I'll redo this better later when the year is actually over but want to review some of it now for remembering later anyway. Probably more reviewy than stats.
Chases: (not sure yet 20ish as a guess)
Miles: (not sure yet either but thought I'd get by without going over 200k on the car this year, or at least had a chance too and am now 2k shy of that...so I must be at 15k or so for the year which doesn't thrill me since I tried to be wiser this year...which I largely was...at least moreso than in the past...but it was just so damn active)
Tornado Days: 3 (easy enough to answer - 5/10 - 5/22 - 6/16)
Tornadoes: I thoroughly don't get how anyone can have an answer here lol. Not sure what one would even say just on Wakita let alone those other two deals. I'd much rather just call it all 1 ok tornado day on 5/10 and 2 great tornado days on the other two. Maybe saying like 1/10th of what Roger Hill got would work well too.
Largest Hail: 5 inch as a legit guess on backside of Wakita supercell. For sure largest white falling objects ever seen from a supercell which I thought would be tough to top behind the Oregon MO storm last year as it dropped some 5 inch stones.
Worst Busts: 6/24 left real early but was still not early enough...but rethinking this later I think I actually could have caught them north of I90. Hearing the one warning early further east say north at 75 mph I didn't think I had a chance. Pretty sure now had I shot north at Kadoka when I was there I'd have had plenty of time. Sigh. 6/10 and 6/11(KS beast) both sucked too. And yeah 6/17 sucked as well being too far west, but main problem that day was just wanting to head home a bit too much and having had a great day before. Doh. Don't let up in 2010! I mean look at that day right after the 16th tornadofest and the whole 24th of May after catching Bowdle on the 22nd. That is the biggest lesson this year taught me.
Days I Wished I Chased: I don't think any others than ones I did. Would much rather fret on the ones I did actually chase but blew than worry about chasing every single setup all year. Chased plenty of days. Wish I had done better on a good chunk of them, but very happy with the ones I did do well on. For the most part as I'll then pick apart positioning those days too anyway lol.
Windshields Cracked: None, not even close for some reason. I swear I take zero precautions with avoiding hail and more than anything I actually look for the big stuff(like sitting where I did on Wakita...or sampling Dupree by driving back west into it for hail for a bit...or Bowdle north of Roscoe by taking the Wakita approach again north of the circulation path) but hell if they ever want to smash my windshield apart. Had the same one big smashed area in the corner since 2005 and that is it.
Times Stuck: 0 - 2004 and 2005 both really learned this chaser lol. I absolutely can't stand that feeling of being stuck in some strange/foreign area. Wondering if I'll ever get stuck again...jinx.
Speeding Tickets: 0 - yikes I think it's been since 2001 now...which is pretty amazing considering.
States Chased MO/IA/MN/OK/KS/NE/SD/CO/
Highest Wind: Whatever was going on near Bowdle when it crossed
very close while west of Bowdle. Probably sustained around 80mph. But got me really. So much was going on right there with the widening collar cloud racing overhead I never really even noticed the wind at the time. One video though it's like, damn it is windy.
Firsts or Noteworthy:
I could almost call Wakita on May 10th my first OK tornado. The only other up to that point was a couple second touch down in 2001. Have never even seen much of a good supercell on my OK chases either. So that was nice.
I've very much been SD's bitch as well. All I have from that state was a couple small tornadoes June 7, 2005 and some ok structure with that. And I've chased SD a lot more than OK. So finally, SD goes nuts for me not one day but two days. Makes screwing up May 24th there more tolerable.
I don't think I've chased nw MO once this year! Woohoo for that. Pitty I touched the state early in the year down near Joplin, otherwise I think I'm MO free this year lol.
Then there is Nebraska. What the hell. My bread and butter all these years now. I've not seen a single interesting thing from this state all year! Who needs you anyway, I have SD now. KS is my second best state...I think...might be tied with IA I guess. It's been a huge let down as has Iowa. At least my chasing them.
That is the thing about this year for me anyway. It's seriously all or nothing. It's really funky to me for some reason. I've either seen some truly crazy storms, and they were tornado producers, or I've seen little else interesting. Sorry but structure this year has sucked. Outside of June 10 in CO. I consider it interesting if I'm willing to stick it on a dvd. So far other than those 3 tornado days(which thankfully can make big segments with) I only plan to put KS June 12 blowing dirt and dog deal on there and maybe Limon June 11th. That Limon deal wasn't overly interesting either and is on the fence and would be very easily knocked off a dvd with anything else yet to happen. So really I'd only consider 4 chases this year to have been worth going on to see what I saw.
I'm making this way too long lol. Guess it is fun to remember back on things and discuss them.
Winter: Maybe an odd category but. I've seen some truly amazing things this winter chasing "stuff". Most insane winter here since I've been alive.
Crazy Light Pillars More than once
Crazy Rime Ice More than once More than twice
Completely crazy amounts of ice on rime ice coated trees
But favorite deal of the year was the Bowdle intercept. Easily my best tornado video. Dupree June 16 was amazing too but not as much so as Bowdle. Just such wicked motions going on as it passes nearby west of town. Wish I had picked a better spot for the passing north of town part but at least I guess I got some of the "atmosphere" goings on around the tornado, as well as enough of the tornado itself there to be interesting. Heck the initial parts before it passes the first north south highway is pretty damn cool but is just forgotten with the next two highway crossings. And only watching video did I notice the numerous bee housing things there! It had to pretty much hit those things.
Ok this is too long.
