May 16th

Today was the last day of our 2009 chase season (unless I win the lottery and head back out), so we had to head south back to Norman, OK for our flight back to the UK tomorrow.

Whilst heading back to Norman we stopped in Wakita. This was the town in which the movie Twister was based, so naturally they have the movie museum there in town (but no Aunt Meg with no cows out front and real lemonade!).

We arrived there to find some of the VORTEX 2 team already there, with a DOW truck and various Scout and Probe vehicles.

15th May

Today was to be 0ur last chase of the season and we had high hopes of success.

A few cells began to fire before midday, so we decided to head north to intercept them in the Topeka KS area.

We got ino the core and the storms produced small hail, some lightning and alot of rain. We weren't expecting anything better as it was so early and knew the afternoon storms would have better tornado potential.

We positioned ourselved further south again around the Ottawa area, and a line of storms began to pop up in front of the cold front. We targeted the cell furthest south known as the "Tail End Charlie" as it was not competing for energy with the others and was most likely to produce a tornado.

We observed several rotating wall clouds but none of them were able to produce the tornado. Eventually the storms merged into a massive squall line and the chase was over. A great chase day all the same.

May 14th

Today was a travel day, as we headed to Kansas from Illinois in order to get into position for tomorrow's chase.

As we passed through Kansas City on our way to Topeka we witnessed a really nice photogenic sunset.

May 13th

Hopes were high today of the best chase of the season. The SPC had issued a moderate risk for Missouri/Illinois.
We situated ourselves in E Illinois where we had the best moisture, and storms began to fire in our location in the early afternoon. However, these were weak and short lived but storms started to build in Missouri so we decided that would be our target now but this was several hours away. We raced to the target just N of Kirksville, as there were reports of tornadoes on the ground. We intercepted the storm in Canton but at this point it was a huge HP bomb, if there was a tornado in there we couldn't clearly see it as it was now hugely rain wrapped and dangerous

We retreated and the storm began to get amazingly electrified. We decided to head back to Jacksonville IL for the night with the storm hot on our heals.

As we reached our destination the storm became almost like a Cat 1 Hurricane with wind gusts and driving rain of 75mph. A fun chase day if not somewhat frustrating.

May 12th

After looking at the forecast for the next two days, we made the tough decision to scrap todays chase in W Kansas in order to get into position for the much greater severe weather risk in E Missouri/W Illinois tomorrow.

After reaching our location in St Louis Missouri, we spent the day visiting the famous arch that stands over 600 feet on the shore of the Mississippi River. The view from the top was spectacular. Hopefully the storms tomorrow will be equally so. Wish us luck!!.

May 11th

Today was a travel day to get into position for Wednesdays great setup.

We travelled over 400 miles from Dallas to Joplin Missouri, a long day on the road. What is it about these long travel days?, they make you dabble in things you wouldn't normally do in order to keep awake but they mess with your sanity!!

May 10th

Today no storms were forecast, so we headed to Dallas and checked in early. This gave us time to unwind after alot of time on the road. We switched on the TV to discover Twister was on...go figure!.

That night paradise was to come our way..well for two of us at least, as Mike Theiss my partner in Olive Garden, and myself got the chance to flex our gift cards and head to our favourite Italian place of endulgance.

Afterwards some of us headed into the centre of Dallas to photograph the city skyscapes at night with great success.

Tomorrow we begin the trek north for some more storm intercepts.