2008 in review: How was it for you?

[Chris Allington]

I'd say it was my best year so far... but I also chased more and had a better knowledge of what I was doing. Only been doing this for like 2 and 1/2 seasons now too so I suppose saying it was my best thus far does not mean much. I look forward to 2009 and having more vacation time to use so I can get out more.

 

[Olivier Staiger]

a great year for me, too, because it was the first time I managed to find the freedom to come over from Europe for not just a few weeks but for a whole two months, a dream come true... chased from late April to late June...

and chasing with lots of different folks and chasers and experts and 2 different tours, a great way to learn...

chased with Dave Wolfson, with Cloud 9 Tours, with Dean Gill, and Dave again, and several times with Gene Moore, and finally with Reed Timmer's Extreme Tornado Tours...

overall tornado count not so big however, some bad luck, some fast moving, some bad choices, but still a great year to remember. And on when there were several down days in May we toured to Monument Valley, Marble Canyon, Bryce Canyon and Capitol Reef N.P. ...

a selection of my best photos are here


http://www.klipsi.ch/2008tornado/tornado-2008.htm

and here


http://www.klipsi.ch/requiem/requiem.htm

I was also playing with live stream technology, streaming live photos and / or videos from cellphone via mobile wifi in car and in pocket. Fascinating ...

 

[Paul Knightley]

Amazing year for us - it was my 8th year on the Plains - Matt Dobson rode with us this year (a work colleague of Helen and me) along with another forecaster called James - it was Matt's 1st time on the Plains.

We arrived on Mon 19th, and headed to Hays, KS on Tuesday 20th.

We then chased on Thursday and Friday (22nd & 23rd) seeing the Grainfield elephant trunk, the Hoxie tornado, and then a brief view of a 3rd tornado north of Hoxie. On the 23rd, we missed the 1st Quinter tornadoes, but saw the wedge from the 2nd supercell from about 5 miles away. Then we saw the after-dark Ellis tornadoes.

24th saw us bust in NE, but we caught some nice storms on the 25th, although nothing especially severe.

26th saw us chase in S cent KS, and caught golfball hail west of Pratt, and then 2 tornadoes at/just east of Pratt.

27th saw us head to the Big Texan (for Matt's benefit, honest!), before driving to Salina on the 28th.

This put us in position for NE on the 29th, where we filmed the Kearney tornado before getting chasing down I-80 by the monster HP - however, we stayed ahead of it. The closing few days were pretty quiet although we did see (from a distance) the huge supercell which went up in OK on the evening of the 31st May.

All in all, an amazing trip, especially for Matt!

 

[Jim Zandonai]

This past season was good. I was only able to chase in S. WI and N.IL but got some nice storms and made my usual spotter reports. I hope to expand the area next year.

Supercell 6-6-08 near Belvidere IL.. Storm was Tornado warned shortly after it passes..

 

[Brandon Ivey]

2008 was a good year for me. I would say it was my best season ever in terms of the variety of weather I witnessed. It was my best season in terms of large hail and hurricanes, but falls short on the tornado end. Even though many were seen, most were not very photogenic in nature. Most were low-contrast, enshrouded in rain, or at night.

Overall I documented 8 chase days with golf-ball or larger sized hail. I witnessed 23 tornadoes on 14 separate days and observed straight line wind damage on at least 3 chases that I can recall. The strongest thunderstorm wind I was in was around 70mph (+/- 5mph). And I ended the 2008 season with two hurricanes.

Hopefully 2009 can offer just as much or more than 2008. Let's just hope the tornadoes will "pose" better for us so we can get some good photogenic shots!

 

[Eric Sipes]

Well, I can't complain but, it wasn't a great season. 2008 was definately full of beautifully stuctured storms but, not many tornadoes west of I35. Days that did have good tornadoes, I couldn't chase. I id manage to get a count of 5 all together. The only problems were that 2 were at night (both within 10 miles from home), 1 was in fog, 1 was 10-15 miles away and 1 was VERY low contrast by the time I got my camera ready.

The one I did manage to catch a picture of, was on May 23rd near Ashland, KS. It was fully condensed for a short time before I took the picture. Although still on the ground when the picture was taken, It's hard to tell with the low contrast. This was on the same storm that threatened Greensburg with another, larger tornado about an hour later. We would have got that one but, the roads generally suck in that area. (Plus, we couldn't find the map. ) In my perspective, 2007's 28 tornadoes beats 2008's 5 by a LONG SHOT.

-Eric


-Top Left: Tornado before contrast change.
-Top Right: Tornado after contrast change:
-Bottom Left: Rope Stage.
-Bottom Right: Typical 2008 Sructure.

I do have WAY better structure shots but, not yet on this computer.

 

[Damon Scott Hynes]

Best. Year. Evah.

Good: First season with a digital camcorder. First high plains chases. First multi-day chases. First chases where I had the knowledge to target the dryline rather than just happening upon it.

Bad: Gas prices. Couldn't get the Marriott Fairfield Inn in Hays because Tornadovideos.net took all the rooms (kidding!). Needed a new windshield after Ransom/Quinter on 05/23. I should have taken I-135 south at Salina instead of going home on 05/24

Western Kansas TORNADO 22 May 2008

Western Kansas TORNADO 23 May 2008

Kearney Nebraska TORNADO 29 May 2008

Central NE TORNADO 04 June 2008

Southeast NE TORNADO 05 June 2008

Eastern NE / SW IA TORNADO 11 June 2008

Southwest IA DOPPLER-INDICATED TORNADO 19 July 2008

Southeast NE SEVERE THUNDERSTORM 21 July 2008

Southern KS DOPPLER-INDICATED TORNADO 05 November 2008

 

[Jason Branz]

Good year for me, my first chase season since 2006. Left CA on May 22, started home after the high-risk bustola of June 5. Saw lots of good structure, the best being June 1 near Julesburg, CO. Made some good and bad decisions, the worst being not dropping south from NE on May 29. It was just great to chase for the first time in a couple of years, to see old friends, and consume cheap beer. Probably won't chase in 2009 since I'm getting married next June, but we'll see.

 

[William Reid]

2008 was generally good for this chaser. I have finally weeded through all of my chase images from May and June and posted the most worthy onto my web site. This link will take you to a page with a thumbnail image and link for each chase day:

http://stormbruiser.com/chase/2008/12/03/2008-storm-chase-season/

The big tornado days for me were May 22, 23, 24 and 29. The small tornado days were June 7 and June 15, among others. I had decent luck with the camera in mid and late June, so if you have some time, check out the entries from June 12 to June 26.

Bill Reid
[email protected]
www.stormbruiser.com
Westlake Village, CA
Tempest Tours
KG6FWX

 

[Ben Prusia]

2008 was so-so for me. This season I logged the most miles and most chases since I started chasing in 2003. Overall, the season was filled with storms moving faster than I could keep up with and my strategy this year wasn't the best.

Hopefully next year with the supposed much lower gas prices and some reading catch up to do over the Winter, the strategy I hope will improve and also hoping that the storms next year move a little slower.

 

[Bill Tabor]

I may add to this later but for now just a general comment. 2008 was a good year for me. I had lots of good, dynamic chases and I believe everyone sported some good supercells - many with tornadoes. So, I had a lot of fun and good times...no complaints there. My complaint is that all the early season tornado chasing in Tx was a difficult producer of photogenic, full condensation, tornadoes. I caught a number of tornadoes, but most were weak, or very short lived, or distant. I knew that when the season moved to KS that Ma Nature meant business but due to gas prices and other commitments I cut my season short - so I missed out on a lot of easier, more productive outbreak tornadoes. Guess that's ok, it was my choice -there's always another season around the corner and more tornadoes, but I still wish I could have gotten some nice, photogenic tubes. I'm not sure of the number of chases, supercells, or tornadoes. I haven't tallied that yet. I believe I went on at least 7 chases...maybe 10 ~ probably around 5 or 10 torns.

 

[Tarmo Tanilsoo]

2008 was another slow season in the succession of slow seasons here. However, there were some gems, such as 4-5 July 2008 and 7 September 2008. Some oddball thunders were also, like a mini-thunderstorm on 1 August.

I have now added the photographic log of this year here.

 

[Paul Sherman]

2008 Was my best Season Ever in the Plains. After the disappointments of 2005/2006 And an average 2007 we scored 15 Tornadoes in our 35 days out chasing.

1st May - Fredonia Supercell in SE Kansas did not produce and it was hard seeing the Tornadofest just 80 miles further South in NE Oklahoma.

5th May - Chased a beautiful HP Storm on the OK/KS/NM Border and witnessed several Gustnadoes and brief Landspout just NW Of Hooker

10th May - Chased down and watched a beautiful Blue Stovepipe cross the road before it turned into the Stuttgart Wedge in Arkansas

14th May - Witnessed a truncated Tornado down near to Lubbock/ Snyder

21st May - Possible Tornado in Colorado

22nd May - Caught 3 Tornadoes near Grainfield and Hoxie and got stuck in the Mud real Bad

23rd May - Witnessed 5 Tornadoes and 3 in 25 Minutes in a Mad High Risk Day. 1st Tornado was North of Dighton which was followed by a Cone Tornado, then witnessed the Quinter EF4 And then another Tornado just near Ness City, before flanking the Ellis County Tornado with Power Flashes.

Busted with a lot of People on the 24th May in Nebraska whilst Oklahoma had some of the best Tornadoes of the year

26th May - Brief sighting of the Pratt Tornado and documented lots of damage to Farm machinery and water sprinklers, uprooted trees

29th May - Chased in Nebraska and witnessed the Kearney Tornado topple a freight Train just to the West of Town, got hit by Baseball sized Hail and insane RFD Winds and then got hit by the outer edge of the Aurora EF2 Tornado at about 7pm.

So an incredible year and 2009 has got to go some way to beat it!

Heres to 2009!!

Paul Sherman

 

[Patrick Martin]

2008 was a tale of two stories. A massive project at work from March-June, put the kibosh on a lot of chasing for me in 08. My only May chase came 5/22, and this day made my 2008 with tornado intercepts at Hoxie, south of Oberlin, and near Dresden. It helped with the sting of missing the Windsor CO storm, and having to point the car back to Denver that night and miss 5/23 due to (again) work obligations.

June 1 was a good day following a storm out of Nebraska which ended up providing some nice structure near sunset in the Sterling CO area.

I would put 2008 near the top for results, especially given the limited chases, but it was also near the bottom for having to miss many days that were easily within a days drive. Looking forward to 2009 as it appears now that I'll have more time and opportunity to get out.

 

[Quintin Erdman]

Best year ever...

All I have to say is Parkersburg.

My video is below,

Parkersburg getting hit and aftermath...



After Parkersburg and other tornados. If you look hard enough, there are three tornados in one of the shots.



In addition, I saw numerous tornados on May 22/23, thus making it the best year ever. Chased this year mostly with Ben McMillan who did a lot of the filming.

~Quintin