Travel

CATCH THE WIND TRIPS

Photo: Courtesy of Silver Lining Tours. LaCrosse, Kansas Tornado Supercell.

Hurricanes and tornados can be perfect weather for vacations! If you’ve got the nerve, you can head right into a storm and see it’s true magnificence. It might sound crazy, but if you do it the right way, it can be the thrill of your life.

Photo: James Menzies. Super Cell in Kansas.

One of the best places for a sure bet to catch a storm is the wide swath through the middle of the US, affectionately called Tornado Alley. It cuts through portions of Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Kansas, Eastern Colorado, Nebraska, South Dakota, Iowa, Wyoming, and Missouri.

Photo: Brian Barnes. Courtesy of Storm Chase. Large Wedge Tornado over Kansas.

You can take a Storm Chasing Tour, a Tornado Tour or a Severe Weather Photography Tour vacation with storm adventure outfitters such as Storm Tours, Storm Chasin g Adventure Tours, F5 Tornado Chasing Safaris, Extreme Tornado Tours, Extreme Chase Tours, Silver Lining Tours, among a few others.

Photo: Daphne Zaras. Tornado.

You can get within a mile or two from a major storm but still be in safe hands with experienced, well known, and successful Storm Chasers, Meteorologists, Severe Weather Experts, Tornado forecasters and Photographers.

In fact, you may have seen some of them on National Geographic Channel, CNN, BBC, The Discovery Channel, or The Weather Channel.

Photo: Courtesy of Extreme Chase Tours.

You’ll chart winds, rain, and hail. By continually monitoring the National Weather Service broadcasts and storm conditions using their state of the art radio systems, and operating HAM radios, the team can always find their storm.

Image: Courtesy of Storm Chasing.

According to afficianados, about 60% of storm chasing relies on visual clues from the sky.

The other 40% comes from knowing how to read weather data.

Each morning, the teams analyze the upper air and surface data, forecast models, satellite imagery, and other types of weather data to figure out where the next storm will kick up. The projection gets refined, as new data comes in, throughout the day.

Photo: Kelly Rae. Spring Storm Chasing.

Late afternoon and early evening are the best times to catch your storms. So, you might have to skip dinner. You could be rocking and rolling all night long, with thunder and lightning shows to keep you charged.

You can chase down tornadoes until they dissipate.

You might see The Discovery Channel's Storm Chasers TV show crew with their Tornado Intercept Vehicle (TIV) pass by. Or perhaps the Wicked Witch ride by on a bicycle!

Photo: Courtesy of Extreme Chase Tours.

You get to be real riders on the storm! Here’s some of what you could be riding with:

Real time Satellite Broadband Connections.

Real time broadband cellular, CDMA internet connections
StormLab Supercharged 4.1 Doppler Radar software level 2 and level 3 data feeds.
GRLevel2 Doppler Radar software level2
GRLevel3 Doppler Radar software level3.
Real time streaming video system.
Satellite tracking and video output via iPixcel/Inmarsat
Full computer system that integrates with the chasing equipment and Doppler radar software packages.
Full GPS systems for tracking our position at any time.
In-vehicle monitors that will allow each person in the vehicle to watch the same radar and data we are looking at.
Amateur (HAM) radios as well as commercial receivers and tranmitters to monitor storm conditions as they happen "live" on air.

Photo: Roger Hill. 2013 Leedey Oklahoma Supercell

RIDERS ON THE STORM - The Doors

Riders on the storm

Into this house we're born

Into this world we're thrown

Like a dog without a bone

An actor out alone

Riders on the storm

There's a killer on the road

His brain is squirmin' like a toad

Take a long holiday

Let your children play

If ya give this man a ride

Sweet memory will die

Killer on the road, yeah

Girl ya gotta love your man

Take him by the hand

Make him understand

The world on you depends

Our life will never end

Gotta love your man, yeah

Yeah!

Riders on the storm

Into this house we're born

Into this world we're thrown

Like a dog without a bone

An actor out alone

Riders on the storm

Photo: Courtesy of Life on Espresso. The Perfect Storm.

Read about Beautiful Storms all this week, as they relate to Arts/Design, Nature/Science, Food/Drink, Place/Time, Mind/Body, and Soul/Impact, including True Powerful Storm Stories, New Ways to Predict Storms, 10 Crazy-Good Cocktail Storms, and Incredible Art Storms.

Get busy and enter the BN Competitions, Our theme this week is Beautiful Storms. Send in your images and ideas. Deadline is 11.10.13.

Photo: Courtesy of InterActiveMediaSW.

Also, check out our special competition: The Most Beautiful Sound in the World! We are thrilled about this effort, together with SoundCloud and The Sound Agency. And we can’t wait to hear what you’ve got!