I've been up since the crack of dawn today to make sure everything is packed and ready to go. Passport and documents (check), clothes (check), cameras and video-cameras (check), cables/leads/power-adapters (check) and spare pair of underwear (check x 2)! As much as i love travelling, the preparation and transit I'm not too keen on. I just wonder which day of the tour that I've forgotten something I should have brought along with me!
Paul has announced to us all that there appears to be a large Mesoscale Convective System (MCS) moving towards the Dallas Fort Worth area on Monday night, moving into the early hours of Tuesday morning. This is incredibly good news as usually the first day of the chase is a switchover day with some guests leaving the tour and others, like myself, joining. This news does mean that there will likely be storms in the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles and we will be having a chase on this coming Tuesday.
Current convective outlook for Monday - the Storm Prediction Centre
These updates provide a source of where to chase and what to expect
This is very similar to the 2015 chase, where we hugged the Red River on the first day, chasing several cells. Although most were messy HP supercells (High Precipitation - not too great as there is far too much rain to see anything...) we did spot a few funnel clouds and, as the video below shows...we almost got struck by lightning that day. As much as I like watching lightning...that was a little too close to call...
Stepped leader lightning with shotgun thunder. This struck near Lawton, Oklahoma on 19/05/15.
Apologies for the swearing in the video - I think we were all in a little shock in this near miss incident.
As much as I'd like to share more from last year's chase, I've only a few hours until my transport to the airport comes to pick me up (thank you mum and dad!) and I've a few more things left to run through. I will hopefully aim to have the next post up when I am there, but internet for traveller through the Americian Midwest isn't the easiest thing to come by. That and the fact we may be landing during a thunderstorm in Dallas also doesn't help! Enjoy the rest of your weekends!
UPDATE - 16/05/2016 - misinterpreted the plans for the next few days. Tour 1 will be chasing the above storm. If storm potential is nearby on Tuesday at the pick up, we could very well chase that day, but is purely down to the weather and the tour operators.