Tempest Tours
- Established: 2001
- Tour guides: Kinney Adams, Keith B. Brown, Blake Naftel, Dr. Bob Conzemius, Scott Weberpal, Chris Gullickson, Brad Carter, Jennifer Dunn, Doug Raflik, Rob Petitt, Martin Lisius, William T. Reid, Brian Morganti, Dr. Charles Doswell
- E-mail: info@tempesttours.com
- Phone: (817) 274-9313
- Website: http://www.tempesttours.com
- Average rating: 9.8 of 10 (5 reviews)
Regular tours 2010
| Name | Chase days | Price (USD) | Start date | End date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tornado outbreak tour | 10 days | 2895 | 04/16/10 | 04/27/10 |
| F5 Tornado tour | 10 days | 2895 | 04/28/10 | 05/09/10 |
| Tornado bliss tour | 10 days | 2895 | 05/10/10 | 05/21/10 |
| Memorial week tour | 6 days | 2095 | 05/22/10 | 05/29/10 |
| Big sky tornado tour | 6 days | 2095 | 05/30/10 | 06/06/10 |
| Mini tornado tour | 4 days | 1445 | 06/13/10 | 06/18/10 |
| Tornado discovery tour | 6 days | 2295 | 06/20/10 | 06/27/10 |
| Maddys tour | 6 days | 2095 | 06/28/10 | 07/05/10 |
| The Storm Chasers tour | 6 days | 2395 | 06/28/10 | 07/05/10 |
Offers personal tours: Yes
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 Tempest Tours website.
Tempest Tours description of themselves
Tempest Tours is arguably the best storm chasing team in America. We are operated by a team of experienced and respected storm chasers who understand every facet of storm chasing. Our goal is to share our knowledge and appreciation for storms with others.
Reviews of Tempest Tours
This tour was absolutely phenomenal!!! As a Meteorology major, chasing storms is something I would like to do on the side. I learned so much about severe weather forecasting, that it piqued my interest even more in wanting to pursue a graduate degree in my major with an emphasis on severe weather. This team always put us in the best possible position to see storms, and we had at least one chaseable storm each day of the tour. The climax was on day five when we interecepted the Goshen County, WY tornado!!! Our tour leader was Brian Morganti, and we were joined by Bill Reid on day five. Jennifer Dunn was one of the drivers, and her meteorological knowledge was VERY informative and helpful. "Woody" was the other driver who is a police officer in San Bernardino County in California. His experience on the force really came through when we had to drive on gravel roads at high speeds!!! Now comes the part where I have to mention just one problem I encountered during registration. My first deposit check was lost in translation, but it all got situated. In the end, this was an AMAZING experience, and I highly recommend this group to anyone who wants to go on a storm chasing tour. From encountering rattle snakes to amazing storm structures, this group is a winner in my book!!!
OK where do I start? Let’s try Gatwick Airport 9th May 2010. This will be my sixth time across the pond in as many years to chase with Tempest Tours.
Why did I chose and chase with them, and why do I still till this day. Because the make no promises, they are honest. (I think some others may mislead you) Yes we will see storms, we may see super cells and yes we may see the tornado. They can’t guarantee the weather but this is part of the storm chasing experience.
Whatever knowledge you have of the weather these guys will take as much time to explain exactly what is happening and why. They try and make it simple so the total novice through to the experienced chaser are fully informed of what is happening or what could happen and wear it will happen.
The two main tour guides Bill Reid and Brian Morganti have over 25years chasing experience and are up there with the top chasers state side. Every morning you have a full weather briefing of the days intended plan. They go through every detail of why they are choosing their target area. Question are always invited and answered in full. Input is always welcome.
Then you hit the road. As the weather pattern can change at any time the state of the art equipment is always being monitored for any development.
But sometimes its just good old gut reaction and experience that find the best storms, of which these guys have an abundance of. My personal knowledge has now gone from the back of a postage stamp to understanding how to find the best storms.
If you’re into photography in a big way you’ll get as much help as you need, for that perfect shoot. I can’t praise these guys enough for the help and knowledge they have passed onto me from my first tour in 2005 and will look forward to many other springs in the future.
So if you’re thinking of a storm chasing trip I can strongly recommend Tempest Tours.
Many thanks, Bill, Brian, Chris, Kinney, Scott, Brad, Jennifer, Rob, Doug.
What a great group! What a great tour. I toured with Tempest last year and liked it so much I came back this year and did two tours in a row. Jennifer Dunn is a great meteorologist and terrific driver and always ready to answer any questions. Dr. Bob Conzemius was empassioned and funny and a PhD. Brian Morganti was soooo serene and got us to a storm every single day. He's all around pretty amazing and easy to be with. And then there's Bill Reid. Wow! Like Brian he also got us to a storm every day. He was the leader of two of the three tours I took (Brian being the lead on the other tour). Bill is way zen! His combination of experience, science and gut is organic and right. It's difficult to find the words, but he's certainly one of the best out there by far. Last but not least there's Doug Rafik who not only acted as one of our guides, an amazing driver too, but also taught me how to use my camera. I am indebted to him. To all of these passionate professionals who made me feel less a freak for the love of the storm!
One more thing. I called several groups in November of 2007 to find out about what a trip like this would be like and Tempest was the most informative and got back to me the soonest. That's why I chose them to begin with.
I can't say enough good things about Tempest Tours. Maybe the fact that I have been chasing with them the four previous summers and will be back in 2010 speaks for itself! But I'll say more nonetheless. I have been fascinated with severe weather since I was a little girl visiting my grandmother in Minnesota during the summers. As an adult, when I lived in the Twin Cities for five years, I used to "chase" by seeing a blob on the Weather Channel radar and launching myself at it. Several sticky situations later, it occurred to me that the brightest thing to do was chase storms with people who knew what they were doing. I was researching a novel about stormchasing by that time, so I started looking around for tour groups. The Twister Sisters out of the Twin Cities recommended Tempest, and I was off and running.
The Tempest guides--Bill Reid, Brian Morganti, Kinney Adams (a.k.a "Obi Wan," my personal storm guru and mentor), Keith Brown, Chris Gullickson, Rob Petitt, Chad Cowan, Jen Dunn--have done more to teach me and the people on my tours about severe weather than I could have otherwise learned in a lifetime. They are a committed, fiercely intelligent, funny, extraordinary group of people who will do absolutely everything in their power to ensure you are safely introduced to severe weather on the Great Plains. The guests on my tours have returned in following years and many of us have become fast friends--in fact I often joke that as a Bostonian, many of my best friends live halfway across the country. Tempest has taught me everything about the mechanics and grandeur and majesty of big weather and kept me safe while doing it. I've seen five tornadoes, but most importantly I've seen stunning skies, meteorology in motion, and the amazing interior of my own country. There's nothing more you could ask for. If you're looking for a storm tour, choose this group.
If you want my detailed chase descriptions from the previous four years, complete with photos and video, please feel free to drop by my website: www.jennablum.com
Shameless plug: And if you're a reader and you want a peek at the behind-the-scenes of a novel, come along on the Storm Chasers tour in 2010, when I'll be putting my money where my mouth is and showing readers how Tempest has made my novel, The Stormchasers (2010) possible! We'd love to have you along.
Tempest are a great outfit.
The 2008 Tour was billed as a 'photography tour'. It didn't disappoint.
My tour guides were Brian Morganti and Bill Reid-first class veteran chasers and as a result of their generous abundance of photo.tips I returned with wonderful photos - one made it into the IjMet magazine (2nd. place giving it centre pages) and the other won a weather site photo comp. Nothing is too much trouble for these guys and they made great and successful efforts to get us to superb storms and evening lightning shows and safety was never compromised.
Good communications with guests is absolutely vital.
Each morning we had a comprehensive briefing with overheads and questions were encouraged and answered in detail so we started off in the vans knowing where we were heading and why. If we had to hold up somewhere waiting for storm development we were told why and if that had to change we were regularly kept informed as we drove along about where we were heading and why. Brian and Bill also have a great sense of humour too- you need that on the long trips and dealing with all sorts of personalties.
The accommodation was,in almost every case excellent,there's always going to be the odd occasion when you sometimes have to take what's available in a small town but that's comparing all places to the likes of Super 8s (my favorite stop overs) and there wasn't always a Super8 around but that's part of the experience too. There was never a feeling of being isolated and being unaware of what was going on.
I'm already booked for next year. 2010
If you're thinking about Tempest-stop thinking and book it and be part of a great experience John Wright. (UK)