Why Storms?

Why Storms?

50 weeks ago I was preparing for a trip of a lifetime.  I have long had a fascination with thunderstorms, tornadoes and sever weather.  I'm not 100% sure if that stemmed from watching the film Twister, or if it stems from being caught in a large thunderstorm whilst out on a cub scouts day out. Either way, large storms thrill me. 

I had come across Paul and the Netweather team whilst looking online for a decent lightning detector.  I was trialing lightning photography and, living with a spectacular sky view in Symond's Yat I wanted to know if and where a storm would come from during the hot summer of 2014.  Netweather delivered well with their lighting tool and I was able to take the beautiful lightning shot found below.  Sadly, back then my photography skills and camera were not really up to the job, but this sparked further interest in storms and storm photography. 

It was whilst on the Netweather website that I noticed something called "Storm Chase USA" on their forums and, naturally I went to find out more. I approached my girlfriend at the time and said "We've gotta do this!". She gave me a confused look and asked if I was kidding. When we unfortunately split up about a month later, needless to say I signed right up for one of their tours and feel it is one of the best things I have ever done. 

The following posts will show a brief re-cap of last year's tour, show preparation for storm chase 2016 and then lead into blogs covering the adventures as best as the Wi-Fi and time allows!