I Left My Heart in Tornado Alley

This is my Google Timeline data since I got my Android phone in September of 2017. It even picks up my random layovers.

Can you tell where my favourite place to be is? ;) 

Tornado Alley: Highlight Video and the Journey Home

As we drove up to Regina, I find out that Greg is going to meet us at the airport and him and Tara are going to drive back down and chase some more. It kills me. I wish I could join, but it's too late to change my flight... and to be honest, I am pretty exhausted.

Here is a highlight video of the tornadoes I've seen this year.

This is from May 17th.

This is from May 21st.

Here is a collage of all the tornadoes I saw on May 17th.

Once home, my best friend came over and made me dinner. It was lovely. 

Tornado Alley: Tired but Tempted to Keep Going

Glendive, MT

Apparently today is National Road Trip Day. It couldn't be more fitting as we make our way back to Canada. I'm going to miss chasing with these guys! We caught 8 tornadoes in total. May 17th, of course, being the most epic day. Not pictured: Greg Johnson

We dropped off Erin and Brad in Denver today. I already miss chasing and was going through withdrawals as we drove further and further away from tornado alley. I looked out on to the landscape at the clouds on the horizon and thought I saw wall clouds and inflow tails but I knew my brain was playing tricks on me. 

Next week is supposed to be an active week and during dinner with the group, I almost decide to stay longer. However, there isn't enough people to help out with driving. Chris needs to head home because it's his birthday tomorrow and he has family plans and Greg doesn't trust me to help drive Flash. Tara, one of the only other females on the tour, wants to go but she doesn't drive. The idea seems to be dropped for now. 

We stop in Montana for the night. 

Tornado Alley: The Canadian, TX Wedge

Garden City, KS

On our last chase day, we managed to see the distant remnants of a rain-wrapped wedge near Canadian, TX.

This was tornado number 8. We barely saw it, but it still counts.

This is just a pic of the screen on my video camera. I increased the contrast so the edges are more visible.

Tomorrow we start heading north, back towards Regina.

Tornado Alley: Sometimes the Storms Happen Indoors

Guthrie, OK

This morning in Topeka was rough. 

I ended up getting into a drunken argument with Erin last night. The alcohol, the late nights, the lack of nutrition, and the lack of privacy eventually started taking its toll. I love Greg and Chris, but the frat house party vibe of this tour is beginning to wear me down. Storm chasing is definitely not a "vacation" in the traditional sense. This hobby/passion sometimes involves more stress and requires more resilience than in my day to day life. Even though being in confined spaces with strangers in high intensity, sometimes life or death situations can make for strained group dynamics... the best of friendships can also be tested. At one point, I was sitting alone by the hotel pool in a daze, playing this song over and over on my little Bluetooth speaker. 

After a morning of awkward silences and sitting in separate vehicles, we had a tearful heart to heart in the warm, dust filled low-level wind as we waited for initiation in a Braum's parking lot.   

Today called for another PDS. 

Greg had to return to Canada today for a speaking engagement so we were down to only Chris.

We chased all along eastern Kansas and Oklahoma. Didn't see much since it was a lot of rain-wrapped circulation and bad road networks.

Saw some nice structure at times though.

At one point Johnny (John Hallen, who was tagging along with us) needed to be pulled out of a ditch by Storm Wagon. I have no idea how he managed to end up in there, but it was a little nerve wracking waiting for him to be pulled out while in a tornado warned storm.

At one point I thought I had lost my tripod plate -right when we had stopped to shoot some lightning. I was disheartened. I felt so frazzled, disorganized and off kilter. I wasn't on my chaser A-game. 

I improvised by stabilizing my camera on the hood of Flash. 

I later found my tripod plate on my other camera. Ha! Oops.

Tomorrow is our last chase day. I am beyond exhausted.

      

Tornado Alley: Flooded Roads and Kansas Cocktails

Topeka, KS

Today we chased a few little cells but nothing too substantial.

We encountered some flooded roads that were blocked off but not completely impassible.

Greg ordered a "side" of fries during brunch in Oklahoma.

Time for some cocktails at Hooters. A little Fireball and a margarita to start the night off...

 

Spent the night at the Clubhouse Inn in Topeka.

Tornado Alley - The Paducah Tornadoes: A Particularly Disappointing Situation

Wichita Falls, TX

Last night in Elk City, before we found bedbugs in our room, I decided to crawl into bed and watch the season finale of Game of Thrones while the rest of the group watched Twister in another room. Little did I know, I was being eaten alive the whole time! I have a series of very itchy bites on the right side of my upper leg/butt area. Awesome.

Once we got into our new room, I didn't sleep well. Besides being paranoid about more bedbugs, I would wake up and check the radar every hour or so because I knew there were severe storms firing up early and wanted to keep an eye on them. 

Today was forecast to be a PDS - A "Particularly Dangerous Situation." The Storm Prediction Center issued a "high risk" for severe storms and a 45% tornado probability. This type of setup was very rare... Though, only time will tell if Mother Nature would live up to the hype. 

I'm generally never in a good mood in the morning.. But something stirred me from usual morning grumpiness. As I was pondering what kind of gas station food will sustain me for the day, a cashier came up to me with a worried look on her face, "My son is by himself in a trailer. Should I go get him?" "Yes," I say, "Yes you should. No one should be in a trailer right now."

I was suddenly brought out of my head and into the present. There was a lot of tension in the air. My mom was even worried about me because there was so much hype in the news. 

At one point there was a mother and son following us in their old car and they actually had to get jumped while waiting with us at a gas station. I not so subtly told them they shouldn't be following us but they wouldn't listen and got a bit defensive about it. Eventually we lost them; I have no idea when or where. 

Despite the anticipation, all we saw were two little skinny tornadoes near Paducah, TX. We missed the one near Mangum, OK because of bad road networks and massive chaser traffic. The visibility was quite bad. It was very hazy out so there wasn't a lot of contrast.

Some photos of us in Paducah, TX. 

This day was definitely a PDS: A Particularly Disappointing Situation.

Here is video of the Mangum, OK tornado. 

On a side note, I noticed something cool while on the road. In Brayden and Allen's truck (Storm Wagon), the ham radio is very sensitive and generates a lot of noise. What's cool about this is that it picks up lightning strikes in the clouds! This is a known phenomenon, but I have never witnessed it. 

I caught some of it on video.

We had dinner at a Sonic in Seymour before going out to chase some more. Despite it being an anticlimactic day for us, there were still dangerous storms heading towards a few small towns -big rain-wrapped monsters. Nothing but embedded circulation. I wasn't too keen on chasing something that wasn't even going to be visible, but it wasn't my call to make. 

I don't remember much after this because I napped in the back seat until we decided to call it and spend the night in Wichita Falls. 

Tornado Alley - Bedbugs, Prairie Oysters and a Hangover... Oh My!

Elk City, OK

Had a great mini chaser convergence party last night in Woodward, OK. I got to meet some Canadian chasers that I was only acquainted with on Twitter. This morning/afternoon, we had brunch. I tried "prairie oysters" for the first time. The flavour is fine, but knowing what they actually are made them hard to swallow, especially while hung over.

Now we're in Elk City, OK for a down day. We should be in a good position for tomorrow.

This picture was in my room and also in the room we partied in. I came very close to drawing a huge tornado on it with a sharpie and was being encouraged to do so by our fearless leader... I had the presence of mind to stop myself - but mainly because I was afraid I wouldn't do a good job drunk-drawing a giant funnel.

We chase hard, we play hard.

Erin and I had to change rooms here at the Days Inn because we found bedbugs in our room! It was awful. 

As predicted, the threat has been upgraded to a high risk. Tomorrow could be historic, epic, and potentially a little scary. Hope to get some awesome footage. There will be a series of storms coming in.. And starting early! Potentially tornadic storms are going to start firing up near us at 7am.

Tornado Alley - Chaser Convergence Party in Woodward

Woodward, OK

Today we are heading to the Kansas/Oklahoma border. There is a 5% tornado risk and a 30% chance of severe hail (larger than 3" in diameter).

We didn't end up seeing a tornado today but we did see some gorgeous structure and some mammatus at sunset.

If you look closely, you can see Greg waving hello.

Erin shot this pano with her iPhone.

We ended the night in Woodward, Oklahoma, where we had a little party with a handful of other chasers. Many of them also Canadian. 

Tornado Alley - McCook, Nebraska Tornadoes!

Gothenburg, NE

Today was one of the most epic chase days of my entire life. Waiting for initiation, we all took turns guessing where the tornadoes would occur today and I looked at the map and picked McCook, NE. Mainly because it reminded me of McCool Junction from 5 years ago. It turns out, my guess was accurate!

This was today's set up.

  

The map of all the chasers today was essentially a mirror image of the dew point map. 

We ended up seeing 5 tornadoes today! Here is Greg's GoPro footage of two them. 

Here is footage that Erin shot with her iPhone. This was number 3.

Here are the photos I took of all of them. Number 2 was very short lived and number 5 was hard to see because it was getting dark and it was wrapping in rain, but it was definitely there. I enhanced the contrast a bit. 

#1 

#2

#3

#4

#5

Today was a struggle between shooting video and taking stills. I had a GoPro on my head that ran out of battery right as the first tornado touched down. Today I learned that the newer GoPros have a way shorter battery life than the older generations. I recorded an hour of nonsense beforehand, in anticipation for a tornado. 

As we flew down these windy dirt roads, it felt like a scene from Twister as I literally hung out the window with cameras in my hand. I had never been so close to a photogenic tornado before. Seeing this chocolate brown dust beautifully rotating in so much detail as it churned the ground felt like the world had stopped and I was seeing everything in slow motion. The feeling that went through me can only be described as the word I invented later that day -a "torgasm". 

Even to this day, there are bits and pieces of Nebraska in my cameras. 

We ended the day at Tep's Bar and Grill in Lexington, where we ran into George Kourounis, Dave Lewison, Scott McPartland, Chris Kridler and Dayna and Brad Rousseau. We all had a successful chase day and it was time to enjoy a steak dinner. 

We ended the night in Gothenburg, NE.

Tornado Alley - Getting in Position for Tomorrow

North Platte, NE


Tonight we are in North Platte, NE. We saw a few storms pop up but nothing too mind blowing. We tried to shoot some lightning but it was a bit too cloudy. Tomorrow will definitely be interesting! We're already in our target area, so we'll be able to sleep in a bit.

Waiting around for initiation.. 

Here are a couple of shots from today.