Return to Tornado Alley - 2010

Well I can't believe it's 2 years since I was last on the Plains, and tour #3 starts tomorrow! May has been a fantastic month for storms and tornadoes, but as my endowment company likes to say, "past performance is no guarantee of future results". We'll have to wait and see what next week brings and I've yet to see any comments on future weather models. Right now it is quiet - the nerves are starting to set in!

This year I'm not going by myself; I've managed to persuade Mark "Ratty" Hetherington to come with me, and we'll be joined by Liam Smith (who I met on the Plains in 2006) and his friend Dawn Cundy.

Previously, I'd booked with Storm Chasing Adventure Tours, http://www.stormchasing.com/ (that was my tour on their front page) however this year I fancied a change and following Liam's recommendation have chosen to go with Tempest Tours http://www.tempesttours.com/ led by Brian Morganti. Brian's blog is here:http://www.stormeffects.com/recent_events.htm

We're meeting up with Tempest Tours in Oklahoma City on Sunday, so we need to set off on Saturday. I'll have a couple of pints (and no doubt a curry) with Mark in Leeds tonight followed by an early morning train to Manchester Airport, meet up with Liam and Dawn then fly out on American Airlines to Oklahoma City via Chicago. Door to door takes an exhausting 21 hours, then Liam reckons that we are off to the Rodeo Club (a night club with a real live rodeo inside) for a few beers. We shall see!

Storm Chasing is measured in the '000s - Thousands of miles to travel across the pond, around 3000 miles through several states of the US during the tour (so far I've been to Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming and South Dakota) and around £2500 for the week. And as for the beers...

I'm packed and ready to go. I've been planning on what to take for some time so this has been the easy bit. I've got plenty of tech to keep me going:

Nikon D90 & D700 with 16-85, 16-35, 28-105 and 70-300 lenses (no f2.8s - too heavy) plus tripod, GPS, compact camera, piles of filters, batteries and flash cards, laptop and of course the iPhone. If Mark behaves he may get to borrow a camera...The mobile coverage for us UK roamers is hopeless so I'll be using Skype to talk to the folks back home.

I'll try and get the next post out when we reach Oklahoma City. It all depends on getting a wifi signal and having enough time to load up photos etc.

In anticipation!