AndyNEEssex

Nice storms passing over Colchester currently - About 15 minutes ago I thought I was back in Kansas - Rotation, lowerings, outflow, the works :-) Got a little bit of Blackberry video footage, but doubt the resolution will be enough to capture the differential cloud movement

Indeed young Tom, we were on there a few times - My favourite bits were outside Dave's, with the Graffiti on the back of the Chevy, and Paul walking back towards the camera, zipping-up, somewhere near Hoxie :lol: Hope you've been keeping well mate, the TV Cameras took at least 10 years off you :lol: Take Care, Andy

Looking forward to it Paul - Should be good to see if Aurora in HD is as 'interesting' as it is in real life B) Congratulations on another successful tour by the way - Getting on all those storms in the death ridge takes some doing!!!! Cheers, Andy

BBC News for about 5 minutes just before the sport - now off so I wondering if they've false alarmed?

Breaking News on the BBC - Gustav now Cat 5 as reported by FEMA

Hello Tom!! Thanks to you for making the few days we all spent together some of the most fun (and funny ) I can honestly say I've ever spent - Even core punching rainbows in Nebraka was a laugh!!! It was such a shame you couldn't have been with us in Kearney and Aurora on Thursday, as I truly think you would have loved it, even if it was a tad dangerous. I don't think I will ever forget seeing the empty freight rail cars being blown off their tracks by the RFD East of Kearney, not to mention the Gas Station incident! Take care and I'll hopefully see you in February, Regards, Andy

It was very exhilarating, slightly unnerving, but at no time did I feel my life was in danger. Paul had positioned the car exceptionally - at a slight angle to a Winnebago and behind other cars, so only the very top of the vehicle was being buffeted, well away from the centre of gravity!!! Our close encounter at Aurora has been classed as a 1/2 mile wide EF2 Wedge, which was on the ground 3/4 mile due North of us. Andy

Chris, the ITV Cameraman, has had his HD footage shown on ABC Channel 8 this morning (With Paul's cameo), and has allowed this footage to be posted up on the board - Links will be provided later, but as a slight spoiler they were positioned about 70ft behind us, pretty much in the full flow, position with the backend of the van into the wind - the footage of the RFD moving over and out front of the vehicle is amazing, as is when Chris opens the door!! :lol: He did apologise to the guys on live TV during the interview though!! Andy

Not too bad a day in the end At it was Explosive updraughts, a wedge and satellite, a stovepipe that curled out before roping, a fleeting stovepipe which disappered behind Ness City Grain silos on the way back into Ness before I could get a coherent photo off and last but not least another stove lit up by it destroying power lines, before a dassling lightning show on the way back to Great Bend, was not the worst way to spend a day ever!!! Back next year - It's not if but which tour Though I think I'm going to be owed a lot of steaks with the complete lack of downtime we will get - Nice updraughts!!! - A bit of Mammatus - The very end of the Wedge, roping up - Nice Stovepipe - Starting to curl Andy

How to start with describing today in Colorado - I think chronologically will give you a good feeling of its majesty. We left Dodge City, KS at approx 0930 CDT, originally heading for the Cheyenne, WY area, but by late morning it was becoming evident from various sources that SE Colorado was going to be the place to be. As it was a dryline was setting up, though dewpoints weren't massively brilliant (high 40's, low 50's). We were refuelling in Burlington, Colorado, at approx 1230 MDT, for the drive towards Limon, when we viewed some nice towers going up, some 22 hours since I met up with Paul, Nick and Ian at DFW!! These towers soon started to break the Cap, and a nice LP began to form, with some superb cloudscapes: This led to some nice sized hail (As modelled by the lovely Paul S): The Barons was also showing some rotation by this point - Guess where we were???!!! The first storm then started to fade, but was showing a bit of LP organisation, just to tease us: The decision was then made to move back along what was starting to become a rather meaty squall line to our SSW. During this period the boys decided a jaunt South was in order to allow the line to pass nice and close by, and also allowed an encounter with a nice rain and/or hail band wrapping around the 3rd of the HP storm centres. As it was when we moved to the East it became apparent that a nice mothership MCS was forming, pretty much above our heads!! The most un-nerving part of this was the rotation was definately causing the cloud to drop above our heads!!! As it was it finally did drop about 5 miles away from our position, for about 5-10 seconds. You will see from Paul's photo the aftermath of the tornado, but as we were heading away from the area it was pure luck Ian looked over his left shoulder to see the tornado drop. As the system was HP and we were right at sunset I couldn't get a photo off - Ian tried but his camera failed him and Paul, who had now pulled off to the side of the road was about 15 seconds too late, and caught it roping out. This was the only disappointment of the day!! We then swiftly moved East to escape a Bears Cage situation as the squall line began to outflow - rather rapidly as were were doing 80 (65 really officer) and it was almost keeping pace on the downslope. Some lovely lightning pics were then taken by Paul, and as the storm got slightly too close for comfort we buzzed East to Burlington, where the day really started with the initiation 8 hours before, to overnight before the fun and games wedgefest promised tomorrow. It has been an amazing first day, and I realy have to thank Paul, Nick and Ian for al their sage counsel and answering of silly questions. Here's to a superb day, and a huge day tomorrow Andy

Sweet!!!! :o Looks like I'm going to be a very lucky boy!!

Hi Paul, Currently in Panama City, FL, just after winning 5-3 playing at leftback for 90 mins in the Floridian Heat!! The Weather Channel are certainly going fo midweek onwards - Just as well i'm getting to Dallas on Tuesday eh??? Take care and see you soon, Andy

Like Mammatus i'm not out until the 20th (I'm No. 9 by the way) and I barely got through a 12 oz Sirloin the other day, so 72 would be pushing it somewhat, as would the aftermath!! Think I'll go with the Shermanator as well Andy

Good luck guys - Take care and see you on the 22nd May!!!

Heavy snow here in NE Essex, just starting to settle on the greenery ASL 90ft