Final thoughts...

You never know what these trips will be like. You’ve got no idea what weather you’ll see (if any at all like on the infamous “sunshine tour”), where you’ll end up or what your travelling companions will be like.  Folk are folk, which is fine unless you are stuck in a vehicle with them in very close confines for 14 hours a day. On previous trips the pressure has been on at the start of the trip to choose the vehicle containing the people with whom you think you’re mostly likely to get on. This is a bit of a gamble but I’ve always been lucky or had good enough judgement. The first two trips had one or two very strange and annoying characters one of whom ended up in Liam’s van. It can ruin the whole trip.

So how about this year? Thankfully we were all multi storm chase veterans, knew what was expected and everyone was really fun. Peter’s philosophy of a single, nimble vehicle and flexible, consultative approach was just the ticket. The 3000+ miles passed quickly with Jock at the wheel and without any problems as we all shared our stories. Camille had us transfixed with her journey from childhood to award-winning photographer with 100+ country travels and A list contacts. I’d share it here but…you had to be on the trip ;o). Anne and Liam are a good craic and Jock is at least 6 funny guys rolled into one. I couldn’t go with another “tour” company again.

We chased in very familiar territory adding only Lubbock, Texas, to where I’d been before. Iowa and Missouri would have been nice, but that asymptote stayed strong bar a visit to Lincoln. You go where the weather is after all.

As for the weather it was a curious affair. On previous trips there have been no more than 3-4 chase days in total, yet during this week we have woken up to a Storm Prediction Centre slight or moderate risk every day and have chased all but one when we had to reposition across 4 states; each chase day also finished with something to talk about.

The one thing that was lacking was serious rotation especially during the hours of daylight. We just weren’t going to get a tornado to video and photograph. If you chase, a tornado is a bonus. If you look at it any other way you’ll spoil your trip. So let’s see what we ticked off on the checklist:

·         Great structures

·         Amazing sunsets

·         Mammatus clouds

·         Fantastic, primeval lightning displays

·         Torrential rain

·         Drove through a gustnado

·         Hail (though not large)

·         Hail fog

·         Wall clouds

·         White knuckle chases (and chased) through extreme weather

·         Celebrity chasers including the Dominator

·         Decent food (only 2 burgers)

·         Hopefully some decent photographs and video

Will I go back? It’s an expensive, arduous and time consuming hobby and means being away from the family for the best part of a fortnight.Tomorrow we face the very long journey "the jet lag direction" back to the UK. which takes a week to get ove. It’s also not without risk no matter how well it is managed. Right now, and after four trips I’ve seen a bit of nearly everything. A big fat wedge would be nice, but I’m not losing any sleep over it. I used to dream of tornadoes (insert comment if you like…) but haven’t really since Campo so it might finally be out of the system. Liam won’t be back any time soon as he has other stuff to do and I’m feeling the same. I think. my boys will want to go when they are old enough so we’ll see. The only thing I can’t resist is temptation ;o)

Grand total miles: 3162

Thanks for taking time out to read this ramble :o)

Cheers
Adam

So near, yet toooo far...

Chase Day 7

We set off after 8:00 and there’s a chase vehicle parked outside our room. It’s Lanny Dean’s tour company, formerly of the notorious and controversial Outlaw Chasers. Apparently they pulled up at 2:00 a.m. after a night time chase.

It’s one of those maddening storm chasing days; we’ve got a 10% tornado risk on our doorstep and talk of an outbreak yet we can’t chase it as it’s our last day out on the Plains. It’s a 9 hour drive back to Oklahoma City and Peter has to get ready for the next tour group so we need to be back by midnight at the latest. With the storms due to fire in the evening, that would put an OKC arrival back to 6:00 a.m. which is just not possible. No problem, this is my 4^th trip and that’s just the way it works. No point in getting frustrated, but it will be interesting to see what happens tonight. Could it be the one that got away?

Peter has a really good alternative suggestion; we’re going on a mere 5 hour drive to Hutchinson, Kansas, (which is on the way to OKC, near enough) to watch Sean Casey’s Imax movie, “Tornado Alley”.  This is the movie shot by Sean in the Storm Chasers TV series as he drives his armoured TIV (Tornado Intercept Vehicle) into tornadoes looking for the ultimate shot. As far as I’m aware, this hasn’t made it to the UK so I’m looking forward to it.

Liam owed me some money from when we booked the trip, so has been dutifully paying for the hotels on the trip. The “debt” is down to $7 which is a decent drink in the hotel tonight; Liam ain’t too impressed and points out that his medical skills from last night must have been worth at least that.

We head west on the I80 then south on US 81 stopping for a picnic lunch at Bellville just over the border in Kansas before resuming south. The US 81/I35 is a rare north-south dual carriageway so we’ll make good progress.

We arrive at the Kansas Space Museum in Hutchinson and watch Tornado Alley which is really good. It stars Karen Kosiba…and some other people ;o). After we plunder the souvenir shop it’s onward to Oklahoma City and the prospect of a steak and beer or three.

A nice filet steak and a couple of beers made a nice final dinner, and as it happens...that 10% risk came to nothing so we didn't miss anything!

Total miles: 539

Tick-ing time bomb...

Chase Day 6

We set off from the Days Inn, Grand Island, at 9:00 for the usual Wall-mart top up and vanilla latte at Starbucks.

We’ve got another 5% tornado risk today and we’re heading for the Nebraska/South Dakota border, potentially to Yankton SD, where I’ve been on the last 2 trips. Big place, small world,s which gets even smaller as we once again pass through Central City! We stop to take a few snaps just in case, heaven forbid, we never come by here again.

We stop at a truck stop and I go through the biennial ritual of buying a milk chocolate Hershey Bar, just to check that it still tastes of sick. OMG! The extract of vomit no longer appears on the list of ingredients and it’s actually edible. Even Liam agrees.

At 14:00 we cross the Missouri and head into Yankton. Last time we were here we crossed an interesting bridge so I thought I’d grab a bit of video footage as we crossed. Looks like they’ve built a new bridge since I was here last and we crossed that instead. We did a u-turn and re-crossed the river to have lunch at a park overlooking the Missouri. More small world stuff, as I remember coming here on a long chase on a supposed “epic outbreak day” in 2008 which never materialised and we watched a storm whizz past at 60mph. It’s really windy as we try to eat our lunch so we retreat to the Suburban. It’s also a cold, northerly wind which tells us we are too far north so we retreat further south in search of warm, moist air.

Suddenly, as if from nowhere we’re on a storm directly to our south west. Where did that come from? We engage chase mode and speed off through Bloomfield. We’re still too far north though and the storm in undercut by cold air which cuts off the inflow and puts paid to that chase.

We continue west then south towards Norfolk and stop for a Dairy Queen. I have a small Chocolate Extreme Blizzard, an incredibly rich chocolate ice cream full of bits of chocolate. I borrowed some of McDonalds wifi to make a Skype call home to be told that it’s freezing cold back in Blighty. I sympathise as I try to eat my ice cream as quickly as possible before it liquefies in the baking hot sun…We’re back in the warm air which is reassuring. I get half way through my Blizzard and start to feel sick so it gets binned. How on earth do people eat a large one? Probably by not eating a Hershey Bar and a packet of Skittles as an entrée…

There’s a decent looking storm to our south which suddenly becomes severe warned. It towers to 47,000 feet and teases us with some rotation, a brief wall cloud and some cloud-to-ground lightning. It’s already a bit disorganised and starts to weaken so we target another cell near Schuyler to our south east. By this time we were driving at dusk through torrential rain and the Suburban had a couple of twitchy moments. This storm had some good structure and served up some monster bolts of lightning and some small hail which we watched from a gas station in Arlington.

Peter must have tried 10 hotels in Omaha and Lincoln but they were all full so we ended up in the Econo Inn in Fremont which was cheap but clean. We went to Pizza Hut. I have no idea what a “hand tossed base” is, and frankly I don’t think our waitress did either.

I was quite tired with a bad head so resisted the Sierra Nevada Pale Ale in my suitcase and retired to bed. It was only then that I noticed a lump in my lower back. A tick had got me!  I roused Liam who reluctantly agreed to operate. The only surgical tool we had was…a Leatherman multi tool with the tick removing pliers attachment…

In the somewhat undignified position bent over the sink Dr Smith got to work. Twenty minutes later, and after a lot of wiggling, writhing and the occasional scream…the bugger was out. It was only at that point I thought to check that the curtains were closed…Went to sleep paranoid that I had contracted Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever or worse!

Total miles: 439

Dirt road debacle...

Chase day 5

SPC has issued another slight risk for today, with a 5% tornado chance in SE Nebraska, NE Kansas, S Iowa and N Missouri. Today is hard to forecast as the atmosphere is a mess after yesterday’s convection just like your house the morning after a particularly excellent party.

After the usual Starbucks/Wall-mart stops (more Gaviscon and some fibre tablets being high on the list) we head west as Peter doesn’t fancy the SPC target area. We head down the I80 before turning onto a dirt track as the plan is to have lunch at Lake Pawnee. We head up an undulating dirt road which looks perfectly dry. It’s only when we are well along it that the Suburban starts to slide left and right as Jock fights to get us up an incline; the track has a thin dry veneer covering a sea of soft mud. We’ve got no choice to return whence we came. Peter takes the wheel and fights to make progress as we get stuck in a deep ruts of our own making. After some more slewing around we make it out. It’s only then that Jock finds a huge sign saying  “road closed no lake access” that some comedian had decided to saw down and throw in a ditch. I’m not sure I’d have seen the funny side of it had we got stuck but it was pretty funny.

We headed on to Seward to see the world’s biggest time capsule which is in a white block pyramid. I stayed in the SUV. We moved on, crossed the Platte River and stopped in Duncan for a chocolate milk. The variety of truck stop beverages are starting to run out.

I look out the window to see Jim’s Food. Surely not..? Towers are going up and there are storms forming to out south west. We continue south west towards Grand Island.

We move west on US 30 to Kearney where we grab a Subway, then after a the storm we were targeting dies we stop at Boleus as the next storm we are targeting loses its updraft but leaves us with a nice structure lit by the sunset.

On the way back to Grand Island we pass Reed Timmer and his Dominator intercept vehicle at Cairo on US 2. Dinner is at Applebees where our collective accents baffle the waitresses and we end up with some wierd drinks. End at the Days Inn.

Total miles: 341

Good things come to those with patience...

Chase Day 4

I'll add the text tomorrow as it's now 2:00 a..m. and we've just has a severe storm over run our hotel with an amazing lightening and thunder show after what we'd just about given upo as a cap bust.

The first moderate risk of the trip today with a 5% risk of tornadoes in Nebraska and Iowa.

We start with the usual trip to Wall-mart and I decided to splash out on some sober new shorts and a couple of t-shirts. If you think the shorts/t-shirt combos in the first couple of days were a bit “way out” the remaining options in the suitcase were really untenable; just not gratuitously funny enough to warrant an airing…

My guts were still complaining but more in a “you can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs sort of a way”..,

We headed for St. Paul and chilled out in the sun for an hour or so before heading east on US 92 where we stopped to photograph some decaying, abandoned barns complete with improvised cold store-cum-tornado shelter. There was also a field with some friendly horses that turned their noses up at the offer of Peter’s baby organic carrots. I guess they normally eat fast food.

On getting back in the van I thought I’d check myself for ticks and to my shock, one of the little bastards was trying to bury itself into my right calf! I managed to pull it off and fortunately it didn’t look like it had yet broken the skin. As much as I tried to kill it, it crawled around like it was having a day at the beach. Bloody indestructible.  Ticks are things to be wary of – they can give you Lyme Disease which will really spoil your day, potentially permanently. At the next opportunity we all jumped out of the SUV, started stripping off and checking each other like a troop of baboons  creating a social hierarchy. God knows what any locals watching would have thought.  Jock found one crawling up his leg looking for a tasty lunch. As I write this up (the next day) Anne has just found another of the little blighters on her shoulder while sat I the van…

We stopped for a picnic at a lovely little town called Osceola and sat on the well kept lawn of the county courthouse under a tree while watching a squirrel and a bird play with each other, or so it seamed. We got talking to the husband and wife team who are the building’s superintendents. Last year a tornado passed near the town and destroyed a relative’s farm. The county court building dates from 1922 with an ornate marble mosaic floor and original porcelain restroom fittings to which Liam gave a thorough workout…

We moved on and got chatting to a couple of younger stormachasers, one English and one Scottish. Things were bubbling up but in a fairly untidy and half hearted fashion. We continued west then south on US 14.

Everytime you go stormchasing you tend to find one small town you keep coming back to over and over again, either as a crossroads to other places or as you go round and round trying to figure out where storms will fire. Last year it was Elm Creek, this day was the latter and our designated Groundhog Day town was Central City complete with Jim’s Food supermarket and its 35 year veteran employees smiling down from their very own hall of fame. We must have been back to this bloody place four times as we watched towers start to tease us before they collapsed in minutes, not man enough to break through the cap. The cap is a warm inverted layer of air that acts as a lid or cap on storm convection. You need the cap as without it you would get a constant fizzling of weak convection and no powerful storms. The cap acts like the lid of a pressure cooker, and if the rising air can break through you get an explosive convection and storm. However, if it can’t break through then you g then you get no storms; it’s called a cap bust, and this is what we thought we’d got stuck with today. Peter booked us into the Days Inn in Lincoln and we retreated to fight another day with thoughts of some nice food in Applebees and an early night.

Storm chasing requires that you have a stoic personality as you have to get used to a promising day turning into nothing, and that’s sure what today looked like as we trooped off towards Lincoln.

Ten minutes down the road Peter had a cursory look out of the window and there was a new tower going up. And up. A red core on the radar confirmed we had a viable storm. After being teased all afternoon, playing hard to get had paid dividends. We headed west, and after a brief conversation with Highway Patrol…chased after the storm and were treated to some lovely structure lit by the late evening sunlight. I took a series of shots with a view to making a panorama when I get home. There was also a massive, almost perfectly circular storm forming way to our south west in WaKeeney, Kansas.

As day turned to night we rejoined the I80 and headed west towards Lincoln. We passed Aurora and stopped in Hutchinson to watch some ¾ inch hail and I took 20 minutes or so of spectacular lightning video. The storm became tornado warned for quite a while and Reed Timmer called in a tornado somewhere to our south west.

We got to the hotel, and after a comical 20 yard drive to the McDonalds drive through (nobody walks in the US!) we came down to watch the storm approach the hotel. My MyWarn app told me we were under a severe storm watch and this then turned to a warning around midnight. There was now a line of storms down the I80 heading to our location. It’s a bit unnerving knowing that a storm that has previously been tornado warned is heading directly for you, but this is intentional as you get a front row seat and can drink a couple of beers as well

Anne, Liam, Jock and I went outside the hotel, sat under a veranda and watched the torrential rain hit us accompanied by a spectacular lightning show. The night turned back in to day thanks to the intensity of the lightning and one massive bolt overhead generated the loudest thunder I have ever heard. The hotel reverberated and we jumped in the air in fright and squealed like a bunch of schoolgirls.

With the bathroom sink full of icy water chilling some bottles of beer, I set about the usual nightly grind of backing up photos and videos to hard drive, setting various things to charge up and went through the frustrating (and fairly unsuccessful) experience of trying to get photos to upload to this blog.

Total miles: 320

Repositioning...

Chase day 3

So far, every day we wake up the Storm Prediction Centre has issued a slight risk of severe weather for at least the next 2 or 3 days and this morning was no exception. A slight risk does sound fairly crap, but in reality it’s much better than it sounds. Clicking on the tornado probability shows an area of 5% surrounded by an area of 2% which sounds even worse. What starts to make sense is when you dig into the numbers. A 5% risk means you have a 5% risk of seeing a tornado within a 25 mile radius within the highlighted area. Hang on, that still looks bad, right?

Storm chasing is about making these numbers work in your favour – pitching up in the highlighted area and hoping for the best would clearly be hopeless. Storm chasers use this information to choose a “target area”, a place which looks like a good starting off point. Using a combination of web resources, radar images, reports from other chasers, local knowledge, maps, experience and instinct amongst many other things directs chasers to the right place to intercept storms at the right time. Now the odds are increasing. From memory, about 30% of supercell thunderstorms  will produce a tornado. So, if you’re on one your odds have gone from 5% to 30% of seeing a tornado. Sound much better? Imagine if it’s a really good day and you intercept 3 supercells, your chances of seeing a tornado have gone to up to 65.7%. Sounds much better! I bet you thought it would be 90% haha! Ok, the probability comes from one minus the probability of no tornadoes occurring to the power of the number of supercells. The reality of course could be anywhere from 0-100% depending on how good you are and what’s happening with the weather, but hopefully you get the drift.

Today’s target area would likely be somewhere in the 5% area which today is in Minnisota. Picking a random town in that area and asking directions from Google maps from Childress gave the distance as 1,060 miles and 17 hours travelling time. That’s longer than the entire length of the UK, from John O’Groats to Landsend.  Even by hard core chasing standards that’s just not going to happen, at least not in one day. The longest single trip I ever did was 773 miles (see 2006 blog). And that was fairly unpleasant.

With all that in mind, and with a nod to day 2 and 3 of the SPC forecast, we’ve decided to use today as a “getting in position day” and should we come across any weather in the 2% zone in, say Nebraska, then that would be a bonus. We’ll be in touching distance of what is likely to occur tomorrow and the day after as it will be somewhere north east. That’s just part of storm chasing, chasing every day on a trip just doesn’t happen.

I’m writing this blog offline again in the back of the Suburban. We’re about half an hour north of Canadian where we just stopped. Last night (and this morning) I had the usual battle with Wifi. Suffice to say, the Wifi at the Comfort Inn was crap. It would connect for 10 minutes even with a strong signal, and then just as I was uploading a photo it would disconnect. Over and over again. I’d even brought a LAN cable but, surprise , surprise no LAN point. Aaaagghhh!

I gave breakfast a miss (still a bit queasy) and we set of north on US 83 (83 is a very long road) after a visit to Wall-mart. A couple of people fainted at the sight of my T-shirt and shorts combo (hint: they do not go together, in fact they positively clash) so I feel I’ve accomplished something.

We stop at Shamrock with more than a subtle hint dropped to its Irish heritage.  Took some photos of its very tall water tower and a nice wall mural depicting the town’s history. Further along the main street was a restored Art Deco gas station and diner which was interesting. Camille uses her iPhone as her fun camera and is using a neat app called Instagram to make retro looking photos that look really good. There again she is a famous pro photographer and it shows!

We stopped at the aforementioned Canadian and had a nice cheese and tomato toasted sandwhich in a 100 year old diner called City Drug. I went through the somewhat pointless motions of trying to get a cup of tea. Yesterday’s confused waitress got the “hot tea” part right but failed at the milk stage as I got a glass of milk instead. Today after intensive negotiations I ended up with White Christmas herbal tea, a sort of peppermint concoction in a glass mug which I’m embarrassed to admit was quite nice.

We continued north and stopped at Shattuck home to a windmill museum which was a bit random but worth a look nevertheless. Onwards through Woodward where we saw the tornado damage from last week with the end of a building destroyed and many trees uprooted. Headed east on US 64 (avoiding the Twister Museum...) before heading north through Kansas into Hastings, Nebraska. There was a storm ahead of us and it produced some nice lightning but chasing it was pointless. I had a nice steak and a few bottles of beer at Taylors restaraunt before ending up at the Comfort Inn.

Tomorrow is likely to be north east of here which potentially means Iowa which is new territory for me and it's the birthplace of Captain Kirk! 

Total miles 500+ tbc