TornadoTigger

Wednesday was spent on a down day with no storms forecast for the next couple of days. A leisurely morning spent sleeping in and generally pottering. Wheatfields in Omaha for lunch, which did some amazing chicken strips battered with potato chips. Delicious! Five of us spent a lovely afternoon at Omaha Zoo. I surprisingly didn't burn considering I spent most of the afternoon in the sun. Lots of variety in the different areas, including lots of cats :) After the zoo we went for Sushi in Downtown Omaha. I'm not a great fan of fish but I found some delicious Pork Gyoza dumplings with Vegetable Tempura and a couple of Sake Sangrias. I did get a bit brave and try some sushi rolls and some nagiri - really nice but not something I'd want to eat for a full meal. The night ended as it did the last time we were in Omaha, with a visit to Tim and Wallys ice cream parlour. They have done some really good Vegan Ice creams the last time i've visited and last nights "Chocolate...

Start Location: Ogallala, Nebraska End Location: Omaha, Nebraska States: Nebraska Total States: 9 Distance: 384 miles After yesterday's bust, the plan today was to "Not Plan" as planning hadn't come off the day before. We were just taking a nice leisurely drive back to Omaha, the base city - to get everyone back for their flights in the morning. ;) (It just so happens that the forecast for today was for storms between where we were and where we needed to be - so chasing without needing to pick a "target") Notable events of today are the weird beetle invasion that attacked us all while we were stopped up a dirt road - there were hundreds of them and everyone got a friend or two! After a day trying our best to unsuccessfully "avoid" the weather on the "scenic" route back to Omaha (Some hail, lots of rain and nothing much to report otherwise) we started heading back to Omaha to get the rest of the guys back for their flights. We sto...

Start Location: Rapid City, South Dakota End Location: Ogallala, Nebraska States: South Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska Total States: 9 Distance: 578 miles The hotel in Rapid City was really nice, attached to a water park, so it was sad to leave it behind without making proper use of the facilities. We left early to drive the 3 hours towards Lusk/Wheatland in Wyoming, to get there in time for a quick Subway for lunch and by 2.30pm storms were already starting to initiate. This is really rather early for storms to start popping, but off we went! We headed for a very good looking storm - "The Northern Storm" which was really moving with some impressive rotation on radar. We moved position a couple of times to get the best view, but road options in this part of Wyoming are limited at best. With the rain, the non-paved roads turn to mud soup so we had to abort a couple of options to try and stay out of the hail core. We got back onto the interstate and happened upon some "...

Start Location: Willmar, Minnesota End Location: Rapid City, South Dakota States: Minnesota, South Dakota Total States: 8 Distance: 508 miles The chasing started early in Willmar with a Severe Storm with some indicated rotation that passed over the hotel at around 7am. What a lovely way to chase, opening the curtains and watching it out of the window. I threw some clothes on over my pyjamas and wandered down to the Hotel lobby, as the storm was passing around the front of the hotel. I went outside to record some of the storm, but got fored back inside by strong winds and heavy rain! I held the front (glass) door to the hotel lobby closed for 10 mins as it was not lockable and was being slammed about in the wind. The lightning and thunder was incredible to watch and a very pretty shelf cloud structure to go with it. We had a nice proper breakfast in Perkins, which was next to the hotel, which was absolutely packed for a Sunday as some places had power out due to the storm. Some...

Start Location: Omaha, Nebraska End Location: Devils Lake, North Dakota States: Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota Total States: 7 Distance: 745 miles Van Update 9am: Up early for a weather briefing and then on the road. A long haul of 7-8 hours north to North Dakota. Not been to ND before so that ticks another state off my list. All the ingredients are there for some supercells that may turn tornadic - so considering the last 2 week "Death Ridge" keeping all the storms at bay there are going to be a lot of people out chasing this one. Hopefully more Marks on my Chaser Bingo ;) We arrived in Rugby, ND and didn't need to wait long for some storms to fire, Alec chose a particularly meaty one just East of Minot which quickly went tornado warned and we proceeded to chase that. It looked really good for a while with decent updrafts and circulation. It was a very nice structured storm too. We chased it for a while until we let the "Hail" core pass over us, w...

Today is Tour 4 arrival day. Spent the morning watching the James Comey Testimony. Popped out for Jimmy Johns (delicious sandwiches) for lunch and to find a USB adaptor as my travel adaptor had died overnight, leaving me with uncharged devices and a flat powerbank. Not good. After lunch the rest of the "Bisons" as I'm now going to call them started arriving on their various flights from around the US. After a couple of hours of naps and freshening up we went out into the car park to sit in the sun (30 Degrees) and have a jolly good catch up session. It was a lovely afternoon catching up on Chaser gossip, chatting about what we'd been up to over the last 2/3 years and sharing stories. We have a mixture of original Tours 6 and 7 from 2014 on this trip, so in one way or another everyone knows everyone. No first night nerves or awkwardness. At 7pm we all met for dinner and went out to watch some SPORTS and had dinner and drinks (3 pomegranatinis for me). After dinner...

States: 4 (Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa) Total States: 5 State lines: 4 Oklahoma - Kansas Kansas - Nebraska Nebraska - Iowa Iowa - Nebraska Total Miles: 457 Nothing much to report today as it was reposition day to Omaha. A 7 hour drive north to be in place for Tour arrival day tomorrow. Reasonably chilled. I forgot how much I love being on the road, I much prefer seeing the country this way, lots more to see than flying everywhere. Stopped for dinner at a lovely little Mexican place in Nebraska City then on to Omaha for a good night's sleep. Looking forward to seeing the rest of the tour "Bisons" tomorrow. :) Some I haven't seen for 3 years, although it doesn't feel like it.

Tuesday was a down day in Oklahoma City - Shanda and Alec the tour guides were on their way down from Denver so we decided to go into Oklahome City Downtown. Started off at the Myriad Botanic Gardens, with a large variety of plants, large Fish, Terrapin and Duck pond. A lovel place to wander in the sun. The weather was good - 33c and not too humid until later in the afternoon. Headed into Bricktown and sat at a nice bar next to the canal, had some lunch (starter was enough for about 3 meals...) and some Arnold Palmer (Iced tea and Lemonade mix, my favourite) and then more wandering through Downtown. Headed towards the Oklahoma City Memorial, remembering those who died in the 1995 bombing. Quite a poignant place to be considering everything going on at home recently. More nose following and called an uber back to the hotel. While waiting I was watching the kids having fun in the splash park in the memorial gardens and wishing I could do the same. More Parks with swings you can fit a...

Where were we up to? Oh yes. Free hotel, non-existent Hotel Shuttle, no bags and a flight to Dallas in the morning. And a room that smells of attempted washed, but damp and microwaved (in an effort to dry them) sock. The first casualty of the trip. Daves socks from the day before, including the transatlantic and olympic walking between terminals they were a little, well, funky. This is the main reason I wanted to leave the room ASAP!!! Monday Morning continued with a change in luck for the better. We headed back to the Airport, on the now existent hotel shuttle, complete with driver as soon as we were ready - to have to get back through Security and establish where our bags were. Heading to the airport earlier than we needed to was also about to pay off... Back through security again, all good. We went to  United Customer service, with no queue, a totally different story to 12 hours before. Bags were in OKC, not Dallas - ok, good, we can work with that, at least they're in one...

We landed in Houston ready for a bit of faff to get our bags collected and checked in for the OKC leg, however this was actually the easiest part. Immigration was also reasonably easy and quick. It was very quick for me, as I believe having been through Houston before on a 9.5 year passport has helped. Dave had to queue to get his biometrics updated on his new passport. Which means next year that will be me! Then starts the "fun". There were thunderstorms in the area, so we started hearing the weather alert tone going off on people's phones. One of the sounds of storm chasing along with the dulcet tones of the NWS Weather Radio and the ubiqutous Tornado siren. The storms were starting to cause some havoc with the flights, as there were also storms in the Oklahoma City area. We took the Skyway monorail transit (to which we were about to get very accustomed) to Terminal B for the OKC flight, to get to the gate to be told there was a gate change to Terminal C. Back on th...

Weather Outlook: HOT! Start Location: London Heathrow End Destination: Oklahoma City, Via Houston. States Visited: Texas, Oklahoma London So finally it's Departure day. I am so ready for this. Saturday was mostly spent getting my money's worth from the facilities at the Hilton at T5. A great way to start a "holiday" that usually ends up exhasting me :) The afternoon was spent being educated in the ways of "The Spa" - an entirely new experience for me, but I totally loved it. This may become part of my routine now :) Dinner was at Mr. Todiwalas, a Pan-Indian restaurant at the Hotel which was amazing. Mixed tikka starter for main (I'm not a big eater - I know, the states is so totally the wrong place). Venison in Mint and Coriander, Duck with date and tamarind, beef, salmon and 2 types of chicken. Washed down with a glass of Pinot... Delish. Woke up early to news of yet more attacks on London which is a sobering thought, London Bridge used to be m...