There were something like 295 tornadoes in the two weeks before our tornado chasing tour. The tour before us saw tornadoes on eight out of its ten days. The tour after us saw a tornado on its first chase day. There were apparently only a handful of confirmed tornadoes in the US during our tour. We saw some nice storms and possibly one tornado.

About the possible tornado: Some spotters reported seeing ground circulation and a tornado under the storm south of Hagerman, New Mexico. I’ve since seen a black and white image taken when the rain momentarily cleared and allowed backlight to peer through. There is what looks like a fairly convincing condensation funnel near the ground. Confirmation would require something more, a clearer photograph or perhaps a survey by the National Weather Service. While it would be nice to confirm, it would also be anticlimactic. Without recognizing it at the time I’m not sure I could count it.

We drove more than 3,000 miles in seven days through Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado and Kansas. The seven days we had were the quietest of the tornado season and after a year of anticipation it’s hard not to be a bit disappointed. On the other hand that’s how it goes with weather. Our attempt to climb a 6,000m peak in Bolivia last year was foiled by a freak snow storm. What can you do?

Next we leave for Asia. We’ll be visiting Hong Kong, Komodo and the frontier destination of Raja Ampat.