Day -1 - Room 101...

A bit bleary eyed but here I am back at the Wyndham Gardens in Oklahoma City and I've been put in Room 101. I wonder if there's room in here for the death ridge as well? More later.

As usual I'm wide awake at 4:30 a.m. so force down some bedroom coffee and boot up the laptop to pass the time until breakfast. Wi-Fi is a bit prissy but it final connected with the same password as last year.

The journey? Not too bad if I'm being honest. 9 hours to Atlanta then a 3 hour stop over before the flight to OKC Will Rodgers. A bigger plain (sorry, plane) than usual and full too, the pilot announcing that they were having some "maintenance" done on the nose wheel and that they were now waiting for a guy to bring a sledgehammer to move the chocks which were now stuck under the wheel. Now I'm not an expert in this kind of stuff but plane repairs and sledgehammers don't seem like natural bed fellows...

I sat next to chap called Ken who was flying back from a holiday in Florida. Typical Mid Westerner, friendly and interested in chatting to a total stranger, we struck up a conversation which helped pass the time. This worked magic as we set of 25 minutes late and got there 20 minutes early. Thankfully the nose wheel did its job.

Anyway Ken was born and bred in Oklahoma City and mentioned May 3rd, 1999, the date of the EF5 tornado that went through Moore, Bridge Creek and Newcastle with the highest ever recorded wind speeds of 304 mph (+/- 20). His dad lives in Moore and had the roof of his house lifted off. They rebuilt but Moore then got two more unprecedented EF5s in the subsequent years. Brings it home and keeps you grounded while you're out here.

On arrival at OKC I phoned for the courtesy bus and the phone was answered by a Welsh voice. Before we could have a discussion on the make up of the British and Irish Lions squad touring New Zealand the bus arrived which I shared with one other traveller, an international horse judge. Turns out that there is some sort of horse show in town and he's flown in from Palm Springs to judge the show. His speciality is Quarter Horses, these are horses that sprint over a quarter of a mile, not what you order in a horse restaurant...The net result of this is that the hotel is fully booked, after I booked in there was..."nay" room at the inn...

While contemplating the grits and gravy breakfast which awaits me shortly, it's time to boot up the SPC and have a scan of the outlook. Couldn't do that on the way here as the 500mb, 4 quid a day data package I ordered from EE will only connect to the EE landing page whatever you type in. Grrr...

While one chasecation group that's chasing for 2 weeks is talking about coming home a week early due to the death ridge, Peter is happily bimbling about Colorado hoovering up some non-severe pulse storms. That's the attitude! A quick check of the SPC shows a declining influence of the ridge during the week with a marginal risk for isolated supercells on the southern High Plains on Tuesday with the 4-8 day summary also bit more optimistic. Some marginal and slight days on the Plains will do nicely, hopefully with some nice, late season photogenic supercells. Hopefully those bloated moderate and high risk days with the associated chaser convergences have been left behind.

Time for gravy. Sweeeeet!

It's not the despair, Laura. I can take the despair. It's the hope I can't stand. ~ Brian Stimpson, Clockwise...

Yes I know, what am I doing chasing in an odd numbered year? Shouldn't this be next year?

Well..."make hay while the sun shines" is my usual motto so what the heck. Unfortunately this motto may bite me...see later. I'm back with Peter Wharton and Storm Group Chasers this year and on my lonesome with no mates in tow from the UK.

The path is well trodden and I should be crawling into the Wyndham Gardens in Oklahoma City on Saturday evening, reacquainting myself with some Shiner Bock at the bar while striking up conversations with whoever, half expecting to see the guys from last year sat in the same seats. Most of the chasing tour companies base themselves in Denver this late in the season so I suspect the hotel will be deserted of chasers, so no Silver Lining Tours folk to chat to this year, no virgin Brits off to get hammered in Bricktown expecting to see an EF4 on their first day out. Which, rather annoyingly they did last year...

Ok so to kit. I'll not bore you with cameras and so forth, suffice to say I've upgraded the Nikon 16-35 f4 which I never found compelling in the field (too much distortion, soft edges requiring stopping down which is not ideal in poor light) to a modern designed Tamron 15-30 f2.8 which is a significant improvement in my eyes. Check out the rest of the kit from last year, it's otherwise the same. The post Brexit exchange rate is not in my favour so I needed to cut a few corners on the budget.

Back to making hay. This has been a strange ol' year to say the least. Very early spring was unusually active in Dixie Alley with record sea temperatures in the Gulf. The Storm Prediction Centre (SPC) then had a number of moderate and high risk days in May which didn't pan out as expected ending in a few frustrating, rainy messes and few tornadoes. This has happened to me more times than I care to remember when the promised apocalypse fails to materialise.

So to the forecast. Not good with a death ridge in residence blocking moisture from the central plains. No moisture, no severe storms. The SPC 4-8 day forecast is one of the shortest I've seen, basically says"you're screwed". So a sunshine trip and some hay to make?

Funny thing storm chasing. The best days can end up with a frustrating mess or a cap bust as some parameter fails to pan out, but the reverse can also be true; marginal and slight days can turn into something really special such as Campo Co in 2010. It's a bit like looking forward for weeks to an epic party that turns into a boring shambles then having a couple of pints after work on the spur of the moment which turns into the best night out of the year.  Folks that have suffered a ridge in previous years have ended up in uncharted territory such as Montana and found little nuggets of storms well away from the chaser infested convergences further south which seem to get worse every year.

Bottom line: forget the despair and forget the hope. Bring it on and enjoy the ride!

Epilogue...

All these trips are different; you expect the unexpected, the disappointments and the moments of elation. There are so many aspects of storm chasing that you can only possibly experience a small subset on any given trip hence the compulsion to return again and again. Despite chasing only in Texas and Oklahoma we’ve spent nearly all that time in virgin territory, well for me anyway. If you thing the Plains are big then think again and add a nought or two; they are effectively endless.

It’s always fun to chase with buddy, it was great to have Rich along (not sure which one of us is Walter Matthau and which is Jack Lemmon), and to meet Valarie and Aiden. Great job by Peter and Malcolm in the front seats – part flight deck, part mission control. Fantastic craic throughout.

This trip kept delivering: 5 days of severe storms is at the very top of expectations including three days of being on tornado warned storms. You pays your money, you takes your chance. I’ll need to check but that’s probably the most productive trip so far. Coming here earlier in the season means that there’s more moisture around and the atmosphere recharges more quickly but the downside is more rain and faster moving storms.

Top moment? In the 5 previous trips I’d never seen proper giant hail so, by a small margin that has to be it -Day 2. That was also an exhilarating chase and we could easily have seen a tornado; dumb luck was against us, that is all.

It’s curious; the week has flown past in the blink of an eye but because we pack so much in individual events feel like they happened ages ago. So it is, make hay whether the sun shines or not.

Total miles this week: 3072

Grand total miles over all 6 trips: A lot TBC

See y’all next time.

Day 7 - Homeward bound...

I exited my room this morning and it’s positively cold, feels like 10c so an extra top has to be sourced quickly from the depths of the suitcase. No weather today so it’s back to the Wyndham Gardens in Oklahoma City and the flight home tomorrow lunchtime.

Breakfast this morning is at Dawson’s Family Restaurant which is fine. We set of from Childress and head west to Lubbock to visit the Buddy Holly Centre. The Centre is ok with a room full of memorabilia including his actual glasses recovered from the plane crash and a short tribumentary playing on a loop which is actually quite interesting. We’re then off east with undulatus asparatus clouds to our south. These clouds are so new…they didn’t even have a name a year or so ago. Seriously. Onwards we go on US82 towards Wichita Falls via Seymour where we stop for a Subway (tuna with all the “veggies”).

We stopped at the Saltgrass in Oklahoma City for a team steak tonight, unfortunately had to wait for 90 minutes as everywhere is full of students going through graduation. Beers in a second in the hotel.  I’ll go through the motions of what I call packing later. All being well we’ll be back home late Monday morning.

Total miles: 495

 

Day 6 - Going Underground...

I had a terrible night’s sleep last night. Lights out after 12 but kept awake by the air conditioning which sounded like a Soviet era combine harvester in its death throws. I had to turn it off then woke up shortly after and it was hotter than a Turkish bath in a Turkish prison. Next thing it was 6:50 and the alarm went off. Grrr…My series of four paranoid sweeps of the room yielded 2 pairs of socks drying on the towel rail. Paranoia vindicated.

We have a decent enough breakfast at Roxie’s Diner before heading south on US277 to the Sonora Caverns with The Jam playing on the iPhone including the title of today’s entry which was a coincidence. I had strawberry jam this morning which must have been the mental cue. We get there just after 10:15 and the next tour is at 12:00 so we’ve got time to kill/chill. There’s a peacock in the grounds and an elderly giant Pyrenees Mountain dog plus the cutest nest off three baby swallows being fed by their parents.

The caves are very impressive if a bit slippery, hot and very humid (98%) with a carbon dioxide level orders of magnitude higher than the surface so it was like being at 7000 feet altitude. Our group included half a dozen others including Dave who alluded to something about being in tunnels in SE Asia to go with a vets baseball cap. Dave made it out…just. You had to be there man…The trip lasted an hour and a half and the caves are very impressive with all manner of concretions: Stalagmites, stalagmites , things that looked like coral, skinny and fat alike and even a piece that looked just like a rasher of bacon, colours included. Well worth the trip.

Back to the weather. Today the SPC had issued a marginal storm risk in our area with no tornado risk assigned. There was a 2% risk way north east of here and out of range for today. There is an isolated storm tracking north east to our north east. It’s worth a look so we head east on I20 then north on US83 to intercept. It fizzles out before we get there. SPC (from nowhere as far as I can see) has now issued a 2%  tornado risk in the Texas panhandle. These are the uncertainties of storm chasing. We’re too far away to get there for initiation but head north with some alacrity. We’re booked in to the Days Inn in Childress tonight. For the first time since we left Oklahoma City I’m heading for an area I’ve been to before (in 2012).

It’s a very different trip to last year (12 states); looks like we’ll max out at 2 this year, the lowest ever. We’ve criss crossed central Texas for 4 days now. Texas is so big it doesn’t all fit on my Texas roadmap; the Panhandle is AWOL. We head into Ballinger and stop at the Tres Amigos gas station for a quick break before pressing on north.

We pass through Abilne. Severe storms have fired up north of Childress about 100 miles to our north one of which has reported a rotating wall cloud. It’s 6 p.m., will good old US83 and it’s strictly adhered to 75mph limit get us there in time? The storms are tracking south east which helps us out.

Reports come in of multiple accidents on the I40 in the south of Oklahoma caused by hail so severe as to require the attention of a snow plough…

We…plough on…It’s now 6:40 and our storm has topped out at 50,000 feet. It’s still hot outside with the mercury at 90f. Come on!

We make it and see a severe warned storm with strong inflow on our backs, a wall cloud with inflow tail and some and some excellent outflow with laminar structure. We stop a couple of times then head east and watch the storm roll over us with some outstanding lightning. We head north on US6, grab a truck stop sandwich before heading back west on US287 to Childress where we book in to the Super 8. Excellent day with a bonus storm!

Total Miles: 577

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 5 - Marginal...

What a mere marginal day? Tornado risk is less than 2% everywhere so it’s a leisurely 10:00 meet. I woke up at 5:30 after struggling to get the blog done and incredibly last night’s blog photos had finally uploaded. When I first came over here Wi-Fi was fairly hopeless; it’s 2016, we expect better. I went back to sleep and was woken by the alarm at 9:00.

We have breakfast at the Switch Café in Cool and head south on US281 then  west on I20 towards Abilene where we’ll no doubt turn south at some point to San Angelo.  Things look remarkably different than they did last night when we were belting down here in torrential rain and mind boggling lightning.  Tomorrow looks like a slight day and we may visit the Sonora Caverns the and Buddy Holly Museum which is in Lubbock, Texas in the morning as it’s on the way to where storms may fire. When I gave Rich a quick storm chasing induction before we came over I surmised that we’d likely remain in the southern plains, Oklahoma and Texas which is typical for  this time of year. And so it has proved.

Yesterday I lost the thread on where we were on the maps which is slightly irritating. I always switch on the D800s aftermarket GPS when we’re chasing so I know where the photos were taken; our location and height above sea level appears in the EXIF. I’ll use that to trace out the map when I get home. I do like to know where I’ve been. The map is back out, today’s pen colour is pinkish.

We take a brake at Cisco. Can’t get any Wi-Fi which is ironic considering where we’ve stopped. If that’s too an obtuse reference then I’ll have to explain – it’s a joke and it’s a router!

One thing I forgot to mention is that you get SUV legs which is ironic (again) because you don’t actually use your legs for anything much when you’re travelling. However, after a long drive you have very strong sensation of having got off a ship which lasts until the next morning. We head south on Texas 206 including a rough bit under construction.

We arrive in San Angelo and the weather has a day off so we have a late leisurely lunch at the Cork and Pig. I have a nice pizza and a bottle of Fireman 4 blonde ale. We then check in at the Days Inn (proper Wi-Fi!) and go for a visit to the small historic quarter. Nice old shops and an interesting story about a bordello in one of the basements that was closed down by the Texas Rangers in 1946. Tonight we’re having dinner next door at the Texas Roadhouse and we’ll see what tomorrow brings. Only two days left.

Total Miles: 228

 

 

Day 4 - SPC slight risk? EF6 Guaranteed..!

First off the Wi-Fi in the Day's Inn in Mineral Wells, Tx is a fecking disgrace...Grrr...And don't ask me why the font size is all over the shop either...

Last night was a complete pain. Blog paranoia became overwhelming and the bloody thing needed seriously bringing up to date. Photos took an eternity to upload over Wi-Fi; deciding not to bring a LAN cable has proved time expensive as a LAN port was winking and laughing at me all last night.The Wi-Fi was poor in an otherwise decent hotel.

Last night the SPC issued an enhanced risk which by this morning had been downgraded to slight. With the likely target not far west of here we have a sightseeing tour of Mineral Wells starting at the currently derelict but fantastic (Rich!) Baker Hotel which was built in the 1920’s as a hotel for visitors to the spa; Mineral Wells – the clue’s in the name.

After climbing through (more like round to be fair) a fence a SWAT team turn up. I think we might get told off. Fortunately the erm.. .security guards are friendly and tell us about some of the history of thr hotel. Bits of it were open for various things including a doctors but it’s been empty for a while. They were hopeful that a $55m project would save the building – I do to, it would be a crying shame to let it crumble away. I can empathise being from a town that has knocked down most of its Victorian heritage thanks to the negligence and arrogance of those in power over the years. That’s not progress. The hotel is boarded up and clearly in a state inside. Many of the windows on the upper floors are open and some smashed. The pool is full of rain water. We take lots of photos.

We had a look round an “antique” shop selling all sorts of memorabilia – you’d call it a junk shop in the UK which is not meant to be not endearing (terrible English Adam) in a building that was from the 1890’s; it was older than all the stock. I pass on the WWII German helmet no doubt brought back from Europe by a veteran as a souvenier. The friendly proprietors let me take some photos inside. We also drop into another shop. No idea what you’d call it, make your own mind up from the photos. I took a pile of photos including Rich with his new band. Taking photos is requiring some care as my D800 has uncharacteristically been prone to underexposure since day 1. Not sure why; I’ve been bracketing a bit and checking the histogram more than usual. ALWAYS shoot RAW as you can correct a whole heap of issues on the computer without much, if any penalty.

We head off to a park to eat our freshly acquired Walmart lunch…salad…I have the photos…Not at $7 entrance fee each we won’t. Peter vents his ire by leaving some “constructive feedback” on Trip Adviser. We head off to another free park and lay out the picnic. It is that point that the EF6 (reader alert: there is no such thing) guarantee comes to the fore. Sitting under a tree is a bad idea during lightning storms as they have a tendency to explode which has the potential to ruin your day. The same is true when sitting under a tree where a pterodactyl with the dynoshits is nesting. Well you can guess what happened next. In many “cultures” this is a sign of good luck…EF6? EF7+ more like (yes I know blah blah). A Frisbee appears and we help the moisture numbers with some freestyling. It is 93f which is warm vs 52 back home. I’ll take the former.

We head west on US180. If we get anything today (supercells are possible) it will be somewhere west later on.

We stop at Breckenridge for fuel and I get the ritual Hershey Bar and a cold vanilla coffee drink. The key to this kind of diet is not to look at the ingredients particularly the bit about calories. Gas is 30 odd cents a gallon cheaper than down the road which is a bit wierd. I got a text from the wife who had “gone out for an onion”; hopefully the regulars at Dr Phil’s Real Ale House like the blog, apparently my giant stones were all the talk at cricket…I’m good and phone home at roaming rates as I’m Wi-Fi bereft.

We continue west on US180 and across Hubbard Creek Dam. A severe warned tower has appeared in the distance and is already at 37,000 feet. Nice.  We drive through the sad, semi abandoned town of Lueders and our storm has a TVS marker for a while showing some rotation. The anvil is clearly visible with the welcoming sight of a bit of mammatus. A quick stop at Stanford and the big button on the Esplanade that says “Chase Mode” is pressed. The storm has hail to 2”, tops out at 45,000 feet and we can see lighting. There’s clear separation of the updraft and downdraft; dust is being sucked into the precipitation free base and bits of scud are dancing around. We’ve even got a bit of a lowering. 3 and quarter inch hail is now showing.  The TVS marker is just about back showing 33 kts. Not much in the way of low level winds at the moment so not much shear, but things could go supercellular later this afternoon/evening. Time check: 14:50 so plenty of the day is left.

Our storm has a bit of organisation to it and we can feel the inflow on our backs. It has a lovely shelf cloud on it and soon we’re all employing the iPhone panorama camera mode. We keep retreating to stay ahead. This thing is a right mover and tracking south east by east; we’ve got a road that almost perfectly parallels it and can keep this “photo and go” routine  up for a while. There’ll shortly be some wind to help with shear so we crack on to get in a better position much further down the road.

Then sods law strikes; the National Weather Service mobile phone warning goes off on Valerie’s phone – our storm is apparently now tornado warned. Almost in the next breath a chaser right in the heart of the storm reports a tornado, however this was the only chaser to call it in, nobody else appears to have seen it.

We stop in a small town by the football stadium (Bulldogs?) and catch some nice mammatus and some lightning. We move on and it’s apparent that our cell is on collision course with two others and sure enough they merge and we lose the tornado warning. We head south and by this time the light is fading.

We have a Sonic Burger at Early. You need a pHd in burgerology to order it and when it does turn up the cheque is mixed up. I’m now with the Rat on this – it’s not great. We’re booked back in to the Days Inn at Mineral Wells and have a couple of storms to pique our interest on the way there, hopefully with some good lightning. A big CG flashes in front of us as we track east on US 377.

We turn onto the I20 and Rich is on the left of the van which will get the best view. I wait for the first “fantastic”. There are zillions of flashes, I’m happy that Rich has a good view. You can’t appreciate how often (every couple of seconds) and how relentless (hours) the lightning is. It’s stunning.  I crack on with this blog and start sorting photos so I’m not arsing about when we get to the hotel. We’ll have had 8 hours of actual chasing from 3 p.m. never mind the trip to target.  We won’t be in until well after 12.

Four straight days of top storm chasing, including tornado warned cells on three days including today. They’re rubbish these 2% days aren’t they? ;o)

Total Miles: 432