2007 Season Review

[Michael O'Keeffe]

I know that we still have the fall season, but I thought since we are in a ridge that won't be going away anytime soon. I thought I should start a thread to see how everyone's season went in this crazy season we've had. The "regular" season is coming to a close it seems. I'm looking forward to the fall season since I have had great success last year and you can update and edit need be as the season continues.


Chases: 17
Miles: about 15000
Ang. Miles per chase: 938
Tornadoes: 27
Tornado Days:7 (2/28-3, 3/28-7, 4/24-6, 5/4-5, 5/5-4, 6/6-1, 6/16-1)
Largest Hail:Golfball
Bust(No severe wx seen): 3 (3/24, 4/21, 6/2)
States: KS NE CO MO IA SD WY OK TX
Season Rating Overall (1-worst 10-best): 9/10
SLGHT risk: 5
MOD risk: 11
HIGH risk: 1

This season was by far my best ever! The season started off right with a nice cold-core supercell near Marion, KS on February 24. A few days later on February 28 we intercepted a monster supercell in EC Kansas that produced multiple tornadoes, 3 of which we saw including our first wedge! March came around and so did the storms our first chase of the month was when we caught two beautiful supercells in SE Nebraska that didn't produce tornadoes, but still were amazing to see. March 24 came around and it busted as everything went to junk quickly. We redeemed ourselves just days later on March 28 when a large tornado outbreak ravaged the High Plains and we intercepted 7 tornadoes near Dodge City, KS including a EF-3 wedge. Then on March 31 we chased another cold core setup in Iowa that was close but failed to tornado. April came and we busted our first chase making multiple wrong descions, but still intercepting a TOR warned storm in SE Colorado on April 21. Then came April 24 where we caught a gorgeous supercell near Hutchinson that produced lots of brief, very weak , but extremely photogenic tornadoes right in front of us. May 4&5 had historic outbreak written all over them and they didn't dissapoint. On May 4 we saw 5 tornadoes in SW Kansas near Greensburg including the 1.5 wide EF5 wedge that destroyed the city. A very saddening chase for us indeed. Only a day later we captured 4 more tornadoes in central Kansas near Great Bend. May 6 came and we observed a decent supercell near Woodward, OK. The May 23 we captured multiple TOR warned cells in SC Kansas. June came and we caught a beautiful high-based supercell near Sterling, CO on June 5 and on June 6 we intercepted a crazy supercell in SW SD that produced a tornado we saw from 15 miles away! We ended the "regular" season with a chase to NE WY and the Black Hills for a crazy chase with extreme lightning and a small tornado near Spearfish, SD. We've had a fun season so far and we have enjoyed meeting all of the nice chasers out there!! Cheers to a successful rest of the season.

 

[Jeff Snyder]

My preferred stats are in bold.

Chases: 20
Miles: ~9500
Avg. Miles per chase: 475
Avg. Miles per tornado: 453
Tornadoes: 21
Tornado Days: 4 (3/28, 4/23, 5/31, 6/13)
Largest Hail: 1.5"
States: TX / OK / KS / NE
Chasing "success" ratio (tornado days / chases): 20%
Season Rating Overall (1-worst 10-best): 8/10

General thoughts: Not quite as good as 2004, IMO, but a good to very good season overall. My most painful bust was 4/21, but busts happen every year. I didn't get a chance to chase 5/5, so I didn't get the tornado-fest that others got up in KS. Unlike the past few years, I never chased much east of I35 this year, which is remarkable since I chased east of I35 many times in the past couple of years. I think I took the northwest passage from OKC to Woodward and northwestward more times this year than I ever have in the past. Likewise, I don't think I took I44 from OKC to Tulsa a single time this year, which is just fine with me. I like the overall tornado count, but I put a little more weight in the "Tornado Days" number, which loses to 2004. Two my the tornado days took me completely blew my expectations out of the water (4/23 near Protection, KS, and 6/13 near Orienta, OK -- both days during which the supercell I was chasing went tornado-crazy).

Final comment: It sure was nice to have rich, deep moisture in place this year! Unlike last year, we actually had storms in <1400 m LCL environments.

Farthest south: Fort Worth and Throckmorton, TX
Farthest west: Elkhart KS, Stratford and Bushland, TX
Farthest north: Broken Bow to south of Amelia, NE
Farthest east: Chandler OK (that's amazing, considering the chases to Paris TX, Antlers OK, Mt Vernon MO, and other locations during 2005 and 2006)

 

[Chris Wilburn]

Chases: 12
Tornadoes: 10
Tornado Days: 3-28 (1) , 4-21 (1) , 4-24 (5) , 5-4 (1) , 5-5 (1) , 5-22 (1)
Largest Hail: Golfball
States Chased: TX, OK, KS, MO, NE
Tornado States: TX, KS
Season Rating: 7/10

Season Overview: This was a pretty good season for me. I wish I would have seen more tornadoes and I made a couple of mistakes on 3-28 in the TX Panhandle and on the Greensburg 5-4 event that cost me seeing a few more tornadoes. Maybe that was a good thing as I learned from my mistakes those two days and will apply what I learned in the future. The most intense weather situation I have ever been in occured on the night of the Greensburg tornado just between Byers and Macksville. Trying to get close enough to see the wedge and still feel safe was almost impossible. I caught the wedge just south of Macksville on video between lightning flashes. The inflow winds and rfd from this storm was the most intense I have ever witnessed and it was esp. scary at times since it was dark. It was one heck of a rush, but my heart goes out to the lives lost that day. I had good radar updates so I felt confident in my location just south of Macksville, but I will never forget how intense things were that night. I didn't see as many tornadoes as I would have liked, esp. since I made a couple of bad decisions, but since this is only my third year chasing I am esp. pleased with what I have learned this year as far as forecasting storms and chasing storms as well. I also obtained my HAM license this year and I must say it is a very useful and fun tool. It was nice to meet so many other people that have the love and passion that I do for chasing storms. I look forward to meeting everybody again and hope to meet some new faces next year. Hopefully we can get a couple of really good Fall systems to work with.

 

[cdcollura]

Too damn EARLY ... Mid - late May is best 4 me but unfortunately, that's ma nature.

 

[Dan Robinson]

Chases: Around 10
Tornadoes: 13
Tornado Days: 4/23, 5/4, 5/5
States Chased: KS, TX, OK, NE, IA, MO, IL, IN, KY
Tornado States: KS
Season Rating: 9/10

Saw a good number of tornadoes (more than in 2004) but didn't come away with great photos or video for various reasons, particularly low light issues hampering contrast. However, the privilege of seeing an F5 and getting my brother his first tornadoes made it a great season.

 

[Brian Emfinger]

Chases: 10
Miles: probably about 7000
Tornadoes: 14
Tornado Days: 4 (2/23, 3/28, 4/21, 5/5)
States: TX, KS, OK, AR
Hail: Nickel a few times (after 3/11 last year thank goodness!)
Rating: 9/10

This was my best year ever as well. Mainly because I was able to chase a lot more this year and with much better equipment. Made a few mistakes... namely taking that hwy south of that canyon state park in the texas panhandle on 3/28 and thus missing a chance at being nice and close but at least we still were able to see the tornado from where we were.

I cant believe I am finally free to do storm chasing as much as I want...which will be all the time starting in a few weeks. =) So I cant wait till the fall and next year!

 

[scott r currens]

Chases: 18
Busts: 4
Tornado Days: 5 (3/28, 4/23, 4/24, 5/6, 5/22)
Tornadoes: 17
Hail Days (>2 inch): 1 (3.25 inch on 6/21)
Miles: 11,443
Miles/Chases: 636
Minutes Viewing Tornadoes: 128
Miles/Tornadoes: 673
Min Viewing Torn/Chase: 7.1
Tornadoes by State: KS 14, OK 3
Tornado success ratio (tornado days / chases): 28%
Success ratio (Was it worth chasing?): 50%
Season Rating Overall (1-worst 10-best): 8/10

Excellent early season chases made the year for me. I thought that the year would top 2004 but most of May and June was a dud. When are we going to have another rip roaring May? I am averaging more miles per chase this year than any of my nine prior years. That seems somewhat odd when all my noteworthy tornadoes happened in Kansas.

 

[John Farley]

Chases: 12
Busts: 3
Tornadoes: 1 (likely, not 100% sure)
Largest hail: 1.25"
States chased: IL, IN, MO, IA, KS, OK
Tornado states: MO
Miles: Somewhere over 5,000
Best chase: 4/11, IN
Season Rating Overall (1-worst 10-best): 6

Not a particular stellar season for me tornado-wise. Might have been different had I gone farther west on 4/24 or 50 miles north or south of where I was on 5/5. Still, photo and especially video-wise, it was one of my better seasons, as I twice found myself looking up into strongly-rotating wall clouds from less than a mile a way (4/11 east of Terre Haute, IN and 5/6 south of Woodward, OK), and both times I had these features completely or almost completely to myself. Also got some cool hail video in Pinckneyville, IL on April 3. So, though it won't have much in the way of tornadoes, I will soon be releasing my first-ever season-highlights DVD. I will post on ST when it is available.

Congrats to all of you who bagged tornadoes in double figures this year - early-season chasers who made the right decisions were well-rewarded this year.

 

[afischer]

Chases: 13
Tornado days: 4
Tornadoes: 14
Supercell days: 9
Supercells: 19

Was able to salvage something out of 2007 despite working during the big events of 3/28, 4/21, 4/23, and 6/23. My most noteworthy tornadoes came after dark (2/28 and 5/4) with a violent/destructive tornado in each case. Highlight of the year was definitely the Nickerson KS storm... a beautiful LP with an up-close tornado & waterfalling RFD. Saved money on gas and miles on the chasemobile this year, as most of my chases were in Kansas.

 

[Skip Talbot]

Chases: 9
Miles: 10,125
Tornadoes: 8
Tornado Days: 3/28, 4/24, 5/4, 5/5
States Chased: KS, MN, NE, IA, IL, OK
Tornado States: KS
Largest Hail: 0.75-1 inch
Highest Wind: Sub-severe

Still a beginner chaser, there were lots of firsts for me this year.
First:

• Multiple tornado day: 3/28
• Wedge: 3/28
• Multiple simultaneous tornado day: 3/28
• Visit to Oklahoma: 4/24
• May tornado: 5/4

Other records:

• Most miles on one chase: 1913 on 4/24
• Most miles between target and tornado intercept: 182 on 4/24
• Most tornadoes in one day: 5 on 3/28

 

[Jason McKittrick]

Number of Chases: 7
Number of Tornadoes: 8
Tornado Days: 3/28, 4/21
Number of miles: 4392
Largest Hail: 1.5"
Strongest Wind Gust: ~70mph
Overall Rating 7/10
Chase States: NE, SD, IA, KS, OK, TX
Farthest: South: Tulia, TX, West: Goodland, KS, Hereford TX, North: Yankton, SD, East: Atlantic, IA

While this season for me was not nearly as good as 2004, it did offer me some first time experiences. On March 28th I had my first chase with and overnight stay, after chasing near Goodland until 10PM it was a little too late and I was a little too tired to make it back to Omaha. Then on April 21st I chased for the first time in Texas. On this day I also witnessed the Tulia tornado from about 1mile away, this is the closest I have ever been to a damaging tornado. My biggest disappointment of the season was the lack of activity near home. I did not witness a single tornado within 500 miles of home. Therefor the majority of my chases this year culminated in only mediocre structure and marginally severe weather phenomena.

 

[Verne Carlson]

Tornadoes: 32
Tornado Days: 2/23, 3/28, 4/21, 4/23, 4/24, 5/4, 5/5, 5/22, 5/23, 6/6
Favorite Tornado: Beaver County, OK multi-vortex cone!

By far the best year for me ever, pushing my career tornado total from 50 to 82. Saw three wedge tornadoes on 3/28 in Beaver County, OK, 4/21 in
Cactus, TX and 5/4 in Claflin, KS (the Greensburg storm moving north). Even though we had a couple of tornado days in May everything big was
before May once again. The saying 'chase early' applied to 2007! Hoping for a couple blockbuster days in late August and September once again.

On a side note, with the kind of year we've had already look for the Storms of 2007 production to be cranking up soon!

 

[Mark Farnik]

I guess I am one of the unlucky few who didn't have a great season. I was only able to chase THREE TIMES the entire season largely due to financial constraints.
My Stats for 2007 thus far:
Chases: 3 (3/28 March Madness Outbreak, 5/29 Eastern Colorado HP Mess, and 6/6 Nebraska Dissapointment)
Total Chase Mileage: 1500+ miles (I didn't keep precise figures)
States Chased: CO, NE, KS
# of Tornadoes: 6 (all on 3/28)
Largest Hail: 3.00+ (also on 3/28)
Tornadoes Unintentionally Driven Into: 1 (again, 3/28)

This season has been extremely frustrating for me. All the great outbreaks were just too far away, with the big exception of 3/28. My family is in a very tight financial situation and my parents refuse to let me work, so any gas, food, lodging was on their dime. It also didn't help that my chase vehicle was rendered unusable after the beginning of May due to questionable transmission reliability. Which is why I only got to chase three times this entire season...
It also didn't help that thus far eastern Colorado has had a completely lackluster severe wx season AGAIN FOR THE 4TH FREAKING SUMMER IN A ROW!!!
Stupidly, I held out on chasing some of the bigger outbreaks earlier in the year based on the optimistic thinking that we might actually have some good upslope chase events in the western High Plains; but backyard chasing oppurtunities have been almost non-existent the entire season, and there has certainly been nothing with any sort of decent tornadic potential within a couple hundred miles since 3/28.

Yes, I got to see six tornadoes in one day; yes, I'm probably the only person who has video footage of the Benkelman, NE nighttime multi-vortex tornado (albeit rather mediocre footage shot on an ancient VHS-C camcorder) and has photos of the Haigler, NE tornado; but 3/28 was the ONLY productive chase I had, and the ONLY significant severe wx outbreak within 200 miles of home in the last four months.
So overall I'm personally pretty disgusted with 2007 to this point. I'm disgusted because there were many great chase events, and I by far and by large was unable to chase them.
However, I'm keeping my fingers double crossed for some great northwest flow events later in July when the monsoon kicks in, as those have produced some of eastern Colorado's best tornadoes (the Last Chance tornado of 7/21/93, the Dailey tornado of 7/5/00, and the Riverside Reservoir tornado of 7/21/00 being the best examples) so hopefully us Coloradoans will get some quality backyard chasing out of that. I've also been working this summer and saving my pennies, so I'll be able to chase any significant 'Second Season' events in August-October without having to beg the 'rents for chase funds.
So I'm not ready to throw in the towel yet; I'll hold out on passing final judgement on 2007 until after the end of the second season.

 

[Andrew Pritchard]

This post will probably get considered off-topic and may vanish... but as said by someone else recently I would love to see someone start a thread with the title "2007 Season in Review - with PROOF" where you have to prove your count. Certainly not discrediting everyone in this thread... but there are certainly some interesting tallies, especially on some counts where I was on the same supercell and counted less than half of what others have down.

Bah well, I'm sure we don't need to get into debating it... but incase anyone felt up for it I decided to pour the fuel.

 

[Rich Thompson]

Number of chases: 6
Number of tornadoes: ~11
Chase days: 2/23, 3/28, 4/23, 5/4, 5/5, 5/6
Total mileage: ~3500
Season rank: 5/10

2007 ranks as a substantial improvement over 2005-2006 for me, and it's one of my better years in an otherwise slow decade. I had multiple seasons in the 1990s that exceeded anything I experienced this year. The worst aspects of 2007 were setting a personal "record" for the fewest chases in a full year living on the Plains, and not having a single "Two Chumps" chase (with Roger Edwards) for the first time since 1985.

The 3/28 chase was satisfying because I got to issue a PDS tornado watch and then see several tornadoes near and after dark, after leaving Norman at 4:20pm. The 5/4 and 5/5 chases were also quite interesting with the large number of supercells/tornadoes tracking over the same areas each day. 4/23 was the biggest letdown because we picked the Pampa LP and blew off the earlier convection to the NNE, and 5/6 was my lone "family" chase of the year. This year would have ranked a little higher if more of the tornadoes had occurred before dark.

Rich T.