A QUICK AND DEADLY START

The tornado season is off to a quick and deadly start this year. Devastating storms hammered parts of mid-America over the past couple of days. And although there’s a bit of a lull today, already another significant threat looms for tomorrow.

The Storm Prediction Center warns that numerous fast-moving supercell storms as well as a few exceptionally violent tornadoes are likely on Friday. The area at greatest risk extends from the mid-Ohio Valley southward into northeast Mississippi and northern Alabama.

Tomorrow night the threat is expected to do some saber rattling where I live, in metro Atlanta. (Why do the big storms here always seem to rumble in when it’s dark?)

So, perhaps I won’t have to travel far to gather some storm chasing insights for my novel-in-progress, Supercell.

Still, waiting for storms to attack isn’t quite the same thing as stalking them. Which is why I’m still planning on going on a Great Plains tornado chase in a couple of months. Much as my flight into the eye of a hurricane with the Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunters provided a realistic background for Eyewall, I expect my journey with Silver Lining Tours will do that same thing for Supercell.

I’ll be blogging–frequently, I hope–about my chase come the end of April and early May. So, as you may see on billboards occasionally: WATCH THIS SPACE!

-March 1, 2012-

IMAGE: Severe storm/tornado threat for Friday/Friday night (Storm Prediction Center)