IanM

Yep, my mistake sunset in Colorado, but could still see Nebraska, so it counts in my book - I'm trying to forgive the place This was Ian Carruthers - big dog didn't get a look in

Looong day, that started with us heading east toward the ne Colorado Wyoming border area with an eye on Scots Bluff. A diner lunch in North Platte and we kicked on with plan A. Plan B was born as the storms fizzled and we decided to try to catch storms building to the south in Colorado, which developed into Plan A mk2 as storms pipped up over Scotts Bluff, very picturesque rocks with purple skies behind and a nice county road provided great views of storms drifting slowly by without living up to their severe markers. At this point a farm dog jumped in the car and refused to leave, until Ian grabbed it and managed to stop it from jumping straight back in. Todays risk in Kansas helped us decide to head south, leaving Nebraska to see if we could intercept a nice line of storms for lightning shots, but Nebraska had other ideas and created a perfect sunset and some very active cells that we decided to watch from a hill for an hour as they flashed like a disco before returning to North Platte for a late meal and more lightning. Once the guys wake up they should have some decent pics to share before we head off to play in the plains one more.

Nebraska, a fickle lady at the best of times kept us guessing today. But she made up for it with this :

A quick piccie - I didn;t get a lot of chance to use the camera yesterday, but this one was caught while leapfrogging through Kansas to Nebraska

Great day to start the tour, with some pretty hardcore cells kicking off mid afternoon as we headed through Kansas. A slight pause while we rebooted barrons cost us 10 mins, which ironically left us facing fierce 60mph+ side winds, driving rain and hail doing its best to take out the drivers side windows. We pushed on for a few miles as the conditions worsened, stuck in a convoy of traffic, until we hit Norton where some quick steering took us round the trres and part of a roof in the road, we were able to take a road south, hoping to escape the worse. Another cell had pushed toward us and merged with the original cells, leaving us no option than to pull onto the pavement and shelter under a building awning until the bigger hail and winds had passed. We then pushed on to Hill City where lightning started a large fire to our north, and the strong winds were creating some unexpected dust storms, reducing visibility to less than 25 metres in places. Finally we overtook the gust front and leapfrogged different positions watching the storm line approach until deciding to let it hit us while we sheltered in a a car wash, once the heaviest rain cleared we were treated to a massive show of lightning that continued as we ate pizza before setting of for a 120 mile jump north to Grand Island, with a spectacular light show to keep us company. we recorded the stream for a while as it was late in the UK and we figured you might want to see it. Anyhow, I'll let the others post up any photos, and we'll work on the video when we get some time.

There was a possibility of heading south, 6 of us in one car, 3 hour drive for a maybe then a 3 hour drive back - beer won.

Yep, all change and our first beer of the season instead of a manic drive north tonight. So Denver is purty, reeeeal purty

Well, we're here, sort of - just Owen to arrive now while we wait for Paul, Claire and Ian C to head north to meet us before cracking on for a drive up to North Platt for a sleep and then on to Minnesota for a nice risk or two. Denver is basking in sunshine, with a slight smoky haze on the horizon from the huge wildfire in Northern Colorado, which some experts now think will burn in one way or another until Autumn. To fill our time we'll be heading off shortly to the warehouse sized shop of dreams - Walmart and then off for a quick sight seeing trip to the mountains. Hopefully we'll have the car set up for streaming and chat ready for the amazing scenery and expected storm action tomorrow and onwards. Ian

I am, the 4pm ish flight? I cashed in some avia miles and managed to blag an economy plus seat, which will help with getting the kit home without excess baggage charges. pm me your mobile number, we can test the airside bars... you have mine in the welcome pack Trevor

No weather geekery here, Paul S mentioned it on fb chat before I headed off for a wedding at the weekend. The combined powers of myself and Quentin are usually enough to see off hurricanes from 20 metres away, so things must be looking up.

We were getting twitchy Quentin, but it looks like there are some signs of life for us now - there looks to be a huge trough coming through later next week which is a very good sign for an active tour.

I must of missed that one, any chance you can point me to the relevant post? Aside from any forecast only being useful if it is generally correct, there are a host of industries that use a range of weather data from nowcasts to longer term trends.

The lightning shot shows that all that practice in Arizona last year was worth it ;-) really sharp, perfect timing too

There better be some left over for T5 ;-) And Nebraska still works its magic.

To add to Lewis's 360 panorama, Arron has created a cool photosynth here http://goo.gl/OZgm6 (couldn't resist linking to it Arron, sorry ;-) )

Cheers Tom - did you catch my offer for a free exclusive mouse mat (yeah really, it's a limited edition too) for the best scenic picture, or most imaginative use of a chicken?

Quick frostbite check, everyone still got use of fingers and toes? A new Netweather mousemat (collectors edition) for the best scenic shot...

Amazing shot by Craig at the end there, I guess that's one of the strikes that made you all squeal?

Woah, that's a 'run for the car shot', nicely done Lewis

Cheers Tom & Nick - are there any pics from yesterdays action? It would make a nice fall back if 6 hours of watching the Thames Flotilla gets a little too much ;-)

General weather chat and discussion is the second sub forum above this one, I think some of you have accidentally hit the wrong link and arrived here? Please stay on topic, that being Model Discussion, and save the team from having to wade through multiple reported posts and see the model thread descend into a raft of responses to posts that shouldn't even be in here. Thank you

Yep - Tommy Two Tours is driving the plains once more, while providing spontaneous cabaret and entertainment for the guests, and anyone else who happens to be watching. we're thinking of getting "Tour with Tom" t-shirts made up for his car next year

Good advice Claire and 4wd. have a browse of www.dpreview.com and compare cameras on there. Once you have narrowed down what features sound useful in your price rangel (live view, sensor clean, video modes, megapixels, speed etc) then go and play with the cameras and see which one fits and feels best. The other option is to go for a slightly older camera on ebay, and spend the change on some good glass to replace any kit lenses, as they tend to be a little lacking optically.

Not.Jealous.At.All It even posed over a harvested corn field for you. Aswesome stuff.

Cheers guys, dodgy hotel internet is painful sometimes.