Tony, I think your feelings regarding March 28 are largely justified. I was an undergrad at OU then, and thankfully didn't have any critical commitments that day. However, those a year ahead of me weren't so lucky. They had a big dynamics exam from like 3-5 PM that afternoon. This course being arguably the most core of the core curriculum at OU, and the exam counting for ~30% of your grade, there was absolutely no way out. Pretty much all the chasers in that class sped out after it was over and missed everything in the Panhandle by an hour. It was crushing to the point of tears in some cases, and both then and now, I understand why.
"Historic" is an understatement for that outbreak. Everything about it, meteorologically, screamed "once-a-century event." To get a bent back dryline with half a dozen sigtor-producing discrete storms in the prime High Plains chase territory of TX/OK/KS/NE... that's something we currently haven't seen at all in almost a decade, and this was MARCH! Most years, even setups four weeks later into the season are just desperation plays that we chase due to SDS, and certainly the occasional banner days are in crappy terrain near I-35. It's somehow been 13 years, but it still amazes me every time I think about how exceptional that setup was. March 13, 1990, was of course a comparable or even more impressive outbreak, but also much farther east and likely with faster storm motions -- the kinds of drawbacks you'd expect in March.
The other thing about March 28: it looked good a week out, it looked great 4-5 days out, and it just kept looking great from there. Excitement built and built, then you went out, chased, and basically were guaranteed to see a quality tornado on any storm. Again, something that's so many tiers above the experience of chasing in recent years as to seem quaint now. There would be more setups somewhat in that vein later that spring, and again in 2008, but none that seemed to go quite as smoothly at every tick on the forecast-to-chase timeline as March 28.
With all that being said: in hindsight, I wouldn't despair so much over missing the chase itself. I think any of us who have been at this awhile come to realize the finesse days like Dodge City, Campo, or last week's MN storm provide the top-tier chase experiences, relative to most synoptic outbreaks. For me, especially with 2007 being my first serious chase season, it was the broader experience of watching the event unfold that cemented its legendary status. I think newer chasers have largely missed out on the slow-burning high of watching synoptically evident Plains setups evolve from the medium range to go-time (without dramatically underperforming), instead becoming acclimated to a "never stop chasing" climate where you go out 30 days per spring, each one offering that low-single-digit percentage hope of a Campo or Dalton MN. In summary, March 28 to me is the poster child for a different, and largely preferable, era in chasing.
"Historic" is an understatement for that outbreak. Everything about it, meteorologically, screamed "once-a-century event." To get a bent back dryline with half a dozen sigtor-producing discrete storms in the prime High Plains chase territory of TX/OK/KS/NE... that's something we currently haven't seen at all in almost a decade, and this was MARCH! Most years, even setups four weeks later into the season are just desperation plays that we chase due to SDS, and certainly the occasional banner days are in crappy terrain near I-35. It's somehow been 13 years, but it still amazes me every time I think about how exceptional that setup was. March 13, 1990, was of course a comparable or even more impressive outbreak, but also much farther east and likely with faster storm motions -- the kinds of drawbacks you'd expect in March.
The other thing about March 28: it looked good a week out, it looked great 4-5 days out, and it just kept looking great from there. Excitement built and built, then you went out, chased, and basically were guaranteed to see a quality tornado on any storm. Again, something that's so many tiers above the experience of chasing in recent years as to seem quaint now. There would be more setups somewhat in that vein later that spring, and again in 2008, but none that seemed to go quite as smoothly at every tick on the forecast-to-chase timeline as March 28.
With all that being said: in hindsight, I wouldn't despair so much over missing the chase itself. I think any of us who have been at this awhile come to realize the finesse days like Dodge City, Campo, or last week's MN storm provide the top-tier chase experiences, relative to most synoptic outbreaks. For me, especially with 2007 being my first serious chase season, it was the broader experience of watching the event unfold that cemented its legendary status. I think newer chasers have largely missed out on the slow-burning high of watching synoptically evident Plains setups evolve from the medium range to go-time (without dramatically underperforming), instead becoming acclimated to a "never stop chasing" climate where you go out 30 days per spring, each one offering that low-single-digit percentage hope of a Campo or Dalton MN. In summary, March 28 to me is the poster child for a different, and largely preferable, era in chasing.
