I realize I have been pretty lucky with my timing on chasecations during my 10 years of chasing:
2009: First year. Came early June, saw the Goshen County as my 1st tornado ever. Had some pretty cool storm experiences thereafter but I was amazed by pretty much everything we saw. Caught a bird fart on the last day.
2012: Only chased for 5 days. Drove from 5.30 am to late in the evening all over the place. Lucked out completely by catching LaCrosse on our way home when we had to drive through southern KS. We actually drove under the 2nd tornado at night. I looked out of the window when I saw a glimpse of a tube through all the lightning and it was literally on top of us, just touched down somewhere to our right (in the dark).
2013: Only unlucky chase date selections. Should have chase mid May but got stood up and had to re-book to early May. Saw nothing noteworthy in 10 days. Missed all the historical events later on obviously. My only chasecation without a tornado.
2014: Not lucky enough to select mid June but rather end of May. Only saw a brief landspout tornado and only had 2 chase days out of 6. Terrible season.
2015: Was there for Canadian, TX. Did miss out on Simla.
2016: I landed on May 21st. Missed out on Bennington but was there for everything else. The 2nd week was extremely slow though.
2017: Actually one of my best seasons despite a slow start. Got the CO/WY/NE tornado fest and lucked out on some spectacular storms afterwards as well.
2018: Awful season but did see the Cope landspout fest at least.
2019: Pretty awful season as well and the one with the worst timing I think. Had an incredible day in Goodland, KS, and got the best photograph in my career but my chase partners saw tornadoes 3 days in a row just after I left. Also missed the 8 day span in mid/late May.
2020: Did not chase. My set days for chasing supposedly were pretty much down days so I would likely have had my 2nd season without tornadoes if I had chased.
I often consider my seasons in terms of average and max experience, where the max experience often is the most important one. If I have one AMAZING day, I am usually fine with the rest of the week being completely crap. I come for the amazing experiences, that's why I chase and that is what I usually remember. It also provides the photographs I love to have. Still, if the average experience is really bad (like in 2018) it still leaves me with a negative feeling - despite some excellent photos. Out of all the above seasons, 2013 was probably the worst. We had no exciting day whatsoever and nothing to remember. In 2014 we at least had one decent day but it was pretty much only one real day of chasing for that whole season.
2009: First year. Came early June, saw the Goshen County as my 1st tornado ever. Had some pretty cool storm experiences thereafter but I was amazed by pretty much everything we saw. Caught a bird fart on the last day.
2012: Only chased for 5 days. Drove from 5.30 am to late in the evening all over the place. Lucked out completely by catching LaCrosse on our way home when we had to drive through southern KS. We actually drove under the 2nd tornado at night. I looked out of the window when I saw a glimpse of a tube through all the lightning and it was literally on top of us, just touched down somewhere to our right (in the dark).
2013: Only unlucky chase date selections. Should have chase mid May but got stood up and had to re-book to early May. Saw nothing noteworthy in 10 days. Missed all the historical events later on obviously. My only chasecation without a tornado.
2014: Not lucky enough to select mid June but rather end of May. Only saw a brief landspout tornado and only had 2 chase days out of 6. Terrible season.
2015: Was there for Canadian, TX. Did miss out on Simla.
2016: I landed on May 21st. Missed out on Bennington but was there for everything else. The 2nd week was extremely slow though.
2017: Actually one of my best seasons despite a slow start. Got the CO/WY/NE tornado fest and lucked out on some spectacular storms afterwards as well.
2018: Awful season but did see the Cope landspout fest at least.
2019: Pretty awful season as well and the one with the worst timing I think. Had an incredible day in Goodland, KS, and got the best photograph in my career but my chase partners saw tornadoes 3 days in a row just after I left. Also missed the 8 day span in mid/late May.
2020: Did not chase. My set days for chasing supposedly were pretty much down days so I would likely have had my 2nd season without tornadoes if I had chased.
I often consider my seasons in terms of average and max experience, where the max experience often is the most important one. If I have one AMAZING day, I am usually fine with the rest of the week being completely crap. I come for the amazing experiences, that's why I chase and that is what I usually remember. It also provides the photographs I love to have. Still, if the average experience is really bad (like in 2018) it still leaves me with a negative feeling - despite some excellent photos. Out of all the above seasons, 2013 was probably the worst. We had no exciting day whatsoever and nothing to remember. In 2014 we at least had one decent day but it was pretty much only one real day of chasing for that whole season.