are from the UK and it was good to see some friendly faces from 2006. The big talking point was the Quinter, Kansas tornado the tour intercepted last week. This was a massive wedge rated at EF4 which, at a somewhat inconvenient moment, changed direction and headed for the group who had to take avoiding action - the wrong way down the interstate! Here is a clip of the action:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=GC7U-i5i5eM&feature=related

So, I'm all packed and ready to go. A quick work on Skype - I set up an account before I left the UK and it works great - I can make calls via my computer back to the UK for 1.6p per minute - compared to £1.10 using the mobile. I should also mention the cameras; chatting to Wendi, her DSLR packed up last year while touring the devastated town of Greensberg, Kansas and she didn't have a back up. I (surprise, surprise) have brought a few:

Nikon D200 with 16-85 f3.5-5.6 VR for general photography
Nikon D40x back up with Sigma 10-20 f4-5.6 ultra wide
Nikon 17-55 f2.8 for lightening and dark conditions
Nikon 70-300 f4.5-5.6 VR for distant objects (the 70-200 f2.8 is too big)
Mamiya 7ii and 65 f4 film camera for vistas
Fuji f30 pocket camera for social/video clips

It all packs neatly into a Tamrac bag. I also brought a Benbo tripod/Kirk ball head essential for lightening/dark conditions. It might appear a lot of stuff, but you can't be fannying around changing lenses when the action starts.

We'll be off for breakfast soon (usually the only proper meal of the day) then onto Wallmart to pick up provisions, nuts, fruit, cereal bars, water etc. Once the chasing starts in earnest we don't stop for food. Or the loo...

One last point for now, apparently you can track our progress at http://www.stormspotterlive.com
and looking for "stormchasing.com" on a map.

Cheers
Adam