EXTREME CHASE TOURS 2012

What a chase season it has been so far with the Extreme Chase Tours team leading our guests to over 25 tornadoes, teaching and showing them severe weather and it is only June 1! I would like to personally thank all of our guests for deciding to go with us...it has been an amazing year so far and the Northern Plains Photography Tours look to be decent as well!

If you have ever had an interest in going on a Storm Chasing Tour, Tornado Tour Vacation or a Photography Tour now is the time. We have very limited seating available so hurry and reserve your seat today!

Visit the link below for more details.
www.extremechasetours.com

Extreme Chase Tours 2012

There has been much talk about all the "new" storm chasing tour companies popping up this year so we wanted to blog about this subject with the hopes that we will be able to enlighten a few of our readers. With the 2012 storm chasing tours season just right around the corner, have you ever had a thought about going on a storm chasing vacation? This is the perfect time to pick your summer vacation....why not go on a storm chasing adventure tour? With the growing number of

"storm chasing tour companies" out there, I know it can seem very hard to decide which one's are real storm tour operators and which company is right for you. This can sometimes hamper your decision to go at all! No freat folks.....we are the real deal and provide 6, 10 and 15 day tours as well as custom type tours for those that are interested in going on the adventure of a lifetime!

We let our success rate record of over 400 REAL tornadoes speak for itself as well as our experience. Our staff has over 100 years total experience in severe weather and we have THE BEST SEVERE WEATHER EXPERTS, meteorologists and guides. You will not find photo shopped tornado pictures on our website, you will not find false claims by anyone with Extreme Chase Tours, you will not find a company that has just started, we will not allow you to become a number and not a name with us, you will not be thrown into a 15 seat passager van that is packed full and kept dehydrated!

What you will find with us is that we are the most personal tour company on the market. And no matter what other tour companies claim - WE (Extreme Chase Tours) have the highest success rate of ANY storm chasing tour company. You will get real one on one interaction with our guides, drivers and owners as well as an opportunity to truly learn about the weather. We we the first tour company to offer Severe Weather Photography Tours, which are ideal if you are needing or wanting to add to you portfolio! Our lead guide, Chad Berryhill is a professional photographer himself and has seen over 25 tornadoes! Owner, Lanny Dean, is an award winning photographer who has also been nominated for an Emmy for his weather reporting and photography. Lanny has been offering tours part time since 1999 and finally went full time in 2008, taking thousands of people from across the world to see severe weather and tornadoes. He has personally seen/filmed 297 tornadoes and 11 major hurricanes to date. Jeff Smith has seen/filmed 38 tornadoes and Eric Duncan has seen/filmed over 70 tornadoes to date.

Watch the story that KAKE TV in Wichita, KS did on us in in 2010 below:

We are real, we have the experience,we have the knowledge and you simply not find another tour company that will spend more one on one quality time with you than we do!

Come see why we were voted Storm Chasers Of The Year in 2005 and 2007 and get ready for the adventure of a lifetime! To find out more or to book your tour please follow the link below or you can call us directly. All contact information is listed on our website:

www.extremechasetours.com

We look forward to helping you to live your dream!

STORM CHASING TOURS

Obviously have not posted in a while but with the latest round of severe weather and this years first Tornadoes, I thought it might be a good idea to post. This time of year we are slowly gearing up for the chase season by updating our website and booking tours. As of right now Extreme Chase Tours already has limited seating available on most of our tours so it looks like it might be a great year business wise....now lets hope and pray that mother nature will also be kind.

So if you are interested in going on a Storm Chasing Tour with us then I would encourage you to reserve your seats ASAP before we book full again this year. You can reserve your seats by going to our website at listed below:

http://www.extremechasetours.com/

As far as the severe weather.....currently we have ongoing severe in KY into TN as this system pushes east. Might be a good idea to keep an eye on the weather throughout the day if you live in the southeast.

Also, got a chance to go out and film our first "snow storm" here in Oklahoma. Not much of a storm so to speak but it was fun to play with. I have posted the video below. I shot this video with my Nikon D90 so the quality is not the best as this was the first time I actually have used it to shoot video with.

A Few Relfections...

After going through some of the images that myself and Chad shot during the tours, I started reflecting on this years season....what a wonderful year we had! The above picture of the Gass family who went on a storm chasing tour with us was taken in central Oklahoma, with a supercell in the background it brought back some great memories. We had a really good season and I can't thank the whole team enough! Hopefully 2011 will be as successfull!

Speaking of the tours, I will be posting the new schedule on the website soon and I suspect that just as years past, seats will fill up quickly so if you are interested in going on a Stormchasing Tour or storm chasing vacation please book your seat as soon as you can.

Pictures of Lone Grove & MOC #6

Spent the day on Sunday down in Lone Grove with Jeff Smith, I was able to participate in Mission Of Compassion and although I had some reservations about going down there, I had a wonderful time. It is not often that we as chasers are able to help in the recovery process after a tornado, we basically focus on the forecast, the nowcast and the chase so this was a little different for me. It was difficult to go in and view the damage in Lone Grove and at times it felt like I was back at Greensburg. This was a killer tornado and the damage was reflective of that

especially south of town in the mobile home park. What were once trailers were basically nothing more that splinters now. Of course there was stuff everywhere and while my sister and I walked around and took pictures and video we realized that the "stuff" was once some ones life. It is something that most people just simply do not understand.

To me, it was very clear why and how so many people died in this tornado. Most of the deaths came from the mobile home park and in driving through the local area it was very apparent that these people had basically no where to go. The park was located to the east side of a north/south road and had only one way in and one way out. There were not any tornado shelters nor were there any low areas that provided any real protection. With the tornado moving from southwest to northeast, driving away or escaping in a vehicle was not an option once the tornado was south of the trailer park. I spoke with a survivor who told me that they waited to see just where the tornado was going to go and when they thought about leaving, they did not have time.

Had any of those people tried to escape via driving out of the park they basically had only two options, drive north into town and go east or west on hwy 70 or drive south to the next county road and go east or west. Both options would no doubt have been costly as the tornado appeared to grow to its strongest and widest width through this area. It looked to me like the maximum tornado width in this area was 1/4 to 1/2 of a mile wide.

While we noted some massive damage some of which did appear to be in the EF-4 range,

WE DID NOT SEE ANY SIGN OF SCOURING OF THE ROAD, STREET OR CONCRETE ANYWHERE NEAR LONE GROVE! This includes 7-8 miles south of town where we picked up the damage path all the way through town and back north of town 4-5 miles.

The pictures and reports of what was referred to as "peeling off of the pavement" was simply bogus. The road had a small washout and had been unimproved for over 3 years per one of the locals who lived just down the road. It is a shame that some felt the need to sensationalize this tragedy and terrible destruction for self promotion.

I plan on posting video and some more pictures as I get time. A big shout out to Jeff Smith for putting MOC 6 together and for allowing me to go. Thanks Jeff!

On a different note, some of my video from Greensburg has been shown on the promo for The Weather Channels "Tornado Week" Tonight more of my video will be shown as the latest show tells the story through the eyes of the locals in Greensburg. And then on March 29Th my story including my interviews and video will air, some of the video has not been seen before and should prove to be interesting. If you have had any interest in Greensburg this may be something to see.

Greensburg on Dateline NBC plus TWC TORNADO WEEK!

Dateline NBC will air some of my Greensburg video tonight during a show called "10 DEATH DEFYING MOMENTS CAPTURED ON CAMERA" from 6pm - 8pm

I am not real sure of the in's and out's of the show but I suspect with a title like that it may be somewhat lame given the circumstance, but I am excited to see what and how they portray the tragidy. As most of you know I have been extremly busy with trying to complete the shows for The Weather Channel regarding Greensburg. The series consists of 2 shows and although I am not exactly sure of the air date, after finally completing it as of today, I am being told that it will air later this month (Feb. 22-27?) I have not been told the name of the shows other than "Storm Stories" but again, I am pretty excited about it. The series will air during TORNADO WEEK and should prove to be pretty interesting. My only issue is that I do not know how they plan on portraying the tragidy that took place.

I think that is one of my biggest fears in dealing with any production company now days and it does not help that Greensburg has been such a big part of my life for the last 2 years. The last thing I would want is for some sort of misrepresentation about the events and what really happened that night. I have done a few other Storm Stories and I suspect they will represent the situation as it was.....at least I hope they do.

I also thought I would post some info for my good friend Jeff Smith. Jeff and company plan on doing another Mission Of Compassion for the folks down in the Lone Grove OK area. For those that do not know, Lone Grove was struck by an EF4 tornado last week and sadly 9 lives were lost. I will post more info and contacts about this within the next few days. If you think you might be willing or wanting to help please feel free to contact Jeff at: stormrider1970@gmail.com

Storm Chaser get together!!!!!

Got a chance to speak with Jeff Smith, for those of you who do not know Jeff, he is a chaser/spotter for KJRH channel 2 here in Tulsa. Jeff has been chasing for KJRH for many years and is one heck of a chaser/spotter. Jeff has been a friend of mine for some time now and I respect him not only for the person he is but the convictions and great testimony he has for God. Now don't worry I am not going to preach but a guy like him you just have to respect.
Anyways, he suggested a possible Chaser get together and with all this SDS going around it looks like it might be a good time for one. We have not set a date or time yet, but I will post more as soon as I know more details. One other note regarding Jeff.....he has a good friend that has got cancer and is going through a pretty tough time right now. Of course with all the doctors and appointments it all adds up so they have scheduled a fundraiser for Mike on October 17-18. It will be a huge garage sale help at the Verdigris car wash at Hwy 66 & Gordon Rd.
For all you local guys and gals, this would be a great time to get out and meet Jeff and buy something for a good cause.

Written poorly by me