Jim Leonard, Matt Biddle and I (Charles Edwards) escorted a film crew around so they could get storm footage for an upcoming movie. We started the day in Rapid City, SC. Our target for the day was NE of Mobride SD. As we were heading north on 83, a nice looking storm developed to our north. Reports we heard said it was moving east. We discovered that it was actually moving north. some nice towers developed to our east and exploded. The film crew stopped a couple of times to get some structure shots. We went east on 11 in ND. We dropped south on 281 and then went east on 10 from Barnard. Rain was blowing from the north and a few large hail stones hit around us. Then a white column lit up by the sun appeared ahead of us. The part at the ground was obscured by a large debris cloud. I turned the van around on a side drive to point the back at the tornado so that the film crew could film. The camera was set up in the back for quick set up. The ground was a little softer than I realized and The van got stuck in the mud. At this time, we were nine miles east of 281. The tornado was about 1/10 of a east of us. Jim and Matt were in a separate vehicle, A Jeep Cherokee. It was loaded with our luggage. Two of the three people from the film crew ran to the jeep. The producer and I stayed with the van as I tried to rock it out of the mud. Then a house exploded and it became obvious that the tornado had turned and was moving west towards us. At first, we assumed it was moving east away from us, but soon realized the rope tornado was rotating cyclonically around the meso and was briefly moving back westward towards us. We all jumped out of the van and piled in the jeep. The we were crammed in so tight that the doors didn’t close. We backed down the road to safety leaving the van behind. When the tornado dissipated, we returned to the van to get it out. Some locals helped to get it out of the mud as debris rained down around us. Jim went to survey the damaged house. One person was in the basement when it hit. He was unhurt. Jim estimates the damage to be high end F3. All Pictures were taken with a wide angle adapter on the video camera. It was much close than it appears.

June 4, 2002. Today, we targeted the area SW of Clovis, NM. We started out in Lamar, Co. A cell went up near Clovis and it looked impressive on radar as we approached from the east. It fell apart as we got to it. Other storms were ongoing farther west. We went to meet them south of TCC. They were outflow dominant and not very impressive. We decided to call it a day and head for Amarillo. We got caught in the core with 70MPH winds from the north, rain, and small hail. Traffic moved at the same speed as the storm. As we finally got out of the rain near Vega, TX a strong gustnado crossed the highway in front of us. It had violent rotation. Several others formed in the area before dissipating.

May 7, 2002. Day three of the first group on Cloud 9 Tours. We witnessed one large tornado in Kiowa Co. KS. It was rain wrapped and then was pushed out by the outflow of the storm. It roped out while being back lit. It soon dissipated. We continued east and got ahead of the storm again. South of Byers, Ks we saw a large wedge tornado. Mike Theiss deployed the Dillo-Cam and the Theiss Device in the path as Jim Leonard video taped him with the tornado aproaching. I blasted south to get out of the path of the tornado. I then went to Pratt, KS. Larg hail started coming down. I took shelter under a gas station overhang. The winds picked up and the hail reached about baseball size. Thee were several power flashes in town before power compleatly went out. After it calmed down, I went back to recover the Dillo-Cam. There were many large trees down in Pratt from the RFD and possible nearby tornado.

April 17, 2002. Today was an easy chase. We went west on I-40. Storms fired in NW Oklahoma, but they didn't look like they would be all that great. Other towers formed further south and we opted for those. We followed a supercell from just north of Elk City to near Sealing, OK.

April 16, 2002. Today I chased with Matt Biddle and Lori, my wife. We originally targeted western Oklahoma, but decided to go just west of Lawton, OK. A storm developed to our south and we tried to intercept in near Wichita Falls, TX. It fell apart about the time we got ther, but new storms sould be seen to out SE. We continued down 287 and intercepted a storm near Sunset, TX. We was tennis ball size hail on the ground that just fell ahead of us. We backed off a little so we wouldn't have to core punch. The roads would not allow us to get in the correct position without core punching. W witnessed one funnel that extended about half way to the ground before dark set in.

April 7, 2002. I was unable to chase today, but I did set up in Kerrveill, TX to shoot some lightning as the storms passed through. After sunset, I could see the back side of tornadic storms to my south.