Storm chaser chicken George CANADA trip

[Tom Lynch]

Ok day 1/2  Started in Calgary . Chased a storm about 20 miles north of Calgary beautiful backdrop with the snow topped Canadian Rockies. Things are going to quiet in Canada so did a 4.5 hour jaunt over the border in Montana, Interesting crossing into the USA from Canada. They had a sense of humour. I am glad we crossed over night we could have been there hours.   Stayed overnight in a place called Conrad, Montana.  Not sure where target area is but looks ok for SE Montana.

Stay tuned for updates

Storm Chaser Chicken George  

[Mark71]

Looks like a lot of the good storms are going to break out around the Billings area later today

[Coopsy]

On 16/07/2019 at 15:05, Tom Lynch said:

Ok day 1/2  Started in Calgary . Chased a storm about 20 miles north of Calgary beautiful backdrop with the snow topped Canadian Rockies. Things are going to quiet in Canada so did a 4.5 hour jaunt over the border in Montana, Interesting crossing into the USA from Canada. They had a sense of humour. I am glad we crossed over night we could have been there hours.   Stayed overnight in a place called Conrad, Montana.  Not sure where target area is but looks ok for SE Montana.

Stay tuned for updates

Storm Chaser Chicken George  

Especially if you went through Sweetgrass border control - been stuck there for hours before. I've had many warnings in my time around north of Calgary but never seen any.  Good luck for the rest of the trip

Edited July 17, 2019 by CanadianCoops

[Tom Lynch]

Update from the USA. We chased a lovely supercell in Montana and Wyoming, we ended up in Spearfish, South Dakota. Today we visited Devils Tower and watched as a supercell passed over it.   We then moved and chased a bigger supercell which took us to Upton , Wyoming.  Ended the day in Spearfish, South Dakota.

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[Tom Lynch]

[Tom Lynch]

[Dorsetbred]

Is this the US part of the Canadian tour? Looks like the devil, p'd on his tower in the shot you posted..Nice cell though & looks like your in the right area for today's events..With some tilt to the Jet stream on Saturday, is that likely to be enough to kick things off at the border?

[Tom Lynch]

Yes that's Devils Tower. Here are some videos from yesterday .  Video of Richard Betts and Graham Moore trying to repair our windscreen wipers. Which they did in pretty bad conditions. Richard is the one in the fancy womens coat.

 

[Dorsetbred]

Very scenic, would make a great place to shot a sci-fi movie, what with that piece of rock and those clouds..

[Tom Lynch]

Started today in Spearfish, SD, had dinner in Sturgis SD , took a trip to Mount Rushmore and then took a 370 mile trek to Sioux Falls SD across the Great Missouri River. Great storm potential for tomorrow.

.

[Dorsetbred]

2 hours ago, Tom Lynch said:

Started today in Spearfish, SD, had dinner in Sturgis SD , took a trip to Mount Rushmore and then took a 370 mile trek to Sioux Falls SD across the Great Missouri River. Great storm potential for tomorrow.

Ah Sturgis, I remember the Knuckle saloon now, there were a decent couple of American hot rods there when we visited previously, great place..looking like a good position for today

[Mr Frost]

Big chase day ahead! 

[Tom Lynch]

Yesterday didn't pan out as expected. Currently in Marshall , Minnesota under a large storm.  Leading edge was impressive. 

 

[Dorsetbred]

1 hour ago, Tom Lynch said:

Yesterday didn't pan out as expected. Currently in Marshall , Minnesota under a large storm.  Leading edge was impressive. 

 

Nice catch, Tom looking good, even if it didn't pan out, a nice leading edge shot. There stormy things seem really fickle, don't you think?

[Dorsetbred]

It's a long way back Chicken George..

[Tom Lynch]

You are correct there Quentin i.e. a long way back.  Never the less here is the update for Sunday 21 July - got up in Sergis , South Dakota. Travelled down through the Black Hills of South Dakota, raced towards through  Wyoming into Colorado but our target storm fell apart. So we sat watching storms trying to develop but to no avail. So we ate in Cheyenne and set off for a 70 mile trip to Wheatlands, Wyoming and bed. Early start tomorrow Montana bound. Then making our way to wards the border as storms are hopefully forecast for Canada. watch this space.

[Dorsetbred]

4 hours ago, Tom Lynch said:

You are correct there Quentin i.e. a long way back.  Never the less here is the update for Sunday 21 July - got up in Sergis , South Dakota. Travelled down through the Black Hills of South Dakota, raced towards through  Wyoming into Colorado but our target storm fell apart. So we sat watching storms trying to develop but to no avail. So we ate in Cheyenne and set off for a 70 mile trip to Wheatlands, Wyoming and bed. Early start tomorrow Montana bound. Then making our way to wards the border as storms are hopefully forecast for Canada. watch this space.

By 'eck George, looking at the map, one suggested route show a 1000miles from your current position back to the airport...

Interested to see the mileage count on this tour....

Edited July 22, 2019 by Dorsetbred

[Tom Lynch]

Currently back in Alberta and we chased north of Calgary yesterday the storms struggled once they left the mountains.  Had stormage through the night but to be honest I think Cumbria had better. Today there is a good tornado potential east of our location  Camrose , Alberta. The mozzies here are brutal and in their millions. They are not just out in the fields they are in the towns and the diners too. They appear to be resistant to bug spray.  Today may be our last chase today because after todays chase it might be that we are a day away from Calgary.   Some of the distances driven were not for the feint hearted.  

[Roger J Smith]

Today should bring a major storm outbreak in central Alberta and western SK, the cold front just went through my location with a heavy thunderstorm and radar shows a line moving rapidly east so when that jumps the Rockies around noon Mountain time, would expect a lot of action especially around a watch box with approx boundaries Red Deer, Coronation Edmonton Lloydminster (on the AB-SK border). I think a position near Coronation might reduce the eventual drive to the final action spots, the map I saw on the other thread looks to be pushed further east than the verification may occur (although it's not wrong where it does show potential, just seems truncated on western side for no obvious reason given the dynamics). As to the mosquitoes, it's a bad year due to all the rain earlier. Somewhat similar in this region. We can't win, it's either bugs or fires. 

[Tom Lynch]

We chased west of Saskatoon and saw a beautiful classic supercell which tried hard to tornado but just didn't have all the necessary ingredients. The storm went outflow dominant and started to move north east. We went east to Saskatoon and filled our tanks under a tornado warning. We busted our guts to get south to a storm near Rigina which was capable of producing a tornado , but before we could reach it, the storms had started to line out.  We stopped short of Regina to get some lighting shots as the CGs were pinging out.  We attracted every mosquito within a ten mile radius or that's what it look like. Millions of huge mosquitos swarming around those people brave enough to venture out into the dark.  We ended the day at Regina and now have a long slog west back to Calgary.  Hoping for a rain shower to clean the mud off the cars.  a few photos from yesterday.    

[Tom Lynch]

Some footage from this storm

 

[Tom Lynch]

Last day was a leisurely drive from Regina to Brooks Alberta . We passed many of the salt lakes that Canada has. One town had heaps of salt and we drove through a haboob consisting of salt.

 

[Dorsetbred]

39 minutes ago, Tom Lynch said:

Last day was a leisurely drive from Regina to Brooks Alberta . We passed many of the salt lakes that Canada has. One town had heaps of salt and we drove through a haboob consisting of salt.

Would that be a saboob?

[Tom Lynch]

An interview with photographer and method actor John Finney

 

[Tom Lynch]

Setting off towards Calgary shortly .