Hard to believe I've already been back for a week from my stormchase in the
US. It was a great experience, well worth the effort and the money.

I toured/chased with Cloud 9 Tours from May 18 untill June 1. While Cloud
9's philosophy seems to be: just sit in the van and we'll take you to where
you want to be, when you ask the right persons, they will provide some
background
information. If you intend to actually learn more about chasing or storms,
this might get a bit frustrating. I did bring my laptop so every morning
I was well aware of the day's situation well before we left. From what I
heard, some other companies will give an extended briefing each morning.
Yet to some people that also got frustrating, when after 15 minutes of seeing
charts the 'Shut up and chase!' feeling would take over.

As far as 'getting you where you want to be' goes... Cloud 9 did a great
job there. In fact, they got me much closer than I was expecting. The group
was quite large, but almost everyone followed the instructions quite well
so we were able to move pretty quick despite having to load/unload 19 people
in three cars. Cloud 9 also handled the motels and restaurants well, not
an easy job with 19 people around a chaser magnet, aka a HIGH RISK area,
during the memorial day weekend.

So, shut up and chase...

The good and the bad news: the ridge would move but it would inhibit any
serious storms for the first few days of the chase. So we visited the Big
Texan in Amarillo, where the smallest person in our group attempted to eat
the 72 Oz. steak, she managed to eat half of it. We hopped by the Cadillac
Range and took a look in Greensburg to see the state of the town 1 year after
the EF5 tornado struck. Just seeing the hospital that still is build from
barracks and tents made clear how devastating the tornado had been.

We spend the night in Dodge City and drove north the next day, hoping for
some storms to form north of Denver. That never happened and after another
attempt a bit further north (Cheyenne, Chugwater) it was time to move back
south to get in position for the target area for Thursday May 22 around Hays
in Kansas.

Thursday I saw my first supercell and it had a rotating wallcloud all the
time. It produced some funnels and for a few seconds some dust was rotating
on the ground underneath one of them. Technically that was my first tornado,
but not an impressive one.

We gave up on this storm and moved on the next in a line of supercells that
was moving quickly from south to north. While relocating we spotted a tornado
between Hoxie and Grainfield that remained visible for about 5 minutes. It
looked very much like a waterspout.

We continued towards WaKeeney and saw our target cell produce several tornados
south of the I70, though it was hard to tell whether it was one tornado that
kept reforming or several separate ones. Near Collyer we left the I70 and
found a spot where the wallcloud could intercept us. The wallcloud was rotating
very fast and as it moved over us a funnel was forming just to our west.
The collarcloud... well, the edge moved exactly over our head as 150 km/h
inflow winds bombarded us with sand and tumbleweed from the south. (The speed
was an estimate by the two hurricane chasers among us).

After spending the night in Hays, where the TIV/DOW circus was also staying,
we drove west towards Colby. We changed our minds and headed back east, going
south between Oakley and WaKeeney to intercept a cell that proved to have
poor visibility. As we tried to relocate by now going west again on the I70
we were stopped near Quinter. Which was not bad, as we watched a moderate
wedge tornado approach the I70 from the south. It disappeared, but reformed
just before crossing. North of the I70 it got rain wrapped but still it appeared
that it might have turned into a large wedge.

With the storm now to our northeast and having to drive west we were not
in a very good position. Radar indicated hail wasn't to bad, so Cloud 9 treated
us to a core punch. We encountered some dime size hail, yet when we left
the core there wasn't anything interesting around anymore.

We waited a while in Hill City as more storms approached from the south.
The tornado sirens sounded and we moved a bit north to intercept the tornado
warned cell. It was getting dark and apart from some lighting (one strike
so close it rocked the van) nothing happened so we headed back to the motel
in Hays.

We weren't chasing anymore, but this time a storm caught up with us. Driving
east along the I70 very carefully, we got a bit closer to a tornado crossing
the interstate than we intended as we saw a 18 wheel truck being flipped
over in front of us. So, ehm, we turned and headed back the wrong way on
the interstate and waited for several TVS's to head north before trying again.
We passed 4 trucks that had been flipped over.

Saturday was quite a bust, though we did see a nice LP storm in Nebraska.
Sunday we headed back to Kansas, though our target had been Iowa. This was
the day the large tornado struck in Parkersburg, Iowa. In Kansas we saw a
nice wallcloud, some funnels (one of them producing a brief touchdown) and
a landspout.

Another night in Hays at the Days Inn where the TIV circus was staying as
well before we headed a bit south the next day. We saw a lot of golfball
sized hail (with the cars parked safe) and weren't expecting any tornados
until we saw one in Pratt. It disappeared but after racing east through Pratt
we saw a new multivortex tornado approaching us. So we headed further east
which gave us a good look at the mothership structure of the storm.

Spend the night in Wichita and headed to Oklahoma the next day and repositioned
the day after that all the way to northern Nebraska.

May 29 our target was a large Supercell heading along the I80. We intercepted
it near Kearney and were able to see a large bowl shaped tornado (though
it needed a little help from lighting every now and then). The tornado produced
a lot of powerflashes and it was an eerie sight seeing a long line of cars
fleeing from Kearney. The tornado did quite some damage though fortunately
no one was injured.

While most chasers kept following this storm as it headed towards Grand Island
and Aurora we gambled and left it for some cells in northern Kansas. While
driving we found out we were not the only ones as we were racing both the
old and the new TIV almost all the way.

We intercepted this storm near Glen Elder and it immediately formed a cone
shaped tornado. By the time we got out of the car this one was gone, but
while crossing the road a nice rope formed kicking up quite some debris.
With the DOW, 2 TIVs and the Discovery crew in the neighborhood... I'm looking
forward to the new season of Storm Chasers, they must have had success on
this one. The rope disappeared but moments later a new multivortex formed.


This turned out to be the last tornado of the chase, but it was the best
as well.

So... I guess I picked the right tour in the right year. Seeing at least
1 tornado on 5 different days during a 14 day chase... I won't complain ;)

For some pictures, see my facebook profile (
http://www.facebook.com/photos.php?id=1301648713
). All my 'friends' chased as well so you can find more pictures on their
pages, though I'm not sure if their albums can be accessed by everyone.

Daniel