The lightning capital of the U.S. is Tampa Bay, and it’s no stranger to hurricanes and waterspouts-turned-tornadoes, either. Florida actually ranks no. 1 nationwide in tornadoes per square mile. Though the Sunshine State is a storm-chaser’s paradise, the storms last only a few hours, so you can expect brilliant sunsets after a cloudburst. The historic pink Vinoy Renaissance’s new bay-view tower in downtown St. Petersburg is an excellent spot to witness fast-moving, cumulonimbus clouds and lightning. You can wait out the downpour while nursing a cocktail on the veranda’s wicker chairs (marriott.com; from $150).
Jeff Kinsey / Alamy.
Lausanne, Switzerland: Hail and Thunder
When to Go: April–October.
Located atop the arc of Lake Geneva, Lausanne is regularly hit by Alpine storms and föhn winds that whip down Switzerland’s Savoy Alps toward Lausanne’s Ouchy waterfront. The region’s moody skies, wuthering winds, and dark clouds were the inspiration for Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, written here during a chilly June in 1816. Alpine storms come fast, sometimes delivering chunky hail, theatrical smacks of thunder, and hammering rains. The sixth-floor junior suite veranda at the Beau Rivage Palace offers dramatic panoramas of the lake’s clouds and surrounding Alps (brp.ch; from $450).
Fernando Zarur / Alamy.
Rockland, Maine: Fog
When to Go: July–September.
Maine’s rocky coast is chilled by the icy Labrador Current and moderated by the warm Gulf Stream. When the two mix, the result is an unforgettable atmospheric fog bank that rolls onto land like a giant ghostly wave. Sometimes it creates winds blowing off the mainland that produce thick smoky sou’westers—the culprit of many a wrecked New England schooner. The hot tubs on the back deck of the newly renovated Samoset Resort’s Flume Cottages are a cozy spot to witness the eerie walls of mist moving ashore from Penobscot Bay (samosetresort.com, from $145).
Daniel Dempster Photography / Alamy.
Southwestern Sweden: Blizzards
When to Go: December–March.
Sweden’s climate has seen a dramatic increase in storm activity over the last decade, especially in blizzards and ice storms that sweep across its peninsular southern tip. Fortunately, the downed power lines and halted trains don’t affect the region’s saunas, like the modern glass-enclosed one at Gullmarstrand, a hotel dangling over the North Sea at the end of a dock in a fishing village that’s the inspiration for the Swedish crime novel The Ice Princessand an ideal place to endure a Nordic häftig snöstorm. Daring souls can even plunge into the icy sea from the sauna (gullmarsstrand.se; rooms from $150).
Iain Masterton / Alamy.
Great Plains, United States: Tornadoes
When to Go: April–July.
Twisters, cyclones, and dust devils are other terms used to describe the highly destructive rotating columns of air that every spring wreak havoc across the Great Plains—“Tornado Alley”—at an average of about 1,200 annually. More than 500 people have been killed by tornadoes in 2011, making it the country’s deadliest year since 1953. That hasn’t stopped storm-chasing tours from popping up from Colorado to Tennessee. Oklahoma-based Storm Chasing Adventure Tours are pros with the experience, dating back to 1997 (stormchasing.com; $2,400 per week including hotels).
Courtesy of P&M Products / EZ Grill.
Namibia: Sandstorms
When to Go: September–January.
Not all storms involve water. The dazzling red sands of the Namib Desert provide the ultimate conditions for wraithlike sandstorms that whirl over the rusty curvaceous dunescapes. Then there’s the frequent dense fog that slithers across the sand from the violently choppy Skeleton Coast, the final port for many socked-in ships. Kulala Desert Lodge’s posh, thatched kulalas have flat rooftops, ideal for witnessing storms roll over the dunes of Sossusvlei and Namibia’s “Sand Sea” (wilderness-safaris.com; rooms from $473).
Nadia Isakova / Alamy.
Bangkok, Thailand: Monsoon, Tsunamis, and Cyclones
When to Go: June–October.
Some tourists actually time their visits specifically to experience the deluge of monsoon season—the world’s fastest-falling rains. It’s wise to seek out a higher elevation since the city is prone to dangerous flash floods, not to mention tsunamis and cyclones. Bangkok’s elegant Anantara Sathorn recently opened, and the twin 37-floor towers offer balconies overlooking the Chao Phraya River, with extensive views of the capital city and the looming monsoon storm clouds moving in from the Gulf of Thailand (bangkok-sathorn.anantara.com, from $100).
Kevin Foy / Alamy.
Iceland: Volcanoes and Northern Lights
When to Go: October–March.
By day, geyser-seeking, glacial hiking, volcano biking, and snow and ash cloud spotting can keep you occupied, while nighttime delivers glimpses of spectacularly colorful thermospheric storms of the aurora borealis. Icelandic tour outfitter Elves & Trolls offers activities like caving through lava tunnels of Leiðarendi, wild geyser hunts, and of course watching the northern lights (elvesandtrolls.com; tours from $397).
Related: See more storm chasing destinations, including the best place to see 30-foot-high Pacific wave swells, at Travel + Leisure.
One December morning, a 30-foot wave and hurricane-force gales pummeled British Columbia’s Chesterman Beach. The tidal surge brought the water right up to Wickaninnish Inn, giving guests a spectacular view of nature’s unremitting fury—just as they’d hoped.
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Welcome to storm chasing, where travelers eschew sunshine to seek out lightning, twisters, and brooding cumulonimbus clouds. (See the amazing photographs of a veteran storm chaser here.) It’s a growing trend whose affordable thrills are particularly attractive in this recession era. Credit also goes to disaster films like Twister and The Perfect Storm, which provided a virtual experience and drew attention to the pastime. Sophisticated, up-to-the-minute weather data and apps like Storm Spotters have made it easier to track storms. And more and more, enthusiasts want to experience the real thing.
“When we first opened in 1996, winter occupancies in Tofino were in the 30 percent range,” says Charles McDiarmid, managing director of the Wickaninnish Inn, a T+L World’s Best Hotel award winner in British Columbia. “But as word of mouth of our storm watching spread, our winter storm season occupancy rose to around 55 percent,” he continues. What’s more, the “off-season” hotel’s rates have jumped from $100 to $300 a night for a chance to witness the arctic blasts that swoop across the Pacific Ocean.
Many have been intrigued by thunder and lightning chasing throughout history, most famously Ben Franklin, whose key and kite experiments answered several mysteries about electricity. But modern storm-chasing began as a scientific pursuit in the American Midwest in the 1940s with Roger Jensen, considered the pioneer storm chaser. His data led to new understanding of storms and climate. Our perspective continues to evolve, as do storm patterns themselves.
Dozens of storm-chasing companies in the Midwest and southern U.S. are well established in the business—even attracting international visitors—but there’s a recent uptick of storm-chasing tours in Europe, Africa, and Australia in response to interest in new and unusual storm weather phenomena. The Namib Desert, for instance, provides the ultimate conditions for wraithlike sandstorms that whirl over its red curvaceous dunescapes.
Snow thunder in Antarctica, Spanish hailstorms, and giant rolling fog banks in Maine prove that Mother Nature has no shortage of creativity when it comes to staging an electrifying show.
