Well Stormchase ‘007 is over, 15,000kms later!! We didnt strike Gold during the 3 weeks but before you start saying we were bad chasers the locals chasers were also not having a great 3 weeks . But as Murphy law would have it, before we left they had a F5 tornado, and looks like on june the 6th they are going to have a large outbreak of severe weather. Not so good for the locals but gold for the chasers.

Will I be chasing next year?? Well im really not sure, after these few days in NYC Im leaning to going on OE, so might have to give the 2008 stormchase season a miss, but then you never know by December I will be storm deprived and the plains may call me back!!

Thank you everyone for viewing my blog, for the month I had 18000 hits!!

Well our last chase wasnt ment to be. Everything looked looked, there was a tornaoda watch put out, then a warning but never a tornado. Well not on the storm we chased, there where other chasers that targeted other storms this day that did produce and those chasers scored. So it was another very close hit-and-miss day, kinda somes up our trip, so close but oh so far!!

So thats it from the Chase trip, approx 15,000 kms a couple of distancent tornadoes, but im not really counting them as they were so far away! We did see some intense lightning, and storm structure that we will never see in NZ!

But you never know we may be back next year!!

We have had our last day on the chasing today. Didnt see a tornado but we where righjt in the middle of a tornado warning. Only had 3 hours sleep aswe drove about 350 miles to limon CO,so we could get to Denver in time to catch our flight to NYC.

 Will update from NYC!

Cheers

Well today is our last hase day

Over the last two days we have been getting ourselves into a good poisition for todays setup. Drove over 1000 kms on Tuesday, and a few hundred yesterday. We are currently in Liberal, KS. A Town in South Western Kansas, right on the border with Oklahoma and Colorado. The National Weather Service has put out a moderate risk for todays servere storms and and 10% risk of tornadoes. Hopefully we can go out with a bang on our last day!!

Yesterday we chased a line of weak storms in Nebraska. I dont think I even bothered to take a photo all day. There was one cell that went up and became tornado warned and did drop a tornado. As soon as it became warned we headed toward it and by the time we get with in sight of it, all we saw was a weak high based storm. At this time we thought it was a false report, but have seen the photos since!!  After we gave up on these storms we headed north and stayed at Murdo, South Dakota, a truckstop on the interstate.

Left Murdo around noon today and drove all day till Jamestown, North Dakota. Here we waited and waited and waited then gave up on what the weather models and National Weather Service were showing as good potential for some decent storms. We werent the only ones to bust today, there was quiet a few disappointed chasers about.

As I write now we have a line of storms approaching the motel, that might produce a nice lightning show for the evening.

Chased a supercell in Winona Kansas on friday evening. It should great structure, produced a few weak funnels and wall clouds. It didnt produce a very good lightning show after dark as most of the lightning was cloud-to-cloud lightning, or otherwise knowen as CC, compared to CG which is Cloud to ground.

From today we have a new chase car and im driving!! The reason becasue 3 of the group of 7 have returned home, Willobough and myself have one chase car, and Steven and Sherly are still chasing till the end of the month.

Today we had a weak storm on evening, but really wasnt worth chasing. Over the next couple days we have a good set up, so thing are looking up even if only for a couple days. 

Life on the road chasing storms has its up and downs. Living out of a suitcase in dodgy hotels, traveling long distances and having Mcdonald’s as you staple diet.

The hotels here have’nt really been all that bad, there alot cheaper than back home but some are kinda cheesy. Like the Amarillo Airport hotel, you wouldn’t know its 2007 and not the mid eighties. When it rains there are puddles inside but I guess thats alright as they have a garden inside, about the size of a aircraft hanger.  

Our meals consist of a free  breakfast at the hotels, lunch on the road is typically at a Mcdonald’s or subway, dinner at a local restaurant, or as some cases its macca’s again as we arrive into the wee hours of the morning! btw when I get home I’m never touching a Big Mac again!! I have been very impressed with the waiters here, I always thought ‘why do I need to tip??’ but i think because of tipping, the service is exceptional!

As of today we have travelled 10518 km, visted 11 states and I’ve got another week left!!

 …………..I’d hate to see our gas bill!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNbyTr0NGMI

Just uploaded the video from the Kansas storm 22nd May

We chased the setup that that the weather models were showing over the Texas Panhandle. We drove south from Hays, KS, to Canadian TX (yes there is a place in America called Canadian!!) From here we watched a couple storms go up, but from our view point nothing looked like going severe. Although North of Canadian there was a tornado warned cell that did produce.

Eventually the southern most cell went tornado warned, with limited roading options we had to drop south then try and catch the storm. Luck for us it wasnt moving away very fast, there was heaps of potential for tornadoes but the storm didnt seem to organise it self on the side we where on. It did produce a couple tornades but these where rain warped, so not very chasable.

After watching this storm we headed north about 15 miles to Spearman, where just as we entered the town was put under a tornado warning. As soon as we sought shelter the warning was dropped but a squall line was approaching with possible damaging hail. Hail stones up to about 2-3 cm were sighted.

Sorry if you have tried to get to this page, it seems like it may have been down for a period. Seems like everything working fine now!!

This morning we came down from northen Nebraska to set up and wait for the convection to start. The severe weather outlook showed a good risk of a supercell set up with large hail and risk of tornadoes.

We didn’t manage to bag the later but saw a couple of funnel clouds and some awesome structure, as well as a lightning display to put any fireworks show to shame!!

Tomorows chances are looking good, with a greater risk of severe storms than today’s forecast.