This year my adventure started in London, Heathrow seems to be the only place you can get a direct flight to Denver. When it comes to getting around easily though Birmingham has spoilt me- the Heathrow express brags just “45 minutes” from central London to the airport, If only BA would open up more flights from Birmingham- where the equivalent journey is just 10 minutes!

Terminal 5 is very nice though and I passed the time with one last taste of England, a pint and a pie before the great American Steakathon commences!

Standard shot of my plane before take off

The stormchasing started on our way into Denver, where we had to divert north to avoid thunderstorms on our approach.

A great example of the moisture in the atmosphere forming over the wing.

I did have a slight Dumb and Dumber moment on the way into Denver as  I was expecting the Rocky mountains to be a little rockier!

Not as rocky as I expected!

Having landed safe and sound in Denver, I saw the first sign that we’re in the right place when I saw this sign n the way out of the airport.

Figures

Thanks to a failed jet lag coping strategy I have around 6 hours of the Weather Channel under my belt and it looks like the Northern Plains are the place to be this weekend, for some severe weather- although it looks like we could be covering a fair amount of mileage on Monday heading East as the Weather heads towards Iowa and Illinois. The last tour covered 10 states and over 3000 miles!

http://www.weather.com/news/tornado-central/severe-weather-tracker-page

SCIENCE WITH SEAN– Tornado Ally

Whilst there is no actual storm chasing commentary for me to report on in todays blog I thought I’d share some basics on super cell thunderstorms and why the US Mid West is such a good spot to find Super cells in what could be the first of many Science with Sean entries.

So why is the risk of a Tornado much higher out on the plains? The answer is down to Geography, and the weather patterns found across North America. The two major geographical factors being the Gulf of Mexico and the Rocky Mountains, warm moist air coming in from the Gulf collides with cool mountain air from the Rockies and forms a front that has the potential to form supercell thunderstorms, and its when you have supercells that you have the highest risk of a Tornado forming.

To find out why supercells are special and how they lead to the formation tune in next time Science fans!

June is nearly here and its time to return to the great plains and the hunt for some extreme weather phenomenon.

This year I’ll be starting off in Colorado around 600 miles North West of the start in Oklahoma City in 2013, this will mean the chase is likely to be centred on the surrounding states of Kansas, Nebraska and Wyoming, perfect chasing country. With a slow start to the season there’s a good chance we’ll see something interesting in June. The 2nd week of May is typically the peak of Tornado season so a late start is perfect for chasing in June.

Average Tornados per month vs 2014 trend

The Super cell that made the news last week happened right where we’re going to be, it should be an interesting couple of weeks.

I plan to blog most nights subject to phone signal and wifi.

I hope you enjoy reading and comment away!

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