As of today I have 50 days remaining in my countdown to my 2024 Storm Chasing Adventure. Instead of thinking that I’m going “storm chasing”, I’m thinking of this trip as a “Storm Hiking” trip, because I plan on integrating some hiking to keep the blood moving while I’m inbetween supercells. The supercells will always win if there’s a battle for my attention, but hiking keeps me sane and allows my mind to relax while building up my physical stamina. It’s a win-win.
Even though it’s been well over 300 days since my last storm chasing trip, I’m still processing what went wrong and what went right with my 2023 adventure, as I don’t want to replicate my mistakes and come back to Tucson wishing I had done X, Y, and Z and not feeling satisified with the trip. I was a bit too contemplative on last year’s trip. I listened to too many self-help type podcasts, I was too entrenched with social media, and I was too concerned of not losing my productivity momentum, even though I was on vacation. Plus, last year’s trip took place during an unusually quiet time for storms in May. This year’s forecast looks much more promising.
I’ve been pulling away from social media in general since the beginning of this year. Continuing that trend going into my “storm hiking” trip in 50 days shouldn’t be hard to continue; the only caveat is that I will still follow a feed or two so I know what other storm chasers are doing. Seeing their take on the forecasting models I’m looking at helps me be better at figuring out where to position myself for a storm.
I’m a bit surprised at how fast the year is passing by. After a January that seemed to go on forever, here we are at the end of March. We’re already into springtime in the Northern Hemisphere and work oriented folks are already looking at the end of the first quarter. Time sure flies when you’re having fun!
