2008 Signature Tornado

[Mike Hollingshead]

This is how I see it. You can have ALL of the best radars, nowcasters, and internet, but if don't have the "instinct" then sure you may see some tornadoes, but if you want to see tornadoes at the right place or right time...you must have the instinct or experience to find the storms and tornadoes.

An example if he doesn't mind me using him is Simon Brewer. I mean he doesn't even chase with a laptop for god's sake, but he sees tornadoes on almost every chase he goes on! I really envy his skills as a forecaster and chaser.

I may be wrong, but I have never really been a huge fan of having tons of gizmos and gadgets. Just give me a map, a wx radio, and a camera and I'll be content. I guess it's all opinion.

One thing is forgotten in this, and is certainly another player. It's called luck. I know this. How do I know? It's impossible to be as dumb as I've been out there for oh, the last 3 years. I've aquired some serious bad luck. I don't believe in instinct, I'd rather call it what it is...brains. Those can get you so far in this. Luck can take care of the rest, in either direction...imo. No one is smart enough to know everything that will happen in the future on a given day. Luck fits in for the missing "pieces". Brains is a bigger piece than luck, of course....but luck is a piece. I'd say it's right up there with techno gadgetry...but brains(or sort of "instinct") is on top.

I have a down right absurd list of "bad luck" I started to list on my site. Maybe one day I will finish and actually post that topic. I sort of laughed at the "bad luck" I heard that some vets had gone through in the past. I thought to myself, I will learn a lot and just be all over where I need to be at the times I need to be there, and avoid that. It's not so laughable anymore lol. I've even seen some chasers that seemed to be on "fire" hit some of their own stretches. You wonder, what the hell happened there. Maybe chasing is a lot like poker. Of course it is. Just can't bluff mother nature!

 

[Darrin Rasberry]

It continues to amaze me the number of people who keep bashing 2008, based on my experiences and observations I would be more than happy if you were to tell me 2009 would be a carbon copy.

Maybe it was just bad luck on some of our parts. Iowa gets storms (we got the strongest of the year) but there's always tons of moisture and not enough anvil support for anything apart from LP madness. I think half of my deal with 2008 is that it's my first chasing year, the majority of chases have been confined to not far from Ames, and therefore "messes" are all I'm used to seeing.

Probably part of it is the transition moving from Texas; even though I didn't chase, the vast majority of storms I saw in NTX and WTX were beautiful. The more I live here, the more I want to move to Beatrice or Wakeeney or OKC or something - when I graduate and search for teaching positions, I'll have the fortune of getting to choose almost anywhere in the Great Plains/High Plains region, since I don't have any motive to focus on any place in particular for a job.

The storms I've seen in person and on video are great, but nothing has been awe-inspiring (Wakeeney, Chicago, and Quinter came close though). I haven't actually seen any of the video from the May 25th supercell in NOK but I heard it was fantastic; I'm looking forward to seeing that. I'm also getting a free DVD courtesy of a longtime chaser and user here to help disprove my bias about 2008, so when I watch that maybe I'll change my mind.

It's certainly not envy above and beyond the usual Iowa/Illinois group bawling, since none of this is any kind of competition to me. I'm a shaky taper and worthless photographer, and I have years to go before I can learn, and besides, my favorite chaser video of all time was from the Elie F5 last year, which was taken after I had started chasing. I love it when others succeed and show it, since I get to see all the pretty things I missed in person, or (especially for the Wakeeney tornado this year) a different perspective on storms I did see. I know Shane got a lot of footage and you got a lot of footage, as well as other chasers; I'm eagerly awaiting seeing all the stuff I missed. I want to buy as many forthcoming DVDs as I can, as soon as they're on the proverbial shelves; even if I end up not seeing anything I opine as "truly memorable," they're still tornadoes and severe weather, and I'll love them.

I have seen some pretty incredible tornadoes and storms, and I have seen some pretty impressive video of tornadoes captured by other chasers. I would even go as far as to say that its pretty bogus to say that there weren't any extremely photogenic tornadoes this year. I saw some scenes that would have produced some pretty amazing stills, I was just solo most of the time and due to limited time spent my effort focusing on video.

I certainly don't mean any offense to anyone who's captured the hidden treasures from this year. It's that I haven't seen anything truly comparable to that Mulvane "super duper storm footage" just yet. Perhaps after getting this year's storms on DVD I will.

IMO excluding the obvious universally recognized "signature tornadoes" EF-5's and a rare high based white tornado with a rainbow stretching through it, each chasers idea of the years "signature tornado" is going to be different.

That's true, but not even Parkersburg was "pretty" this year (I'm assuming this thread deals with aesthetics, BTW, and not significance in and of itself). In fact, the best footage of Parkersburg, the one I've watched time and again, is from the bank cameras there.

And yes, I think the "signature tornado" idea will definitely vary from chaser to chaser, depending on whether they were on the storm or not (that's why I hold back from singing Wakeeney's praises, since it was my first), and how quality the footage looks in their opinion.

 

[Darrin Rasberry]

Just give me a map, a wx radio, and a camera and I'll be content. I guess it's all opinion.

When I go chase in Western Iowa alone or with my ex, this is what I have. AT&T is dead in every rural area west of 35 in this state, so I have to report anything I see when I get home and hope that I don't ditch out in nowheresville. Even though I haven't seen anything more than a wall cloud in Western Iowa, these have been some of my favorites this year.

May 25th in Nebraska was also a day when Craig's laptop stopped working, as well as our WX radio until I got batteries at the very end - and it turned out to be my favorite chase of the whole year (even though the 22nd was the most memorable). Even though we "only" saw a funnel, the potluck nature of the day and the generally stressfree atmosphere led to a chase more worth my money than the 23rd or 29th.

It just seems that the pressure's off when you don't have the added confusion of a "better storm" 20 miles south of you to worry about intercepting. You become too critical of the storm you're on that way, and we've even lost an eventual producer to go to a warned storm that had finished its work by the time we got there.

 

[Derek Weston]

Using stormtrack as a gage, the Quinter tornado was probably the most widely experienced significant tornado of the year, and thus, probably most memorable from the collective's standpoints.

The Parkersburg tornado, while less experienced, was obviously a major event and much discussed. (even if it didn't live up to the Greensburg level of discussion)

Picher OK Tornado is also quite memorable for many chasers.

If we're talking events too, the Super Tuesday outbreak can be included.

For me, personally, the most enjoyable/memorable experience would May 23rd in Dighton Kansas watching a beautiful Mesocyclone put down a fat, violently rotating wall cloud that was a 'would-be' wide multi-vortex tornado. I sat just east of the city and had a perfect view of the whole thing, lucky enough to see beautiful structure before it moved off north and became rain-wrapped. While I can't confirm that I saw a condensed tube on the ground under it -- ohhh, it was dang close -- the whole storm and experience was really perfect, just what I had imagined really-good storm-chasing to be.

(also memorable was barely beating the Waukeeney tornado east on 70...freaking out as we got majorly cored)

 

[Shane Adams]

I totally agree it's mostly luck. Even when you're on the storm before the tornado, nobody knows if it's going to produce or not. Most of us say so, but we really don't know. I'm living proof that you can survive on 90% luck, because scientifically, I don't know a damn thing about forecasting or weather. I just look at colored graphics and decide whether or not the area that's painted the way I like to see is for real.

 

[Shane Adams]

For me, personally, the most enjoyable/memorable experience would May 23rd in Dighton Kansas watching a beautiful Mesocyclone put down a fat, violently rotating wall cloud that was a 'would-be' wide multi-vortex tornado. I sat just east of the city and had a perfect view of the whole thing, lucky enough to see beautiful structure before it moved off north and became rain-wrapped. While I can't confirm that I saw a condensed tube on the ground under it -- ohhh, it was dang close -- the whole storm and experience was really perfect, just what I had imagined really-good storm-chasing to be.

There was definitely a brief multi-vortex just west of town, and then another multi-vortex further north about 6-8 minutes later.

 

[Andrew Stoller]

There was definitely a brief multi-vortex just west of town, and then another multi-vortex further north about 6-8 minutes later.

From my vantage point north east of Dighton - directly east of the meso/tornado, after a couple dusty multi-vortices touched down, it looked like it completely occluded and became rain wrapped (HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE clear slot wrapped almost all the way around the sucker) with about a mile wide wedge on the ground for at least 20 minutes.

That, and the new meso and rope/curved elephant trunk that formed soon after northeast of Dighton, were the signature tornadoes for me............wait, they were the only tornadoes I saw this year!

I can't believe no one has mentioned that crazy storm near Beloit/Glen Elder KS from May 29th. I'd say that could be included in the overall debate as to 1 signature storm/tornado (although it apparently put down about 10 different naders) for the year.

 

[Kem Poyner]

signature tornado

I am surprised nobody seems to have a fantastic shot of the Parkersburg Iowa tornado. I was very visable, great lighting and it was an EF5. It had features that would be recognizable from any other. The structure above the tornado blended into the tornado itself at times. Though these pictures do not show this feature, they are a teaser of what could have been taken with good equipment and the right location. These were taken by a friend through her basement window!

 

[John Hudson]

I am surprised nobody seems to have a fantastic shot of the Parkersburg Iowa tornado. I was very visable, great lighting and it was an EF5. It had features that would be recognizable from any other. The structure above the tornado blended into the tornado itself at times. Though these pictures do not show this feature, they are a teaser of what could have been taken with good equipment and the right location. These were taken by a friend through her basement window!

Those are some pretty intense pictures, Kem. Thanks for showing!


John

 

[Darrin Rasberry]

These were taken by a friend through her basement window!

Yup.

Either chasers were behind it and got held up by damage, were to the north of it and got to watch black rain because they chased a huge decoy wall cloud (me and tons of others), or they managed to fiiiiiinally get ahead of the thing only to get more rain-wrapped shots.

The only time it was rain-free was in Parkersburg, where a few chasers smart enough to CHASE THE SOUTHERNMOST STORM got to film, for a few nervous minutes, the back side of the meso basically dragging its butt on the carpet (think Hallam). The only way one could have kept up with the wedge was with a hovercraft, since damage got in the way of the only real route. The wedge was filmed from the front (I saw yesterday a shot from a cellphone camera on Youtube), but ... let's just say I wouldn't have been in my car on that side of things for all the money and media fame in the world. Perhaps a few chasers were, but the road options from Parkersburg to Iowa City aren't primo, either, and the entire storm itself was one not even Craig wanted to mess with diving deep into even though it was near his home county.

 

[Tony Lyza]

A certain picture of the incredible Clinton, AR, tornado from Super Tuesday is what I consider the signature pic of the year.

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/lzk/images2/vbtor020508.jpg

Maybe it has to do with me being rather obsessed with tornado history, but that picture will always be readily identifiable to me. It shares the appearance of the Forgotten F5 that struck Lawrence County, TN, on April 16th, 1998.

 

[Laura Duchesne]

Personally, my tornado of the year would have to be the tornadoes around Kearney, NE from May 29th... just because that was the biggest one we were on and stuck out the most in my mind.

Overall, I think "the" tornado of the year would be Quinter.

 

[Chris Hayes]

There was definitely a brief multi-vortex just west of town, and then another multi-vortex further north about 6-8 minutes later.

I'm waiting for DDC to put out a map of the 50 torandos that occured in the warning area. Especially want to see what they confirm around Ness City, and to it's north and east 1-2 hours after Quinter #1

 

[Gene Moore]

Overall, I think "the" tornado of the year would be Quinter.

Ahhhh, but which one the early one, or the later model? Seems there were more shots of the first one south of l-70 before it passed by town. I met it 2 miles north of town and it was not so photogenic to me. Then we have Quinter II the quintessential 2-1 wedge (twice as wide as high). Again, not all chasers really bagged this one, but a few dazzled us with their shots.

There were big wedge events in Colorado and near Chicago, but Quinter II gets my vote....and it was rated EF-4 correct?

I did get Quinter II.....well kinda sorta I did and in kind of a way I didn't. Truth is I got beat down by a tornado that formed only 2 1/2 miles to my west....tough chase for me. So I chose to poke a little fun at the day: http://chaseday.com/QuinterIItornado.htm

 

[Danny Neal]

As Gene mentioned, my vote for this general area is the Chicago area tornadoes, but that is biased since I live here Overall I believe the Quinter event probably is what I think about most when I hear "tornado 2008"