US Photos

[JohnC]

Here's what I managed to get which isn't a lot. Ref. the CG over the interstate ,I'd just set up the camera and did a test shot for aperture and got this. I was on F4 and really would have liked f8 maybe. It was a 2 sec. shot and the only one. There'sd been a few cg's  as we drove along so we stopped to look back at the storm but the lightning went off east.
The collapsed building was the training place for the Dallas Cowboys at Irving nr. Dallas.  A microburst hit it and severly injured the asst. scout. (http://paydayloansirvingtx.com/microburst-collapses-dallas-cowboys-training-facility/ )

[JohnC]

Not sure how many I can post in one go so I'll do this. Hope it's ok.

This first radar image was taken inside the van as we drove along - light was very poor but this is the storm that spawned the Kirksville tornadoes.. I think the photos of the van driving into an ink  black sky are  as we drove near Kirksville. After that we drove into the torrential rain of the storm and we just tried to outrun it but failed so no-one could get out to take photos.

The last 3 photos are when a cold front caught up with a storm and killed it, we drove off and into the heavy rain (last photo).

[rjgjr]

Those are some nasty looking storms you were in. I know most of the bad storms and action were down south before you arrived. They've said here in the States this has been a very down year for tornados, which is good for the residents I guess. Those are still great images and I'm sure you had the time of your life on the chases.

[JohnC]

Er..wouldn't say I had the time of my life,Richard. Last year might have been described as that but not this year .We called it the 'Diner tour'. We went from one diner/gas station to another and hanging around hour after hour waiting to see if storms would develop and more often than not they mushed up. I think the longest time at a gas station was about 3 hours  at Ardmore OK near the Red River. A cold front was heading down into a warm front and it was one of the rare hot days- 92F.    We even got to within 238 miles of Chicago at one point. We visited St. Louis MO and I photographed the gateway Arch and some horse drawn elegant carriages. We walked around Dallas and I took photos of Dallas at night. We visited the Palo Duro canyon in the Texas Panhandle. I certainly saw more tourist sites than last year lol. I'll post selected photos of those places in Photography soon. Visited the spot where JFK was assassinated too.  I saw all the storms on the weather channel and they were in the deep south- gulf states but they said they were just TS's and heavy rain and not tornadic although there were watches  advisories but they also said it was bad chase country. Favourite eating place. The Golden Corral diners where there was a wonderful buffet- Also visited the Big Texan at Amarillo and one of the group tried to eat the 72 oz. steak but failed.  Best motels ? Super 8's. Worst. Two Motel 6's. No internet, no coffee in the room, no breakfast, no LCD clock so I had to put the light on to see the time on my watch, no shampoo only soap, no  TV guide  so I had to go through every channel to find The Weather Channel.  Super 8's had all these.                

[martinastro]

Great images John and thanks very much for sharing them with us. Love those huge billowing updraughts, the very dark skies over the plains, and the Whale's Mouth. 5th image down in the first set is a cracker!!  

[JohnC]

Better than I thought,Martin. When they're  together like this it's make it feel a bit better than it really was.,Yes, that's some convection there,no. 5.

As ever, my favourite images are those of the ink black skies and storm structure   with the light sandy dirt tracks and lush green corn. They couldn't understand why I liked them so much compared to tornado photos but just look at that Kirksville Youtube I posted- It's maybe because it was rain wrapped but they just just don'ethave the  'beauty'  of these  light coloured sandy track/cornfield photos. Maybe I'll think differently if I ever get to see a decent non wrapped wedge tornado. I have seen an F3 (as was) in Bismark ND but when the guide said "there';s the tornado" I had to ask where it was. It was just a black area of sky, no definition atall. It did a fair bit of damage in Bismark too ,it was my sight of one and I have to say, disappointing. People  see these on TV and of course they only see the monsters or the very well defined ones and they get the impression that , that's  what every tornado looks like.