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