Flattened homes and overturned cars — not exactly the images tourism officials plaster on travel brochures.
But the scenes of devastation from recent tornadoes are luring some foreigners to the United States to spend vacations jaunting through Tornado Alley.
Customers of the Denver-based Storm Chasing Adventure Tours fork out $2,000 for a two-week trip chasing severe weather in a radar-equipped van.
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Tour season kicked off in late April and will run through June, with the van crisscrossing through tornado-prone Texas and Oklahoma, tour operator Todd Thorn said.
Recently, his group of mostly British travelers made a stop in Ft. Worth to fill up on gas, soda and fresh air. Having left Waco in the morning, they were on their way to New Mexico to take a break at Carlsbad Caverns.
It seems Texas weather isn’t cooperating.
“We’ve seen some good thunderstorms, but we’ve yet to strike lucky on a tornado,” said Steve Wakeham, a meteorologist on the tour from Norfolk, England.
Stuck in traffic near Dallas a few days later, the group also missed the storms and deadly tornado that struck Hill and Bosque Counties south of the Metroplex.
Wakeham said it is rare to find storms in England that are as severe as those found in the United States.
Peering from under a sun visor, Rita Ashton of Cambridge, England, agreed.
“I’d like to see some really big hailstones,” she said.
Thunderstorms and cloud formations have fascinated Ashton since childhood. Last year, she became particularly interested in tornadoes after a British TV special on twisters that profiled some storm chasers.
So for her silver wedding anniversary, Ashton asked her husband, David, for a storm-chasing adventure tour for two through Tornado Alley, which includes parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska.
She is fascinated with the power nature has, she said.
“You can predict it, but you can’t do anything to stop it,” she said.
A weather tourist’s day starts with a check of the radars to seek the best potential sites for severe weather. With an average of 168 tornadoes a year, Texas is often a destination.
“Everything is bigger in America, especially Texas,” said Wayne Webster, 25, of South Africa.
Driving from storm to storm takes up most of the time. The group may log hundreds of miles a day in the tour van, which is equipped with a radar, satellite equipment to bring in uninterrupted Weather Channel signals, a lightning-detection monitor, computers and radios. Each of the seven tourists can watch the Weather Channel on TV monitors in the van as they head to the next destination.
But 1,300 miles, three days, a few books and several CDs into this trip, Jon Nicholson still hasn’t seen what he came all the way from Cambridge, England, to see — the power of nature such as the March 28 tornadoes in Ft. Worth and adjacent Arlington.
Tornado chasing first intrigued Nicholson after watching TV coverage last year of the deadly Oklahoma tornadoes.
But tornadoes are not promised on every trip, Thorn said, even though just about every other group sees one.
A previous tour group had a bit more excitement, coming up on the path of a tornado minutes after it touched down in Shreveport, La., said Webster. He had a van seat on that first tour of the year.
“We actually had to stop in our tracks because a tornado was passing five miles south of us. It was so exciting,” said Webster, who works as an environmentalist.
In his hometown of Dundee, Webster said, he and friends drive up to the mountains to watch lightning coming over the peaks.
Lightning, heavy rains and maybe some hail are the most South African weather-watchers can count on. Webster said he made the trip to Texas specifically to see a tornado.
“It’s the violence and the lightning and the thunder, that’s what I enjoy the most,” Webster said.
Mike Biggerstaff, faculty adviser to the Texas A&M Severe Storms Data Acquisition Team, said tornadoes fascinate people.
“I’ve been told that in Oklahoma there are so many people chasing storms you almost can’t drive down the highways,” Biggerstaff said.
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The increased popularity has prompted concern that weather enthusiasts could put themselves in harm’s way, but Biggerstaff added that he is unaware of injuries resulting from any organized tour.
Of course, the movie “Twister” helped popularize storm chasing, Biggerstaff said. Weather information has also become much more accessible.
For less than $2,000, weather-watchers can outfit their vehicles with radar, laptops and TV monitors to track weather, he said.
But that doesn’t mean that they always find the tornadoes.
Thorn cited the difficulties in seeking out tornadoes and timing the group’s arrival within a few minutes of a touchdown.
“It can be like finding a needle in a haystack,” he said.
But the customers come for the thrill.
“Like with parachuting or bungee jumping, they go for the thrill,” he said. “And the unknown amount of danger in it.”