Wednesday - it must be Texas

The short story is, is that there really is no weather story from Wednesday.

We drove from Colby, KS to Amarillo TX. That does including passing through Oklahoma. One thing we can all say, is that there isn't many trees. It is possible to do a 360 view and only count 2 trees. Impressive when you think that the horizon is almost 15 miles away.

Highlights from yesterday. Fedex came through and I picked up my package at the Kinko's in Amarillo. We did a detour to the Cadillac Ranch (a must see). And, not that I'm trying to sound sexist, but I did notice a blonde lady about 5'5" wearing white flip flops who came out of the truck stop we were in and then jumped in her Rig (ie: 18 wheeler towing a pup) and took off down the interstate. That is just something you don't see every day.

Weather wise, we were hoping to get to some possible storms to the SE of us, but they just didn't pop and likely were not going to do that until about 2am. Sooooo... that meant a stop at the Big Texan (http://www.bigtexan.com) for dinner.

Now, at the Big Texan, you can eat for free. That is if you eat their 72oz steak, shrimp cocktail, salad and don't forget the bun all in 60 minutes. Just as we arrived, 3 guys got on the stage to give it a go. All 3 were denied. When we checked the 'who done it' board, we found out that some 70 year old lady who barely broke 90 pounds, did it in about 35 minutes. At, that was just this week.

We have been a little internet challenged here at the Super 8 here. Increadibly frustrating once you go into geek mode and analyze how they set up their wireless. What a mess. I thought of pulling a 'Skunk' (some of you will know what I mean), but I just didn't have the energy. I can get some internet if I stand with my laptop in one hand and my right foot in the bathtub. What a joke.....

Today, we head north back into the panhandle of OK. Wish us luck.

Yesterday's pictures start here http://www.portcredit.net/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=14&page=3

Tuesday May 29th - South Dakato - Colorado to Kansas

Yet another long drive. All the way from South Dakota to Kansas into Colorado and back to Kansas where we are currently at the Super 8 in the middle of a Severe T-Storm watch. Nice lightning show going on outside. Winds to 70mph and driving rain... so bad, it looks like a blizzard back home. But, that is how the day ended.

On our way south out of SD we weren't sure were exactly we were headed. Just that we were headed south. In Valentine NE, we stopped for a snack only to be overtaken by 5 trucks carrying blades for wind turbines. One very long load.

Attached is the picture of the rocket scientists who locked their keys in the trunk of their car. They were trying to get into the trunk via the back seat.... Wait, what about the electric trunk release??? Well.. that doesn't work. We spent a few minutes trying to help them, but then we had to bug out to the south and into Colorado south of Denver.

Today's pictures start on page 2 http://portcredit.net/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=14&page=2.

I got a voice mail from a friend in Denver who told me the Interstate was closed due to the Hail that fell. Apparently 3" of it.

As we headed west on I70 into Denver and past Burlington Co., we started to see what we were headed for. Wow, the leading edge shelf cloud was almost horizon to horizon. Even the drive West was interesting due to the very strong cross winds from the North.

We made 2 stops to take pictures. Temperature had dropped significantly to possibly 50F and the winds were gusting from 30-40 knots. There was almost a wind chill factor. The gust front had an amazing amount of dirt and dust in it that were picked up and driven in our direction.

On our way back East to Colby KS, we run into the back of a pretty good Thunderstorm. And, more amazing cross winds followed by a pretty good light show. No lightning pictures yet, but I'm hoping to get on that shortly.

4 weeks ago I ordered a Daytime Lightning Trigger so that I would have it in time. Well, long story made short, it arrived the Monday after I had already left. Thanks to Stuart Crabbe, he has retreived it and is shipping it to me in Amarillo and hopefully I can pick it up tomorrow.

Monday - First Intercept

What a day. We drove north out of North Platte Nebraska to Murdo South Dakota. Nice drive on 2 lane road most of the way with little or no traffic. Even managed to maintain digital cell phone coverage.

We arrived at the Super 8 Motel in Murdo about 3pm. Radar and all our other toys said that we would not have anything to chase until after about 6pm, so we laid low until then. I've attached a pic of some local transportation that we dubbed the hail catcher. One look inside and it seems that it has done that already.

I was across the street at the truck stop just before we left. I heard the staff talking about the weather and just how bad was it going to get. Apparently one of the young staff saw our chase vehicles and was now really worried about the weather and what should he do if a tornado comes. His partner told him to go run out back and hide.

One thing about Scott's Astro Van is that if we are running the AC to keep cool in the back, those in the front have their winter clothes on! ;) Scott attempted to put on a shell while driving without removing his seat belt. Not a good idea. He was so twisted up that we had to pull over so that he could get untwisted. Too funny!

At that point, we headed west along I90 until we intercepted a couple of large cells that took up at least 1/2 a county. Excellent view of some shelf clouds and we noticed at least half a dozen wall clouds. Pretty cool.

I took several time exposures with a 12mm (very wide angle) lens. The inflow was amazing and I'm guessing that it was at least 40 knots. It was pretty hard to keep the tripod stable while doing this despite putting all my body weight on it.

All todays shots can be found on my gallery at http://www.portcredit.net/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=14.

Tomorrow morning we are off to Oklahoma. Another 9 hour drive. As well, don't forget to check out Laura's blog at http://laurawx.blogspot.com.

Mike

End of Day - Sunday

Sunday - wow, it feels like a week. We've travelled over 2000km since yesterday morning and are now in North Platte, Nebraska. All I can say is flat, flat flat.

Just after we got gas, Ron spotted a storm that was worth looking at on our way west. We could see the top of the tower over 50 miles away and headed in that direction. Ron has radar and his data feed is via XM radio. As we blast down I80, he is giving us updates on the radio.

We turn north of I80 just before North Platte and travel about 10 miles. As we are starting to catch up with the lowering, it starts to fall apart. We stop to capture some pictures, however they are too far away to be exciting.

We call it a day at that point and head to North Platte to stay at our 2nd Super 8 hotel. At least they have free WiFi (hey, this isn't London England or Germany where they charge 15 Pounds (about $35 Cdn) for 24 hours). Ouch!!

As we wait for our dinner, a nice set of Mammatus clouds show up just above the Perkins we are having dinner at.

We knew that dinner was going to be a problem when the waiter comes to the table and says "Wow... this is the largest table I've ever served". And, he didn't disappoint us.

As it turns out, today was Scott's birthday. And, that included the pie and very very bad rendition of Happy Birthday sung by the Perkin's staff and some of us.

Until tomorrow. Looks like we get to sleep in. We are in "They Alley".

What is wrong with this picture??

Stopped for gas and noticed the gas prices here per gallon. What is wrong with this picture??

We are headed west to the west end of Nebraska and should be there about 10pm tonight.

So far, we have travelled 1800km's since yesterday morning.

Sunday - travel day

Short update from my blackberry.

Another travel day. We are headed to the western edge of Nebraska.

It was a nice cool morning to go for a run at 6am. At this time it is
a very nice sunny day and about 65F.

Interesting that this is the first vacation I've been on where your
looking for bad weather.

Saturday Evening

You spend all day in the back of THE astrovan, and you end up in Davenport Iowa. The world is truly flat out here.

We managed to drive through a line that had a signficant amount of rain in it. The weather service was reporting some rotation just to the south of I80 as we drove through it. The purple box is the tornado watch box and the round circle to the north east is the our GPS location.

The hotel is on the north side of Davenport. Dave and I go for a walk at about 9:30pm. Partly cloudy and very humid.... and, no sidwalks to be found. We cut our walk short in fear of being hit like a deer and headed back to the hotel via the gas station. No Dairy Queen to be found, so we put up with an ice cream from the freezer. I guess they are still allowed to smoke in enclosed places here.

As we walk outside we listen to a couple who are driving a loaded pickup truck talking about the burnt out headlight. Apparently the headlight is burned out due to the deer they must have hit at about 45mph. Her last words as she lights her cigarette "he must be dead...there is blood everywhere".

Saturday - on the road

We've left. 2 chase vehicles loaded for bear!

Dave and I are in the car with Scott and his wife, and 2 others. Dave and I have jammed ourselves in the back of the Astro Van. We get to heckle all those in front of us. I'm pretty certain that if we sell all the electronics we could buy 2 more vans.

We are just approaching Sarnia and have been through some rain. At this point, we are still not sure were we are heading other than west.

More to come.

Mike

One week 2 go

Well, here we go. After 2 trips to Europe in the last month (where I managed to get a great 2 days of skiing in on April 21/22 on the Glacier in Stubai) and countless trips into the US for work, I'm starting to look forward to my 2 week tour into Tornado Alley.

Cameras are packed (almost), the lightning trigger is on the way (for taking daytime lightening photos) and one more trip to Boston for work this week.

We leave on Saturday morning from Kitchener. All I can tell you is that we are headed west.