In Tornado Alley
Speeding cars blast by turtles crossing the road.
To them, it must be the equivalent of severe storms gusting over.
Turtles are like people
They're individual's that react different to the scary winds.
In the face of danger. Some freeze up and crawl into their shells.
Others have the gall to up and run for shelter.
And others...
well...
(Water dripping)
Bless their hearts.
Music: "Angle's Serenade"
That's pretty.
Bam!
Got the tree!
Wow!
Welcome to Tornado Alley.
Umm. Powerful mesocyclone.
In March and April I observed some classic supercell structures
Dramatic lightning,
Severe hail with double rainbows,
but, no tomatoes.
Looks like some chasers have been waiting longer than me to see a potato.
Despite some poor route choices,
Kansas backroads would eventually lead me to my first tomato of the year.
Big hail is coming now. We should probably run.
And there we go.
Been awhile since I've replaced a windshield.
That's what did it. That's all it takes.
It's about to tornado right in front of us.
Whoa. I'm sinking.
Slide!  Sliding all over.
I think I see a giant potato in there.
Yep! It did it. The storm did it.
Barely see it up ahead.
On the other side of this monster,
Blake Brown and gang had a much better view.
(Religious Tejano music)
The following day in Oklahoma,
Powerful positive lightning strikes were the highlight.
Positive lightning typically originates higher in the storm
And flash durations tend to exist longer than less powerful negative stakes.
This dude wants to be on camera...
If lightning hits him I'm sure it'll go viral.
On this day, Negative lightning was the theme.
Negative lightning flashes tend to be quicker, with multiple flickers or strokes.
Imagine your whole life, all you've ever eaten is poop.
Every day, poop.
And then one day...
Some stranger walks up to you
and gave you a banana.
You're gonna want some of that dude.
Awe yeah! Get in there.
I think there's gonna be a sunset here in a second
So we should probably set up for that.
But it's fun feeding the dung beetles. Let's find another one!
Here's another one over here.
Oh you're in for a treat.
You do not wanna run from this.
Turn around.
Get you some banana.
Life will never be this good ever again.
They might be the happiest creatures in the world right now. Right in front of me.
You're welcome guys.
One of those special moments again. Here we are.
Doing a time lapse here. (camera clicks)
Got some friends over here.
There's absolutely nothing to see here. Nothing at all
Watch out! Just kidding.
(Thunder crashes)
Another day of beautiful lightning and meager tornado potential.
And long term outlooks suggest little hope for forecastable tornado events in the weeks ahead.
Welcome to Tornado Alley  (loud thunder crashes)
You think that was a foley effect? That was real.
This is real!
Season 2018 has started in late May...
(scoffs)  The season is over... What can I Say.
Daniel is leading the way North to this next little severe warned storm.
Let's follow Daniel and let him get the speeding ticket.
I was speeding through town. 52 in a 35.
And I'm about to get a speeding ticket.
Right now there's a tornado warning right up here.
I've been chasing all day.
Give me a ticket!  Come on. Let's go.
On May 19th I arrived just in time... To see the storm die.
To my surprise...
Decaying mesocyclones are actually pretty neat to watch.
(Camera clicks)
(Acoustic blues  music)
Ive said it a hundred times
The most dangerous thing about storm chasing is not the tomatoes
It's not the lightning. Its not the hail.
It's the commute.
It's 2:24 in the morning
This guy comes flying up behind me about 90-100 miles per hour.
I grabbed the steering wheel, i thought "here it goes"
At the last second
He swerved into the left lane
lost control of his car
and smashed the *funky *shells out of my T. I. T.
And then drove off. And i tried to go after him.
My car's all smashed in.
It looked like a Pontiac Grand Am
but when he saw that I was immobilized he was like... Later!
Lol
He took off.
Old saying...
When its good it's fun.
And when it's bad
It's funny. (lol)
(Car grinding noise)
Nice.
(Thunder and ethereal guitar music)
(Thunder)
We kinda got our first heaps going up for the day
You can see the bulge of congestus up front
The one behind it is a little thicker.
You can see the anvil.  Here it is on satellite imagery
There's that storm...
Right here.
I'm kind of excited about today. I probably shouldn't be.
But it feels like the first real May storm chase.
And I'm sitting here in this 10% chance
Right on a boundary
So let's see what happens.
Landspout tornado. Two of them!
(occasional hail pebbles)
Wow!  that's pretty.
(whispers) Lets go South
Beautiful! I lost count of potatoes.
We've got a landspout fest going on.
(Honking car horn)
Don't smash into me. It's already happened once this trip.
What were you doing crossing the crazy highway here?
What were you thinking?
(snake hisses)
He said there's a girl.
Ah! yeah, well that makes a lot of sense, but dude listen...
No girl is worth dying for.
Wait, that's not true.
Uh, let's try something else. Ok listen.
Live to do you-know-what another day.
If you see a snake in Eastern Colorado or Western Kansas in the day time,
It's most likely this bull snake.
See that car right there.  Listen.
(car whizzes by)
That's the last sound you're going to hear before you dye.
You thirsty? You want some water?
Here hang on...
There you go!  Look at that!
Look at him gulping up that water.
Getcha some!
Lol!
Just stick your whole face in there and get you some water.
I thought you looked thirsty.
Save some for me.
You gone come up for a breath?
Yeah, get your water while you can out here.
There's always...
another...
lady bull snake in the Prairie. So remember that.
So don't go crossing a road
You're not listening to a word I'm saying are you?
Mmm mmm mmm
Good boy!
I'll have some too.
(snaky Spanish guitar)
See.
Who's your friend huh?
Who just hooked you up?
(Pretty Spanish guitar)
What'cha think Dan?
It looks pretty good right now.
Looks like our little wall cloud may be dying
And maybe coming back and breathing in and out like they do.
I saw you yesterday.
Oh yeah.  Yeah.
(strong wind)
(camera clicking)
Another day, another mean supercell.
Watch this turquoise hail core become more greenish
As there sunlight changes in the evening.
Some dude riding by on his bicycle.
(creepy music)
Man it is rotating like crazy right above me right now.
Here we go. On the side of me.
Alright it's right above me.
There it is.
The next couple days brought storms with linear modes.
Within squall lines..
strong outflow winds often shunt tornadogenesis.
But these storms are very capable of churning out vibrant lightning.
(Wind and viola music)
(thunder rumbling)
(strong wind)
Sometimes, even for storm chasers
A tornado warning is the last thing you want to see.
Especially after dark in an area with only one paved road.
We're going through the town of Ord.
and there's a tornado warning
Right here and...
I don't want to be here.
I just want to escape. that's all I want to do right now.
Totally creepy
(tornado siren wailing) It's on top of us. I don't see it.
There goes Mike.  What's up Mike!
(thunder rumbles)
If you're from west Texas,
You've heard all the tales of the Marfa ghost lights.
You might have even seen them.
But no one has been able to accurately explain the mystery...
Until now!
(Spooky Sci-Fi music)
(flash light clicks)
Hey friend.
Look at the pretty storm.
(cow moos)
You just walk around in your salad and eat all day.
(Cow moos)
YOU LIVE IN A SALAD!
Somebody peeooped all over your but.
(Cows moo)
(thunder rumbles)
Another day and another tornado warned storm that refused to reveal it's dangly bits.
After the Sun set
The lightning, the stars, and the fireflies were far from shy.
(thunder crashing)
It seemed the theme for 2018 was gnarly tornado warned storms reluctant to drop tornadoes.
But there was no shortage of beautiful storm structures and epic lightning.
This dangerous storm provided me with a shot I've always dreamed of capturing.
(Crack!)
It's just non-stop
Don't hit the car.
(Close BOOM!)
It's BEHIND ME!
Oh!   Bam!  Got the tree.
The tree is on fire.
Look at that.
Got the tree AGAIN!
Holy moley!
Oh man i'm next.
I'm next.
Don't touch anything metal.
Storm chase vehicles just keep getting weirder and weirder.
Whats up dude!
What are you doing?
What do you thin of 2018?
I wish it was 2019
Lol. Right.  What do you think of 2018?
ShBeeepy
Lol!
This storm system was unlike any storm I've ever seen.
Or even dreamed of seeing. Or even heard of.
It began with extremely erratic lightning discharges.
Some of the lightning was striking up from the Earth into the clouds.
I've documented upward-moving lightning.
Sometimes two discharges at a time.
But this storm was throwing three up at a time.
Then a cluster of six.
Followed by a cluster of eight.
For me, this one second made 2018 great.
A cluster of 14 leaders reaching up into the sky.
There is is.
I was wondering where that banana went.
It's getting crazy in here.
By June 28th I was calling it a season and driving back home to Texas.
Check out this road warrior.
Look at that dude. Lol
Yeah man!
Say Hi to Mel Gibson for me.
Evan Ludes was heading to Montana
To capture the storm of the year.
Tornado in montana
Wow!
2018 reported just under a thousand confirmed tornadoes in the US.
Only 10  tornado-related fatalities were recorded this year.
The lowest ever since records began in 1875.
And it's the first year ever that no F or EF 4's or 5's were rated
Since implemented ratings dating back to 1950.
I was only able to document 6 decent tornadoes.
My least productive year since 2008.
But, I never got stuck in the mud.
I only broke one windshield
Only got one speeding ticket
And i was only smashed into by one crackhead.
Though it was a lackluster year for tornado aficionados, it was by far my greatest year ever for capturing lightning.
When dealing with Mother Nature
All we can do is try to make the best of whatever she dishes out.
'Til next time friends.  Happy trails. :D
