MikeUpjohn

Fantastic to see! Saw Burlington, CO under a tornado warning too last night! Great stuff! Stay safe!

Hmmm, work aren't going to like this news ahahaha!

@Paul Might be too early to confirm, but do you reckon there will be an Arizona Tour in August 2020?

Hey guys, Started yesterday in Woodward, OK after overnight storms lashed us with thunder, lightning, rain and gusty winds, but nothing severe. Moved down to Shamrock, TX and then to Paducah, TX and messed with a proper HP beast with 4" hail which was also tornado warned! Chose the tail end charlie, which made a couple of funnels, but nothing tornadic of note. Finished in the evening with lightning photography before stopping at Plainview, TX for the night. Several of us noted a weird orb of light fall from the base of the storm while we were doing lightning photography, around 7 of us saw it, no idea what it was, gave us all goosebumps! We witnessed some of the worst flooding ever around the Lubbock, TX and Crosbyton, TX area, with roads under water, cars stuck, and flash flooding everywhere. Some pictures below! Mike.

Quick edit of yesterdays cone tornado, which we when followed for quite a while with some awesome dirt roads next to the tornado!

Are you sure? Nothing on radar?

Looks like I also caught a picture of the wedge tornado last night too!

Hey guys, Starting the thread for today. Another ENHANCED Risk and 10% hatched risk in the TX Panhandle today. Overnighted in Tulsa, OK last night after tornado warned storms and lightning photography until gone midnight! Headed Amarillo-ish way ready for storms firing off the dryline later! Should be good fun! Pictures to follow! Mike.

Another screen grab of the developing wedge tornado last night.

Structured supercell East of Tulsa, OK. Lightning barrage was so much this was caught handheld!

Lightning shots at the end of the day, East of Tulsa, OK.

PS. The flooding up here is unreal. We saw a truck trailer buried in deep mud yesterday and water which must have been 6 to 10 ft deep in fields all around NE Oklahoma.

Hey guys, LOTS of photos to come from yesterday, but Paul and the drivers absolutely nailed this, and some utterly jaw dropping shots of structure and lightning. Even had a breif play in the bears cage, before witnessing multiple tornadoes, including a night time shot of the one below. Looks like a cone tornado to the right with a small satellite tornado to the left? Open to suggestions! Went on to see a huge wedge tornado after dark, which just missed a town, thank goodness! Mike.

Quick picture of yesterday's white cone tornado near Mangum, OK from a few miles back. Massive chaser convergence yesterday, and sadly some people (not us) driving wrecklessly! Mike.

Hi guys, Will start a thread, as we are on the road again heading for South Central Kansas, to have a play about with the SLIGHT Risk and 5% tornado risk issued for the area near Wichita, KS. Photos to follow later, should be some nice storms to play about with! Mike,

Some more photos attached for you guys. Enjoy!

More photos to come shortly, bare with me! Patchy wifi!

Hey everyone, Attached some un-edited photos for you to see of this chase day. We got 5 tornadoes officially, making Paul's 200th in Nebraska! We got on the storm early on and watched with locals at a gas station as it developed a nice base and started pinging out lightning and the hail markers in the storm got bigger. Before long it started to rotate and quickly went tornado warned. We stopped down a road South West of McCook, NE and watched the meso spin, and then two little spin ups in the field. Got back in the cars as the RFD came over, and a small funnel produced a breif spin up right over the cars! A very windy 10 seconds with tumbleweed being blown around! Dive South a little then back North and hook sliced, and on the other side a tornado had just touched down 5 miles West of McCook Nebraska in a field, looked like Wray Part 2! We then had a great chase North with the meso clear at all times, and the storm becoming cyclic, and regularly wrapping up and dropping tornadoes in the field. Down a dirt track, all the chasers stopped as a large funnel came across the road at the end, we could just see a huge lowering spinning about a 1/4 to 1/2 mile in front, and this put down the 5th tornado, but unfortunately, hit a house, and also snapped power poles clean off about 4ft height. This has now been rated EF3 for this last one. Got to Farnham, NE and the road was closed so we went back to Colby, KS for the night. Some photos below for you, including the tornado damage (look closely and you can see snapped power poles in the road). Mike.

Hey guys, Started today in Enid, OK after a supercell came through town as we checked into the hotel last night. Down day / travel day today ready for tomorrows dangerous day, which is currently a MODERATE Risk. Visited the Twister Museum in Wakita, OK after a late start and lunch in Enid, OK. On the way to Elk City, OK for the night after dinner in Luigi's in Weatherford, OK. Nice day and some good laughs, tomorrow might be quite different! Mike.

Another C-G from an earlier storm yesterday!

Here is a quick un-edited picture from a funnel that formed right at the end of yesterday's chase, backlit by a C-G. Never touched down but a chunky wall cloud nonetheless!

Attached the video of the tornado siren test for anyone who wants their siren fix.

Hi everyone, Will do a quick thread for yesterday as we did get on a severe thunderstorm North of Colby, KS. SLIGHT Risk was well North over Nothern Nebraska for largely wind and hail, any tornado activity was across IN and IL. Started from Elk City, OK where it was already nearly 80F at 10.30am, and headed North. Stopped in Greensburg, KS to see the damage 12 years after the EF5 tornado hit, and chatted to a lady who had survived this monster - her house is now a typical 1 storey house, but was a 3-storey Victorian building. Heard the tornado siren test in Greensburg, KS before heading on to Dodge City, KS for a BBQ lunch. Headed North towards Colby, KS and a few storms popped in a general thunder risk area, and one went severe warned for a while with upto 1.5 inch. We let this go before heading back to Colby, KS for the night, and Twister Bar. Mike.

Sat in Manchester T2, ready to rock, will try and share photos each night on here, wi-fi permitting! See everyone out there, it looks like a busy 10 d

Hi Lucas, Great to see you interest. I've been on the tours for last 5 years, think its safe to say I got the bug, thanks to the enthusiasm, friendliness and 'willing-to-go-the-extra-mile'-ness of Paul and the team. As Dorsetbred said, RadarScope is good, if you really get into it, then purchase a copy of GRLevel 3 which shows storm details as well. Both you can set up to draw warning polygons, and have storm reports on I believe. I had the same problem with you in regards to exams being in May, its worth just getting your exams good, and then chase when you have no commitments in my opinion. Regarding finances, the deposit for a tour is usually £150, and you can opt for a payment plan per month. Paul on this forum should be able to help you with that. Usually you complete payments by March for travel in May/June etc. Flights typically are around £500-£600, Denver was a bit cheaper this year, Dallas a little more expensive, but its worth hanging out on flights until January, maybe even February, as sometimes deals come up. Routes via Heathrow seem to be expensive, routes via Atlanta, Dublin and New York seem to be cheaper. ESTA, I've just bought and can tell you is $14, so just over £11 at the moment. Other costs really, I tend to go a day before the start date on the WeatherHolidays site, and I know others do, just so I can acclimatise, and chill in the hotel for a bit. After all, it'll be 12-14 hours through various airports depending on where you board your flight. I pay for a hotel for that first night of the tour, and its usually £50-£60, half that, if you can find someone else doing the same thing, to split a double room with. Last year we chased pretty much every day, and as a tour group, we also got some evening downtime to go to some fantastic restaurants, other days was Subway/McDonalds/gas station for a sandwich on the move, this very much depends on the whether, when and where storms will be, and the plans for the day. I came away having spent sub $600 for 10 days, and this includes souvenirs, food, beers for the hotel and so on. It'd have probably been closer to $500 had I not bought an additional hard drive to store extra pictures and video! The only other thing that springs to mind now, is insurance. DogTag is a fantastic company for storm chasing specific insurance, and is usually around £100 for the trip, but obviously well worth it. Plus you get some cool goodies through the post from them! Besides that, if you are into your photography / video etc of the storms, like I am, then you go into the £1000's for lenses, camera equipment, tripods, camcorders, whatever you're interest is. Hope this helps, this is just my view as an incredibly obsessed tour guest, who counts down to storm season every year! Mike.