Storm chasers John Finney and Ashleigh Parker have covered 5000 miles in under two weeks as they race across America’s midwest chasing tornados, twisters and lightning strikes.
And the outlook still looks bright for their romance after the pair met four years ago on a weather watching trip to Texas.
Now John, 48, from Manchester has quit his job as an engineer to become a full-time storm chaser photographing the dramatic sky scenes he sees along the way and Ashleigh, 31, from Canterbury goes along for the long ride.
His latest dramatic weather pictures were taken in Colorado and then on to Oklahoma, and Texas before heading north through Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota and finally Montana, covering approximately 5000 miles in 11 days.
Describing their latest chase John said: “As the storm worsened we got caught up with 85mph winds with large damaging hail.
“We managed to escape the worst of it but some of our fellow storm chasers were not so lucky and they lost all of their car windows to the hail and stones that the storm had picked up. We were lucky the storm didn’t drop a tornado.”
Back in the UK, however, storms have been wreaking havoc in Derbyshire, as the threat of bad weather raises fears that the weakened dam at Whaley Bridge could collapse.
On Thursday more than 1,000 people were made to leave the Derbyshire town as the dam threatened to burst.
Now a further 55 homes worth have been told to get out as the potential of Toddbrook Reservoir breaching continues to hang over the picturesque conurbation.
The further evacuations come as a stormy weather front looks set to hit the town.
On Sunday afternoon a lightning storm will likely bring hours of rain to Whaley Bridge, with the downpours continuing through into next week.
Residents have been told to make alternative accommodation arrangements as the 1.3m tonnes of water that are hanging above the town continue to push against the damaged dam wall.
