Stormchasing in South Central USA

Wednesday morning, halfway through the stormchasing tour, and we haven’t seen much yet. Todd, our tour guide, sounds more enthusiastic at the briefing this morning and remains careful at the same time. He and his co-pilot Alan don’t like to create impossible expectations. They are well aware that I and two other adventurers will be satisfied with nothing less than seeing a tornado like that F5 on his website. Todd has not yet dared to tell us that this was an event he has only experienced once in 30 years of stormchasing.

Todd has an understated sense of humor and is maybe not the greatest communicator but it quickly becomes clear he is a real expert in stormchasing. He has lived knowledge of the behavior of the phenomenon as well on the terrain as theoretically. I try to get as much as possible out of him, quite a challenge, let me tell you. He is never too tired for an extra mile for his beloved customers.

It will perhaps be after 8 pm when the storm is at its best. We therefore have an extensive lunch in Canadian, Texas, as there will be no time to eat later on. The weather models are on our table. Todd watches them constantly, he hardly has time to eat or to rest, updates come in all the time. “You have to approach the models with a grain of salt”, he says, “they always lie”. The waitress gets crazy when she hears that we are stormchasers and wants to take a picture with us. We are greeted as heroes.

Hours later, after driving further south towards San Angelo, Texas, we are close to a storm that is forming. I have in the meantime installed the radarscope app on my smartphone to monitor its evolution. We pit stop at a cafe where graybeards are watching the news about the ongoing storm. They advise us to be careful.

We stop somewhere again and get out of the car. This is WOW, must see, so impressive. The clouds begin to move faster and more chaotically, rain begins to fall, a supercell is forming. The diameter of the hail in the clouds is already 10 cm according to the models ! Alan closely follows all ongoing online discussions. Todd calls out to leave again.

Chasing the storm is no easy feat, we are driving at high speed, we have to follow the roads of course, and there are not many of them here. Now we have to drive a long way away from the storm to catch up with it again later on. Surprisingly we suddenly remark bright blue sky above us and far away, behind us, we observe the dark menacing storm. From that distance it seems much less threatening.

The storm remains hard to keep up with, even if we keep driving fast. Sometimes we are behind slower cars and Todd gets agitated. We come across a closed road, which means taking an unexpected detour again. Stress. Stress. Stress. Like a solar eclipse where you want to move because of clouds. The solar eclipse won’t wait, neither will the tornadoes. Or like a Northern Lights expedition. The space weather predicts a huge show, but you only see how strong it is when you witness it. Models there also lie. It’s half past seven, soon it will cool down and then it will be over. But the predictions were that the maximum would be between 8 and 9 pm, so there is still hope. We now pass a great river called Arkansas, like the state. Menacing clouds hang low above as if they will swallow everything up.

We have driven through almost the entire state of Oklahoma from west to east. The storm has become even more threatening. It suddenly gets darker. Some people launch a weather balloon at our next stop. The sensor sits in a softdrink-cup and weighs almost nothing. The herd of cows in the meadow becomes restless and starts to moo. A news helicopter passes overhead. Beautiful, very beautiful, Todd explains the different clouds we see. He juggles with terms such as surface based cape,  updraft helicity and many others. I’ll have to read a book about it at home to fully understand, but as a first introduction, this expedition is a success. Another armored car passes us.

We continue our chase and lightnings briefly and semi-permanently illuminate the area. See, there’s another one with a thick backbone and many spurs. Its brightness hurts the eyes for a fraction of a second. Observing people everywhere. The word “hunt” is appropriate, you chase your prey. Will it bite, will a tornado appear ? I have really caught the storm fever. At the next stop I take more than 80 lightning photos in no time. A new app on my smartphone automatically detects it. However, when I look later it is a bit disappointing. Then we drive to the heart of the storm, it is getting very dark. I am temporarily stopping this report, which I am writing in real time so as not to forget the events. There is now too much to discover outside.