Rich on the Road

Carrollton

It's the calm before the storm -- or at least we hope so.  Photographer David Tafalla and I are going storm chasing tomorrow and Thursday with Martin Lisius and Tempest Tours out of Arlington.  Martin is one of the most accomplished storm chasers in the world -- a Texas kid who grew up loving storms and photography.  He found a way to marry the two passions back in the late 1980s with his Prairie Pictures company.  Each spring and summer he hits the road, chasing violent weather.  He's amassed a huge library of stills and film and video and sells his work to Hollywood, for commercials and to TV stations.

In 2000, after the movie "Twister" (on which Martin served as a technical advisor) made storm chasing chic, he started taking the tourists along for a week or ten days at a time.  I've done a couple of Lone Star Adventures with him in the past and will produce another one based on what we get this week.  Now the supercells just need to cooperate!  Forecasting now -- I'd say we will be headed to West Texas early tomorrow afternoon and there's only a "slight risk" of severe weather.  Timing is everything and I'm rooting for that to change.  No damaging tornados -- just a good twister on the open plains with nothing in its path.

Hey, is that too much to ask?

I'll be blogging frequently as we go and David and I have the capability of streaming back live video -- so look for a lot more over the next 48 hours.  Beginning before noon on Wednesday I'll give you the play-by-play on an honest-to-goodness storm chaser --no pale, Hollywood imitation. 

We hope.

Rich