We spent most of Thursday trying to catch up with the storms we intercepted in Murdo SD. After breakfast, we bugged out and headed east along I90 doing warp factor 9, however that storm front was really moving fast. Our target area was Wisconsin.
For those of you in Ontario, it was the storm that hit Toronto on Friday afternoon.
We finally managed to get ahead of it at about Madison Wisconsin. By that point in time, we had heard that it had done damage all around Wisconsin with trees being blown over in the North and buildings damaged to the south.
You really can't predict this type of storm, as it was not a traditional Tornado type of storm like we had been chasing for 2 solid weeks. There were very strong winds from the South that feed this front. Along I90, we had tail winds that my have hit at least 50 mph. Great on the gas mileage.
As we passed in front of it in Madison, we pulled into a farmers field to watch it pass. As it went by us, it fell apart and sadly, the storm behind started to do the same thing as the sun set.
We called it a day at that point and pulled into a Mexican food emporium for Margaritas and Burritos (as well as just about any other Mexican fare). What an amazing meal. You can ask Scott VE3IPE how is meal was. Apparently he had the joy of dealing with it again at about 2am Friday morning. There is some story about Pam being on the floor of the Men's washroom that she can explain if you ask her. There might even be video.
What was left on Friday morning was a very long drive back to Ontario. Nothing special other than we watched the live radar on the Baron on the way home. We could see the cells popping up around southwestern Ontario and all the rotation that may have caused some damage. It was too bad that we weren't half a day ahead and we could have done some chasing in Ontario.
Over the past 2 weeks, we travelled over 13,000km's and roughly $2500 in fuel. Hotels for the 9 of us was approximately $7000. We had been as far away as New Mexico and about 9000 washrooms (all looked the same-some better, some worse). Many wall/shelf clouds and all types of Funnel clouds. 1 Stove Pipe Tornado and 3 others. We had 9 people comfortably in 2 vehicles and no one killed anyone. It is very easy to eat bad food (ie: junk) on a trip like this. Hard to find healthy food all the time.
For those of you in Ontario, it was the storm that hit Toronto on Friday afternoon.
We finally managed to get ahead of it at about Madison Wisconsin. By that point in time, we had heard that it had done damage all around Wisconsin with trees being blown over in the North and buildings damaged to the south.
You really can't predict this type of storm, as it was not a traditional Tornado type of storm like we had been chasing for 2 solid weeks. There were very strong winds from the South that feed this front. Along I90, we had tail winds that my have hit at least 50 mph. Great on the gas mileage.
As we passed in front of it in Madison, we pulled into a farmers field to watch it pass. As it went by us, it fell apart and sadly, the storm behind started to do the same thing as the sun set.
We called it a day at that point and pulled into a Mexican food emporium for Margaritas and Burritos (as well as just about any other Mexican fare). What an amazing meal. You can ask Scott VE3IPE how is meal was. Apparently he had the joy of dealing with it again at about 2am Friday morning. There is some story about Pam being on the floor of the Men's washroom that she can explain if you ask her. There might even be video.
What was left on Friday morning was a very long drive back to Ontario. Nothing special other than we watched the live radar on the Baron on the way home. We could see the cells popping up around southwestern Ontario and all the rotation that may have caused some damage. It was too bad that we weren't half a day ahead and we could have done some chasing in Ontario.
Over the past 2 weeks, we travelled over 13,000km's and roughly $2500 in fuel. Hotels for the 9 of us was approximately $7000. We had been as far away as New Mexico and about 9000 washrooms (all looked the same-some better, some worse). Many wall/shelf clouds and all types of Funnel clouds. 1 Stove Pipe Tornado and 3 others. We had 9 people comfortably in 2 vehicles and no one killed anyone. It is very easy to eat bad food (ie: junk) on a trip like this. Hard to find healthy food all the time.
I invested in some new camera equipment (there is a surprise). The lightning trigger worked well on the Nikon D200. Not so good on the Nikon D1, however, I didn't spend much time trying it on the D1. The shot I didn't get was the daytime shot I was taking of a rainbow and then then there was a lightning strike in it. Had I used the trigger, I would have had an amazing shot. Oh well, that is photography.
There is nothing like sitting watching a perfectly formatted wall cloud rotating in front of you. Or, sitting in the car with hail pounding all around you with the incredibly strong winds from a rear flank downdraft shaking the car (this has nothing to do with Scott and Mexican food).
We saw a lot of Texas (as well as many other states). We all agree that there is a lot of poverty in that area of the US. Lots of abandoned buildings. We drove right through downtown Amarillo at high noon on a Monday in about 10 minutes. Where were all the people??
If your interested in going on a storm chase, don't do it alone and don't do it without someone who can do their own forecasting. Tornado Alley is a very large place and you can spend days driving around and not see anything. I would highly recommend Ron Gravelle (http://www.stormchasing.ca/). Ron is passionate about severe weather. He does his own forecasting and he will take the time to explain to you what is going on. Ron is even available for day trips in Ontario if you chose. As a client, he treated us with class. After 2 weeks, I consider Ron and his wife Sandra to be good friends. If you like a dry sense of humor, he is your guy!
There is nothing like sitting watching a perfectly formatted wall cloud rotating in front of you. Or, sitting in the car with hail pounding all around you with the incredibly strong winds from a rear flank downdraft shaking the car (this has nothing to do with Scott and Mexican food).
We saw a lot of Texas (as well as many other states). We all agree that there is a lot of poverty in that area of the US. Lots of abandoned buildings. We drove right through downtown Amarillo at high noon on a Monday in about 10 minutes. Where were all the people??
If your interested in going on a storm chase, don't do it alone and don't do it without someone who can do their own forecasting. Tornado Alley is a very large place and you can spend days driving around and not see anything. I would highly recommend Ron Gravelle (http://www.stormchasing.ca/). Ron is passionate about severe weather. He does his own forecasting and he will take the time to explain to you what is going on. Ron is even available for day trips in Ontario if you chose. As a client, he treated us with class. After 2 weeks, I consider Ron and his wife Sandra to be good friends. If you like a dry sense of humor, he is your guy!
We have just cleared customs at Port Huron. Next stop Tim Horton's for some tea (except for Dave who bolted for Starbucks). No big issues at the border. The wind is from the north and the temparature is the lowest we have seen in 2 weeks (16c). Nice sunset to west.
Would I do this again? Absolutely. And, I would make sure it was with Ron. What a blast. All good fun.
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