Another off day for chasing today but not a day where I could keep my eyes off the sights all around us as we ventured from Missouri to Kansas.  Yesterday we drove through the middle of Mark Twain National Forest in the late afternoon/early evening hours.  The hilly, curvy roads remind me of Old Ancaster Road back home.  Lots of Oaks, Hickories and a southeastern pine species called Shortleaf Pine.  Going from Missouri to Kansas, I observed the scenery changing from extensive hilly hardwood forests to more scattered Savannah habitat, and finally levelling off to great plains of grassland and cattle for as far as the eye could see.  By the time we entered Kansas, it had thoroughly clouded over with rain gradually intensifying to a moderate level when we finally reached Wichita.  I wont risk forecasting tonight on the count of possibly being another one of those guys who is wrong all the time so I’ll just stick with the now- and pre-casting and hope to heck I’m right.

On a serious note, I am honestly very impressed with the tree canopy cover that I have seen in the last two days going from southern Indiana through Illinois to Missouri.  Its something I would like to see a lot more of in Southern Ontario, however I’m just one guy planting stuff out there so I can’t do it all myself.  But I digress.  All chasers should take one of their off-days in an environment like this to change things up from staring at near endless agriculture all day while awaiting for the big boomers.  In my very limited time in this storm chasing experience, I am already in understanding of how stressful an experience it can be.  Success will not always be at the other end of the day.  So make sure you take a drive, or better yet, a walk in the park on an off day.  Trees, People; Community.  That’s the slogan my most recent post secondary program at Fleming College went by.  If it works for our municipal communities, perhaps the developing community of storm chasers may benefit from it as well.

Tomorrow is full of all the mysteries and excitement that storm chasing is all about.  We have no idea where we’ll be heading, aside from a morning appointment to get our truck fixed.  Ok so not really that exciting or accurate but we do know that this weekend will prove to be an interesting one for storms.  Expecting to have a lot of other chasers on the road out there so if you feel the need to chase storms, please do so in an orderly fashion.

=> Shane