MID-MONTHLY NEWSLETTER
NEWSLETTER ARCHIVE
FEBRUARY 2024
What takes 325,000 ears and 13 colors of corn, 1.5 million nails and an annual budget of $130,000 to keep a revolving tapestry of murals fresh for a half-million visitors a year? Throw in a 3,200-seat sports and entertainment arena, and you have the 132-year-old Corn Palace in Mitchell, S.D.
JANUARY 2024
Jason Webb and F5! founder Gregg Potter became fast friends at Kansas University, road-tripping whenever possible to see bands or chase tornadoes. So it's apropos that we begin our MEET THE F5! CREW series with Jason, the driver and navigator who was there for the first tornado safari in 1999. Jason met his British wife on a 2012 chase and owns two of the hippest weed dispensaries in Montana.
DECEMBER 2023
F5 Tornado Safaris founder Greg Potter says that there's no comparison between tornado activity in America and anywhere else on Earth -- and describes the conditions that make U.S. the twister king. In the ON THE ROAD section, the F5! chasers visited an apropos spot for the first time in 2023: The National Wind Institute at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, home of two cutting-edge mobile radar vehicles that are capable of driving into a storm and mapping volatile atmospheric conditions in four dimensions.
NOVEMBER 2023
Rather than field a question from a newsletter reader, F5! founder Gregg Potter uses his monthly ASK GREGG column to recall three clients whose lives were forever altered when loved ones surprised them with a gift of chasing tornadoes across the Great Plains. In the November ON THE ROAD feature, we revisit 32 miles of a highway without a name in the middle of nowhere, North Dakota. It was here that Gary Greff created the Enchanted Highway, a series of record-sized metal sculptures, in an attempt to infuse tourists dollars into his dying hometown.
OCTOBER 2023
There is mounting evidence that the traditional Tornado Alley -- the one that cuts a wide swath through the Great Plains -- is no longer the primary area of twister activity in the U.S. GIven that,this month's ASK GREGG column responds to a reader who wants to know if Oklahoma City is still the best launching point for F5! safaris.
in this month's ON THE ROAD feature, we revisit the haunting beauty of Carlsbad Caverns -- which features the largest underground chamber in North America, as well as the the deepest cave in the U.S.
SEPTEMBER 2023
ASK GREGG revisits the tropical storm that slammed into Southern California in August -- and deluged the desert east of Los Angeles with a year's worth of rain in 12 hours.
ON THE ROAD explores the legacy of Samuel Perry Dinsmoor, who became a cement sculptor in his 60s and fathered two of his seven children after he turned 80 -- with a woman 60 years his junior. All the while, Dinsmoor was creating one the more unusual sculpture gardens in the nation. Welcome to the Garden of Eden in Lucas, Kan., a frequent stopover on the F5 circuit.
AUGUST 2023
ASK GREGG delves into the bizarre weather patterns that have characterized 2023 in the U.S., where there were a record 410 tornadoes in the first three months alone.
ON THE ROAD takes aim at one of the most frequent stopovers on the F5 circuit over the past 24 years: Roswell, N.M.. Everyone knows that Roswell is the world's UFO capital, but we reveal the governmental ruse that set the dying desert town on the road to cottage-industry riches.
Michelle Graham (Lima, OH) won our $50 monthly merchandise giveaway!
July 2023
ON THE ROAD details some of our favorites stops while covering a million square miles of the Great Plains in the past 24 years. First up: The Big Texan in Amarillio . . . ASK GREGG details how the thrill of the chase was implanted in the F5! founder as a child in Colorado . . . The debut of our monthly $50 merchandise giveaway . . . How to earn up to $500 in discounts for the 2024 chase season!
JUNE 2023
Gregg details how a whale-watching tour near San Francisco shaped his client philosophy . . . Photos from the 2023 chasing season . . . 2024 chase calendar is set . . . ASK GREGG details the routes and mileage for the two-week chase season in May 2023 (Spoiler Alert: a combined 9 states and 4,690 miles),