For most people, hearing the news that a storm is coming is a signal to get inside, lock the doors, close the windows, and stay safe until it passes. The majority of people dislike storms and will do as much as they can to avoid them or shut them out. Some people hate them so much that they spend every second of a storm terrified and don't start to feel better until the storm has passed.
Other people are different. They find storms extremely exciting. They sit by the window and watch the lightning flash across the sky. Some of them even stand outside in the rain, getting wet on purpose! These are the people who are most likely to become storm chasers - people for whom following a storm is the perfect vacation experience. They don’t hide from the weather - they proactively go looking for it!
Storm chasing can be a frustrating endeavour because you can't control the weather. Waiting for a storm to come can be a little like the online slots game "North Storm" coming to life. While you might get lucky some of the time when you play the online slots game, most of the time, you'll find that nothing happens. That's not so bad when you're playing games at an online slots website like MoneyReels.com because you've probably only spent a few dollars doing so, but you might spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on a storm-seeing vacation only to miss out on all the action! Things don't have to be that way, though. Stop relying on pot luck, log out of the online slots website, and check out one of these five can't-miss storm locations instead.
Tampa Bay, Florida, USA
It’s a little ironic that Florida is nicknamed “the sunshine state” when you’re just as likely to see a huge storm there as you are to bask in the sunshine. The weather can indeed get very hot and sunny in this part of the United States of America, but a huge storm is never far behind it! Hurricanes and lightning are a fact of life in this part of the world. That’s not necessarily good news for the people who live here full time, as Tampa Bay is massively at risk of destruction if there were to be a tiny rise in the sea level. For the storm chaser, though, it's perfect. There are more tornadoes per square mile here than anywhere else in the USA, and when the storms set in, they tend to last for hours. You'll also see more lightning here than anywhere else in the country. If you don't want to stand in the middle of the storm - which we'd understand because they're pretty ferocious - rent a hotel room in one of the area's many high-rise hotels to enjoy spectacular views.
Namibia
We’re not listing one single location in the African nation of Namibia. We’re listing the whole country. The scenery of Namibia is spectacular, with towering mountains and mile upon mile of sand and trees, but the desert is restless. With alarming frequency, the wind whips up the sand and blasts it across the plains in the form of a great sandstorm. When they happen, the effect of them is made all the more dramatic by the fact that the sand is red! Sometimes the storm is accompanied by fog, rolling in from the spookily-named Skeleton Coast - a fine place to spend a little time if you want to check out a few old shipwrecks. We can’t recommend standing in the middle of a sandstorm, so find yourself a reasonably-priced desert lodge to watch the drama unfold from instead.
The Great Plains of the USA
The first exposure that many of us had to the concept of storm chasing was the 1996 movie “Twister” - a film that is, in fact, about to be re-made with all the advantages of modern special effects. The intrepid storm chasers in that film risk their lives on a weekly basis in search of tornadoes, often getting dangerously close to biting off more than they can chew. If it’s tornadoes that get you excited, look no further than the Great Plains of the United States of America. That’s North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, New Mexico, Wyoming, Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Texas, and Oklahoma. The plains of these states rack up an average of 1200 tornadoes every year. Many of the states offer special storm chasing tours, offering you the chance to head out into the wilds accompanied by professionals with specialist equipment. Be aware, though - at least two or three hundred people lose their lives to tornadoes in the Great Plains every year. Nobody ever said that storm chasing was safe!
Lausanne, Switzerland
Mary Shelley decided to take a cold-weather vacation to Lausanne in Switzerland in June of 1816. While she was there, the gothic scenery and the relentless storms inspired her to write "Frankenstein." it's not hard to see why. The town is situated at the higher end of Lake Geneva, exposing it to brutal Alpine winds that bring roaring thunder and hailstones like you've never seen before. The skies always seem to be dark, and the wind is relentless. When a storm really takes hold in Lausanne, it feels like the sky is exploding. The combination of large hailstones and strong winds can make for nasty injuries, so dive indoors if things start to get a little too dicey for your liking. A number of hotels offer excellent views of the surrounding area and the beautiful Alps, allowing you to watch the weather roll in off the hills at a relatively safe distance.
Guam
Guam is little more than a tiny speck on the world map, but don't hold that against this paradise island. It sits right in the middle of the most active cyclone region in the world, and most of the cyclones happen at sea. That's earned the region the nickname "Typhoon Alley," and it's Guam that takes the brunt of most of those typhoons. The sign of people fleeing Gun Beach in Tamuning before the waves crash down on them is a regular occurrence, and winds reaching speeds in excess of one hundred miles per hour is nothing out of the ordinary either. Guam doesn't just get storms; it gets mega-storms. Fortunately, it's managed to turn this into a positive. Guam has opened itself up to storm chaser tourism, with the Toh Lee restaurant in Hotel Nikko offering a chance to sit and watch the typhoons hammer down on the beaches through panoramic floor-to-ceiling windows. You'll obviously want to bring your wet weather clothes, and make sure you're fit enough to run when you need to!