Most people that I told of my forthcoming storm-chasing adventure looked at me with raised eyebrows and declared that I was a bit mad! Some took a great interest – presumably because they were stormy weather fans too. My father stated it would be a good experience for me and my mother immediately started to worry that I would get hurt (the "only child syndrome") – and as I had booked this holiday nearly a whole year before taking part she had been worrying a long time! The fact that she watched a couple of TV programmes about storm chasers did not help matters, no matter how many times I had to reassure her.

Some friends wished they could have gone with me and others declared they would have stayed well clear – but everyone requested they wanted to see my video footage when I returned to the UK.

So what prompted me to undertake this unusual holiday? Well, when I was younger I was actually quite afraid of thunderstorms but was quite fascinated by weather. Nearly everyone in the south of the UK remembers the great hurricane of 15^th October 1987, and then in 1992 I was working overnight when a massive electrical storm descended upon the area and knocked out the local power. We could not do a lot of work and went outside to watch with amazement as the lightning in various hues of pink, blue and white flitted and zapped across the sky from cloud to cloud every few seconds. It was awesome and started to get rid of my fear of storms. Since then my local area has had a few more severe storms.

I had always been aware that the USA often got more powerful storms than the UK and that tornadoes were quite common. Cable TV had broadcast several programmes on storms in the USA showing groups of chasers that actually went great distances to seek out tornadoes, and I started to wonder about actually getting there and seeing powerful storms and twisters for myself. And would one of them be a legendary F5? But those are rare, and have to cause immense damage to be rated an F5. Any twister would be good for me though.

One of the programmes showed Silver Lining Tours, with Dave, Roger and a group of chasers getting quite close to some powerful storms and the results were amazing, so I decided to give them a try. I emailed Dave and he sent me an information pack that sounded exciting so I took the plunge and sent off a deposit. The entire holiday would not be cheap ($2,600 for the 10 days, not including airfare and food) but I still thought it would be a holiday with a difference and an interesting way to see the United States without going to the usual tourist areas. And this would me by first ever transatlantic holiday!!

So I was confirmed on the second tour of 2002, there being about 7 tours overall each year. I was put in contact with a travel agent who had chased with Silver Lining the previous year and he kindly organised my flight and insurance arrangements for the trip – (note that although insurance would cover flights etc, participants on these tours can not get cover for getting wiped out by a tornado or storm as they are deliberately putting themselves in risky scenarios) – but don’t let that put anyone off!!

So all I had to do then was get coach tickets from Bristol to London Gatwick airport and back, get US dollars to spend on food and souvenirs etc, pack suitcase, remember cameras, videotape, film, walkman and books for travelling, and wait until May 6^th for the holiday of a lifetime!

I had been keeping an eye on the first tour’s activities and was worried that they were travelling great distances and not seeing any tornadoes or any decent storms. A nice twister near Happy, TX rewarded them on their final day and I bet they were over the moon! I hoped for some good storms on my tour, as it seemed the storm season was a bit slow to get off the ground!

05:45 – The coach stopped at Heathrow airport terminals – snoozed a bit as the heating on the coach was very high – still that would get me used to the heat in the USA! I had a cup of coffee and phoned a friend at work to say bye-bye!

07:15 – All checked in and cleared at Gatwick South Terminal. Was waiting for boarding the aircraft at 08:50. I hoped that take off was not delayed by the drizzle and fog nearby.

10:15 – Airborne in a Continental Airlines Boeing 777 ER, and flying above the clouds. That was a marvellous sight. I was impressed with the personal video screens on the back of each seat - you could watch movies, listen to music or even play games. At this point I was really looking forward to visiting the US for the first time, and also a bit apprehensive about getting the connecting flight ok and meeting up with everyone in Oklahoma City, let alone chasing storms!

11:30 – Had eaten dinner and the 777 was over the Atlantic Ocean after flying south of the Republic of Ireland at a height of 34,000 feet and a speed of 571 mph.

15:40 – Had a few hours sleep and felt better – however there was a lot of turbulence during the flight which meant that sleep was disturbed a lot. Took some digital photos of the personal video screen and out of the window at the American Landscapes far below.

15:30 CDT (Central Daylight Time = BST – 6 hours) – Landed at Houston about an hour ago – immigration control was a nightmare and I missed the connecting flight so I had to wait for a later one to Oklahoma City.

19:00 – I finally made it to Oklahoma City and checked in at the Holiday Inn airport hotel.

23:00 – Spent a great evening getting to know fellow tour participants. Because I missed the earlier connecting flight, I arrived during Dave Gold’s welcome briefing – slightly embarrassing – collected my official tour T-shirt. Discovered that a fellow chaser from the UK was on the same international flight as me, but of course I didn’t know that at the time. 30 minutes were spent watching Dave interpret data for storms and relay information to other chasers out in the field. It was amazing to watch. Ate at a restaurant opposite the hotel. Discovered that there were 3 other UK chasers apart from myself – Kevin and Jill (both from the London area) and Jeremy (from Northern Ireland but living near Glasgow). The rest were American, and it would take a few days to get to know all of their names. Dave informed us that the first day of our tour looked good for storms in the state of Kansas which made us all quite excited and looking forward to the chase.

(click on the MAP links to show basic maps of each days travelling - some maps are large - please wait for them to display)

11:20 – 2 hours were spent watching Dave and fellow guides prepare the forecast, analysed and interpreted the data. To be honest, much of the technical stuff went straight over my head although I did begin to understand some of the concepts. Dave declared that a dry-line in northern Oklahoma and southern Kansas was a good area to trigger very severe weather. Storms and floods had hit Missouri badly. Temperature at this moment was 25 C.

12:15 – The 2 chase vans were loaded ready for departure. I was in van 1 with guides Dave and Roger). We were to head north from Oklahoma City on Interstate 35 towards the target area. Some people were marking maps with the route taken. I would need to buy a map at the earliest opportunity.

14:30 – We have found a storm which is quite intense with good cloud to ground lightning (known as CG). We stopped and ate at a McDonald’s near the town of Blackwell. I captured some on video and my camera got a bit wet in the process so I did not take a lot of footage here. We then headed west on Route 11 travelling parallel to the border with Kansas. The movie Twister was partly filmed in these areas. There is a town called Wakita nearby.

15:30 – Went west on Highway 64 in very heavy rain. Have already seen huge towering cumulo-nimbus storm clouds. Got quite excited at the prospect of seeing severe storms and possible tornadoes.

15:45 – Passed through the town of Alva, which looked nice!

16:20 – Storm clouds building before our very eyes – I found it amazing how rapidly the situation developed. Learnt that the "cap had been broken" and that signified some tornadic storms were now likely. WOW! We then drove hard and fast to try and get a route north to intercept some of these storms – sometimes getting close to 90mph!

16:40 – Crossed the state boundary into Kansas – a brief stop so that Dave could get a decent radar picture download over the cellphone network. I was amazed at the amount of gadgetry in each of the vans - CB radios, laptops, power sockets, GPS, weather monitors and more – all being powered from the van cigarette lighter!!!

17:25 – We stopped in the town of Coldwater – storm cells were "exploding" back to our south-west so we decided to turn round and head back the way we came. The National Weather Service radio (with a robotic voice) had issued severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings. We turned off highway 183 onto highway 160 heading east.

17:30 – No, we turned round again! A tornadic supercell (individual storm system) had developed to the north so we went to intercept that one as Dave was getting rather excited by flying eagles and hook echoes appearing on the radar images!

23:50 – The last 6 hours were INCREDIBLE! We officially witnessed 3 tornadoes – possibly 4 but I definitely got 3 on videotape! And there were wicked electrical storms also. Took some great video footage and some digital photos, but mostly video - the whole experience was so intense I got a bit of a headache!

The first tornado was "cute"! We stopped to look at a rapidly rotating supercell cloud and was amazed at the strong inflow winds (where warm air is fed into a storm cell) which carried large amounts of dust across roads and fields and brought down a telegraph pole!!! Vivid CG lightning was striking quite close by but we felt quite safe – I was quite overawed. Below the rotating cloud there was a large wall cloud (a lower band of clouds) and all of a sudden a small rope-like tornado dropped down. Oh WOW!!! It lasted for a couple of minutes and was beautiful – I was actually quite lost for words at that moment! On the Fujita scale it would have been an F0 because it did not cause any damage. Another chaser joined us at one point and congratulated us.

After that encounter we drove south a while and saw the second and third tornadoes which were actually side by side – a small one to the left and quite a large wedge tornado on the right which looked menacing! The light was not very good as it was starting to get dark but the twisters were still clearly visible. AWESOME! Not sure what Fujita rating they were given. We were unable to stop and get out, as we were likely to get clobbered by large hail! We also saw a rather nice cone shaped funnel cloud at one location. The fourth tornado I did not see but apparently a guide saw a brief touchdown.

An emergency stop at a gas station to refuel in the town of Greensburg gave us a chance to stop and look at the near totally black sky with vivid lightning. We had a quick chance to use the restroom where the gas station owner asked us if there was danger, and when we came out the town’s tornado sirens were blaring – so that answered her question!!! We certainly got back in the vans quickly I can tell you! Frantically searched for the best way out of town and to get a road south – emotions were running high on adrenaline – once again I was lost for words and shivers went running down my spine! Dave Gold was turning the air blue with expletives as he was trying to work out where to go – I found that funny – ho ho!

We then spent a while at the tail end of the storms in case a new cell developed but were soon shivering in cold outflow winds so decided to head north again towards the earlier storm system which had now become HP (High Precipitation – a lot of rain). Those outflow winds gusted strongly and sent Roger Hill’s expensive video camera crashing to the ground on its tripod! He was not happy as the LCD screen stopped working!

The next 2 hours were spent "punching the core" which meant we drove right through the heart of the storm cell – and it was an amazing experience as we witnessed almost constant lightning, torrential rain and gusty winds. At times there was hail the size of golf-balls hammering down on the vans which made for a very noisy time and had me worried just in case the windscreen shattered, but it didn’t, and we were still driving at least 60mph! During this drive we passed through the town of Pratt, and a large wedge twister had hit this rather unfortunately named town about half an hour before we arrived. It was visible for a time but then became rain-wrapped (hidden) and was at least half a mile wide!!! It turns out that we may have intercepted this tornado if we hadn’t had to refuel in Greensburg and then drive south. This was a bit frustrating as apparently the twister looked very nice, but that is the way chasing goes and we had liked the look of another storm cell. Half of Pratt was without power and was spookily dark but we could still see the damage caused in the light of the van headlamps. Trees were felled, cars and properties damaged, bent road signs. Local TV later reported that 30 homes were damaged but there were no casualties as the residents had at least 15 minutes warning so were able to get in to their storm shelters. Fujita rating to be confirmed but it must have been at least F2 maybe even F3.

We drove to the city of Wichita ahead of the storm and checked into a Comfort Inn. Not long after, the storm arrived in the city. The rain was so heavy and the wind so strong that water came in through the window in my hotel room and poured onto the floor so I had to report it to reception and put towels down! That storm lasted a good hour and was great to watch for a while. For the first day we couldn’t have really asked for more – it was one hell of an introduction to the world of storm chasing! And Dave informed us that the next day could well be just as exciting with storm systems back in Oklahoma. Wow!

13:45 – Ate lunch at Applebee’s diner – it was a lovely meal. We could see towering clouds once again so it seemed the show was about to start. So we got ready to depart in the vans. I was to be in van 2 today with guides Rick Toracinta and Gene Rhoden. Tour members were generally swapping around to be social. I was on tenterhooks again hoping to see more twisters or at least severe storms, but first we had to try and get south west of Wichita in very heavy traffic.

23:00 – The last 8 hours or so saw the group chasing and intercepting several storms. The heavy traffic was a bit of a nightmare to get through and hampered our progress. Unfortunately we did not get to see any tornadoes today but some storms had good rotation and shelf cloud and could have been close to spawning a twister. Indeed a few were reported further north but we concentrated on the south and west, mainly due to the traffic earlier. The storms we did intercept were stunning and highly electrified. We came close to the town of Wakita again and on the border between Kansas and Oklahoma storms really got going and there were some eerie looking clouds. While we were chasing we certainly got off the main highways and onto county roads quite a lot – these are dirty, dusty, stony and muddy roads – and can get awful in heavy rain. We tried to say on paved roads as much as we could but sometimes we had to use these rough roads to get in a prominent position, which made for an interesting experience as the guides drove along sometimes lurching and sliding from side to side!

We stopped in a few places and watched magnificent CC (cloud to cloud) lightning shows before and after darkness fell – that was awesome too – such power in the heavens – but could have done without the smell of skunks nearby - PHEWEE! We saw a few gustnadoes (air and dust stirred up by rotation) near Medford, OK (there was quite a convergence of chasers here). At one location we could hear tornado sirens wailing in a nearby town that sent shivers running up and down my spine again – that was an eerie sound to capture on video.

Dave then announced that the next day or two looked like being "down days" where there would be no severe weather to chase. A cold front had plummeted way down south bringing cooler, drier and sunnier weather and severely reducing the dewpoint values – we would have to wait to see when deep moisture from the Gulf of Mexico would return to trigger some more storms. I had learnt a bit more about the way storms are triggered by now. Moisture is measured as a dewpoint value and this needs to be above 60 for a good chance of storms. When a combination of high temperatures, high dewpoint and a cold front combine, sometimes creating what is known as a "sweet spot" or a "triple point" – it is an ideal place for a severe storm or tornado. But still a great deal of the more in depth information was still a bit too much to understand.

Stayed the night back in Oklahoma City in a Comfort Inn.

15:00 – No storms to be chased today so Dave planned to drive to Amarillo in Texas to spend the night as the next day could see some severe storms developing not far from that area. Stopped at a Wal-Mart for people to buy needed provisions and incidentals. Ate lunch at a City Bites sandwich bar, which kept hunger at bay until we got to Amarillo where we planned to eat dinner at the famous Big Texan Steakhouse. I hoped that they would have a variety on the menu as I do not like steak!!!

23:55 – Checked into the hotel for the night – a Holiday Inn. We did eat at the Big Texan and there was a wide choice on the menu – no one went for the 72oz steak challenge where you have to eat it and the trimmings in an hour without being ill to get it for free! Yuck! Some have accomplished it though – there was a chart with the winning names and times! That meal was declared as the "paid-for tour banquet" to celebrate the twisters on the first day.

Spent 2 hours in the hotel bar chatting and slowly getting drunk on Budweiser. The forecast is for severe storms in west Texas for the next day so we are already in the target area. Good stuff!

I had now learnt all of the first names of the American tour participants- they are Richard and Inez (Ernst), Mary (Italian origin), Joe (owns restaurant), Don (Mac), Ed (Schoenborn – who took part in almost every tour for 2002! He chased until the middle of July!!!), and David and Linda (ministers) so really there is a varied bunch of people on this tour.

I have been calling home on my mobile to reassure mum that I am ok and have not been swept away by a tornado yet!

The Texas storms would have formed after dark thus the only excitement would have been another lightning show, which we have already seen so the Nebraska option did seem to be the better one of the two at the time.

15:45 – A difficult 4 hours passed. The guides stopped at a truck stop and Hardbuck family restaurant and digested food and Internet weather data! We stopped there for 4 hours! It got a bit boring. Bought a map to mark out our chase routes. Also bought a "Texas Twister" (a small toy similar to the water filled, shakeable "snowstorm" toys of old) where you shake it and twist it to produce a mini tornado – it is quite affective and when others saw it they rushed off to buy one too!

A decision was finally made to drive to Salina in Kansas ready to intercept storms in northern Kansas and southern Nebraska around lunchtime tomorrow. Therefore today became a "bust" – another down day and we were not to chase any West Texas storms. We were to travel east on Interstate 40 to Oklahoma City then north on Interstate 35 to Salina. 8 hours on the road – probably not much sleep to be had that night – a few people started to feel a bit down!

18:30 – It was cold, drizzly and FOGGY. I thought I was back in England for a moment apart from the fact that we were driving on the right hand side of the road – the weather was typically English. I remember thinking "This is America for goodness sake!!".

I was suffering from a few mosquito bites now so it was good that I had some insect repellent on me. I was looking forward to some severe storms after the couple of down days, and a tornado would be a bonus.

09:45 – The group gathered for departure. It was an early start because the storms today would form as early as lunchtime, and Dave confirmed that they were likely to be severe and possibly tornadic – Yippee!! Currently it was cold, cloudy and VERY windy.

11:30 – On the road in van 2 heading for Salina. The weather was still cloudy but had now turned warm and muggy which was a very good sign for storms as we also had high dewpoint values. Headed north on Interstate 35.

13:45 – We have passed through Salina and headed north on highway 81 and towering storm clouds are developing to the north of us. A quick stop was had in Concordia for food and bathroom break, as many hours of chasing were to follow.

15:00 – We just popped over the state border into Nebraska and went east on route 8.

17:30 – We have seen some very good storms producing good CG lightning but unfortunately we have not seen any twisters yet – slightly disappointing. We chased all around the northern counties of Kansas especially on route 15 south of Clay Center then headed south.

19:00 – Well, we weren’t very lucky for tornadic storms. There were one or two "average" storms and we drove south on Interstate 135 through an HP storm towards Wichita which produced some very good CG lightning and quarter sized hailstones. This meant for tricky driving, especially as about 20 vehicles were parked under each bridge over the interstate to avoid damage to bodywork and windscreens (I thought this was quite dangerous as it reduced the road width dramatically).

19:45 – Chased hard and fast to intercept a storm which had a tornado reported to be on the ground in the Kingman county area, which was close to those poor residents of Pratt again! The lightning was vivid and the sky was almost pitch black, even though there was still an hour of daylight left. Headed south on local roads to bypass the town of Hutchinson.

10:10 – The prospects for storms today were quite high and our target area was to be in north and central Texas, down towards the Dallas area. I thought it would be cool if our hotel stay was in Dallas that night. I slept well but exhaustion was creeping up on me and I could have done with a few hours more. The overnight stay was in an Amerisuites hotel.

12:00 – Headed south on Interstate 35 near the Washita River. We have passed through the cold front into warmer air and the temperature went up about 9 degrees Celsius in 2 miles! Travelled in van 1 today.

13:15 – Crossed the border into Texas and stopped for food and bathroom breaks.

16:00 – We tried to get in a prominent position for storms – we did a "tail end Charlie" and concentrated in the last cell in a squall line of storm cells in the hope that it would separate into an individual supercell. We skirted past Dallas and headed south-west on route 51 towards Brownwood.

18:45 – The storms were eluding us – how annoying. We decided to pop south to Stephensville and ate at a Chilli’s restaurant. Dave and the guides downloaded and analysed more radar data to see if we could have a chance of intercepting a storm or if we needed to retire for the night in a hotel. Two more "down days" were definitely forecast so some tourist type activities also needed to be planned, such as visiting National Parks or a National Weather Centre. The Big Bends National Park was mentioned but it is quite a distance away.

19:15 – Damnation – another bust! There were no storms worth considering. So a decision was made to drive to Midland to spend the night. There was a feeling of discontent amongst some of the group as they were tired of all the travelling and not intercepting any storms at the end of it. Some wanted to visit national parks etc but some just wanted to crash out at the hotel and recover some energy by resting and/or swimming. I was not sure what I wanted to do. Dave Gold mentioned there was a good chance to chase storms in MEXICO(!) which worried a few of us – just in case we were hijacked by bandits or something!

23:45 – We arrived at Midland and checked into a Sleep Inn (possibly the cheapest hotel we encountered during the tour). Some of the group members were definitely uncomfortable now, and grumbling. We had driven through Abilene (home of the infamous beetle infestation in 2001) and at one point in the van there was a weird smell and there was one of those beetles crawling over the back seat very close to me. I yelled out and some others got a bit panicky but we managed to kick it out of the van. If one beetle gave that reaction I would hate to think what thousands did!!!

More than 500 miles driven today. We had to stop earlier as Dave was feeling really sick and had a tremendous headache – he got out for some fresh air and was shaking his head – quite worrying. He was okay when we got to the hotel.

I discovered that out of all members on this tour, not including the guides, I was the youngest. Dave Gold is actually a few months younger than I am however.

We planned to visit Carlsbad Caverns the next day, which I looked forward to as they are supposed to be very special. The whole group was to go which didn’t help the feelings of the discontented members amongst us. But when you chase storms you have to be prepared for tiredness and long distances. Dave makes that clear when you apply to participate on a tour.

17:30 MDT (Mountain Daylight Time = BST – 7 hours) – Have been down into Carlsbad Caverns. Took a lift (elevator) down 750 feet(!) to take a mile a mile long walk through the caverns, viewing stalagmites, stalactites, mineral rocks and speleothems (I need to look up the definition of that!). It was all truly stunning. I would have taken my camera and video but Dave advised that cameras would probably not be allowed, so I left them in the van. It turns out cameras WERE allowed – oh well, never mind – I can still recall what the caverns looked like. It was pleasantly cool down there after the Texan heat (about 30 C) and it was great to be in mountains looking down onto the great central plains and watching the dust devils skim across the land.

22:15 – We ate a very nice meal at the hotel restaurant in Carlsbad and had a couple of drinks in the bar, slowly getting merry!
The next day’s activities were not yet planned but it was a down day so the guides needed to check the forecast to see if we needed to relocate ourselves ready for more stormy weather, and it sounds like Lubbock is a possibility. Rick and Gene planned to go hiking in the mountains early in the morning (rather them than me!)

We had a funny moment! One of the group members thought we were going to have a detailed weather forecast and put all his clothes into the laundry wash BUT we were ready to leave so he had to rush and try and get them dry. Obviously he was ribbed about it for a while but he also found it funny!

21:30 CDT (Central Daylight Time = BST – 6 hours) – Checked into a Quality Inn in Amarillo, TX. Ate at a Tex-Mex establishment called Tacos "somethingorother" – I cannot remember the name! Planned a decent night’s sleep. The next day forecasted chasing storms in the high plains in yet another state – Colorado!

I was amazed at the barren landscapes of Texas, a state that obviously does not get a lot of rain apart form the odd storm. Nodding donkey oil wells were everywhere. The quality of the roads was quite rough, even on the interstates, but there was also a lot of construction and road resurfacing.

Ate breakfast and tried to keep occupied – hardly any stormy weather around at that moment as there was no moisture, but the dewpoints were forecasted to increase steadily during the day so storms were possible. The last day would be better, said Dave.

One of the members, Joe, has decided to leave because he has become tired and exhausted with all the travelling and not getting to see any storms and he saw what he wanted to see on day 1. We were thankful that the first day produced those tornadoes!
Dave was still concerned about the weather patterns for the reunion tour.

We decided not to go to Colorado and just stay put in Amarillo to analyse the data for any storms in Oklahoma or Kansas.

14:00 – On the road towards Kansas with a target area of Kingman and Pratt (again!). Ate at Cracker Barrel.

16:15 – Fuelled up the vans and had an ice cream at a Dairy Queen.

18:45 – Hooray! We ended up chasing a storm near Ashland in Kansas. It was quite average but did produce some nice CG lightning. We were standing in the outflow band and the wind nearly swept me off my feet sometimes. This was the first storm we had encountered for 4 days! We came full circle in effect as we were now in almost the same area as we chased on day 1. That storm was to our north and it seemed that the poor residents of Pratt were getting a bit of a lashing again!

22:30 – The hotel for the night was a Best Western (Redbud Inn) in the small town of Alva in Oklahoma (we drove through it on day 1 – it had broadband internet so Dave could get a good forecast for the final day). TV reported that Pratt was definitely thrashed by the storm at about 10pm. We are still in high spirits even though Joe has left and took a great deal of humour away with him!

We ate at a Pizza Hut where the pizzas everyone ordered were huge! And we couldn’t eat it all.

The last day of the tour – we prayed for severe storms and tornadoes – just the one would be ok.

09:30 – I felt a bit fragile this morning. The pizza I had fought back! I woke at 5am with heartburn and acid indigestion. Couldn’t get back to sleep. Drank water and made myself sick but didn’t feel much better. Had a light breakfast. Mary let me have some antacid tablets that helped. I could have popped to the 24-hour Wal-Mart down the road.

Weather wise, the temperatures were high and the dewpoint values had recovered to the low 60’s so that was promising for severe storms later in the day. Yippee!

10:45 – Having looked at the data, Dave had a quandary with the forecast. Severe storms in OK and KS were not a sure bet that day but there were severe storms, but not tornadic, forecast for south-west Colorado. If we decided to play that area it would have meant an 8-hour drive back to Oklahoma City, arriving at 3 or 4am. Some were not keen on this, but again that is the nature of chasing and were advised to schedule return flights in the afternoon just in case of a late night. So Dave needed more time to make a decision on whether to chase or make it another down day!

17:15 – A boring day sat around in the hotel lobby, just waiting to see if and where storms would develop. Ate lunch at a Sonic drive-in restaurant which could have been the last meal of the day. Someone bought a baseball and bat and a few of us played in the hotel car park for a while to pass some time – which we left for the rest of the tours to have a knock about if they wanted to. Alva is not a very big town but a few other storm chasers turned up at the hotel, as well as 2 vans full of storm chasing students from the California University of Pennsylvania. 2 guys turned up from the UK who were chasing by themselves – they had been chasing with a tour group the previous year, but this way they said it was cheaper.

Dave decided to head west into the Oklahoma panhandle where we could intercept some high based storms – that was the best chance for this last day.

Said goodbye to most of my fellow chasers, and it was quite an emotional moment really for some. Then went to my room to watch a bit of the TV reports on the storm, then went to sleep.

10:00 – Had breakfast and said goodbye to Dave Gold and Roger Hill. Did not see any of the reunion tour members yet. Made sure I was packed and nothing left behind. There were storms around Houston airport so I decided that it would be wise to try and get an earlier flight just in case.

11:30 – Chatted to Jill for a bit and said goodbye – also saw a few other tour 2 members and some of the reunion tour that were in the hotel already. Everyone should get each other’s e-mail addresses so we should be able to keep in touch. Jeremy spent a while during the tour jotting down everyone’s details and why they chose to chase storms. He planned to write an article which would be interesting to read.

12:15 – At OKC airport waiting for an earlier flight which I managed to get standby for – due to the storms at Houston grounding planes for a couple of hours this flight was delayed. All I hoped for was to get my international flight back to the UK at 7pm. My mobile phone set off the security check alarm so I had to be body scanned! Even small bits of foil in my pockets were detected!

17:20 – Finally got to Houston, TX as standby on that flight which had to take a bit of a diversion due to the storms around Houston. I managed to take some photos out of the plane window at some towering anvil clouds. Because I was rebooked on an earlier flight my place was no longer guaranteed on my original overnight flight which became overbooked! I had to wait to see if I could be allowed on the flight! That worried me a bit as it was the last flight of the day!

The flight is delayed because of computers crashing at Air Traffic Control in the UK earlier today!

19:00 – I breathed a sigh of relief – there was space for me on the flight to the UK.

20:30 – In the air bound for London Gatwick – delayed by 75 minutes. I hoped I wouldn’t miss my Flightlink coach back to Bristol the next day.

18^th – 12:00 BST (British Summer Time) – Back on British soil. Had to wait ages for the baggage to appear on the conveyor belt but I did not miss the coach. Spent the journey reminiscing about the last 12 days or so. A DAMN GOOD HOLIDAY!

16:00 – Home again – totally shattered!

Well, what can I say. That is one of the best holidays I have ever been on, and I made it through without incident!

I would never have guessed that the very first day would have been as hectic and rewarding as it was. It was certainly a whiz-bang introduction to storm chasing. I thought I had died and gone to heaven when I saw the tornadoes for real. They may not have been the very best ones, being low contrast etc, and certainly not the classic F5 beast that is a rarity, but I though they were great for a first visit. The structure of the storms was fantastic and the lightning was absolutely superb. The UK rarely sees storms quite like that. Having said that I do feel sorry for the residents of Tornado Alley who continually have to live with the threat of severe storms and twisters on their doorstep! I do not think I could actually live there – but then again, maybe I could?

I really enjoyed my first visit to the USA, away from the usual tourist attractions. Here I could see just how ordinary folk lived and away from the big towns and cities just how far apart the houses and ranches were. We visited 5 states in total: Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, Nebraska (briefly) and New Mexico. Each state was different in character. New Mexico and Texas were barren, dry and brown with great distances between each town, and so hot that if you got caught out in the middle of nowhere I don’t think you would last very long. Oklahoma, Nebraska and Kansas were green and luscious – obviously signs that they get more rain and storms. David Gold did state that historically, Texas has had more storms and tornadoes because it covers a huge area. But it is estimated that Oklahoma has had more storms per square mile. At the time of writing too, Oklahoma City is the latest location to have suffered an F5 tornado in May 1999. No one knows where or when the next F5 will strike. Note that as the Fujita scale measures tornadoes by the amount of damage plus wind speed, there are plenty of tornadoes worthy of an F5 rating that scour the open countryside but do not damage anything and hence attract a rating of F0 – see below for the Fujita scale definitions. So it is rather unfortunate in my mind that for the ultimate F5, you have to expect towns and cities to have major destruction and possible loss of life. Such is the power of Mother Nature!

I was amazed at how the same region would get severe storms time and time again. I did feel so sorry for the town of Pratt. Yet the people who live in tornado alley are made of strong stuff and they just start all over again if they get wiped out! Amazingly the insurance premiums are not any higher than living outside of Tornado Alley, so I was informed.

I enjoyed meeting up and travelling with my fellow tour 2 participants. Everyone got on so well and there was never a cross word – although there was a clash of strong opinions on occasions. I think everyone generally had a good time even though things got a bit tedious at times with all the travelling. That’s storm chasing for you! I felt safe at all times as the guides knew what they were doing – although punching the core for the first time was slightly unnerving! It was very exciting to be with the storms, travelling with the robotic voice of the weather radio service** announcing all those storm warnings – "The tornado is on the GROUND!", and Dave using all the catchphrases – such as "tornadies", "scud", "crapola" and "Sheriffnado"(!), "SLCs" ("Scary Looking Clouds" – no joke!), plus the droll way he said "that’s funny!"  (** MP3 Sound clips - CLIP1 (913K) and CLIP2 (350K))

We travelled approximately 4,000 miles in the 10 days, which is about average, but some tours have done more. The vans (which are hired – no questions asked) certainly must take a bit of a hammering during the entire chase season (generally April to July – although tornadoes can appear all year round if the conditions are right).

I am sure that I will return for another storm chasing adventure soon, but for now I will have good memories and keep track of what weather the other tours encounter. I was a bit apprehensive about going but I don’t regret it for a second. It was a real blast from start to finish, even during the boring moments.

There are other tour companies out there apart from Silver Lining Tours (Cloud 9 for example) and not having participated with them I cannot make any comparisons, but I rate David Gold and his team very highly indeed. Sometimes in the past some tours have found TV crews tagging along to film the tornadoes and storms but our tour did not have any TV presence whatsoever (I am camera shy anyway!).

So if you have the desire, and the money, then I recommend this as one of those adventure holidays of a lifetime. Try it out and become a storm chaser – you will certainly generate lots of interest from friends and anyone you mention it to. Guaranteed!!!