Tour 1 and flight options

[bristolstormchaser]

Booked for tour 1 next year. Will be my 3rd tour with Netweather and after the huge success of tour 1 this year I can't wait. I managed to get the same flight deal as Nick. We book through Expedia, prices seem to go up and down like a whores draws, so keep trying daily and see what daily deals come up. Flying from LHR to Dallas Love with one change at Atlanta. Cheaper to arrive there than Fort Worth I found. Just keep trying different options and your patience will be rewarded. B.A normally have a sale around Christmas going through to New Year. Who else is on Tour 1?   

Edited November 27, 2016 by bristolstormchaser

[Jodie35]

I'm on Tour 1. First time so booked flights early (cost me more annoyingly). I'm going LHR to Dallas via Denver on the 8th and staying overnight at the hotel. Direct flight going back thankfully

[MikeUpjohn]

2 hours ago, Jodie35 said:

I'm on Tour 1. First time so booked flights early (cost me more annoyingly). I'm going LHR to Dallas via Denver on the 8th and staying overnight at the hotel. Direct flight going back thankfully

See you in Dallas!

[Mark Cuesta Acevedo]

I'll be on tour 1 2017. Flying out on the 5th as I want to get some time in around Dallas before the tour starts.

Haven't booked flights yet but prices are lower than a few months ago.  Going to fly Manchester DFW via Heathrow. £120 less if you do that connection. Madness.

Was looking at going via Dublin just to get pre-clearance but decided it's one flight too many. 

Plus with connection times would mean leaving the 21st rather than the 20th. 

 

[Mark Cuesta Acevedo]

Where are my manners. Hello all and look forward to meeting you soon. 

 

[bristolstormchaser]

On Monday, January 09, 2017 at 22:32, Mark Cuesta Acevedo said:

Where are my manners. Hello all and look forward to meeting you soon. 

 

Will be good to meet you. If there are 3 cars on tour 1 this could be the biggest tour 1 ever. No wonder after last years awesòme tour 1! 

[Paul Sherman]

Yep 3 cars on Tour 1!

See you all out there in May!

 

[Mark Cuesta Acevedo]

Sounds like it's going to be a fun one. 

Have booked the Best Western on West Airport Freeway Irving for 4 nights. I take it the restaurants and Walmart next door are all decent?

My mate Paul  (yes ANOTHER Paul) will be there too. 

I bribed him with the 6th Floor Depository and Six Flags to get out early.

Is the West Irving Station on the tre a reasonable walk or better to drive? Going to get a hire car for a couple of days so I can get to AT&T stadium.

All the best

 

[bristolstormchaser]

On Friday, January 13, 2017 at 16:34, Mark Cuesta Acevedo said:

Sounds like it's going to be a fun.

Have booked the Best Western on West Airport Freeway Irving for 4 nights. I take it the restaurants and Walmart next door are all decent?

My mate Paul  (yes ANOTHER Paul) will be there too. 

I bribed him with the 6th Floor Depository and Six Flags to get out early.

Is the West Irving Station on the tre a reasonable walk or better to drive? Going to get a hire car for a couple of days so I can get to AT&T stadium.

All the best

 

Hi Mark, given my delayed reply you have probably worked out the answer to your question. I'm flying Into Dallas Love Airport so working out travel options to the hotel. The walk from the railway station to the airport Is an estimated 30 mins, taxi 4 mins so take your pick. Personally I love a good walk but not that much! I hope your plans are coming together well. Olly 

[Mark Cuesta Acevedo]

Pretty much sorted thanks Olly. 

Only things left are to book for the trips over the first 4 days.

I know there's a car park at the TRE so will drive and park. Unless I decide it's a better idea to have a drinky in Dallas.

Anyway countdown is in full swing. 77 days until departure.

MCA

[bristolstormchaser]

So with just over 9 weeks to go who will be on Tour 1? Paul Botten will be the lead chaser although I don't know about which other staff/drivers will be with us. There's Jodie from Nth Somerset, Mike from Manchester, Adam from Wilts, Mark from Lincs and me.  Feel free to add your names and sorry if I have left anyone out.

[bristolstormchaser]

On ‎07‎/‎01‎/‎2017 at 18:20, Jodie35 said:

I'm on Tour 1. First time so booked flights early (cost me more annoyingly). I'm going LHR to Dallas via Denver on the 8th and staying overnight at the hotel. Direct flight going back thankfully

What time is your flight from Heathrow Jodie? I can offer you a £6 single rail journey from Temple Meads to Heathrow early on the morning of the 8th May if that helps. Would need to be for the 04.47 from Bristol though if that's not too early.  

[Cloud Iris]

Hi all!

I'm booked onto tour 1 and so is my friend Erica. We're from south London, and flying from Heathrow on 8/5/17 - direct with BA. Getting in at around 6pm and staying at the holiday inn garden motel Irving (it's next to the best western). Really looking forward to it, never done anything like this before and so excited! Looking forward to getting some good (or at least passable) weather photos! I've been wanting to storm chase since I was a teenager - finally doing it. 

 

Looking forward to meeting everyone and it would be great to meet up with anyone who's gonna be staying near the airport the night before the tour! 

 

Christina 

[bristolstormchaser]

4 hours ago, Cloud Iris said:

Hi all!

I'm booked onto tour 1 and so is my friend Erica. We're from south London, and flying from Heathrow on 8/5/17 - direct with BA. Getting in at around 6pm and staying at the holiday inn garden motel Irving (it's next to the best western). Really looking forward to it, never done anything like this before and so excited! Looking forward to getting some good (or at least passable) weather photos! I've been wanting to storm chase since I was a teenager - finally doing it. 

 

Looking forward to meeting everyone and it would be great to meet up with anyone who's gonna be staying near the airport the night before the tour! 

 

Christina 

That's great! Really good to know you have such a passion for severe weather already.....you could end up getting hooked! As for the photography, you shouldn't be too disappointed. Those Mothership Supercells are mind blowing! Will keep in touch, having an evening get together once we arrive may be an option. See you in the Alley :-) Olly.  

[Paul Sherman]

Yes as Olly has said we pretty much always have a get together meal the night before the chasing begins for meet and greet and to answer any questions you have and to run through the basics of safety etc. The only time we wont do this is if we have everyone safe and landed and the risk is much further away for day 1 chasing and then we will be on our way.

2 Months today for the Staff!!

Cant wait to meet you all

 

 

[Nick F]

I will be one of the drivers on Tour 1 and this is the kind of supercell structure we'll hopefully see in just over 2 months time, a few tornadoes too will be nice!

 

[Mark Cuesta Acevedo]

Myself and (a different)Paul will be arriving 5th May. Going to do the tourist stuff first for a couple of days. 60 days and counting

[multi cellular thunderstorm]

I'm arriving on the 8th too, haven't decided on the hotel yet but I'll get that booked soon. 

What time have people booked the flight home? I can't remember what I normally go for, is 15:45 too early? There's a 19:05 option but I don't know if that's a bit late. Been putting off booking my flights for ages since I missed the best prices, but I just have to bite the bullet now. 

Getting excited now! Looking forward to meeting some old faces and plenty of new ones too, and I'll be around on the evening of the 8th if we're having a get together

EDIT: Flights booked Exciting times!

Edited March 7, 2017 by multi cellular thunderstorm

[Mark Cuesta Acevedo]

On 06/03/2017 at 09:36, Nick F said:

I will be one of the drivers on Tour 1 and this is the kind of supercell structure we'll hopefully see in just over 2 months time, a few tornadoes too will be nice!

 

Love that link. Check this one. If we see even one of these it'll be 10 days well spent 

[Paul Sherman]

Dodge City Twins - 24th May 2016

Pretty sure you will be ok Mark. Every single Tour since 2008 has seen at least 1 Supercell and we have seen most of the stunning structured ones over the last 7 years. We also top the Tornado numbers for the last 3 years out of all the Tour groups.

Here are some of our structured Supercell pictures from the last few years.

Wray Supercell May 7th 2016

Broken Bow Supercell - May 26th 2013

Kansas Supercell - May 10th 2014

 Simla Supercell - June 2015

Edited March 8, 2017 by Paul Sherman

[Mark Cuesta Acevedo]

I followed some of the Wray tornado online. Bloody exciting stuff. 

[Jodie35]

Sorry have only just seen your post. My flights have changed thanks to the airline dropping the flight with 10 weeks to go. Does mean i have a direct flight to Dallas though (happy days) leaving Heathrow at 15:15 arriving in Dallas around 19:30 ish. I have a coach booked already from Weston to Heathrow leaving at 6.20 am so plenty of time for Monday morning rush hour traffic!!!!

[bristolstormchaser]

On ‎10‎/‎03‎/‎2017 at 19:01, Jodie35 said:

Sorry have only just seen your post. My flights have changed thanks to the airline dropping the flight with 10 weeks to go. Does mean i have a direct flight to Dallas though (happy days) leaving Heathrow at 15:15 arriving in Dallas around 19:30 ish. I have a coach booked already from Weston to Heathrow leaving at 6.20 am so plenty of time for Monday morning rush hour traffic!!!!

Hi Jodie, good plan re the rush hour traffic! :-) A direct flight is always the best option, dependant on the price, so great result. Only 8 weeks to go now, so see you on in Tornado Alley at the airport :-)

[Cloud Iris]

The photos/videos look great. I've been following the netweather chases online for a few years now, plus a whole load of other chasers on Facebook. Seeing a tornado would be awesome but I'm most excited to see supercells and lightning. Also, I use the Cloudspotter app (anyone else?) so I'm hoping to bank some shelf clouds for my collection. 

So, Paul mentioned a dinner the night before - is that the night of the 9th? 

 

I'm so excited but have no idea what to pack. I know it's likely to be hot but might we also run into lower temperatures? Do I need to pack my fleece?

the other thing I'm torn over is whether to bring my tripod. I'm going to hate lugging it around but on the other hand - will I regret not bringing it when it comes to photographing lightning? Do people often bring tripods? 

 

Christina x

[Nick L]

46 minutes ago, Cloud Iris said:

The photos/videos look great. I've been following the netweather chases online for a few years now, plus a whole load of other chasers on Facebook. Seeing a tornado would be awesome but I'm most excited to see supercells and lightning. Also, I use the Cloudspotter app (anyone else?) so I'm hoping to bank some shelf clouds for my collection. 

So, Paul mentioned a dinner the night before - is that the night of the 9th? 

 

I'm so excited but have no idea what to pack. I know it's likely to be hot but might we also run into lower temperatures? Do I need to pack my fleece?

the other thing I'm torn over is whether to bring my tripod. I'm going to hate lugging it around but on the other hand - will I regret not bringing it when it comes to photographing lightning? Do people often bring tripods? 

 

Christina x

Definitely bring some warmer clothes! At least a pair of jeans or two and a hoody/fleece. I made the mistake of not bringing enough warm clothing the first year and we spent a few days in Colorado, you can get up to 5-6000 feet above sea level without really noticing it. With the wind on top it can be chilly.

Having said that, one of the coldest most miserable days weatherwise was last year when we were down in Fort Stockton in the far south of Texas. An absolute doghole of a place, 11c and severe drizzle - this was just a stone's throw from the Mexican border, as far south as north Africa. Was worth the pain in the end with the bumper haul of tornadoes in the following days.

To sum up, the climate of the plains is wildly unpredictable, it's pretty much the exact opposite of what our island climate throws up!

Edited March 13, 2017 by Nick L