stevestorms

Hi everyone Martin and I left from Gainesville this morning and have been sitting in El dorado Ks which is east of Wichita on the road to IMPORIA and have been here since 1400hrs looks like so far we have picked a good spot dry line setting up just to the west just waiting for the trigger now, still we have been to radio shack done some shopping and eaten a Burger King ! phew this storm chasing is hard work!

Yes i would agree with you there, we have both been stopped before both times on highways and been told to slow down and sent on our way, unfortunatly not this time :-( a few years ago we were in Missuori with a Storm coming at us from our right reports of 90mph winds along the front it was kicking up a 200ft dust storm along the leading edge, we could see our escape about a mile up the road was a left turn in the road and clear air but it didnt look like we were gona make it! a state trooper was right behind us, I just put me lights and hazards on and floored it the smokey followed the car in front disapered in a wall of thick brown cloud then BANG! our car was knocked 10ft across the road loosing 3 of our roof arials which were now hanging on their cables banging along side car and one snapped in half! needless to say we escaped into clear air :-) but the State Trooper pulled up behind us got out and approached us and with a big grin yelled out "WOWWEEEEEEEEEE THAT WAS STRONG" phew! I thought.

What a sodding pain!! ok ok it was us, we were heading north making for North of OKC came through DFW on the 820 which is the DFW LOOP and there is a very small stretch which goes from 65 to 60mph we came over a incline 4 lanes of cars all doing the same speed except for some bloke flying up our inside who suddenly braked and ZAP!!! we got caught by a smokey with a hand lazer who promtly jumped into his cruiser and pulled us, now this is not normally a Prob in the USA as speak to them polite and with luck you will get yer wrist slapped and sent on yer way, however this time the Police said they were doing a special detail on speeders and gave us a citation!!! thanks! this means that you have to either go before a judge or go to the court building within 11 days and cough up. this was not in our plans for the day and after getting as far as Gainesville Tx we decided that we better stop book into a hotel (Holiday Inn Express) and check out what we needed to do just in case we had to return the following day to see the judge :-( as it happened we drove back into central downtown DFW to the courts building and Martin said it was like a bunch of cashiers coining in the money $169 later he was a free man !!!!! if we had only noticed this stupid speed limit change we would have been only 7mph over instead of 12mph and probably wouldnt have been stopped. Ok so beware! you wont always get a ticking off and we were real polite, the only good thing is that so far no storms we were thinking of a outside chance north of OKC that something might kick off, we will see, just got to chomp a few more miles tomorow. Steve and Martin

Hi Tom, glad you guys had a great day, some good stuff there, today looks like all of a mcs this morning so we are gona blow north into Ok get to Ardmore on i35 and look again, maybe looking and Ks for tomorrow so gona kill some miles. take care all. Steve and Martin

Ok first shot of the day The Supercell the only one of the daylight ending near stephenville Tx, we picked our target area of Bowie and waited under drizzle for hours finally the skys cleared from the west then it was just a matter of waiting for the first tops to go up, when they did we were 60miles off target to our SW so we set chase got within 5miles before the Cell got yaffled by its stronger brother behind, moving west and south we managed to get to the SE of the Supercell massive updraft towers and reports of 4 to 5 inch hail were a big risk, we have just heard a chaser has had his car destroyed !!!! I hope it wasnt you Paul!!! anyway what a treat the loudest "HAIL ROAR" I have ever heard and then a fantastic effort by the storm to ut one down---but no banana :-( close though a loverly lowering just before dark great rotation the whole cell tilted at an angle and spinning like a top great Lightning if a little scary with the shotguns every now and again. all in all a great chase day, Martins first look at a full blown Tornadic Supercell he was chuffed to bits. Stevestorms.

yes thats on a bit of a loop on the weather channel Dallas and DFW continues to get a beating today, we are at Paris for the night and I just see we might catch a storm in the next 2 hours which will be a bonus maybe it will be sooner :-)

Ok Hi bit of a disapointing day really, pleased with our forecast this AM before SPC 10% :-) and held short of there along the line at BONHAM but it soom was evident that the cold front had pushed even futher Southeast steering any lively storms futher and futher South, Tornado sirens went off in Paris just after we left to intercept the cell head on however this proved to be foolish and we also ABORT ABORT ABORT !!! it was hammering down with 3 indicators on the BARON it was really not worth the big suprise! as it turned out the cell got dragged south and shrunk rapidly doing a right turn as so many had done today. Highlite of the day was theStorms in Norman early this morning and meeting up with pals the OUTLAW CHASERS who I believe ran into you Paul as well??? we are not chasing into Hick Town so careful planning tomorrow and maybe a run across to the west ready for tuesday depending on models tomorrow. To sum up , it was a difficult chase day poor visibility and rapidly changing conditions.

We are going to head SE to Hugo then maybe PARIS for starters depending on SPC update at 11am but thats are thinking, need to get out from under all this grey wet stuff .

Hi all, we drve North up through near the area of that action but had no way of knowing it was going to be there :-( however we are under storms right now and have been since 4am nearly 3 hours now of lightning and heavy rain, nothing severe but its a nice welcome for us. Today we are waiting to home in, but looking at NE Tx probably a 200 miles drive, we managed to get Baron activated last night but took over an hour to fire up, still now we have eyes. report laters if we have somet to tell :-)

Looks good Nick, but Dave has promised us some beers so pin pointing Dave's house for a target area has be slightly worried :-) well its tonight myself and Martin leave catching a flight first thing tomorrow, should be driving from DFW to Norman by around 1500hrs CDT would welcome some lightning just south of OKC for tomorrow night although I think most of the show should be east of here unless things have changed. :-)

LOL I see yer did run for the clear air!! well done chap, didnt look like much cover :-(

drat, I always worry about the rental so try to be alert and run for clear air if no cover so far we have been lucky, I know sometimes yer just get caught then its a case of sod the car! lets keep alive, bad luck Gorky hope yer didnt get stung to hard at the rental.

Very little cover out in some of them parts some chaser friends of ours got Munched buy hail a few years ago Charles Edwards and John Guyton of Cloud9 John got his new truck dented to hell as the Tornado they were chasing sat in the road in front of them and dragged the hail core into the circulation where it fired out 3-4inch missiles at them roger Hill also got damage to his car and I belive his wife hurt her arm :-( Cooo that that would be cool but no :-( but its free for 15days have a go and if yer wana buy it its only around £50 ish great for virtual chasing

if anyone wants to try GRlevel3 its free for 15days http://www.grlevelx.com/grlevel3/ only takes a short while to dowload and a fw mins to get the hang of it but some might like STORMLAB www.stormlab.net this shows you little tornadi images and positions of spotters also with free trial

looking good

GRlevel 3 snap shot

Tom dont show yer Radio Pete will come over and smash it!!!!

WOOOO Just seen a monkey with A tart on his back !!! a up lad nice to see yer on the webcam me and Pete both watching yer all

Yeh need too think a bit about getting the Monkey in front of webcam

Thanks Nick, I will try and keep up lol Martin and I counting down now should be on the road out of DFW BY 2100BST Friday

Still chance of storms firing near the cold front later with any breaks appearing - already a cu field in west TX in clearer air but out of range for the team atm. Where are they Nick??? I thought maybe they were heading north up the i35 in to central Ok but I aint got a clue where they are atm

Hi all dont forget to take plenty of Bananas for the Northern Monkey :-)

Grabbed this image tonight using GRlevel3 supercell and poss Tornado 23.15 BST Kansas

Hey so what if you blokes have been travelling for 20hours, Sleep whats that !!! looks like you better get booked in then get out LOL good luck chaps

You Again lol ok Stu recorder set :-)