May 18 was one of those chase days that was pleasantly low-pressure. Alethea Kontis and I chased with old friends, and we didn’t find any tornadoes, just beautiful storms from Alva to Enid, Oklahoma, culminating in amazing sunset colors in the turbulent clouds.
The time-lapse video is hypnotic, and I was delighted with the photo opportunities on the beautiful farm road where we wrapped up the chase as golds, oranges and blues roiled through the clouds.
Today was the first real chase day for Alethea Kontis and me in 2019. We’d driven out from Florida a couple of days before. It was Alethea’s second year of storm chasing, and she hadn’t seen a tornado yet. This day would deliver a beautiful one near McCook, Nebraska, that we saw from just south of Culbertson. At times it had a “Wizard of Oz” appearance. We met up with more chaser friends, and later that night, we saw a gorgeous lightning show from Lexington, Nebraska.
We drove about 450 miles this day – some of which was a large and frustrating circle. Pretty much par for the course on a storm chase.
Roll over the gallery images for more information about each photo, and click on a photo to see larger images.
This multi-image panorama shows precipitation behind the leading edge of the cloud as it moves into Rockledge.
The rain and hail came down hard, and water pooled in the yard.
Radar shows the purple indicating hail as the severe storm moved through Brevard County.
A morning hailstorm on March 27, 2019, took Florida’s Space Coast by surprise. I saw it coming and got a few shots from U.S. 1 in Rockledge before it clobbered our neighborhood and went on to do even more damage on the beaches.
Two-inch hailstones fell in Indialantic, taking out car and house windows and damaging roofs and stucco. The biggest stones I saw at our house in Rockledge were one-inch-plus, right as the onslaught began. Unfortunately, we also had so much rain – especially since another hailstorm followed the first one – that a little water got into the house.
Hailstones amid the leaves.
I saw hail just over an inch at our house, but most of it was smaller, like this.
It was time to retire the old book covers, though I still like the look in their eyes!
The three books are also available in a digital boxed set.
I’ve been designing covers for other authors and decided it was time to give some attention to my original trilogy. Using photos I took while chasing storms and a couple of smaller licensed elements, as well as the magic of Photoshop, I created illustrations for the covers that I hope will convey the excitement I still feel when I think about these stories.
I like romance in my adventures and interesting characters who grow (it takes Jack three books to complete the journey from cad to hero). I love action and, of course, the thrill of seeing a supercell come together and produce a tornado. Add elements of a science thriller and some kick-ass women as heroines, and you have the Storm Seekers Series. The first three books are also available in a virtual boxed set. I say “the first three” because I am contemplating more. In the meantime, I’ve been writing romances under a pen name. More on those later.
The new covers are percolating through the online bookstores.
Want to chase some storms? Check out the books on Amazon or learn more and get links to other stores here.
Alethea Kontis and I targeted southwest Kansas near the Colorado border for our first Tornado Alley chase of the 2018 season. Despite a brief foray into Colorado, we ended up chasing pretty cells from Kansas into the Oklahoma panhandle. We saw multiple funnels but nothing close to a tornado. It was mostly a rainbow chase, but a pretty one. And we got to see Dorothy’s House, straight from Oz.
Roll over the thumbnails to see the captions, or click on an image to start a slide show of larger photos.
This storm in New Mexico on May 22, 2017, put on a spectacular sunset show. Photo by Chris Kridler, ChrisKridler.com, SkyDiary.com
March 20 brought severe storms to Florida, so my friend Alethea Kontis and I headed out for a shakedown cruise of my new storm-chasing data setup. Unfortunately, we were chasing in the Orlando area, so we saw a lot more red lights, strip malls and trees than we did storms – but we did get a nice view of a tornado-warned cell on the west side of Orlando. See photos from the chase here.
In the meantime, I’ve added a chase report to the 2017 files here. On May 22 of last year, I chased in New Mexico. The day ended with a gorgeous storm that is much better to describe in photos, not words.
Not long until May – and another chase in Tornado Alley! Stay tuned.
On this storm chase, Alethea Kontis and I headed west from Brevard County, targeting storms coming ashore on Florida’s west coast. I anticipated catching a cell west or just northwest of Orlando. City chasing is horrible, but we still managed to catch a tornado-warned storm, briefly.
Roll over the thumbnails to see the captions or click to see a larger image and start a slide show.
Colors in this New Mexico storm became breathtaking with the sunset.
Roll over each image to see the caption, or click on one to see a slide show with larger photos.
May 18, 2017, started with a “high risk” forecast issued by the Storm Prediction Center. I hate chasing high risks. I’ve had high-risk busts or missed fast-moving, violent wedges on high-risk days. I’ve never had a great high-risk chase.
At least today, Kathy Velasquez and I targeted northwest Oklahoma, broke the high-risk tornado curse and saw one near Waynoka. There were many pretty sights today, even if all of them were far too brief.
Roll over an image below to see its caption, and click on any photo below to start a slide show of larger images.
An elephant-trunk tornado near McLean, Texas.
Roll over an image below to see its caption, and click on any photo below to start a slide show of larger images.
