Storm Chasing with Tempest Tours
30 May to 25 June 2022
Storm chasing is, in relative terms, a new kind of tourism. Television shows like In Search Of… (1978) and movies like Twister (1996) introduced professional storm chasing to the wider public, and over the last twenty years or so, a number of tour companies have sprung up offering people the chance to join in with the chase.
I only learned of this possibility when a local forecaster joined a chase in 2014. I did some research and contacted Tempest Tours, one of the best reviewed companies on the net. I got a prompt response and answers to all my questions. In 2017, I did Tour 6 and the Solar Eclipse Tour, and in 2018, I did Tour 3, 5 and 6 for a total of twenty-eight days of chasing. In 2019, I did Tour 3, 6 and 7 for a total of twenty-nine days of chasing.
Unlike the coach tours I’ve taken, storm chasing has no set itinerary, no hotel list and no included meals. For that matter, it can’t even guarantee that you will get to sit down for lunch or dinner. The itinerary is dictated solely by the weather.
It is the ultimate road trip!
For 2022, we drove almost twenty-thousand kilometres from Texas to Wyoming to North Dakota. Out of the twenty-four days, we had something to chase on twenty-one days. We only saw one storm that dropped tornadoes but had several spectacular lightning displays.
I wrote the tale as we travelled, so it includes a lot of detail. It covers the storms that we intercepted as well as the travel, meals, hotels and down days. Some days will reference Bill Reid’s website which contains more details and/or Chris Gullikson’s videos from the cam on the van roof.
The tale has an Overview that describes the daily routine, the van and the hotels. I also comment on my camera gear.
You can start the main tale with Day One or navigate to individual pages from the Table of Contents.
All my photos can be found on my flickr page.
Enjoy.
🙂
Thank You, I enjoyed reading every word. I love the point that says no itinerary, methinks that is my favorite way to travel!
As usual, your photos are awesome, LesleyAnne! What settings did you use for the two on this page? Did you use max F-stop so you could have a long exposure time? Did you use a lightning trigger on the first photo? On the second shot, did you overlay multiple frames post-photo? Don’t know if you remember me, I was on the 2017 eclipse tour. Hope to join another Tempest Tour next year; maybe we’ll see each other. I have a new camera I’m itching to use.
Yes, I remember you. 🙂
The first photo was taken with a lightning trigger. The aperture was f8, shutter was 1/30 and ISO 64. Looking back on that day, I should have had auto ISO on. It would have compensated for the low light as it got darker. The second one is a stack of three photos with each shot having about 6 bolts. I took that using Olympus’ Live Composite mode. Essentially, it takes one frame for exposure and then for up to 3 hours, it adds in bright pixels, so it’s great for lightning or fireworks. As far as I know, it’s the only camera system that has it. (EM5 MkIII and EM1 MkIII are the two I used). I’m doing three tours this year and hope to be able to do a couple next year as well. And then there’s the eclipse in April 2024. 🙂