IanM

Another pretty cool, day, just the elusive tornado missing, though a multi vortex hit 8 miles up the road once we parked up to eat in the late evening We also got hit by the RFD and hail while eating - Tom will have some video to post later, mine somehow went horribly wrong...

A quick phone shot of the tornado warned storm

Oh hi Colorado, nice of you to come out to play

I nearly forgot the mammatus, still a little car lagged...

It was a very cool day, it didnt turn out as planned, but with so many boxes ticked it's going to be one that the team and guests will all remember A 400 mile wide derecho with damaging wind speeds, embedded storms and huge hail passed over our heads before it really started throwing down hail. Then a few storms later we were treated to an amazing sunset What followed was an incredible light show, I'll let others share their pics, as I just watched and then drove through a strobing sky with multiple CG's as we headed to our overnight hotel in Kearney and a well earned midnight beer at Applebys

The major storms may not have played ball, but what a sunset after taking a bit of hail.

We're lunching in grand island while waiting on developments. Things are looking pretty dangerous as the derecheo passes through. Could be embedded tornadoes moving at 50-100mph, so we won't be chasing those...

Where are you headed Tom, questioning minds need to know... See you Sunday, I may even start packing by Saturday night.

I hate you all :-). Jet lag is kicking my butt and you're chasing in a state that's not on my list! Did anyone shoot the ball lightning?

Something of a mother ship and lightning fest in Nebraska tonight

There's a few chasers in the area, we just bumped in to Trevor Mitchell in a big field close to where we watched this little cell bubble up and fizzle out.

Bubbling up nicely overhead. We've just crossed back into Nebraska

Thakfully the storms should play ball today Quen and we'll be able to chase in the direction of Dallas, which will cut some of Tuesdays journey down so we can reach the airport in good time on Wednesday Jo probably won't thank me for this, but she likes clouds and climbing on cars

Montana might be one of the most scenic states I've visited, but the internet sucks and the road network isn't so much a network as a couple of interstates connected by mining and logging roads. Still we got some nice structure, decent CG's (I'll pull these from video later) and got to see snow, so all good.

Any further north and we'll be in Canada :-)

Bid (that's Christine Hooper) was filming as we approached a warned storm, and manage to catch the ghostly high speed tornado that appeared out of nowhere and shot accross the road in front of us. http://video.netweather.tv/previews/jaJQ5yX2-rZqoyN4v

We spotted these heading toward the farm - we reckon gravity waves, any other ideas?

Today we will be heading further into Kansas to visit Arrons & Laura's incredibly hospitable extended family and will also meet the newest addition the Hiscox clan. Believe it or not temperatures here hit 1c overnight and there was wet snow in northern Illinois near where we were 2 days ago. We may be hitting Walmart for ski wear at this rate...

It would be rude to not visit the Papa Bob's Barbecue as seen on Man vs Food. No one accepted the 5.5lb challenge, but we did eat a small farmyard between us.

Morning - or evening back in the UK I guess, we're heading off soon as the last stragglers make it downstairs after an impromptu celebration of the tour so far last night (I fell asleep before it all happened). Paul will update the chase plans once we get underway as we look to get on the storms later this afternoon, in the meantime it feels very British with some drizzle and temps of 14c.

A gentle bimble south today to get in position for a Mississippi chase tomorrow. No live stream today but we'll be back tomorrow once things start bubbling up.

Yesterday didn't quite deliver as much as we'd hoped, but there was some decent structure, insane rain and a spectacular lightning show to end the day as we arrived in Galesburg for the night. A pano from yesterday shows the early promise, but things guested out and a 900 mile front rumbled on over night We hit our 7th State of the tour yesterday (on Day 2!), and will probably at least match the record of 9 today as we head south.

Another view of the cake from yesterday - excuse the slightly messy pano processing, I have chase lag.

What a great day, huge miles, very late night, but we had cake Followed by a surprise guest as we headed north for tomorrows risk

Another weekend of two wheeled action, with Superbikes from Assen and MotoGP visiting Argentina for the first time - will April showers play a part? View the full blog entry here