WeatherHolidays Tour 2 seeing plenty of action including tornadoes this week (2024)

Every year since 2007, Weather Holidays, part of Netweather, have taken tour groups to the USA during May and early June - the main storm season in Tornado Alley. Guests on the tours have seen countless severe storms, supercells and tornadoes over the years. I was lucky enough to be on the first ever chase we did, the following year, the legendary BBC weather presenter -Michael Fish OBE – joined us for a 10-day tour. The following tour, ITV cameraman Chris Terrill tagged along with our group for a few days to get footage for his ITV’s Nature’s Fury episode on tornadoes.

The 10 day tours normally start and end in Denver, where guests arrive from not just the UK but other parts of Europe and even Australia to join the tours. We then take you wherever there are severe storms across the Great Plains of the USA, perhaps taking in several different states.

Currently tour 2 is travelling the Plains and 5 days in to the 10-day tour and they had already seen several tornadoes, lots of lightning, stunning structure and also some cultural sites too.

After a quiet couple of days to start Tour 2, the last few days have seen some high-octane storm chasing, including 4 tornadoes, some close, in Iowa on Tuesday.

Sometimes a tour may hit the ground running, straight into a severe storm risk within range of the airport of arrival. But tour 2 this year had a leisurely first few days, which gave them the opportunity to visit the cultural delights of Cowboys OKC, a popular bar in Oklahoma City, which features live bull riding, a mechanical bull and a large dance floor. Also, they visited Twister the Movie Museum in the small town of Wakita in Oklahoma. It has information and video on the making of "Twister" in Wakita. Visitors can also see the original "Dorothy 1" from the movie, plus behind-the-scenes videos taken during the filming of the 1996 movie. Poignantly, a new movie called ‘Twisters’, a sequel to the 1996 movie, is due for release on July 19th in the UK.

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WeatherHolidays Tour 2 seeing plenty of action including tornadoes this week (1)

Tour 2 outside the Twister the Movie Museum

But tour 2 didn’t have to wait long to get stuck in to some severe storm action, with day 3 of the tour on Sunday offering a Moderate Risk of severe weather across Kansas and an Enhanced Risk into NW Oklahoma. The team targeted NW Oklahoma and managed to see a few tornadoes, plus some stunning supercell structure, as below:

WeatherHolidays Tour 2 seeing plenty of action including tornadoes this week (2)

Day 3 of Tour 2 saw some stunning supercell structure, like above, in Oklahoma.

Then on Monday, day 4, the team travelled north and west into northeastern Colorado, with a target of Akron. Several supercell storms developed, but they didn’t drop any tornadoes for the team. One of the storms did later that day drop massive amounts of hail to large depths in the small town of Yuma, in NE Colorado, some the size of baseballs, causing extensive damage in the town.

WeatherHolidays Tour 2 seeing plenty of action including tornadoes this week (3)

Day 4 of Tour 2 saw the team chasing supercell storms in NE Colorado

The same storms produce copious hail, some of the hail the size of baseballs

Day 5, Tuesday, was set to be a bigger more high-octane chase day, and the moderate risk with 15% probability of strong tornadoes and PDS (Particularly Dangerous Situation) warnings over Iowa were certainly warranted. Here’s an account of the day from Paul Botten, the tour leader:

Tour 2 Chase Day 5 - Iowa

Started today in McCook after an underperforming Colorado day. My chase Target today was pretty straight forward east of a surface low that was lifting north from Concordia. So we set our sights on just east of the Missouri River into extreme SW Iowa. A Supercell formed right on the Low near Beatrice and raced towards us, it soon gained a Tornado warning and raced towards us at 55mph. This Supercell never produced but as we headed further east we caught our first Tornado of the day near Red Oak. This was only the start of the next 2 hours of madness with every Supercell along the E-W boundary seemingly producing Tornadoes at ease. Near Corning we headed east for an intercept at 200 yards behind us with 100mph RFD slamming our vehicle, onwards and another imminent touchdown was about to happen, this one upon cresting a hill we stopped and let the Tornado touch down behind us at 100 yards, ripping trees out of the ground and then drilling the ground to our north. Tornado number 4 near Prescott hit a house around 500 yards in front of us and ripped parts of the roof off and threw it over the road (Grahams Go Pro Grab Pic here caught this but not before parts of trees flew into the vehicle. The last Tornado was the start of the violent Greenfield Tornado and the shot I have is not even zoomed in to see the power of this Tornado as it raced North. All-in-all a very challenging chase day and I am thankful to my skilled drivers once again for seriously good skills.

Absolutely devastated at the loss of lives today and the destruction to Property. Thinking once again of the people of Iowa.

WeatherHolidays Tour 2 seeing plenty of action including tornadoes this week (4)

WeatherHolidays Tour 2 seeing plenty of action including tornadoes this week (5)

A selection of photos of the tornadoes that tour 2 saw on Tuesday in Iowa (Credit: Paul Botten)

After a ‘down day’ yesterday, with no severe storms in range without getting too far from today’s severe risk, tour 2 will target the central Plains where there is an enhanced risk of severe weather has been issued by the US Storm Prediction Center and 5% probability of tornadoes from NW Texas up through western Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. Friday, Saturday and Sunday are also offering to bring severe risks across the Plains. So looking very active for rest of Tour 2.

WeatherHolidays Tour 2 seeing plenty of action including tornadoes this week (6)

Plenty of severe storm action over the Plains for the next 3 days for tour 2

If you’d like to join Weather Holidays for the trip of a lifetime chasing storms in the legendary tornado alley, please visit the Weather Holidays website for availability in 2025

WeatherHolidays Tour 2 seeing plenty of action including tornadoes this week (2024)

FAQs

Where did the tornado hit in Houston? ›

Cypress tornado

Tornado touched down near intersection of Tuckerton and Greenhouse Roads then tracked southeastward through Highlands subdivision. Numerous single family homes had roof damage, broken windows.

Is 2024 going to be a bad tornado year in the US? ›

In April 2024, there were 300 recorded tornadoes, making it the second most active April on record, according to preliminary data from the NWS Storm Prediction Center. High activity has continued into May 2024, marking what appears to be the beginnings of a historically bad tornado season.

Is there a tornado in Wisconsin May 7 2024? ›

Two rounds of thunderstorms rolled across portions of southern Wisconsin during the afternoon and evening hours of Tuesday, May 7th, 2024. The first round produced two tornadoes in Walworth County. There was also severe thunderstorm wind damage and 1-inch hail across eastern Wisconsin between 2 and 4 PM.

Was there a tornado in Louisiana in 2024? ›

Two tornado tracks were confimed near Lake Charles, Louisiana from the May 14, 2024 storms. One EF2 tracked through Sulphur, and an EF1 twister traveled from Westlake into downtown Lake Charles. On East Napoleon St., two warehouses were destroyed by the tornado.

What area of Texas is Tornado Alley? ›

While there is no official designation, the area known as Tornado Alley is generally designated as between Texas and South Dakota. AccuWeather identified the area as northern Texas northward through Oklahoma, Kansas, and Missouri and parts of Louisiana, Iowa, Nebraska and eastern Colorado.

What part of Texas has never had a tornado? ›

While no part of Texas is immune from tornadoes, areas of far West Texas, El Paso, and Central Texas see the lowest occurrence of tornadoes in the state.

Which state has the most tornadoes? ›

Texas leads the nation in the number of tornadoes that occur each year on average, followed by Kansas. Texas leads the nation for the average number each year only because of its size.

What was the worst tornado in history? ›

This article lists various tornado records. The most "extreme" tornado in recorded history was the Tri-State tornado, which spread through parts of Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana on March 18, 1925.

What states are in Tornado Alley 2024? ›

Tornado Alley is a part of the central United States with a unique combination of geographic and meteorological factors that make it more susceptible to tornadoes. This area encompasses much of northern Texas northward through Oklahoma, Kansas, and Missouri and parts of Louisiana, Iowa, Nebraska, and eastern Colorado.

Which 7 states are called Tornado Alley? ›

Tornado Alley traditionally refers to the corridor-shaped region in the Midwestern United States where tornadoes typically occur. The term is also used regularly by the media. 'Tornado alley' generally includes parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, Indiana, Missouri, Iowa and Ohio.

Which state would a tornado be most likely to strike in May? ›

The peak “tornado season” for the southern Plains (e.g., Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas) is from May into early June. On the Gulf coast, it is earlier in the spring. In the northern Plains and upper Midwest (North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota), tornado season is in June or July.

Is tornado season getting longer? ›

"We expect that the number of days in any given year that are favourable for tornadoes… are going to increase in the future and specifically increase earlier in the season," Victor Gensini, associate professor of meteorology at Northern Illinois University, tells the BBC.

Which state has never had a tornado? ›

Explanation: There are no states in the United States that have never seen a tornado. Tornadoes can occur in any state, though they are more frequent in certain areas known for severe weather patterns, such as the central United States, which includes Tornado Alley.

Which state has had the most tornadoes since 1950? ›

Over a 62-year period (1950–2011), Texas had by far the most tornadoes (with 7,935), followed by Kansas (with 3,713), while others such as Vermont, Rhode Island, and the District of Columbia had fewer than 50.

What rating was the Houston tornado? ›

Survey crews from the NWS determined one tornado, an EF-1 with peak winds of 100 mph, was confirmed in Cypress in northwest Houston. The straight-line winds that ripped through downtown were estimated to have peaked at 100 mph.

Where did the tornado touch down in Cypress? ›

The Heritage at Towne Lake neighborhood is where a confirmed EF-1 tornado touched down Thursday night in Texas.

What was the name of the storm in Houston? ›

Over the next 48 hours Harvey would undergo a period of rapid intensification from a tropical depression to a category 4 hurricane. Harvey made landfall along the Texas coast near Port Aransas around 10:00 p.m. on August 25th as a cat 4 and brought devastating impacts.

Is a derecho the same as a tornado? ›

According to the National Weather Service, a derecho is defined as “a widespread, long-lived wind storm that is associated with a band of rapidly moving showers or thunderstorms.” Although they are like tornadoes in terms of wind, they tend to follow a straight path with a direct line of damage, whereas tornadoes are ...

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