Midwest tornado chasers break their record for sightings

Some towns in the Heartland have endured deadly tornadoes this summer, but that hasn’t seemed to deter travelers who are fascinated by the powerful weather formation.

Tempest Tours Inc., a tornado-chasing tour company that hunts storms in the Midwest’s Tornado Alley, has logged a record year for tornado interceptions, or sightings: 24. That tops the 23 from its 2003 and 2004 touring seasons. And, Tempest chief Martin Lisius said today, that probably won’t be all.

“I suspect we may catch another one to three tornadoes. … Maybe today.” Lisius said there’s a threat of tornadoes today across the Kansas plains, in Oklahoma, Texas and Colorado.

Spring storms have wreaked havoc in the Midwest, including a recent tragedy when four were killed at a Boy Scout camp in Iowa. Lisius knows that chasing bad weather is the focus of the tour experience, but he says: “Keep in mind that virtually all of the tornadoes we intercept occur in the country and do not harm anyone. So, it’s a natural experience. It’s a huge forecasting and logistical success any time we intercept a tornado. The guests know this and that’s why they are so satisfied when they see one.”

A tornado interception is a sighting. “We don’t actually ‘touch’ it. We get close enough to it to take good pictures. Storm chasing is a little like hunting. But, instead of using guns, we use cameras to shoot our ‘prey.’ ” Tours are conducted from late April to early July.

Lisius recalls some of the “big days” the group has encountered in the past:

“We once intercepted 14 tornadoes on one storm in South Dakota. These big tornado-count days usually occur when we intercept what we call a ‘cyclic tornadic supercell.’ This is a supercell thunderstorm that produces one tornado after another, literally. A tornado develops, matures and weakens. As it weakens, a new circulation develops, usually one to five miles east or southeast of the original tornado. Sometimes, that circulation produces a tornado while the other is still on the ground. We have seen as many as three tornadoes on the ground at the same time.”

– Amy Hubbard, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

[Photo: www.tempesttours.com]

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This entry was posted on Thursday, June 19, 2008 at 4:40 pm by Amy Hubbard and is filed under Midwestern States, Outdoors & Adventure, Tours & Cruises. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.