Well it was in there somewhere: TORNADO!

Ok, let me take you back to Day 1 of this tour, Sunday 11th May. The Big Day (pretty much the only day!), 10% tornado risk issued by the Storm Prediction Centre and everything firing as hoped apart from one thing: this set up produced HP supercells with any tornadoes rain wrapped in rain and out of view unless you have a tank or are bordering on the reckless.

In 2010 a tornado (no. 5) only became apparent later that evening when it was spotted on a photograph, a pale white affair that went unnoticed at the time. With all the excitement at the time there was no need for an inquest as to how we'd missed it, heck we'd already seen some amazing tornadoes that day, so what?

On this occasion there was much disappointment; if we'd been chasing a classic supercell it's highly likely we'd have seen 3 or 4 tornadoes up to EF3 and apparently a mile and a half across. At the time there was much "can you see anything?", "what's that?", "I thought I saw something" and so on. The frustrating thing was that you knew exactly where the tornado should be, there was a classic hook on radar and the "bolder" chasers had already called it in travelling north east by east. We looked and could't make out anything with any certainty.  We all agreed to scan through our many photos at some point to see if anything showed up, more in hope than expectation.

Eventually, I scan through all my photos. One by one, blow them up to 100%, add an exaggerated "S" curve to boost contrast and then onto the next.

The shot of the radar shows a very impressive hook. We're the circle to the south east of the hook, so we were all looking to the north west where we knew a tornado would be. The second photo is taken two and a half minutes later looking north west.

When looking into the murk we clearly weren't  thinking big enough. The number of times I've read chase accounts where the tornado was so big it just looked like a big storm or cloud. In this case the same must have been true, as dead centre, as clear as day is a dirty great WEDGE TORNADO!!! Also apparent is a large horizontal suction vortice on the eastern edge. In our feeble defence the image was fleeting as by the next frame the tornado had once again been absorbed into the curtains of rain.

Rather annoyingly this is is the only photo in the series which is not in sharp focus which is a pain, so no large prints can be made. Still there it is, tornado no. 6 on my all time list. Can't complain.

Epilogue

Summing up this trip is not easy; it’s not like any of the 4 previous outings.

Things started well on day 1. Picking through the photos may provide a hint of a tornado, but that will need some forensic analysis later. 2010 provided a 5^th tornado that wasn’t immediately apparent. Even at that point I was getting the feeling that we wouldn’t see much else and that proved to be correct. The weather does its own thing and as I’ve previously scratched the tornado itch I have a fairly pragmatic (but not pessimistic) view of things.

The way to look at this year’s chasing is as an epic road trip; let’s have a look at the list of states racked up:

·         Oklahoma

·         Kansas

·         Nebraska

·         Iowa

·         Illinois

·         Missouri

·         Indiana

·         Kentucky

·         Tennessee

·         Arkansas

·         Texas

·         Louisiana

That’s more states in this trip than all the other tours combined. Add in South Dakota, Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming, Georgia and New York from previous stateside trips and that racks the total up to 18 states. That’s a lot. Bear in mind as well that these are MASSIVE states, not the ickle baby sized ones in the north east that you can tick off going out for a newspaper.

We did see some good stuff, supercells, some mammatus and asperatus clouds, a gustnado, lightning and amazing hook echoes; we got swiped by something in the rain and saw the TIV and Dominator teams. Tornados not withstanding missing in action were photogenic structures and those beautiful, backlit, golden highlights at sunset. The tripod and supplementary lenses stayed in the bag.

We had a good craic, a good laugh and I obliterated my own personal asymptote being the line between Oklahoma City and Yankton, South Dakota We visited some cool places, the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Nashville, Dealy Plaza in Dallas, had (mostly) excellent food and, as usual,enjoyed visiting  all the little towns in the middle of nowhere with their friendly and ever curious residents. I do really love it over here and will be sad to kiss it goodbye. I still laugh at waking up in Indi-bloody-ana, but not half as much as Glenn and his “Dude, I’m sooooo sorry” but that little aside will have to remain on tour.  I’m missing the family, so I’m actually looking forward to going home and using my recuperation day off work to watch Cleveland Schools Cricket Association under 12s take on their counterparts from South Yorkshire at Guisborough on Tuesday. Next tour 2016 anyone? 

Many thanks to Peter Wharton and Storm Group Chasers for leading the tour, Glenn for driving and the banter, and to Lisa, Leslie and David for a really fun time; cheers guys!

Grand total miles: 3,269

 

 

 

 

 

Day 7 - Ich bin ein storm chaser

An early start this morning as we need to get going. As feared/hoped we’re targeting the Oklahoma Pan Handle where severe storms could start initiating at around 16:00 though it’s a <2 a="" day.="" like="" looks="" looong="" o:p="">
Why is it you need a PhD in Showerology to operate the showers in these hotels? They’re all different designs, none are intuitive, come with instructions or provide any kind of help to the tired, confused storm chaser. Why did the bathtub come preloaded with 6” of cold water, and when I’ve figured out how the waste plug works, why won’t it drain away?
We start off with a truly revolting breakfast at iHop not far from the hotel. Half cooked eggs with runny whites, tiny slivers of bacon, lukewarm coffee, toast that almost felt stale and appalling service. How hard can it be? Come back Mugs Café, all is forgiven.
As we’re in Dallas we should do the JFK pilgrimage to Dealey Plaza. It’s a much smaller area than I anticipated with the Book Depository, grassy knoll, the plinth from where Abraham Zapruder took the infamous footage and the spot where JFK was shot (eerily marked with a white “X” in the middle of the road) being very close together. The grassy knoll and the Zapruder vantage point are almost right on the road. The window on the 6^th floor of the Book Depository (second top floor, far right) from where Lee Harvey Oswald took the fatal shot can’t be more than 50-60 yards from the impact point.
The conspiracy theories evaporate in light of the immediacy of it all. How could the big crowds on both sides of the road have missed a supposed shooter in their midst, right on the knoll where everyone was standing? The shot from the Book Depository doesn’t look that difficult, but there again I know nothing about the realities of firing any kind of a gun. Perhaps Oswald had some help? Who knows? I’m certain as I can be that Oswald did it. Make your own minds up.
Tourists risk life and limb by jumping into the road to have their photos taken on the “X”, me included, holding my head which I instantly regret as it feels silly and disrespectful. A quick impression of Zapruder quickly follows. We queue up to visit the 6^th floor museum but this queue is not moving so we bail as we need to get on the road. Apparently the spot from where Oswald fired remains is as it was; I’ll have to take that on trust.

We head west then north west on US287 passing the massive Texas Motor Speedway en route. Continue up towards Wichita Falls passing another Fruitland and a place called Jolly which looks not well named. A quick stop at Subway at Loves sees Wichita Falls disappear into the rear view mirror. Today I added the 75c avocado option to my meagre 6” roast beef on honey oat (50% of your RDA of bread) with American cheese, toasted with all the salad bar the jalapeños. It takes longer to order than it does to eat it.  I’ve finally got the hang of making a giant bib in the back of the van, but that does nothing to stop the spread of orangeness from the Doritos which is now everywhere.

400 miles pass and we edge into Amarillo past the Texan Big Steak from 2006’s trip and stop off at the Saltgrass Steak House for…a steak. I turn down a side; got to get used to UK portion sizes. This isn’t the place to go to develop your slim, sexy body for your summer beach holiday, that’s for sure.  We just beat the rush as the local prom rolls in, the odd young man with his sweetheart, and the rest hopeful with a bit of luck and a few iced teas. Pesky 21 rule for alcohol. We head off directly east for the 250 mile+ drive on the I40 back towards home base, Oklahoma City ready for the flight home tomorrow. Storms are actually firing to our north west but won’t be here in anything like our timeframe.

Day 7 – Total miles: 658

 

 
 

 

 

Day 6 – Into the blue…

Not sure what my preconceptions were of Arkansas and Little Rock in particular but they were none too favourable. We drive out to Argenta, a district of Little Rock for breakfast. My vague, unspecified preconceptions were plain wrong. From what I saw of Little Rock it’s a modern, leafy, green and extremely well kept capital (sorry capitol) city. Very nice indeed. Argenta is full of trendy, artisan type places and even has a tram system.

We breakfast in the Mugs Café, well named as it turns out. No waitress service, miserable staff, small arty breakfasts that come out in the wrong order and tables you clear yourself. I can’t see anything I like. While certainly not being a disciple of the “5 a day” (or is it 7 now?) I actually find myself desperately missing fruit and vegetables so I order the fruit and Greek yoghurt combo. Eventually I get some cut up apple and some cut up, good looking, but utterly tasteless strawberries. It all gets consumed; seemed like a good idea at the time but I’m not sure my gut wholeheartedly agrees but I suck it up - it must be doing some good, hopefully. They double up as a church on Saturdays, had arty stuff on the walls and were playing the Arctic Monkeys so that makes it alright. Head off to Starbucks to commence Operation Degrumpification and I say hello to a cute pussy cat that doesn't appear to understand my accent.

Glenn bemoans the state of the USA. Postings on Facebook about what’s wrong with the US political system go without reply. A photo of his feet taken in his hotel room has so far attracted 32 “likes” and counting. “That just about sums it up” says Glenn.

We’re heading south east on I30 through a green tunnel of forest towards Texarkana which is a couple of hours drive away. The weather is somewhat strange; they’re having record low seasonal temperatures in Colorado, Kansas and Nebraska and we’ve got blue sky and not much to do in the way of chasing. There’s talk of heading to Shreveport, Louisiana at some point and why not?

A quick pit stop at Hope which transpires is the birthplace of President Clinton and we’re back on the road. We might have a trip to Dallas tomorrow, grassy knoll and so on.

We drop into Leslie and Lisa’s Granary St. Health Food Store in Texarkana; they’ve got more aisles of stuff than you can possibly imagine. I buy a couple of things amounting to just less than $10 and rather embarrassingly I pay for it with the 3KG of shrapnel. They’ve also got The Yarn Garden next door which specialises in natural fibres including Alaskan Qibiut yarn which would set you back $100 a roll. It is lovely and soft…but I decline to buy any.

Texarkana straddles the Texas/Arkansas border and there is a place you can stand with a foot in each state. We don’t go there…Their stores are on the Texas side so that counts as state number 11. We go to Spring Lake Park for our first picnic of the week which says something about the weather as we’re on day 6. Due to popular demand my fellow travellers insist on hearing first-hand the infamous tick incident from 2012. In my usual understated style I present an abridged version of what happened that fateful day in Nebraska. Glenn, so moved by my performance decides to video it and shares it with his 800 Facebook friends…

Lisa and Leslie very kindly offer to stay in the back of the Suburban so I’m fairly comfortable in the middle seats unlike poor David who is suffering badly with Canadian Death Flu which I fear is permeating the rest of the crew. We then head south on US71 towards Shreveport and I break out my virgin map of Texas;  my Northern Plains map remains unused, desperately wishing it had been a South East USA map. We cross into Louisiana which, with an increasing indifference, is added to the list as state number 12. We reach Shreveport and crack on west on the I20 into Texas passing junction 635; this is one long road.

There might be a few bits and bobs bubbling up later, there certainly isn’t now.  We’re booked into the Days Inn at Terrell just east of Dallas. Looks like tomorrow we will head on early to Dallas to have a look at the JFK stuff, with a last hurrah towards the Oklahoma Pan Handle or Colorado tomorrow  a further 6 hours away followed by a 4 hour drive back to base at Oklahoma City; I'm feeling stiff at the thought of it but that's the deal with storm chasing. That’s a long day which will be subject to review in the morning. The day finishes with a nice brisket at Hickory BBQ Roots and add some green beans to my health kick. I also find out that BYOB stands for "Bring Your Own Booze" so a diet coke it has to be as I hadn't brought any!

Day 6 – Total miles: 397

Day 5 – We have both types of music – Country and Western…

Well I wasn’t expecting that. Woke up and we’re in Nashville, Tennessee. Any further east and we’re into the Carolinas, then the Atlantic Ocean, then my house. Looking the other way it’s 200 miles west to Memphis, a decent trip to ordinary folk but a short hop for seasoned storm chasers; hell that’s almost walking distance.

While we’re here we’ll ignore the incessant drizzle (wrap up and make do as my mother would say, which makes sense in the English Lake District but doesn’t feel quite right here) and go for a whistle stop tour of the sights.

First up is the Mecca of country and western, the Grand Old Opry. Adorned with banners of Dolly Parton and…I have no idea who any of the others are…it is sadly too early in the day for it to be open. As it turns out the Grand Old Opry is actually the new Grand Old Opry…the old Grand Old Opry is somewhere in town. Yes, I was confused too.

Next up is the Hermitage, home and plantation of President Andrew Jackson. As far as I can figure out it’s based along the same lines as a National Trust property in the UK. We pitched up expecting to take a couple of snaps of the house, but this is out of site, cunningly hidden by the visitors centre. It’s $19 minimum to get in unless you’re a serving member of the military which would entitle you to free entry. As we’re all civilians we stare at the board displaying the admission prices. Peter cracks first and we’re back in the van.

There then follows a discussion about the origins of the name. Pronounced “Hermertidge”  as opposed to “Hermitarge” which I know is that humongous museum in St. Petersberg, Russia. Spending your life rotting away in front of the Discovery Channel can sometimes make you seam learned and really clever. Apparently, there’s also an identical museum in Leningrad…Google tells us that the local town is named after the estate  but it turns out no one  appears to know why Andrew Jackson picked the name.

As I rattle this out in the back of the SUV, pressing random keys and cursing every time we go over a bump, I’m chewing on one of the myriad brands of gum you get in the truck stops. The flavour goes in the blink of an eye and chewing becomes ever more challenging until my jaw is as sore as my buttocks. Some Wrigley’s Spearmint Gum would be nice, or even some Juicy Fruit at a pinch.

We park and wander up the main strip which is full of neon signs, big, bold banners trying to get you to part with your money “buy one pair of boots, get two pairs free”, “Bettie Page clothing” and so on. A couple of blocks up is the old Grand Old Opry which is now called The Ryman Auditorium. They don’t make this easy for you. It was a pleasant way to spend half an hour, with live music drifting out of some of the bars, I’m  sure it’s fun at night. We finish up at the Johnny Cash Museum and have a cursory look round the shop. We’re then back on the road and there’s a sign for Clarksville for you Monkees fans out there.

After crossing the Tennessee River we have a break at Holladay on the I40. Comedy ensues as I go to the toilet (sorry restroom) and turn on the tap (sorry faucet) which has 2 settings: “off” and “tsunami”.  I’m blasted out the door backwards desperately trying to avoid a large Japanese fishing boat…I swim over to Subway and have the usual ‘I wish they did a 9”’ conversation with myself and end up, as usual with a 12”. The problem with 12” is that it’s quite unwieldy;  I managed to squash the end putting my seat belt on, then despite grasping the beast with both hands was unable to stop the end going all floppy which deposited an entire RDA of light (sorry lite) mayo down my front.  While trying to sort this out I had an epic crispnado (sorry chipnado) incident in the back of the van which will take some clearing up when we stop. Never a dull moment.

We continue heading west and we’re into blue sky and warm sunshine. As we approach Memphis my spirits lift; we’ll soon be back on the map! We then get stuck in traffic as an 18 wheeler with a burnt out cab is dragged off the central reservation (sorry median).The plan is to plough on through Arkansas to Little Rock tonight and on to Texarkana that straddles the Texas border tomorrow morning. Texarkana also happens to be home town to the ladies in the middle seats and we plan on visiting their health food store. This is great as they’ve promised to let me exchange the 3KG of change in my right pocket for notes which should stop me from walking round in circles. A quick vanilla latte at Starbucks and we pass through Memphis and into Arkansas, state number 10 on this epic trip, an amazing figure eclipsing all previous trips combined. No time to pay a visit to Graceland. 

Blimey, that’s an anvil forming in the distance. We have a storm! No prospect of tornadoes as there’s no shear, but it becomes severe warned so let’s get on with it. We head north to the rather shabby town of Earle then west on US64. There are paddy fields either side of the road; Arkansas is a major producer of rice. We continue west towards…Bald Knob. Bald Knob is, apparently, the strawberry growing capital of the world and in early May they hold the annual HomeFest Festival which has several strawberry orientated events including a Mr Bald Knob competition…The storm fizzles out.

Onward to the Days Inn in Little Rock and a very tasty prawn (sorry shrimp) Cajun meal at the Faded Rose restaurant.

Day 5 – Total Miles: 422

Day 4 - The Magical Mystery Tour...

The world is flat and I’m waiting to fall off the edge. The 1:1000,000 maps I brought with me have long since been left behind and we are in unknown territory, and I don’t know where I am in the unknown territory.

Last night we ended up in Logan’s, for dinner which wasn’t where it should have been as we were clearly parked next to the Pony strip club. Eventually we get to the right place and we’re asked if we’re here for the Ronald McDonald convention… I order a 22oz Samuel Adam’s which apparently doesn’t qualify as a locally brewed beer and so attracts a price premium. Lexie the waitress, who must have been no more than 22 fixes me with a stare and asks if I have any ID. Huh? ID for what?  For age!!! I don’t have any ID with me and am fighting a raging thirst. “I need to speak to my manager” says Lexie. “We have to ask anyone who looks under 40 for ID”. Ok, looking under 21 would have been ideal, but I’ll take what I can get. Lexie and I agree it’ll be our little secret and the beer duly arrives “I’ll fetch the alcohol” being her parting remark. The steak was pretty good though I didn’t realise that when I ordered the peppercorn sauce it would come on the side salad…

Back to the hotel to load up the blog. Not tonight Josephine so slow was the Wifi. I had to disable the laptop’s sleep mode and it uploaded overnight. A mistimed call from a cricket coach back home has me wide awake at 06:00 so I get up. A quick look at the SPC has a 5% tornado probability south and east of here but the days after that look lean in the extreme. A quick look on my blog stats has the hits rocketing into single figures.

This morning we have a nice breakfast at the Cross Eyed Cricket in Evansville. This place is a big city yet only has a population of 120,000. I guess you spread out when land is freely available. A quick Starbucks and we’re off on…a road…to somewhere. Damned maps.

We enter Kentucky, yet another new state. No sign of any blue grass, derbies (derr-bees) or bourbon distilleries, at least not in the first mile though we do pass Ellis Park shortly afterwards.

We head south and east (I think) as tornado watchess are issued for the target area; the rain of this morning has been left behind and we’re into warmer air. Looks like we’ll have a decent crack of the whip today apart from one thing: trees. Chasers really don’t like heading east as forested areas are everywhere obscuring the view which as you can imagine can be really dangerous as a tornado can come out of nowhere and really ruin your day. Today we’ll need to stay on main roads to guarantee a good cell signal so that our radar images regularly refresh and we know what’s going on; a bit like flying on instruments.  We need to stay safe at all costs.

Apparently we’re on I65 heading east as I write this on our way to Edmonton where we’ll have a review of what’s next. We’ve just passed the National Corvette Museum which recently lost 5 of its priceless collection to a sink hole. A shear marker has now appeared on a cell to our east indicating rotation. This is a good thing which is more than can be said for my buttocks which are not enjoying the shift in the back of the Suburban. God help you if you’re built like a silverback gorilla. Feels like sciatica so I’m invalided back into the middle seats. We then pass Knob Lick, I kid you not – apparently it’s a ghost town, I can’t imagine why everyone moved out.

We drive round and round and round Edmonton and get a few forks of lightning before the weather descends into a horrible, messy, wet, hopeless pile of (insert appropriate profanity). There was a comical moment when Leslie and Lisa's hair started to stand on end. I can assure you we set a new world record getting back in to the SUV! There were tornadoes reported in Ohio which, even by our standards, is way off in the distance. Ironically there were reports of funnel clouds back in the UK, which also happened when I came here in 2006. You can't make this stuff up! 

We set off south in the pouring rain towards Nashville, Tennessee, our 9^th state with the moral boosting Dead Kennedys (slightly incongruous given our location) filling the headphones, where we’re booked into the Days Inn. Looks like an early start tomorrow, a short trip round Nashville, then a long drive back west, through Tennessee and likely onwards through Arkansas into Texas. A visit to Wendy's and a nibble on a less than gorgeous burger was all the enthusiasm a tired crew could muster and it's early back to the hotel.

Never mind running out of maps, I've now run out of fingers with which to count the states. Outside chance of something in Texas, even something in Colorado at the end of the trip, but the big day, Sunday, is now well behind us.

No photos today, none taken!

Day 4 – Total miles: 416

Day 3 - The Road Trip Begins...

Woke up after a fitful night’s sleep courtesy of the ridiculous amount of chicken fajita I had last night. I made sure I ate most of the chicken which had expired for my eating pleasure; there was then some discussion about some university that had devised a gadget that could measure the “pain” felt by plants when they get cut up, so I guiltily made a fist of eating those too. That was a mistake.

A quick look of the map always has some interesting names such as Fruitland to the north, and then I noticed Riverside to its west. No! I’d completely forgotten about this place yesterday: The Future Birthplace of James T Kirk. I’d come all this way and missed it. Drat. I wonder what Curryville is like; hot?

We go into Mount Pleasant for breakfast and a very pleasant place it was too with a “historical square” replete with rusting traction engine. We have breakfast in the very classy de Brito bistro. It was superb and goes straight to the top of my all-time Plains best breakfast list. I’m even confident enough to ask for a cup of tea and they pretty much get that right. The guy who owns it is from Portugal; turns out he’s there through marriage.

After some debate we head south with the Mississippi directly to our east. “Target Area” for today is St. Louis where we’ll go and visit the famous Gateway Arch. A curious coincidence:  the weather in San Francisco comes up in conversation and like a rapier I quote Mark Twain (perhaps not verbatim) – “the worst winter I ever spent was summer in San Francisco”. Halfway to St. Louis I notice the Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum. As it’s right on our path it might be worth a visit.

After an unusual one state chase through Iowa yesterday we cross the border into Missouri adding a new state my “US States Visited” list. I don’t think it’ll be the last on this trip. As we cross the border I’m stunned to see every shop and warehouse dedicated to the sale of fireworks. “Must be illegal in Iowa” says Glenn.

We arrive at Hannibal, home to the Mark Twain museum and I pay my $11 plus $1 towards their restoration fund. The museum was quite evocative of childhood, reading about the adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. They’ve got Huck’s house, Becky Thatcher’s house the famous picket fence that Tom got whitewashed; basically all the characters were represented. The fictional characters. Hang on, all these houses were “inspired by”…but finally we get to Mark Twain’s house which is a real house where Mark Twain really lived. Except he was called Sam Clemens then. Still, it was heaps better than the fake Boot Hill at Dodge City. Onward to St. Louis and the rain has stopped.

We arrive at St. Louis and walk down to the Gateway Arch. Wow! This thing is much bigger than I thought, 67 stories of glinting stainless steel and concrete, the gateway to the west and a celebration of the expansion of America as travellers stopped off at St. Louis on their way to a new life. Designed in the 1940’s, construction started in 1962 and tells you everything you need to know about the USA’s golden era - the 1960’s where anything and everything was possible culminating in the moon landings of July 1969. It's a really beautiful piece of work.

The arch is a hugely impressive structure, and after some queuing we were on our way up. Fortunately the 1200 odd steps were complemented by a retrofitted shuttle comprising incredibly claustrophobic 5 seat pods. After 4 minutes you get to the top and get out to look at the view through narrow windows. Unsurprisingly the views are spectacular with downtown St. Louis on one side and the Mississippi on the other. Plenty of pictures were taken and I check my mobile phone – full signal – so I call home for a “guess where I am” moment.  It’s only 3 minutes on the way down and we’re soon crossing the Mississippi into Illinois. I’ve been to Chicago O’Hare but that doesn’t count so I’m officially adding this as a new state. We’re booked into the Super 8 at Evansville North. That’s in Indiana! Indi-bloody-ana! And we could be chasing in Kentucky tomorrow! I brought 3 maps with me covering Texas to the Canadian border and we’re now right off the page.  Boy, this is a grade A road trip.

Day 3 -Total Miles 419

 

Day 2 - A good sleep and let's crack on...

By the time we’d eaten last night and got back to the hotel  fatigue had really set in but I still had stuff to do – charge batteries, download photos from the cameras and make a dent in the blog. Fortunately the Wifi signal was decent so I managed to get some of it done and saved before the inevitable resistance to sleep finally crumbled.

With an 8:30 start I set the alarm for 7:45 as a “back stop” on the assumption I’d wake up early but I slept through clearly now acclimatised to the -6 BST time zone. A mad scramble ensued to get ready and finish the blog which fortunately published without problem. We breakfasted at the local Cracker Barrel, its rustic interior at odds with its location in the middle of a parking lot. Breakfast wasn’t great; I went for the coffee option rather than attempting the usual tea ordering fiasco. I avoided the grits, gravy and biscuits of which I’m not a fan.

We said goodbye to Council Bluffs and headed east further into Iowa. Iowa is another farming state and the birthplace of Captain Kirk. Some small town somewhere in Iowa has declared itself his birthplace and has some kind of visitor attraction. The weather is wet, drizzle and heavy rain as we pass through an Amish town and stop for a coffee in Mount Ayr with its brick cobbled streets and…no coffee shops.

We pass 50 miles south of Des Moines and 40 miles south of the birth place of John Wayne and the Covered Bridges of Madison County, inspiration for the film of the similar name. We reach the I35, grab some truck snacks and head north and I’m dreaming of a crunchy apple or nice succulent pear. Instead I have a Starbucks cold coffee mocha drink which is preposterously sweet.  We’re just north of Missouri, and a potential new state which for now will have to remain off my list.

When you’ve got a long haul to a target area you split up the journey into imaginary legs. Sometimes you have nice legs – sun, scenery and nice places to stop. Other days, like today you have very tedious legs; it hasn’t stopped raining and today I’m in the back of the SUV which is cramped to the extent my buttocks appear to have atrophied.

We head north towards Des Moines (to 10 miles of the afore mentioned attractions) then east and past the turn off to the American Gothic House. The good news, as of 15:30 is that storms are starting to get organised to which the Storm Prediction Centre has attached a 5% tornado risk. Lisa and Leslie very kindly volunteer to swap seats so that David and I can get some relief in the middle seats. We stop at Fairfield and head south, we’re clearly in the right area as the rain has eventually relented and the air is warm and moist. We are well east at this point (not far from Illinois!!!) but now have a storm to play with – persistence has paid off – and it’s the only game in town.

We continue south east and end up at Highway 218 near Houghton. Frequent stops on the severe warned storm rewarded us with some cloud to ground lightning but a lack of surface winds mean that there would be no tornadoes, plus we’re up against the Mighty Mississippi and the Illinois border so we’ve nowhere left to go and book into the Super 8 at Mount Pleasant, Iowa. Had dinner at a local Mexican, ordered chicken fajitas. Too much food and...refried beans...Richard Hammond may have had a point ;o)

Not a huge amount happening over the next couple of days so it looks like an epic road trip south and east of here. Will cross the Mississippi tomorrow into Illinois then who knows where - Kentucky, Tennessee (Gracelands?) even as far a Alabama! We shall see...

Day 2 total miles: 415

Day 1 - rain wrapped, it's in there somewhere...

We’ve just stopped for a Subway at Salina, Kansas. They’re just the same as the UK with some minor local adaptations such as American cheese; they smell the same too. The problem with Subway is that a 6” is not sufficient to fill you up, but a 12” is just too much food – a 9” would be perfect. I got a 12” with a view to eating only 9” of it which didn’t exactly go to plan. I feel stuffed.

The day started with a rush. I got a txt message at 02:45 from Rory’s cricket coach confirming that his match was on. That would be fine if I was in the UK and it was 08:45 but I’m not and it wasn’t. However it did wake me up to an alert me via a Facebook message from Peter that the 09:00 meet for breakfast was now an 08:00 departure as we needed to be in Nebraska which is a 6 hour drive away.

A quick and unpleasant hotel breakfast and we were off to Wallmart for van snacks. I picked up some granola bars and some other non-meltable bits and bobs (hint: don’t buy chocolate as it can get very messy) and got into the checkout queue from hell. Women at Wallmart turn up with vouchers for everything and just as all that got processed the old guy in front of me who must have been 70 wanted cigarettes and…was asked to provide proof of identity!

With the mandatory stop at Starbucks out of the way we were heading north on the I35 through Witchita and then onto the I135 which turned out was the I35 (close but no cigar), we retraced our steps and we were soon heading north again.

Today is a moderate risk with a 10% tornado probability which is very promising. To labour a point, that means that there is a 10% risk of being within 25 miles of a tornado in the nominated area and time. That’s all fine and dandy, but many other factors come into play that affect your chances of seeing a tornado:

·         Do we have time to get to the target area before initiation?

·         How much daylight will we have?

·         What’s the topography like, are there hills in the way, forests obscuring the view?

·         What are the roads like, any rivers to cross, are there any bridges?

·         How close to a metro area will we be (no chasing around built up areas for us)

·         How many chasers will be out clogging up the roads (usually locals out to “have a look”)

·         Do we make the right decision on which supercell to follow – do we leave one and look for a better one or do we stay?

Well the good news is that all the above factors appear very favourable so all the ingredients for a good day are in place. Day of the week? Let’s see.

14:20 and we have a tornado watch: explosive storm development, long lived supercells, large hail and tornadoes with some strong. Sweet!

Continued heading north in the hope of seeing long tracked tornadoes in Nebraska ending up around Hebron. Travelled up US81 then moved west on US6 - and we had a very intense storm coming our way with chasers reporting multiple tornadoes. On the Spotter map many of these guys were very close to the circulation, from our safe vantage point any tornadoes were rain wrapped and invisible.

We headed east back along US6 with a gust front in pursuit and news of destroyed farm buildings and more of the elusive tornadoes reported. As we retreated the Tornado Intercept Vehicle (TIV) shot past us and Reed Timmer was also there in Dominator 3 who later intercepted a tornado and posted a video. The tornado sirens are going off - that sound makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up.

A nervy escape up US6 followed now heading north looking for the east turn to safety as we got stuck in some traffic and enveloped in wind and rain with zero visibility - Rear Flank Downdraft or the outer circulation of some hidden monster? We escaped and headed east parallel then joining the I80 interstate west towards Lincoln. The hook echo on radar was the most impressive I'd ever seen.

We stopped on the I80 with a wall cloud in front of us with the tornado sirens blaring. There's nothing visible but there was a tornado in there somewhere but we never got to see it! Great chase but no money shots!

We crossed the Missouri into Iowa (new state!) and checked into the Days Inn in Council Bluffs (which took forever as the computer was off due to the weather). Dinner at Applebees then a good nights sleep.

Day 1 total miles - 550