May 28 - Toronto

Finally back home. It's been an epic journey of 12,850 km (about 8000 miles), and while this season didn't quite pan out the way we wanted, we still had a great time. We chased during the right weather pattern, but difficulties in forecasting and strategy made for a few frustrating days where we missed the best storms and tornadoes. That is part of storm chasing. Trying to predict the future, especially when you're dealing with something so complicated as our atmosphere is a real challenge.

May 27 - LaGrange, New York

After 2 long days of driving, we made it back to Dave's place in New York at about 9:00 in the evening. We quickly unloaded our stuff from the truck & removed the windshield hail-guard. Scott still had to drive back to Queens tonight, so he wanted to get back on the road quickly. I crashed at Dave's for the night, falling asleep almost immediately. I still have anther day of driving in my own vehicle to get back home to Toronto tomorrow.

May 26 - Indianapolis, Indiana

Day 1 of the long drive home. Today we started early and made it from Wichita Falls, Texas to Indianapolis, Indiana. This is always the part of these trips that I hate the most, but with good friends, and a lot of laughs, the time goes quickly. We stopped for the night at our halfway point in Indianapolis.

May 25 - Dickens, Texas

Our last chase day. Started in Weatherford, OK with the plan to chase down near Childress, Texas. We blasted south and ended up in the middle of a chaser convergence at a gas station in Paducah. It was only about 1:30 in the afternoon when the first storm formed, close by, near Matador. It was a beacon for all the nearby storm chasers to go there.   We approached the storm and it had a good rotating updraft and we barely moving, basically almost stationary. We turned south past Roaring Springs to get out of the path of it and the traffic was terrible. So many chasers on Hwy 70 north of Afton. The storm became tornado warned and took on a really menacing look on Radar.     Just northeast of Dickens, we noticed another storm was really cranking up. This storm kicked up a huge plume of red dust and it started wrapping around the circulation. It was very dramatic, and we believed there was a tornado in there, pulling that dirt around it. It was later confirmed by other chasers and the Storm Prediction Center that there was indeed a brief tornado in there.     We continued east to Guthrie and got some wider shots of the approaching storm, then pushed on towards Haskell, where to storm’s lightning really ramped up. We got out of the car to shoot the dramatic lightning, but it soon became a bit too dangerous when the bolts started to hit nearby in front of us AND behind us. We bailed out of there and relocated to a nearby cemetery, but the lightning had tapered off in our area by then.     It was starting to get dark as we approached Leuders, and we pulled over to watch the tornado warned storm. It was dark and menacing, but we couldn't see well enough underneath it to tell if it was actually producing a tornado or not. We ended up saying goodbye to the rest of our group (Chris, Alethea & Jason) before driving on through the storm to our hotel in Wichita Falls.

May 24 - Arnett, Oklahoma

We spent most of the day sitting at a gas station in Seiling, Oklahoma, along with dozens of other storm chasers. It looked like there was good potential today, but it was likely to be a late show. After what felt like forever, a storm started to pop up to our south near Putnam. We blasted down that way and watched a few storms struggle to grow. We met up with good friend Daniel Shaw from Australia, and we had some fun totally taking over his live stream.   Eventually, there was another, more potent cell that went up farther southwest, near Arnett. Unfortunately, it was already dark by now, but we went for it. It didn't take long for us (and hundreds of other chasers) to reach it. A tornado watch was issued, but because of where the storm was in relation to the radar sites, it was difficult to get a good idea of what it was doing. Soon they issued a tornado warning for our storm, and we spent quite some time peering into the darkness, trying to see if there was actually a tornado illuminated by lightning. We couldn't see anything and the storm was slowly drifting towards us. We repositioned near Strong City and found a dark spot away from the headlights to try and shoot some lightning.   The storm died quickly and we called off the chase to drive to our hotel in Weatherford for the night.

May 23 - Kirk, Colorado

Departing Elk City early, we blasted north and west, knowing that the computer models had predicted pretty good tornado potential in northeastern Colorado into northwestern Kansas. Unfortunately for us, mistakes were made and it turned into a frustrating failure.   We made it into the general target area, and a good looking storm formed up north where the models said it would, but we were still too far south. We could have reached it, but some other, closer storms fired up near the town of Kirk, CO. We watched those for quite some time, until tornado reports started coming in from the northern storm. We storms we were on were not looking great, so we bailed and blasted north up towards the Yuma area. Unfortunately, by the time we got there, that storm was dying, so we missed the tornadoes.   To make matters worse, a couple of new storms had gone up back to the south, near where we were earlier. One of them was starting to look really good, so we circled back and tried to reach it. On the way there, we saw reports of that storm now producing at least one tornado. Are you kidding me?! Being stuck between two good targets is an awful feeling.   Eventually we just gave up and cut our losses. We drove well into the night and stayed in Great Bend, Kansas, arriving at the hotel at about 1 AM, defeated and tired.

May 22 - Amarillo to Palo Pinto Texas to Elk City, OK

Today’s target was southern Oklahoma/Northern Texas, so we blasted out from Amarillo and drove along 1-40, then south to Altus, OK for lunch. We weren't expecting much today, messy storms at best, but Mother Nature gave treated us to something very nice. An isolated cell popped up south of the Red River in Texas, and it was relatively slow moving. We had our target.     We caught up to the storm near Seymour and it didn't look too remarkable at first, but as we continued to chase it to the town of Olney, it really began to take shape. It was an isolated storm, out ahead of the rest of the messy convection, so it had the opportunity to hold its strength. Near the town of Graham, it really started to take on a classic “stacked plates” appearance. We repositioned to try and get a better view near Palo Pinto. It was a gorgeous, low-precipitation supercell, and while it basically had no chance of dropping a tornado, it was clearly rotating like a top with a spiral, corkscrew updraft. We stopped for more photos and posed for an amazing group shot in front of the storm.     We reluctantly had to leave the storm in order to get some miles underneath us for our target area tomorrow up in Kansas near the Colorado state line. As we departed, the setting sun lit up the storm’s mammatus clouds with a pastel, almost purplish hue. We continued into the night, arriving at around midnight in Elk City Oklahoma.

May 21 - Amarillo, Texas

Today was a down day in Amarillo. We took advantage of our time today to go for brunch at my favourite burger joint, Coyote Bluff. As always, I had their spicy “Burger From Hell”. It was delicious. After that, we did some laundry, and made some electrical repairs to Scott’s truck. For dinner we went out to a nice place called the Cask & Cork, then we all sat down to discuss the forecast for the rest of the week.

May 20 - Norman, OK to Amarillo, Texas

A travel day today. We met up for lunch with Jack Beven, senior hurricane specialist with the National Hurricane Center. It was great to finally meet him in person after all these years. In the afternoon we drove from Norman to Amarillo, Texas, and of course as is tradition, we went to The Big Texan Steak Ranch for dinner. It's always nice to go to The Big Texan with friends.

May 19 - Wichita - St Jo, Texas - Norman, OK

Another day of moderate risk and 15% hatched tornado threat. We headed south out of Wichita, knowing that this was going to be our last chance at good storms for at least a few days.   We stopped for lunch at a great little BBQ place in Paul’s Valley, as a tornado watch was issued. Storms started to fire up to the southwest that looked interesting, so we headed out and eventually made it down to Marietta, OK, near the Red River. One of the storms had a nice shelf cloud on it, but there was more development further south. We found a bridge crossing and dropped down into Texas to the town of St Jo. We found a good spot where we could see above the trees, as a lowered area got our attention. These storms however, remained in clusters, and not individual discrete cells, which made for a messy chase.   We backtracked to Marietta and let one of the tornado-warned storms overtake us at a truck stop. There was heavy rain, and some small hail & that’s about all. We were getting frustrated and decided to blow off these storms and head north to grab some dinner in Ardmore. We found a great Mexican place (El Tapatio) there. After dinner, the sky was looking really nice with the backside of these storms lit up by the setting sun. We found a spot out near a local football field to shoot some photos.

May 18 - Medicine Lodge, Kansas to Woodward, Oklahoma & Wichita, Kansas

Another moderate risk with a 15% hatched tornado area. Today had a lot of potential with a relatively small target area, but it proved to be a lot more complicated than we'd expected. From Weatherford, we targeted Medicine Lodge, Kansas. Once there, we waited at the Casey’s gas station for hours, along with a huge number of other chasers that were all thinking the same thing. The conditions at our location were overcast, cool and drizzly. We hoped for that to move off, but it never really did. Some storms started to fire up in the northeastern Texas Panhandle. Eventually, we had no choice but to go for it. As the main storm moved from Texas into Oklahoma, it produced at least one tornado but we were still far away, trying to get into position. By the time we caught up to the storm it was too late. It had pretty structure and there was hail covering the ground, but the tornado threat had vanished.   Several other storms around Oklahoma, Kansas and Colorado produced tornadoes today, but luck was not on our side. We continued on to Wichita, arriving after 11:00 at night. Tomorrow has a lot of potential as well, further south, likely in Oklahoma.

May 17 - Weatherford, Oklahoma

Today had an enhanced risk of severe weather with a 5% tornado risk for parts of northern Texas and Oklahoma. We decided to go with the northern target area because that would keep us in better position for chasing tomorrow. We grabbed breakfast at Cracker Barrel in Springfield, then met up with Chris & Alethea and we headed west on I-44 into Tulsa, Oklahoma, then we took the 412 west across the state to Enid. A tornado watch box was issued and despite what all the forecast models said, a single isolated supercell formed south of Norman and moved east. This thing put down at least 1 tornado, but none of us were expecting it to happen in that part of the state.     We waited, and eventually repositioned to Seiling where we met up with Jason Persoff. At a gas station. We all continued south to Clinton where we basically waited and gave up. Today ended up being a bust. We went to Weatherford for dinner and stayed there for the night.

May 16 - Bell City, Missouri

After grabbing breakfast at the hotel, we carried on west on I-70. The SPC has a moderate risk with a 15% hatched are for tornadoes in southern Missouri into Illinois and Indiana. They mentioned potential for strong, long-tracked tornadoes. The chase terrain there is not great with lots of hills and trees, but it’s hard to ignore that forecast, so we went for it.   We continued southwest to Sparta & then Chester and a tornado watch was issued. We waited there for a bit & met up with Chris Kridler & Alethea Kontis. Storms had already started to fire up in Missouri and were headed our way, a couple of them were already tornado warned. We crossed the Mississippi River and got into the best position we could, given the limited road network. We had to wait for the southernmost storm, the “Tail-End Charlie” to reach our position near Marble Hill. Visibility wasn’t great so we dropped south, then back east through Advance to Sikeston. Along the way, we caught a brief glimpse of a thin funnel cloud that was verified to have touched down, so it was definitely a tornado I wasn’t able to get any images of the brief tornado myself though. We kept trying to catch up to the storm again, but it outran us right near the Mississippi River.   Heading west to get set up for tomorrow, some more storms formed and one just north of us got tornado warned. We diverted north through the town of Bloomfield. The storm was moving fast and looked elevated to us. It was moving too fats so we abandoned it, but apparently it did produce a small tornado. Continuing west on hwy 60, we encountered a third tornado warned storm. We ended up driving through it with heavy rain, small hail and strong winds, but not much else. We stopped for a bite to eat (Subway) in Winona. We drove into the night and stayed in Springfield, MO.   A large tornado ended up hitting St. Louis today. There have been some some amazing photos

May 15 - LaGrange, New York to Indianapolis, Indiana

Didn't sleep great. I woke up around 3:30 A.M. and tried to get back to sleep.The upcoming weather pattern look very favourable for severe weather across parts of the Midwest. We're not sure exactly where we'll need to go, but for today, the plan is to ,just start heading west. We expect that there might be some potential for late night storms in Indiana.   Scott arrived about 6:45 and we were on the road by about 7:30. We drove all day through New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. We stopped for dinner near Columbus, OH and saw a bright sun dog. That was the extent of my weather photography today. The late night storms never materialized as far south as we were.   There were tornado watches north of us, but they were never a real target for us. We continued on into Indiana and stayed on the west side of Indianapolis.

May 14 - Toronto to LaGrange, New York

Got up early and headed out, even at 6:40 A.M. there was still crazy traffic getting out of Toronto, at least the Queenstown Lewiston bridge border crossing was very smooth. The 10 hour drive to Dave’s place in Lagrange was uneventful. On and off light rain. I arrived at about 4:30 in the afternoon. I was surprised that I was able to make it the whole way on a single tank of gas.

May 13 - Toronto, Canada

It's been 2 years since my last trip to Tornado Alley. Last year I just wasn't able to make it down for tornado season, but this year I'll be teaming up once again with long-time chase partners Dave Lewison & Scott McPartland, both from New York state.   My plan is to drive to Dave's in the Hudson Valley on Wednesday, then Scott will come to pick us up on Thursday morning and we'll start heading west. The pattern over the next week or 2 looks pretty promising. We'll see.