Tornado Alley 2015 - The Throckmorton Wedge

When people say I'm "going on vacation" to go storm chasing, I always correct them. This is not a vacation. It's an adventure. There is no controlled environment. It's not an amusement park. Mother Nature has no safeword. Stuff happens, and you don't know how/when/where it will end. This is what makes storm chasing so unique, as well as simultaneously addictive and terrifying. Today's chase was definitely an adventure. Both vehicles got stuck in the mud in the middle of a storm that eventually passed over us. Thankfully some other chasers (The Core-Punchers) were able to get Brad's van out. Van 1 wasn't so lucky. A tow truck had to come and pull it out and it took 4 hours apparently.

George and Charles stayed with the van while the rest of us walked down the mud road with nothing but the clothes on our backs. We thought it would be a few minutes. We didn't have any of our stuff. I just had the GoPro. Ray didn't even have his shoes. It was actually a nice walk. We could hear storms in the distance and frogs croaking. The mud between my toes felt nice. I felt very one with nature. It was a peaceful moment.

Charles and the Core Punchers caught up to us and brought us to the highway. Charles called Brad to pick us up and we gunned it down to Throckmorton where we saw a wedge tornado which was apparently a mile wide. We also ended up in "the bear's cage" and if I hadn't been so dehydrated then I probably would have peed my pants.


Tomorrow will be another crazy day. This time I'll have all my cameras with me so I can better document it all. Now I need to recharge all my gear as well as all my adrenaline.

This is a screen-grab from Andre Belisle's iPhone footage. With the contrast increased, you can really see the outline of the wedge. 

Here is the video I edited together. I was wearing my GoPro the whole time and was freaking out a little in the back of the van. The video quality is quite poor, due to it being shot vertically, on an iPhone.

Tornado Alley 2015 - First Tornado of the Trip

Today we saw our first tornado. Even though it was far away, it was the closest I had been to a photogenic tornado. We also saw a lot of flash flooding. The northbound lane of Highway 87 was completely under water.

After looking forward to this trip for so long and just dealing with the stress leading up to it, I felt so serene watching that distant tornado. I felt present and alive, like this was my purpose. Everything just made sense. As the day came to an end and we made our way back to Childress, TX, I sat at the very back of the van listening to music and staring out the window enjoying the lightning. I felt inspired so I wrote a little poetry and posted it to Facebook that night.

The days melt into nights and the minutes stretch for hours.

To bumpy roads, open fields, dirty feet and dripping clothes. 

Speeding down a flooded highway.. my only focus is the funnel in my frame. 

This is when I am truly at peace.

This is when I'm home. 

There is no greater calm.. 

Than during the storm.

 Here's a couple shots from that day. 

Here is a shot of the tornado, taken by Thad Bowling.  

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Video of that day. It's not super exciting since we were so far away.. but Ray's voice in the background at least makes it more entertaining. Ray is from England and is a Cloud 9 regular. And like most Cloud 9 regulars.. he's a total weirdo. He's a nice guy whose cockney British accent is so thick that you wish there were subtitles every time he spoke. I nicknamed him Weatherpedia since he accurately remembers the dates and locations of historic weather events.  

Tornado Alley 2015 - First Chase Day, near Fort Stockton, TX.

I created this blog with the intention of updating it every day during my chase trip. I forgot how exhausting it is to be on the road all the time. By the time I got to my room, all I had energy for was backing up my photos and video, maybe a quick Facebook update and then getting ready for bed. Right now I'm just going to go through and update each day. I'll copy/paste from Facebook updates as well.

You know it was a good chase day when your hair is a mess, your makeup is smeared and your fingernails are filthy. Today we encountered a beautiful slow moving super cell that became tornado warned a few times. Got hit with a dust storm and then drove through so much hail that it looked like it had just snowed. Got to experience hail fog for the first time. Then we drove through freshly flash flooded Fort Stockton. Also, both the very last place we stopped before the chase and the first place we stopped after the chase didn't have working toilets, so a few of us girls bonded by peeing behind some bushes near a gas station.. And then behind the Burger King dumpster before eating dinner there.

Keeping it classy in Fort Stockton

Supercell near Fort Stockton

This is the only time-lapse I made on the entire trip. I move the camera a bit, but I still think it turned out okay. 

This is the hail and flash flooding we saw in Fort Stockton afterwards.