Kevin Myatt is The Roanoke Times' weather columnist.

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It's storm chase time again.

This is the fourth time I will be traveling with leader Dave Carroll, a Pulaski County High School teacher and Virginia Tech adjunct instructor in meteorology, and 10 others, mostly college and high school students. It will be my third time to serve as trip co-leader.

Our journey, primarily through the central United States, is dictated by where severe thunderstorms and tornadoes are most likely to occur. We leave Sunday, and we may be tracking storms just to the west on our first day.

The trip's value is best described by a chase trip alumnus.

Jacob Carley of Blacksburg graduates Saturday from the University of North Carolina at Asheville with a degree in meteorology. Carley, who was on the 2005 and 2006 trips, has interned at the National Centers for Environmental Prediction, the nation's headquarters for computer forecast modeling. He will be entering atmospheric science graduate studies at Purdue University.

"The chase is what I like to refer to as an ultimate 'light bulb' moment," Carley wrote in an e-mail. "You use everything you learn in class here. From instrumentation to synoptic scale dynamics to cloud microphysics, you use it all. ... You'll find yourself sitting in class curious about what your professor is talking about, and you'll think back to the chase and relate it to the concepts you're learning.

"The chase really provides you with a learning experience that is so much more vast than a two-week trip out in the Plains. It is a sustaining experience."

Chasers this year include two from North Carolina-Asheville: Sandy LaCorte of Davidson, N.C., a 2007 chaser who will be graduating Saturday and serving as the trip's student leader, and Morgan Weeks of Floyd.

Virginia Tech instructor Jennifer Henderson, who is researching for a book titled "Tornado: A Biography," will be on board, along with Tech students Jessica Burchard of Greensboro, N.C.; Trevor Owen of Danville; Jordan Rollins of Seaford, Del.; Andrew Smith of Mechanicsville; and Taylor White of Blacksburg.

Two high school students round out the chase team: Joel Willis of Pulaski County High School, and Marielle Taft of Cabin John, Md., a student at Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Md.

Blue Ridge PBS will be following our trip on its Web site as part of the Jason Project's "Monster Storms" theme.

I will be updating my blog on Roanoke.com and filing Weather Journal columns from the road for the next two weeks.