2007 chasing & Chase Vacations.

[Dan Cook]

I only had one good storm on my trip but I'm definatly going back next year.

 

[David Schuttler]

Maybe more attention given to the March and April setups from those that wait for May and June usually.

 

[Mickey Ptak]

Maybe more attention given to the March and April setups from those that wait for May and June usually.
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Agreed.

I think that every year you have to look at the big picture. March, April, May, June, September, and October for the southern plains are all the months I keep an eye on very closely. I guess you could think of it like investment diversification I guess... You never really want to put of your nest egg in one single fund. Spreading it out to different funds and over time will save you on the downturns (at least those are the statistics).

Granted I know many are not so lucky as to be able to "diversify" their chase time due to money, vacation restraints, and geographical limitations so I guess I only speak for those who do not have those restraints. Now it is not easy for me to take off work especially last minute but I have made the arrangement with the boss so that I can take my vacation here and there instead of a week here and a week there. I guess I should count myself lucky I guess. If you are in such a situation though spreading the time and money out for the long run is a much better bet. If you are not, well it’s like going to Vegas; sometimes you win sometimes you loose. May / June are never a 100% bet.

It’s all about being prepared for the worst and when the worst hits you, and it will, not letting it hit you while your pants are down. That’s what my plan was for this season. I just needed to make things last until it went to crap. I will do the same next season, with the exceptions I will only be able to chase on Thursdays, Fridays, and through the weekends.

 

[Joe Nield]

This year's trip was a real treat. Even though the good setups were nowhere to be found, we still got some nice shows, and I got to spend time with people I really enjoy and get to see all too rarely, and remember what it was like back in school.

It was a freedom I haven't known in a long time, and I really miss it.

For me, 2004 took a lot of the pressure off. I no longer feel quite the degree of life-or-death pressure riding on each chase decision.

So yes, as others have said before...I'll be back.

 

[Dan Robinson]

The main effect that 2006 will have on my future chasing is that my annual chase trip 'standby' period of May 1 to June 15 will probably be extended to April 1 to July 1. My 'standby' period is when I don't make any concrete, long term plans for anything else during that time, meaning at any time I am free to leave for the chase trip.

 

[Dal Archer]

In a strange way, it may be a good thing that this year has been so slow. I have seen an increasing number of people chasing in the last few years and some of them do not have any business being out there. To be honest, I am fearful that someone with little knowledge (and a lot of recklessness) may be killed doing this and/or kill one of us in the process (drive off the road and kill a legally parked chaser, etc.)

While many of us love the sheer spectacle of nature and desire to obtain a greater knowledge of storm dynamics, I imagine that all of us probably know someone who is simply an adrenaline junky who has more guts than brains when it comes to chasing.

As far as my own chasing goes, I plan to be out there in 2007 (and hopefully still 2006). One of the major concessions that I do plan on making though is to give up chasing in my extended cab F150 and begin to chase in my Taurus. Gas prices are killing me in a vehicle that gets ~15 mpg and I need a substantially more efficient vehicle. Other than that, I do not plan to make too many changes.

 

[Verne Carlson]

Michael and I had a decent year and I count my blessings that I was as lucky as I was on such a marginal year. They included a Tornado Day, a Gustnado Day, a Funnel Day and many, many mothership meso days.

Some of the more outstanding days for us were:

May 7, 2006 Garden City, KS - 3 Tornadoes, 1 landspout all bearing down on Garden City.
May 23, 2006 Eastern South Dakota - numerous gustnadoes, 1 non-meso Tornado doing damage on I-29
May 26, 2006 Cedar Point, CO - Too many funnels to count on a highly sheared meso
May 28, 2006 Badlands, SD - Tornado warned meso
June 9, 2006 Mullen, NE - Tornado warned meso

I was also lucky to have my vacation such that I could take a big block off from the end of May till mid June as well as have enough to move around for 'high potential' days. Here's to hoping it's not all over yet (or did it ever really begin??)

Definately a go for us as long as I can throw a brick on the accelerator and point myself east!

 

[Shane Adams]

I had a pretty decent year as well, considering the now-legendary status 2006 is attaining.

March 30 - Two tornadoes including an exclusive in southwest OK
April 1 - Supercell with rotating wall cloud in west OK
April 6 - Despite a clusterf*ck day, we still managed a tornado-warned cell with wall cloud in southeast KS
April 15 - Tornado and funnel in southeast NE
April 18 - Tornado-warned, rotating supercell in north MO
April 24 - Two supercells, including a tornado-warned cell in northeast OK
April 28 - Tornado in southwest OK
May 2 - Brief but nice supercell storm with wall cloud in northwest TX
May 9 - Tornado-warned supercell with rotating wall cloud in southeast OK

13 chases
9 supercell days
6 tornado-warned storm days
3 tornado days
5 of 9 supercell-or-better days in my home state of OK

Now that I look at it, I had a pretty good year. It was just cut short. Had May or June been average, I might have had a great year.

 

[Mark Farnik]

After nearly crying in 2003, 2004 and 2005 because I didn't have my driver's license and couldn't chase any of those incredible setups, I was excited about this season because I finally got my license and could chase. And.... all that excitement for nothing. I drove about 800 miles this year and saw one brief tornado, some decent supercell structure and got caught in golfball size hail twice. Those were the highlights for the year. Of course, with my sh***y luck, the first year I'm able to chase has to suck monkeys. :angry: But the one thing 2006 has been VERY good far thus far is lightning. I think this is because of the drought, because the air has been so dry for so long it has built up static electricity, which enhances and 'charges' the storms to produce wicked lightning shows. I've taken almost 200 quality lightning shots thus far, and I'll probably have 300 more by the time our storm season ends in late September. I will chase again next summer; I'm saving my pennies and hoping that 2007 will be another 2003 or 2004, because in the world of weather, one extreme usually begats another, right?
Also, there is a small ray of hope for the monsoon season. Some of our best tornado days we've ever had occurred 6 years ago in the midst of the first year of the drought. The first was on July 5, 2000, when a low visibility F3 smashed through a half dozen farms north of the town of Dailey just after dark, and the second was on July 21, 2000, the day of the highly visible Riverside F2, which I witnessed but unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me. And we always have awesome supercellular structure and great lightning, so even if there aren't any tornadoes the other two usually more than make up for it. So there is some meager hope yet for another 2000 repeat in the western High Plains, but otherwise 2006 looks dead in the water to me.