Cloud 9 Tours
- Established: 1996
- Tour guides: Charles Edwards, George Kourounis, John Guyton, Mike Theiss
- E-mail: cedwards@cloud9tours.com
- Phone: (405) 323-1145
- Website: http://www.cloud9tours.com
- Average rating: 8 of 10 (5 reviews)
Regular tours 2010
| Name | Chase days | Price (USD) | Start date | End date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tour #1 | 14 days | 2800 | 05/01/10 | 05/16/10 |
| Tour #2 | 14 days | 2800 | 05/15/10 | 05/30/10 |
| Tour #3 | 14 days | 2800 | 05/29/10 | 06/13/10 |
Offers personal tours: ?
Please note that start date does not necessarily mean it is a chase day, typically it is the arrival day! Prices are likely to differ if you choose double-rooms and some tour operators offer rebates. For more information on these tours, please refer to the Cloud 9 Tours website.
Cloud 9 Tours description of themselves
Cloud 9 Tours allows you to safely travel around Tornado Alley in search of the most spectacular storms on Earth. Ride with some of the most experienced storm chasers around.
Cloud 9 Tours is the oldest storm chase tour in operation today. We offer two week storm chase vacations in the prime of storm season. You can ride along and be part of the chase.
Reviews of Cloud 9 Tours
Like Stuart (see review) I was one of the lucky participants of the 2008 edition of Tour 2. My choice for Cloud 9 was quite simple: most days for least money. Most days: I think that is the real key to seeing a tornado as probably most of the experienced companies will be able to show you tornadoes if they are there. Motels were good, transfers from and to the airport were well arranged. Charles even drove me to a pharmacy when I run into 'some' trouble with my stomach. I do agree with Stuart about the lack of information regarding chase targets. Especially in the back of the secondary van, where it was almost impossible to follow communications between the drivers. I did bring my own laptop and was able to maintain some situational awareness through that. Would I join Cloud9 again? Most certainly, in fact I will do so in 2011.
I was on Tour 1 2009 . Collection upon arrival and return to OKC airport from the Guest Inn was good.
It was a poor start to the season and never really livened up until June but every effort was made to get us to any potential tornadic storms that there were. We covered hundreds of miles and even went as far north to get within 238 miles of Chicago,many storms just mushed when we got there. On May 13 we arrived at Kirksville MO just too late to see two tornadoes, one an EF-3 and the other an EF-1 but we did get to drive through a severe storm that evening with torrential rain and a lot of intense lightning- a great experience which will stay with me as a great memory. I also felt safe,there was no risk taking.
Because of the lack of storms we got to see places we wouldn't have otherwise seen, Palo Duro canyon, downtown St. Louis,downtown Dallas and George K. was good enough to take a few of us photographers into Dallas late evening to photograph the city lights and that was much appreciated. Our driver was Mike Theiss, a very personable and friendly guy as well as being a well respected chaser and he would always be ready to answer any questions or get an answer (like where we were heading because sometimes it was a case of following the lead van)
So,10/10 for effort and getting us to the few potentially tornadic storms there were but only 3 out of 10 for communication in all areas of the trip including the communications by e-mail and one telephone call left unanswered prior to flying from the UK. In reality this should be zero,that was my experience. The unanswered mails/telephone call was about booking my return flight. In the event there wasn't a problem so the the lack of response caused unnecessary stress. Stuart W.(above review) has also highlighted this lack of communication with regards to information, the most obvious being no morning briefings.
Both Tempest and SLT have comprehensive morning briefings and updates throughout the day. Each morning we got in the van my first question was,' Where are we heading today ?' otherwise it would have been akin to a Magical Mystery Tour. I mentioned this lack of a briefing to Mike who told Charles but to no avail. The nearest we got was a pre-Tour briefing about the do's and don'ts with regard to safety.
Rachel C (review below) mentioned that they had 'fun' but the kind of fun they had was not really something I personally enjoyed but each to their own.
Overall it's a 5 out of 10 from me. As I say,it would have been so much better to have had a morning briefing before we set off and be updated throughout the day. This lack of communication was the biggest let down for me.
I have gone with Cloud 9 Tours for a total of 6 years. I have seen what it is like when there are many storms to chase and when there are no storms to chase. Charles and the drivers try very hard to find things for everyone to do when there are no storms to chase. When there is something to chase they will do their best to be on the stomr that has the best chance of producing a tornado. They also answer any questions a tour participant may have about storm chasing. All of the drivers and Charles are very knowledgable about storm development and storm chasing! They like to have fun, but when it is time to be serious they are. They want to see a tornado as much as the participants do. They are concerned about safety. This is a group that I love to go with and highly recommend to anyone interested in storm chasing. Cloud 9 is one of the oldest storm chasing tour groups.
The set-up
2 vans with 8 seats (4 sets of 2) each and a 4x4 (don’t know how many seats).
Van 1 was driven by George Kourounis (well known storm chaser and adventurer from Canada (don’t hold that against him!)) who has many, many hours experience of being in and driving through and out of severe weather situations. Van2 was driven by Mike Theiss (a well know hurricane chaser from Florida (now you can hold THAT against him if you like!). The 4 x 4 was driven by John Guyton a retired fire-fighter with many years storm chasing experience and an extremely cool head in a crisis.
Our tour was made up of people who were on their first chase (like me, though I had been on DIY chases with a mate before), and people who were almost veteran Cloud9 customers – that certainly speaks volumes for the Cloud9 ‘experience’
The technology
The vehicles were kept in touch via radio. Internet access was available via mobile phone (cell phone to you if you’re American) access and an amplifier – we had pretty good coverage most of the time. Charles ran GRlevel3 (Google it dude!) and obviously SPC et al.
Getting to the storms
Charles is a trained meteorologist and a very experienced storm chaser. He managed to pick the right areas to head for on a given day and was almost uncannily good at getting on the ‘best’ storms.
We were incredibly lucky during tour 2 being treated to an outbreak that lasted for 4 days but hardly moved at all. This meant that ‘down time’ was much less than you might normally expect – sadly this meant we missed spending more than 5 minutes at the world’s largest ball of string!
We normally stayed at motels such as Motel 6 – perfectly adequate with the world’s worst booking in systems (I’ve been to Romania and believe me it’s worse at Motel 6 for booking in).
Charles runs a forum on his website which is private for his customers and that is excellent for general banter, bad jokes and reports.
I have no doubt that Cloud9 are amongst the best (and it’s a very small group) of tornado chasing tour companies and gives it’s customers as much chance of seeing and experiencing severe weather as any other company. Cloud9 has a reputation for getting closer than other tour companies – not having chased with other companies I can’t tell you if this is true or not, but I can tell you that we were taken quite close to some awesome weather, but at no time did I feel that this was at the expense of our safety or Charles’s for that matter.
Cloud9 exists, as far as I can tell (and I apologise to Charles if this is not true), as a vehicle (no pun intended) to allow Charles to do what he loves – storm chasing. He runs 3 tours each year with a maximum of 18 guests on each – figure the expenses and there’s no way he’s retiring within the next 5 years.
Why not a 10?. The only aspect of the tour that was lacking is that Charles does not really do an 'educational' tour. He doesn't explain his reason for his target choices - either the night before nor the initial morning target. Also, in the back of the van you can feel a bit isolated from what is happening if you don't pipe up. That's not to say that Charles isn't forthcoming but you do have to ask him why, what, where and when.
I went on my first Storm chasing tour with Charles & co in 2009 on Tour #3. We were really lucky to see two tornadoes. I enjoyed this trip immensely and especially Charles was an excellent guide. Cloud9 feels very "homy" in a way. It's like going on a tour with a friend rather than a company (both for good and bad). I appreciated this but I guess it could be seen as somewhat inprofessional as well. I truly recommend going with Cloud9, a lot of bang for your bucks!