USA Storm Chasing Expedition - 30th May 2011
Look!, Real cowboys.
You don't see this in
the big city.
The usual suspects. L-R
Brad, Dave, Mark, Heather, Chris, Megan, Me, Scott, Bill & Dayna.
From all over the place... Canada, Florida, Australia, & New York.
Storms are firing up.
Into the core we go.
Scott's hail shield.
I copied his design..
Dave Lewison grabbing
that quick lightning bolt.
Megan waiting for more
inflow winds...
Even the local sheriff
wanted to see something.
Shelf cloud....
Scary.. But
harmless.
The weather channel are
doing their in field broadcast.
The great tornado
hunt..
Turbulent skies.
Rain shaft can be seen
off in the distance.
Love the shots looking
down the road.
Amazing colours.
Looked incredible.. but
it was all outflow dominant.
Still... very
photogenic.
Mark Robinson filming
his project.... Yes Mark.. It is windy..
Lightning bolt anyone?
Repositioning.
Waiting for something
to happen.
Still no tornado.
Car is happily parked
for free.
Heading south..
Tornado is on the ground but in the "Bears Cage"
There is only one road
option today..
Option #1 = See the
tornado, possibly get killed, or get cored with 4 inch hail.
Option #2 = Don't see the tornado, and take photos of people's destroyed cars.
We took option 2.
But while we wait.. we
photograph cows.. I don't know why... but we do.
Moving into another
position.
Sampling the core after
the hail goes past.
Wow.. these are
big.
2.5"
They are cold.
Bill and Scott, playing
with the hail.
Space ship looking
hail.
So much of it.
I collect a few and
decide to head north to find bigger ones.
WOW.!
I wouldn't want to be
stuck in this... OH.. Sorry.. YES I would.
2.75" Hail after 30
minutes of melting.
Another big 2.75"
Damn.
Imagine if you got
locked out of your car in this hail barrage.
This is what happens
when you have no hail guard.
Almost clean through
the windscreen.
Driving through a small
core.
A funnel?
No... It's just a scud.
Saying goodbye to our
Canadian friends.. They need to head home.
Sun is setting.
The rest of us keep
chasing.
Mammatus clouds.
Amazing.
Scott and Dave with
their car.
Hail shield deployed.
Mark very pleased with
his video footage.
Yet another shot of the
antenna array... I am waiting for the day to come where I am hit with lightning.
Sunset was amazing.
Lightning working its
way around the clouds.
WOW.
Wow..... ish...
Very nice.
Anvil crawlers were
spectacular during the drive to the hotel.
No comments necessary.
Oh.. Ok...
What an amazing shot.
They were happening
every min or so.
It made for a fun 40
min drive.
Hard to keep the camera
still, even on the mount.
5 second open exposure.
This one is nice.
And this one.
Nearly at the hotel.
I guess you can see how
often they happened.
The show is almost
over.
Oh.. ok... one last
one.
Actually, this is the
last one. What a day.