Stu Robinson

I am at work in Redditch – South of Birmingham until 17:00 on Monday. I am not interested in the warm sector over the South East (2500 j/kg CAPE, -8 LI’s) as this just spells CAP to me. Best dynamics by far are West of the CAPE pool along the eastward moving cold front – providing that storms don’t get undercut by the cold front – I expect the best tornado chance @18:00 to be Warwick to Norwich. As things stand right now.

Hi Paul, My time is also up - but I was able to extend my trip for another 24 hours so that I can chase the pattern over East colorado tomorrow - my wife wont be happy when I tell her!

Started the Day in Bismarck, North Dakota, in a hotel just across the river from Paul and the NW Chase Team. Target today was upslope flow over Wyoming around the Wheatland area – lack of moisture meant that storms would be high based. Got on the road at 07:00am Eventually got to new mountain storm at Douglas, WY as it was just forming and watched for on hour – eventually this moved off the mountain and died. Another cell formed off the Laramie Range which I then intercepted by Wheatland (Original target). As this cell was showing rotation I opted to blow off the hail feast West of Wheatland and move East in order to observe the updraft region. A wall cloud then formed with a discreet dust plume under the western edge. As I moved off what appeared to be tornado like feature formed but I am not convinced as it could well have been outflow dust or even a gustnado – still it looked quite neat – I would need to see an image or video from another angle in order to convince myself. Storm croaked out soon after so I stopped to take some time lapse of it falling apart – spending night in North Platte, NE as I want to be in range of a possible play in NE Kansas tomorrow.

I was on the first Cell West of Bismark as it formed from a Cu Cloud. Positioned around the cell as it became a low topped supercell. The tornado report west of Bismark was false - I was there. Suddenly the cell croaked out and collapsed - I was then unable to reposition to the Eastern cell (one that Paul was on) but that soon died as well. Overall a fun day.

Intercepted the three tornado warned storms West of Billings, MT. On storm one, hung back in the core to get hail footage and then went North out of Big timbre on order to catch the NNE moving storms as they crossed HW12 – this actually was a BIG mistake as the tail end Charlie storm turned hard right and paralleled I90 all the way to Billings (where I had spent most of the day sitting) During this time it produce (spotter report) a tornado 4 miles NW of Billings. If only I had gone East out of Big Timbre… Meanwhile on HW12 not only did I have to core punch the Most northern tornado warned storm – but had to deal with a huge hail fall that covered the road – (read 20mph max speed on ice marbles. An then the road was flooded across in many places. Eventually got out ahead of the Northern cell in time to see the wall cloud move across HW12 to the North – at this stage there was no tornado. Over all a high energy chase, close but no tornado.

Area forecast discussion from Billings, MT "PEOPLE ARE URGED TO NOT BECOME COMPLACENT WITH THE CLEAR SKIES OUT THERE NOW. CONVECTION WILL FIRE QUICKLY AND INTENSELY WHEN IT DOES LATER THIS AFTERNOON. SEVERE WEATHER THREAT WILL ONLY INTENSIFY THE LONGER IT HOLDS OFF..." "TRACK OF SURFACE LOW THROUGH SOUTHEAST MONTANA LATER TONIGHT CERTAINLY PUTS THE CITY OF BILLINGS WITHIN THE AREA WHICH WILL BE AT RISK FOR TORNADIC STORMS." See http://kamala.cod.edu/mt/latest.fxus65.KBYZ.html I am already in Billings waiting...

It is June and I LOVE the high plains - the senerary and lack of chaser hoards make for great chasing. I am currently in Billings, MT and expect storms to form first off the Mountains between Billings and Lewistown before moving East and becoming supercells. One thing to watch Paul - there are a number of roads in MT cloased due to snow melt flooding - watch HW 212 if you are comming up from Rapid city- it is closed! see:- http://www.mdt.mt.gov/travinfo/map/mtmap_frame.html and :- http://www.mdt.mt.gov/travinfo/floods.shtml

Looks like a good play for hail storms off the Palmer Divide in Colorado. Diural heating will "cook" the mid 40's DPs until the cap brakes @ 17:00 local time. Mminimal tornado threat today - unless a landspout can form off the convergence boundary? I will update this thread later once I get into position - now currently in Denver waiting...

89 Confirmed deaths in Joplin (so far) From whats i have seen via video etc - this was a solid EF4 tornado.

MONSTER supercell now in south West Oklahoma (SW of Altus) showing strong rotation - I expect it to be tornado warned very soon.

Looks like an early start to the day with storm initiation over Foard/Hardeman co TX

Imm 1.1 million is not enough to secure a part two - oh well

I am just wading through the 100 odd emails that I have got over night – I plan to respond to each and every one of them this morning – what a job!! As I mentioned before this production exposes the cross over between family life and Storm chasing - something that we can all relate too with other psssions in life - ie golf etc.! Interesting all the female email take Alison's side - while all the blokes take mine. According to the Independent review - we are the new "Gavin and Stacy"

Hello Cookie, In the film is my intercept of Typhoon Karoa (Tiawian) and Hurricane Gustav (USA) this is *some* tornado stuff in there - but not much as I was keene to keep away from the "run of the mill" tornado weather type programe as there has been loads of them in the past. We missed the eye in Krosa but got the eye square on under Gustave - there is a clip of myself in the outer eyewall of Gustav - visabiltiy is ZERO and it is really intense - compare this to the eye itself where there is not even a ripple on the puddles. I hope that you enjouy it - I enjoyed making the production.

I finally got to catch the advanced preview trailer that is being aired on CH4 about the program - I made a quick copy of it here if you are interested http://www.ukweatherworld.co.uk/stu/stormjunkiepre1.wmv (5mb)

Check out http://www.channel4.com/programmes/a-very-...sh-storm-junkie "Based in Leicestershire with long-suffering fiancée Alison, Stuart Robinson's interest in storms was sparked by the 90s Hollywood blockbuster, Twister. He saw his first tornado in 1998 and, over the last ten years, storm chasing has become a full-blown obsession for Stuart - he's chased 30 tornados and six hurricanes so far. But last year he set himself the ultimate storm chaser's goal of experiencing the eye of a monster hurricane for himself, where the 150mph-plus winds, capable of flattening buildings, drop to a dead calm. It's something few people would do through choice, and which promises serious personal danger. To achieve this holy grail he must defeat the odds, defy the authorities and runs the risk of stormy weather on the home front as his wedding to Alison approaches."

Shameless plug :winky: A Very British Storm Junkie Thursday 12 February 9:00pm - 10:00pm Channel 4 Documentary about Stuart Robinson's unusual hobby. By day, Stuart is an IT consultant but in his spare time he is a fanatical storm chaser, traveling the globe to witness the awesome power of nature first hand. VIDEO Plus+: 4473 Subtitled This is mainly Hurricane / Typhoon stuff that I have seen- but there is a bit of Tornado interest (USA) in there.