The tour package includes arrival day lodging and tour t-shirts. As always, the package still includes daily hotel lodging during each of your scheduled evenings with us, a professionally-edited highlights DVD and lifetime discounts on all future tours.

THE VANS: In 2009, we are conducting our expeditions in two or three customized passenger vans, both outfitted with the latest technology (with the exception of Tour 3 which will have 4 vans for this year only). These vans are outfitted with sophisticated electronics designed to make your travel experience even more enjoyable. No other tour company devotes as much time to designing equipment crafted to address the challenges specific to storm chasing. This enables our clients to seek storms in comfort while being able to hear their guides' discussions about the unfolding weather situation and while being able to view the weather data that we're analyzing. Here is a description of some of the vans' features . Our core technology:

• True severe weather experts with years of storm chasing and forecasting experience!

• Passenger vans customized for maximum enjoyment of the storm chasing experience.

• Portable computers with state-of-the-art GPS navigation and wireless data capability.

• Large, clear LCD screens for video playback and display of weather info being analyzed on our laptops.

• High-quality non-interfering microwave antennae for sharing video/TV/data signals between vans.

• A unique video switching box that allows us to show on the LCD screens video signals from several devices.

• Cell phones and broadband data cards for frequent high-speed data downloads on the go; with the current cellular network and an external antenna we enjoy connectivity most of the time.

• Private channel commercial CB radios for van-to-van communications.

• Custom-built gear boxes with entertainment module (DVD player, on-board sound, etc...).

• Separate Baron XM Mobile ThreatNet satellite systems for viewing continuous high-resolution radar data.

Finally, remember that only people 18 years of age or older may attend the tours solo. However, minors can join the tours if accompanied by a parent or legal guardian. Said parent must be willing to indemnify the tours. Each year we have one or two parent/child teams joining us and it is always lots of fun!

Smoking inside the vans is forbidden.

1. TOUR MEETING LOCATIONS: Tours one through Three, as well as the Great Plains Lecture Tour, will begin and end at Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Tours 4 through North Land Lecture will begin and end at Denver, Colorado. The Canadian Prairie Tour will begin and end in Rapid City, South Dakota. The Desert Thunder Tour will begin and end in Tucson, Arizona. Upon arrival at the airport, a complimentary hotel shuttle will transport you to your hotel. We always book each tour's block of rooms for both the arrival and departure evenings months in advance. You will be transported from the airport to this designated hotel via the hotel's free and reliable hotel shuttle bus (with the exception of the Desert Thunder tour, as you must pay for your shuttle to the hotel and back to the airport). Additional details will be mailed to you two months prior to the start of your tour. This information always includes details such as: suggested packing list, typical tour daily itinerary and arrival day logistics (the "arrival day" will be described in the next item below).  Try making online travel reservations .

2. WHEN TO ARRIVE AND DEPART:  Each trip is bracketed by so-called "arrival" and "departure" days. These dates are established for the purpose of allowing people sufficient time to travel to and from the base city. For each of the dates listed in the schedule table above, you must arrange to travel to the base city on your tour's designated arrival day and you must arrange to depart (unless, of course, you plan to stay in that city afterwards) on your tour's designated departure day. Example: If you are scheduled for Tour 3 (May 19 to May 28), you would arrive at Will Rogers International Airport (OKC) on May 18 sometime during the day several hours prior to 7 pm local time. You would leave OKC on May 29 after 10 a.m. local time. Due to the fact that we give a comprehensive orientation on the evening of your arrival, we require that all attendees arrive at the meeting city prior to 5 pm (if at all possible) on your arrival day. We also strongly suggest that you schedule your return flight to leave after 10 a.m. on your tour's designated departure date so that we can maximize our driving range on the last day of your tour.

3. ORIENTATION MEETING : We will have a very important orientation meeting at 7:00 pm local time of your arrival day. We will give you a presentation designed to help you get the most out of the tour. Most importantly, we will discuss very important safety practices that are put in place to ensure that these tours are a safe and enjoyable experience for you. Afterwards, we will go to dinner together!

4. COST AND PAYMENT DETAILS: Tours 1 and  3 cost $3000/person (but only $2850 per person if sharing a hotel room). Due to the more personal and educationally intense experience created on this tour, the Great Plains Lecture Tour costs $3300/person (but only $3100 per person if sharing a hotel room). Note: this price has increased in 2009 due to increased insurance costs. All six-day tours cost $2200/person ( but only $2100 if sharing a hotel room). The North Land Lecture Tour is $2700 per person. The Canadian Praire Tour is $3200 and the Desert Thunder Tour is $2100 (introductory price). If you're taking two or more tours, please see the multi-tour discount described at the top of the page. This includes all expenses EXCEPT airfare, food and incidentals. It includes, of course, ground transportation and lodging during the tour. We require a non-refundable deposit of $600.00 to reserve your slot payable by personal check, cashier's check, or money order. The deposit amount for all 6-day tours is $500. The balance of the tour fee is due 60 days prior to arrival. You may now pay your tour deposit using either MasterCard or Visa, subject to a 2.5% (U.S. residents) or 3.0% (participants from abroad) processing fee. This fee is necessary to offset our transaction costs, which will really add up in a hurry. Unfortunately, the fee is higher for credit cards with a non-U.S. billing address because these are considered by the big bad merchant service providers as being "non-AVS" cards and therefore not qualified for the lower rates.

5. POSSIBLE FUEL COST ADJUSTMENT:  Beginning in 2007, a one-time fuel adjustment surcharge of $100 will be assessed on each tour booking IF AND ONLY IF the nationally-averaged cost of regular unleaded fuel exceeds $3.00/gallon by the 60th day prior to a given tour's arrival date. Note that as of May 1, 2006, the U.S. average cost is $2.92, so we believe that this is a fair benchmark given that our base tour prices are not increasing (except for the Master Class Tour, as noted above).

6. CREDIT CARD PAYMENT DETAILS: We are very pleased to offer our participants the convenience of paying their tour deposit with a credit card. The transaction is totally secure and very fast. This is the "real deal" - no PayPal here! However, there are two conditions that apply. They are as follows: (1) All credit card transactions will be subject to a processing fee (2.5% for U.S. residents and 3.0% for everybody else) that will be reflected on your first invoice; thus for a credit card with a U.S. billing address, you will only be charged a $12.50 transaction fee to pay the deposit; for our friends from abroad, the fee is $15.00 ; and (2) you must be willing and able to accept an emailed invoice . This invoice will contain a secure link to a secure website where you will enter your credit card information and choose the amount to be billed (i.e., the deposit amount). Our accounting system will automatically and immediately notify us that payment has been received and your reservation will be consummated immediately. To pay using credit card: you must first sign, complete and mail the agreement. Once we have received the tour agreement, you will be invoiced electronically as described above. Unfortunately, due to credit card association rules we cannot accept credit card payments for the full tour fee at this time.
   

7. TOUR TRANSPORTATION: We will travel in the following combination of highly-equipped vehicles. All vans employed will have a driver and tour guide up front, with a rugged, experienced driver and capable meteorologist in the second. All drivers are pulled from our seasoned line-up of grizzled SLT veteran guides.  Each van is equipped with the following set-up: computer navigation systems; cellular data card-laptop computer combinations for mobile data downloading; LCD to allow you to watch videos during some of the long drives, as well as data transmissions from the laptop; our proprietary system for clearly audible van-to-van communications. An XM-satellite internet module provides live weather data to all participants in all vehicles.  

8. TOUR LODGING: The tour pays your lodging on each of the tour days as well as the arrival night. You will get a clean, comfortable room each night that you're with us. Although we do not have an unlimited hotel budget, we always do our best to ensure a reasonably high caliber of lodging on your tour. During the past few years, here are the motel/hotel chains we have used most often: Comfort Inns and Suites, selected Best Westerns, Americinn, Holiday Inn Express, Quality Inns/Suites, Red Roof Inn, Fairfield Inn, Hampton Inn, Hilton, Super 8 (chaser favorite), Amerisuites, Wingate, Country Inn and Suites, Baymont Inn and Candlewood Suites. Also, Accor Hotels, a well-respected and wealthy European corporation, has bought Motel 6 and some other "budget" chains and is doing an amazing job at completely renovating these properties. We will look for and use these places wherever they exist.

9. WHAT TO BRING WITH YOU: You should plan on bringing a medium to large soft suitcase or duffel travel bag as well as a camcorder, camera or laptop computer. We strongly discourage you from bringing hard-shell suitcases or overly large daypacks! Make your best attempt at packing six or ten days' worth of clothing (again, these types of details are expounded in the additional tour information that every participant receives two months prior to the start of her or his tour).

10. WHAT WE DO DURING "SEVERE CLEAR": Much of the success of your tour (i.e., the number of tornadoes and/or storms that we witness) depends on the atmosphere. Although we offer our tours during the very peak of the climatological tornado season, the large-scale weather pattern does occasionally become unfavorable for frequent severe thunderstorm episodes. We have not yet had a tour during which there were no severe storms encountered , but during these occasional inactive severe weather regimes, we can go 2-3 days with no significant thunderstorms. On days when there are no storms expected (of course, we hope those are very few!), we will offer a few tried-and-true recreational options. These activities are weather-related whenever possible. Examples from last year: we toured the Storm Prediction Center/National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, OK; we toured three National Weather Service Forecast offices; viewed tornado damage; the famous Big Texan steakhouse in Amarillo, Texas; we even throw cookouts and barbeques on dud days! We often find ourselves in the vicinity of beautiful state and national parks. We have visited Devil's Tower, Mount Rushmore, Rocky Mountain National Park, the Badlands (we love South Dakota!) and the Medora Badlands National Park (western North Dakota).

11. EDUCATION: We work very hard to give you a meaningful education. While you are with Silver Lining Tours, you will enjoy a unique opportunity to learn from us. You will have plenty of time to learn about the formation, structure and dynamics of severe thunderstorms, tornadoes and other interesting weather phenomena in terms you can understand. You will be able to watch your tour guides actually prepare the morning forecast on many days. You will be shown our systematic approach to severe weather forecasting. You will enjoy the advantage of gaining insight while you are watching the atmosphere in motion. We feel strongly that if you come to our tours with a genuine interest in increasing your understanding of the atmosphere, you will walk away feeling like you have really learned something! We pledge to work tirelessly at increasing your knowledge about severe thunderstorms, storm chasing, forecasting and weather. We will answer all of your questions to the best of our ability.

12. ADDITIONAL PERKS : Each participant will receive a complete professional-quality video of the tour highlights from all 2008 tours and a Silver Lining Tours t-shirt. It is emphasized that the quality of our highlights video has become quite excellent due to the efforts of SLT co-owner Roger Hill, who is also a world-class professional videographer. This is yet another advantage of taking your storm chasing adventure vacation with Silver Lining Tours!

PLEASE read the Frequently Asked Questions section of this web site for more information about our price structure, philosophy and more!

1. The lifetime discount is as follows: $100 off the listed price of a 10-day tour and $50 off the listed price of a 6-day tour.