CHASE BLOGS
USA STORM CHASE 2018
MAY 27 2018
Ok so it is time for us to go our separate ways, at least for another year as we all headed off home or to our next adventure.
It is always a sad time as we say goodbye to friends old and new, but as always we have had a blast watching the best mother nature has to offer and everything in between.
Most of us will gather again next season, but this one for sure will be remembered for great storms and great laughs even though that elusive tornado could not be found.
MAY 26 2018
Unfortunately there were no storms forecast for today so it was a slow drive back to Oklahoma City today in preparation for our flights home tomorrow.
It was however a chance for us to unwind a little after a very hectic 2 weeks of storm chasing.
We arrived at our cosy Norman chase base with the view of relaxing, chatting and of course preparing for a farewell party tonight.
Despite the negative view of the chase season thus far due to the lack of tornado producing potential of most storms, we chased many storms over this 2 weeks, some of which threatened to and indeed did produce a tornado. I would say we had more chasing days than in many previous years, so if you look at storm chasing as a whole it has been an active season, if you are purely looking for a tornado as the sole goal of your chase, then yes you would be disappointed.
MAY 25 2018
Another great chase day!.
Well things really came together well today for our last and one of the best chase days of this season for us. We had great potential with high CAPE, a cap that was supposed to break later in the day, slow storm motion, and adequate lift and wind shear. The only real issue was that the storms would be fairly high based which would limit tornado potential.
We headed initially to Shamrock, where we stared to see storms firing to our west, which now had a mesoscale discussion in effect with a 2% tornado risk attached.
We then hit the road to get onto the western cell toward Seymour. It took some catching but we got out and observed the storm. It had amazing structure but there was a battle going on with it between the warm inflow and cold outflow at the boundary. Fortunately the inflow began to win out and the storm was blessed with new moisture and energy as we watched the most picturesque shelf cloud I had ever seen envelope our location.
The storm became more electrified so we headed slightly further south to keep out of the precipitation and watched a mostly CC storm to the north at sunset. A great day to finish our chase season.
We eventually headed to Wichita Falls for the night.
![DSC04048a[1]](https://amazon.clikpic.com/markchaser/images/DSC04048a12.jpg)
MAY 24 2018
Today was a very marginal setup, with not a great deal of potential for severe storms. it is coming close to the end of our chase trip however so any opportunity at this stage is worth the effort especially as it was just to the west of Roswell or current location.
Just after 15.00 an isolated cell popped up on radar, which we perused but it was very weak and high based and with the parameters that we had to work with today it soon began to wither and die.
There was nothing else to chase really so we decided to put some miles behind us and to head east to Lubbock, TX to put us in position for the chase tomorrow which currently shows much better potential.
MAY 23 2018
Another superb chase day today. This has been a difficult chase season with the upper level shear making tornadogenesis really hard however today things came together really well, with lots of moisture, great instability in the atmosphere, the forcing mechanism and the adequate upper level wind shear.
We targeted and area back toward Roswell, New Mexico. As we headed back west we took in some sights of the mountains as we enjoyed a beautifully scenic drive to our target area.
To our surprise though, the storm we were targeting fired up more quickly than expected as a mesoscale discussion was issued and unfortunately a tornado was reported and documented.
We scramble to get there, and as we did so the storm cell was beginning to hit its mature stage. It had a great supercell structure close to that our the classic mothership. This was the best structure I had seen for a few chase seasons.
We constantly moved east around the storm to keep ahead of it out of the precipitation, it showed some great rotation on several occasions but unfortunately refused to put down another tornado.
Eventually the storm began to dissipate so we decided to head back into Roswell for the night.
![DSC03860a[1]](https://amazon.clikpic.com/markchaser/images/DSC03860a1.jpg)
MAY 22 2018
This turned out to be a fantastic chase day again...even though we still didn't get the tornado!
We targeted an area back east in West Texas. this area had great potential for severe storms with great low level shear and a capping inversion that was not too strong CAPE of around 4000.
We were too far south to reach the area in Kansas that the SPC favoured, however we didn't favour that area anyway as it had less moisture present than our target area.
Storms began to fire around 5pm around the town of Hope, TX. The structure was beautiful as the storm built, and started to become electrified.
We decided to head south to get into a better position, by which time the storm had matured further and was shooting out CG lightning frequently, east of Alpine. it had great structure but no real area of rotation.
We captured some incredible lighting, the best we have probably seen in our years out here storm chasing, and I managed to capture a bolt striking a post on video!.
We continued to watch the storm into the night as it continued to produce great lightning and some small hail.
Eventually we headed to Van Horn, NM in position for tomorrows chase.
![10160333716005133 a[1]](https://amazon.clikpic.com/markchaser/images/10160333716005133_a1.jpg)
MAY 21 2018
Today was a tough day for us as it was the 5 year anniversary of the passing of our great chaser friend Chris Curtis whilst he was chasing with us in 2013.
There was a marginal risk for storms today in the W Texas, E New Mexico region.
Even though the potential was not too great, you have to take everything that you can get in this difficult season. There was not much CAPE today, but there should be some good forcing with the daytime heating to aid initiation.
We headed south west out of Oklahoma for the 3 hour drive to get there in time for the storms to fire, and eventually an isolated cell was visible on radar, we chased it west into New Mexico before it became undercut with cold outflow and began to die.
After taking in the sights, we decided to stay in Roswell, and have a meal to honour our friend paid for generously by his family.
During the evening storms blew up to the west but eventually headed back east towards us after dark where we witnessed some nice structure as a very HP cell came over Roswell.
A great end to a difficult chase day.
MAY 20 2018
Today started brightly (storm wise!) with a severe warned cell coming right over our location at 5am. there was some close lightning, heavy precip and strong winds associated with it, but no tornado threat.
We always knew that this would be a travel day to relocate ourselves south for storms in Western Texas Panhandle and Eastern New Mexico.
We decided to head for Amarillo ( we didn't need anyone to show us the way!)and visit the Big Texan steakhouse. None of us were every likely to attempt the legendary 72oz steak however.
We got there after a 6 hour trek to meet up with a lot of storm chasing friends who had the same idea as the threat region for tomorrow will be the only show in town. It was great to catch up with everyone.
![DSC03250a[1]](https://amazon.clikpic.com/markchaser/images/DSC03250a1.jpg)
MAY 19 2018
What a great chase day!!
Todays threat potential looked really promising as we headed SE out of Goodland to re-evaluate in Garden City and wait for the storms to fire. Initiation was due to be around 16.00.
Again we had decent CAPE, relatively slow storm motion, but the capping inversion was stronger so it was a waiting game as we met up and chatted to other chasers that had gathered there.
Eventually around 17.30 we saw a blip on radar, so we decided to head back north slightly as a cell began to build in Corby. We watched the structure grow and headed just north of Oakley for a better look. It looked great visually and on radar but was struggling to get any rotation going.
By the town of Gem we watched the storm produce a Landspout tornado after dark, as the storm threatened to produce a tornado several times.
We decided that we would move further east to Menlo where the storm really became organised after sunset and began to produce a lot of CC lightning, as there was a constant pulsing of light in the clouds with the occasional CG one of which hit directly across the road from us as the storm was now directly overhead, causing us to scramble for cover!.
We decided to head to Hays, KS for the night as all the time the lightning constantly flashed all around us as several cells combined to produce an epic light show.
Tomorrow the models are pointing at an even greater day of storm potential.
![DSC03289a[1]](https://amazon.clikpic.com/markchaser/images/DSC03289a1.jpg)
MAY 18 2018
There were high hope for a great chase day today, the forecast models backed this up as the HRRR and the NAM were in agreement. However our big issued would be the storm motion, as any storm firing up would likely be moving at around 70mph, virtually impossible to keep up with.
Our initial target was around Bennington, KS. but we quickly had to re evaluate as things looked to be further east. We got onto a cell but again it moved too quickly and it was apparent that we had little change of catching it and getting ahead of any storms that initiated.
The storm were completely HP as they lined out into a squall so we eventually decided to call of the chase as we had pursued them as far as Joplin, Missouri, at least this was another State covered on this chase trip!
we had dinner in the Olive Garden there, the only bonus in a frustrating chase day where the models got it completely wrong with the areas most likely seeing significant severe weather seeing nothing.
A few chaser friends played an area to the south in Fairview, Oklahoma and were rewarded with a nice tornado warned storm for a while.
We eventually booked up in Miami, OK. Tomorrow will most likely be a travel day for storms in West Texas/ Eastern New Mexico from Monday onwards.
![DSC02753a[1]](https://amazon.clikpic.com/markchaser/images/DSC02753a1.jpg)
MAY 17 2018
Things looked better today for the threat of severe weather, with high CAPE values a weak cap and a relatively early initiation predicted.
We decided to play an area south of where the SPC had predicted to get on isolated cell to the south of the line that the forecast models said would develop. Our only issue was that the models were not in agreement today the HRRR was showing nothing great but the NAM looked more positive.
We decided to head SW out of Sidney, NE, and head back to Colorado where we waiting until the storms started to fire up. However they never rally got organised and were soon enveloped in cold outflow and began to die very quickly.
We called the chase off and decided to head for food. afterwards I looked at the potential for a sunset photo op which looked great so we drove to a good vantage point outside of Stirling, CO and fortunately we were treated to a beautiful sunset. Not only that we also witnessed lightning through the sunset to the west and a rare phenomena Anti Crepuscular rays. A great end to a frustrating chase day.
We decided again to head south to Goodland, Kansas to position for better storms and better luck tomorrow.
![DSC03069a[1]](https://amazon.clikpic.com/markchaser/images/DSC03069a1.jpg)
![DSC02692a[1]](https://amazon.clikpic.com/markchaser/images/DSC02692a1.jpg)
MAY 16 2018
This was our first and hopefully our last down day for this trip, as there were due to be no organised storms initiating anywhere today.
We decided to head to the Garden of the Gods park in Colorado Springs, CO, located at the base of Pikes Peak, it was designated a national landmark in 1971., for some hiking and photo ops around the nature trails.
Whilst there we saw a Bob Cat, the first I had ever seen during my time in America. The views here were absolutely stunning.
Eventually we decided to put some miles behind us and head to Sidney Nebraska to put us in position for tomorrow much improved storm potential.
![DSC02673a[1]](https://amazon.clikpic.com/markchaser/images/DSC02673a1.jpg)
![DSC02583a[1]](https://amazon.clikpic.com/markchaser/images/DSC02583a1.jpg)
MAY 15 2019
The SPC had issued a 2% risk for tornadoes down in the New Mexico, Texas Panhandle region, but for us realistically this was too far to reach without putting us out of position for the severe weather threat that was likely to materialise in the coming days.
We therefore decided to play the slightly more marginal risk area back in W Colorado.
Our initial target was around the Limon area and sure enough a few cells began to fire up after midday which we intercepted outside the town of Kiowa.
The northern cell looked more promising with great structure and a decent area of rotation which briefly produced a couple of funnel clouds.
We decided to pursue it into Colorado Springs where once again we enjoyed a mice display of mammatus at sunset before the storm began to die.
![DSC02604a[1]](https://amazon.clikpic.com/markchaser/images/DSC02604a1.jpg)
MAY 14 2018
Today's risk was predicted to be in the Colorado/Kansas vicinity, so this meant we had to be on the road early to catch the storms that would fire up there in the early afternoon.
It was expected that storm initiation would be early around the 1300-1400 so with 5 hours travel ahead of us we were always up against it to reach our target on eastern Colorado in time.
We reached our target to see our storm to the north heading our way. It had not rotation indicated so there was no tornado risk but there was a 2 inch hail marker indicated on radar, so we decided to head east and let the core overtake us.
Sure enough the core hit us as we drove between Weskan and Sharon Springs as we crossed into Kansas. The hail was immense, mostly up to golf ball size but so solid. We were immersed in hail fog and could barely see the road for around 10 mins until it finally moved south of us.
The vehicles sustained minor damage with the lead van having its paint stripped from the roof and minor cracks to the windscreens.
We then witnessed a nice mammatus display at sunset as we ended the chase in Goodland.
![DSC02562a[1]](https://amazon.clikpic.com/markchaser/images/DSC02562a1.jpg)
MAY 13 2018
Today we had a slight risk of severe weather that encompassed several States.
There was a 2% tornado potential outlined for Colorado, but as the line of storms were due to fire up between North Texas to Colorado we decided to chase the cell at the end of the line in Texas as we had a great CAPE value of 4800. and the cell would be in the area with the best moisture.
Sure enough things began to fire up early as the cap was not too strong, and we intercepted our first storm in Perryton. It had nice structure with a some good inflow. Radar indicated that it had a hail core of around 1 inch so we decided to get closer and let it overtake us. It did and the hail was around golf ball size for a time.
We kept up with it until sunset where the structure remained solid but with no rotation despite it visually beginning to tighten at times. It became very electrified and we witness many CG's backlit by the sunset. This was a great first chase of the trip. Eventually we headed north to Alva, OK for the night in anticipation of moving north for chasing tomorrow.
![DSC02444A[1]](https://amazon.clikpic.com/markchaser/images/DSC02444A1.jpg)
MAY 12 2018
The day has come!, we are heading out to Tornado Alley for the annual Storm Chase.
We headed to Heathrow at 5am for the first flight to Chicago, which went pretty smoothly, and arrived there with a nice 6 hour layover before our connecting flight to OKC. This was ok as everyone who have been to the US knows that the Immigration process can be somewhat slow.
We eventually met up with our chase colleague Nathan and witnessed our first storm of the trip as a big rain bomb with some embedded lightning hit the airport area.
we eventually headed across to Oklahoma, again with no problems, the bags arrived too, always a good thing!!
Headed to BJ's restaurant in Norman for some late food, and grabbed some supplies ready to hit the road tomorrow morning..oh wait it already is! we finally crashed at 4am UK time!.
.
Ok so it is time for us to go our separate ways, at least for another year as we all headed off home or to our next adventure.
It is always a sad time as we say goodbye to friends old and new, but as always we have had a blast watching the best mother nature has to offer and everything in between.
Most of us will gather again next season, but this one for sure will be remembered for great storms and great laughs even though that elusive tornado could not be found.
MAY 26 2018
Unfortunately there were no storms forecast for today so it was a slow drive back to Oklahoma City today in preparation for our flights home tomorrow.
It was however a chance for us to unwind a little after a very hectic 2 weeks of storm chasing.
We arrived at our cosy Norman chase base with the view of relaxing, chatting and of course preparing for a farewell party tonight.
Despite the negative view of the chase season thus far due to the lack of tornado producing potential of most storms, we chased many storms over this 2 weeks, some of which threatened to and indeed did produce a tornado. I would say we had more chasing days than in many previous years, so if you look at storm chasing as a whole it has been an active season, if you are purely looking for a tornado as the sole goal of your chase, then yes you would be disappointed.
MAY 25 2018
Another great chase day!.
Well things really came together well today for our last and one of the best chase days of this season for us. We had great potential with high CAPE, a cap that was supposed to break later in the day, slow storm motion, and adequate lift and wind shear. The only real issue was that the storms would be fairly high based which would limit tornado potential.
We headed initially to Shamrock, where we stared to see storms firing to our west, which now had a mesoscale discussion in effect with a 2% tornado risk attached.
We then hit the road to get onto the western cell toward Seymour. It took some catching but we got out and observed the storm. It had amazing structure but there was a battle going on with it between the warm inflow and cold outflow at the boundary. Fortunately the inflow began to win out and the storm was blessed with new moisture and energy as we watched the most picturesque shelf cloud I had ever seen envelope our location.
The storm became more electrified so we headed slightly further south to keep out of the precipitation and watched a mostly CC storm to the north at sunset. A great day to finish our chase season.
We eventually headed to Wichita Falls for the night.
MAY 24 2018
Today was a very marginal setup, with not a great deal of potential for severe storms. it is coming close to the end of our chase trip however so any opportunity at this stage is worth the effort especially as it was just to the west of Roswell or current location.
Just after 15.00 an isolated cell popped up on radar, which we perused but it was very weak and high based and with the parameters that we had to work with today it soon began to wither and die.
There was nothing else to chase really so we decided to put some miles behind us and to head east to Lubbock, TX to put us in position for the chase tomorrow which currently shows much better potential.
MAY 23 2018
Another superb chase day today. This has been a difficult chase season with the upper level shear making tornadogenesis really hard however today things came together really well, with lots of moisture, great instability in the atmosphere, the forcing mechanism and the adequate upper level wind shear.
We targeted and area back toward Roswell, New Mexico. As we headed back west we took in some sights of the mountains as we enjoyed a beautifully scenic drive to our target area.
To our surprise though, the storm we were targeting fired up more quickly than expected as a mesoscale discussion was issued and unfortunately a tornado was reported and documented.
We scramble to get there, and as we did so the storm cell was beginning to hit its mature stage. It had a great supercell structure close to that our the classic mothership. This was the best structure I had seen for a few chase seasons.
We constantly moved east around the storm to keep ahead of it out of the precipitation, it showed some great rotation on several occasions but unfortunately refused to put down another tornado.
Eventually the storm began to dissipate so we decided to head back into Roswell for the night.
MAY 22 2018
This turned out to be a fantastic chase day again...even though we still didn't get the tornado!
We targeted an area back east in West Texas. this area had great potential for severe storms with great low level shear and a capping inversion that was not too strong CAPE of around 4000.
We were too far south to reach the area in Kansas that the SPC favoured, however we didn't favour that area anyway as it had less moisture present than our target area.
Storms began to fire around 5pm around the town of Hope, TX. The structure was beautiful as the storm built, and started to become electrified.
We decided to head south to get into a better position, by which time the storm had matured further and was shooting out CG lightning frequently, east of Alpine. it had great structure but no real area of rotation.
We captured some incredible lighting, the best we have probably seen in our years out here storm chasing, and I managed to capture a bolt striking a post on video!.
We continued to watch the storm into the night as it continued to produce great lightning and some small hail.
Eventually we headed to Van Horn, NM in position for tomorrows chase.
MAY 21 2018
Today was a tough day for us as it was the 5 year anniversary of the passing of our great chaser friend Chris Curtis whilst he was chasing with us in 2013.
There was a marginal risk for storms today in the W Texas, E New Mexico region.
Even though the potential was not too great, you have to take everything that you can get in this difficult season. There was not much CAPE today, but there should be some good forcing with the daytime heating to aid initiation.
We headed south west out of Oklahoma for the 3 hour drive to get there in time for the storms to fire, and eventually an isolated cell was visible on radar, we chased it west into New Mexico before it became undercut with cold outflow and began to die.
After taking in the sights, we decided to stay in Roswell, and have a meal to honour our friend paid for generously by his family.
During the evening storms blew up to the west but eventually headed back east towards us after dark where we witnessed some nice structure as a very HP cell came over Roswell.
A great end to a difficult chase day.
MAY 20 2018
Today started brightly (storm wise!) with a severe warned cell coming right over our location at 5am. there was some close lightning, heavy precip and strong winds associated with it, but no tornado threat.
We always knew that this would be a travel day to relocate ourselves south for storms in Western Texas Panhandle and Eastern New Mexico.
We decided to head for Amarillo ( we didn't need anyone to show us the way!)and visit the Big Texan steakhouse. None of us were every likely to attempt the legendary 72oz steak however.
We got there after a 6 hour trek to meet up with a lot of storm chasing friends who had the same idea as the threat region for tomorrow will be the only show in town. It was great to catch up with everyone.
MAY 19 2018
What a great chase day!!
Todays threat potential looked really promising as we headed SE out of Goodland to re-evaluate in Garden City and wait for the storms to fire. Initiation was due to be around 16.00.
Again we had decent CAPE, relatively slow storm motion, but the capping inversion was stronger so it was a waiting game as we met up and chatted to other chasers that had gathered there.
Eventually around 17.30 we saw a blip on radar, so we decided to head back north slightly as a cell began to build in Corby. We watched the structure grow and headed just north of Oakley for a better look. It looked great visually and on radar but was struggling to get any rotation going.
By the town of Gem we watched the storm produce a Landspout tornado after dark, as the storm threatened to produce a tornado several times.
We decided that we would move further east to Menlo where the storm really became organised after sunset and began to produce a lot of CC lightning, as there was a constant pulsing of light in the clouds with the occasional CG one of which hit directly across the road from us as the storm was now directly overhead, causing us to scramble for cover!.
We decided to head to Hays, KS for the night as all the time the lightning constantly flashed all around us as several cells combined to produce an epic light show.
Tomorrow the models are pointing at an even greater day of storm potential.
MAY 18 2018
There were high hope for a great chase day today, the forecast models backed this up as the HRRR and the NAM were in agreement. However our big issued would be the storm motion, as any storm firing up would likely be moving at around 70mph, virtually impossible to keep up with.
Our initial target was around Bennington, KS. but we quickly had to re evaluate as things looked to be further east. We got onto a cell but again it moved too quickly and it was apparent that we had little change of catching it and getting ahead of any storms that initiated.
The storm were completely HP as they lined out into a squall so we eventually decided to call of the chase as we had pursued them as far as Joplin, Missouri, at least this was another State covered on this chase trip!
we had dinner in the Olive Garden there, the only bonus in a frustrating chase day where the models got it completely wrong with the areas most likely seeing significant severe weather seeing nothing.
A few chaser friends played an area to the south in Fairview, Oklahoma and were rewarded with a nice tornado warned storm for a while.
We eventually booked up in Miami, OK. Tomorrow will most likely be a travel day for storms in West Texas/ Eastern New Mexico from Monday onwards.
MAY 17 2018
Things looked better today for the threat of severe weather, with high CAPE values a weak cap and a relatively early initiation predicted.
We decided to play an area south of where the SPC had predicted to get on isolated cell to the south of the line that the forecast models said would develop. Our only issue was that the models were not in agreement today the HRRR was showing nothing great but the NAM looked more positive.
We decided to head SW out of Sidney, NE, and head back to Colorado where we waiting until the storms started to fire up. However they never rally got organised and were soon enveloped in cold outflow and began to die very quickly.
We called the chase off and decided to head for food. afterwards I looked at the potential for a sunset photo op which looked great so we drove to a good vantage point outside of Stirling, CO and fortunately we were treated to a beautiful sunset. Not only that we also witnessed lightning through the sunset to the west and a rare phenomena Anti Crepuscular rays. A great end to a frustrating chase day.
We decided again to head south to Goodland, Kansas to position for better storms and better luck tomorrow.
MAY 16 2018
This was our first and hopefully our last down day for this trip, as there were due to be no organised storms initiating anywhere today.
We decided to head to the Garden of the Gods park in Colorado Springs, CO, located at the base of Pikes Peak, it was designated a national landmark in 1971., for some hiking and photo ops around the nature trails.
Whilst there we saw a Bob Cat, the first I had ever seen during my time in America. The views here were absolutely stunning.
Eventually we decided to put some miles behind us and head to Sidney Nebraska to put us in position for tomorrow much improved storm potential.
MAY 15 2019
The SPC had issued a 2% risk for tornadoes down in the New Mexico, Texas Panhandle region, but for us realistically this was too far to reach without putting us out of position for the severe weather threat that was likely to materialise in the coming days.
We therefore decided to play the slightly more marginal risk area back in W Colorado.
Our initial target was around the Limon area and sure enough a few cells began to fire up after midday which we intercepted outside the town of Kiowa.
The northern cell looked more promising with great structure and a decent area of rotation which briefly produced a couple of funnel clouds.
We decided to pursue it into Colorado Springs where once again we enjoyed a mice display of mammatus at sunset before the storm began to die.
MAY 14 2018
Today's risk was predicted to be in the Colorado/Kansas vicinity, so this meant we had to be on the road early to catch the storms that would fire up there in the early afternoon.
It was expected that storm initiation would be early around the 1300-1400 so with 5 hours travel ahead of us we were always up against it to reach our target on eastern Colorado in time.
We reached our target to see our storm to the north heading our way. It had not rotation indicated so there was no tornado risk but there was a 2 inch hail marker indicated on radar, so we decided to head east and let the core overtake us.
Sure enough the core hit us as we drove between Weskan and Sharon Springs as we crossed into Kansas. The hail was immense, mostly up to golf ball size but so solid. We were immersed in hail fog and could barely see the road for around 10 mins until it finally moved south of us.
The vehicles sustained minor damage with the lead van having its paint stripped from the roof and minor cracks to the windscreens.
We then witnessed a nice mammatus display at sunset as we ended the chase in Goodland.
MAY 13 2018
Today we had a slight risk of severe weather that encompassed several States.
There was a 2% tornado potential outlined for Colorado, but as the line of storms were due to fire up between North Texas to Colorado we decided to chase the cell at the end of the line in Texas as we had a great CAPE value of 4800. and the cell would be in the area with the best moisture.
Sure enough things began to fire up early as the cap was not too strong, and we intercepted our first storm in Perryton. It had nice structure with a some good inflow. Radar indicated that it had a hail core of around 1 inch so we decided to get closer and let it overtake us. It did and the hail was around golf ball size for a time.
We kept up with it until sunset where the structure remained solid but with no rotation despite it visually beginning to tighten at times. It became very electrified and we witness many CG's backlit by the sunset. This was a great first chase of the trip. Eventually we headed north to Alva, OK for the night in anticipation of moving north for chasing tomorrow.
MAY 12 2018
The day has come!, we are heading out to Tornado Alley for the annual Storm Chase.
We headed to Heathrow at 5am for the first flight to Chicago, which went pretty smoothly, and arrived there with a nice 6 hour layover before our connecting flight to OKC. This was ok as everyone who have been to the US knows that the Immigration process can be somewhat slow.
We eventually met up with our chase colleague Nathan and witnessed our first storm of the trip as a big rain bomb with some embedded lightning hit the airport area.
we eventually headed across to Oklahoma, again with no problems, the bags arrived too, always a good thing!!
Headed to BJ's restaurant in Norman for some late food, and grabbed some supplies ready to hit the road tomorrow morning..oh wait it already is! we finally crashed at 4am UK time!.
.