Tornado Project Blog - Elemental Project

Tornado Project Video

Alister — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 17:38:52 +0000

I have now added a short video summary of two of the most exciting days from our storm chasing trip to the USA. The clip can be found by using the video button from the tornado project home page or byclicking here. The first part of the video follows our Iowa chase day when we intercepted the Carpenter storm and tornado, then in the second half you can see some of the amazing storm structure we saw when we drove 500 miles from Iowa to Kansas. Remember that all our clips can be watched in Full Screen HD by going to the Elemental Project channel on Vimeo.

Tornado article & slide show download

Mark — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 13:53:04 +0000

An article summarising the tornado trip is now available to download. It is in pdf format and encapsulates the daily adventures from the trip. Feel free to download here - Tornado Project Download

In addition, watch the marvellous photo slide show of the project online (You may get prompted for a plugin. Its safe, similar to java or flash). - Photo slide show link

The same show is now running on youtube - youtube link

Want to get the best from your camera in when shooting storms and severe weather? A downloadable handout called ‘Shooting the Alley’ will be available soon. Keep checking the website for updates.

Independent Newspaper Article

Mark — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 10:01:56 +0000

A nice article is featured in todays (Sat 28 June) Independent newspaper - within the Magazine supplement. It features Mark and Al on their Northern Lights trip as well as some stunning elemental images.

The online version of the arcticle can be found here - Independent article Mark Humpage

Feel free to fire away with any questions to Mark or Alister regarding any of their trips, photography, videography or otherwise!

Gallery updated

Mark — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 21:28:49 +0000

I have updated the gallery to include more photos from our recent Tornado Project trip. Tornado Gallery Photos

The final batch of photos from the trip will be uploaded in the next few days.

MarkHumpage

South Dakota Bust

Mark — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 05:46:23 +0000

A disappointing day to end the trip. We positioned in South Dakota on the east side of the Black mountains with high expectation of good storms. They never materialised as forecast. Moisture and temps not as good as expected and also a capped environment prohibited storms. One severe thunderstorm materialised at the very end of the day and we drove into the core just to experience the quarter size hail.

Whilst a disappointing end it has been a successful trip. We found and captured our goal in a tornado and saw some great storms with amazing cloud structure.

We leave the Plains having achieved our objective and once again pushing the camera equipment to the limits in another extreme environment.

We look forward to a return to Arizona for the monsoon in July.

More photos and video will be uploaded to the site from the Tornado project in the next few weeks so do pop in and check these out.

Signing off.
Mark & Alister.

South Dakota target

Mark — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 13:58:44 +0000

Target for today is South Dakota. Currently heading towards Sturgis. Good potential today for some pretty supercells and if we get lucky a nice tornado. Storm motion is very slow, for a change! Update later with pictures.

Currently sitting tight in Sturgis, South Dakota (outside the Harley Davidson shop) awaiting for storms to initiate.

Position day

Mark — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 05:26:20 +0000

Today is a travel day in preparation for a tornado potential day in the Dakotas. Another very long drive from Oklahoma. Travelled through Greensburg, which was devastated by an EF5 tornado last year. Amazing that one year on how rebuilding much work has been done and yet how much damage is still evident. Stopped at the famous chaser establishment ‘Twisters Bar’ for some great food and a little well deserved refreshment First time the drinking vouchers used thus far! Silver Lining Tours pulled up as we were leaving. Good to meet up with Roger Hill and the team at last. After going through a few more drinking vouchers we left for our stopover destination North Platte in north Nebraska.

Another long drive north tomorrow to the Dakotas. A few scenic photos from todays travels in the galley, including a nice sunset. Boy how I love that Olympus 8mm fisheye lens. It was made for the Plains!

Glorious Oklahoma Panhandle

Mark — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 06:29:46 +0000

What a fantastic day. A mammoth 7 hour journey south from Iowa to Oklahoma was called for in order to get good storms. Having arrived in the Oklahoma panhadle approx 2/3pm we targeted storms on the south of a line, near the Texas border. They were slow moving and photogenic. We watched some amazing cloud structure including funnel clouds, wall clouds, shelf clouds and skies which turned green (filled with hail the size of tennis balls). The atmosphere was just missing a certain ingredient to produce tornadoes but we were both very pleased with todays outcome.

Photos in gallery.

Iowa Tornado

Mark — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 04:33:40 +0000

Today, Al and I have captured a tornado in Iowa. A day full of action and excitement. We watched the entire thunderstorm life cycle on many storms as they tracked across Iowa. Storm structure was amazing and some of the cloud formations were jaw dropping.

Tornado Photos in the Tornado Project gallery. Also check out this awesome time lapse of ‘Whales Mouth’ - Press the play button to start video.

Day 3 Iowa

Mark — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 17:42:10 +0000

Midday here. Currently heading towards Fort Dodge in Iowa where forecast for tornadoes and supercells is looking favourable.

Will update later.