2010 Reflections:

[Danny Neal]

In the other thread we posted our stats. I thought I would make a reflection/room for improvement thread.

The biggest thing I took away from 2010 was not to be fooled by mapping software. I've used it for 5 or so years and never been burned in the way I was 5/22. I knew it COULD happen, but never really bought into WOULD it. Well it obviously can and will happen from time to time. Obviously my situation was about as extreme as they could get. I just need to start getting back to thinking ahead. After seeing 6 tornadoes up to that point on 5/22, I was getting greedy and played some risks that I don't think I would had I seen no tornadoes that day. Probably should have just stuck to the main highway (12) but on a beast storm like that you need to move to where you can see in there. Note to self: pay attention to all the flooding on the side of the road, the dirt roads themselves, and on "beast" storms maybe play a little conservative in unfamiliar chase land (First time being in SD)

I think another point I learned was not to let my ego get in the way and to admit defeat. Case in point: 5/19 . I knew the warm front was the place to be. I knew it was north. What I didn't anticipate was that two storms would ride the boundary all the way E of 35. I thought they would fire down the line from W OK through OKC metro in E OK. This did not happen. Even after the tornado warned storms were ongoing 50 miles to the north I didn't want to move from my target as I knew storms would go up there. As it turned out storms DID go up but were non tornadic while 1.5 million other people saw a plethora of tornadoes to the north. To add insult to injury the storm directly to the south of us (in unfavorable terrain) produced a couple of nice tornadoes. I need to do a better job of admitting defeat on my target and just going where tornadoes are occurring or likely to be occurring.

Other than that, 2010 was a record year for me. A million rights and a couple of glaring wrongs that I need to learn from..... How about the rest of you?

 

[Dean Baron]

I've made my fair share of mistakes this year, but it will all help build to a great chase SOME day. Things that come to mind:
5/24: I stayed the night in McCook, NE and after getting up in the morning I decided to head up 83 to I90 and readjust from there. WELL, after looking more at models (H85, H7, and H5 winds) I decided to stay back in western NE as I thought storm motions would maybe not be as crazy farther south. This ended up not being the case at all (looking back on it I should've known this, but was trying to convinuce myself I guess...). Getting to North Platte I decided I would continue north to Thedford and choose whether to head west, or continue north to I90. About 10 miles north of North Platte I saw the MD for the Nebraska panhandle. I bit on it and got west as fast as I could but thanks to the extreme storm motions moving due north I missed most of the storms (and tornadoes) out there that day. It's impossible to say what I would've seen had I just gone with my original plans, but it's hard to imagine it would've been more frustrating than what actually happened. What I took away from this is to stick to my guns.

6/16: I had been watching this day for a while. I actually ended up targetting western North Dakota, but I also had picked out a southern target of Timber Lake, SD (about 30 mintues northeast of Dupree). Stuck with the northern target, but of course that one didn't pan out. Busted ass getting south as it quickly became evident the best show was going to be down in SD. There were two tornado warned storm right next to each other, the Dupree monster, and another tor warned storm to its west. Decided to intercept the one to the west since it was closer. Not long after we got on it the tor warning got dropped and the storm went to crap. I kept telling myself "It's just cycling, just have to be patient." The storm went on to die, and I would miss every single one of the tornadoes not 40 miles to my southeast. This one is a tough call, because it's always hard to tell IF a storm is going to make a comeback, but it didnt take long to realize the storm to the southeast was the money maker that day. For me, it's always tough giving up on a storm and going for a different one.

6/17: After royally blowing my forecast the day before, I made damn sure I knew where I wanted to be this day. I'm happy with my forecast, and my decision making deciding where to go after towers started to show up, but what I'm not so happy about is my navigation after seeing the tornado near Leaf Valley, MN. Granted, radar data wasn't wanting to update real fast so it was hard to tell whether the storm was moving more north or more east. Based on the warnings I was thinking east because if I chose north and it was actually more east I would've been in a bad situation. Even still, I should've been able to realize I was wrong and get more north than I did. I also wish I had just stopped on an east-west road where I would've at least gotten a brief view of the Wadena tornado as it moved across the small clearing down the road instead of driving around in circles trying to find a big clearing. So much enjoyment but also so much frustration this day. No matter what, it will be very hard to beat how crazy this storm was. Lesson learned: Figure out which way the storm is actually moving, and settle for some shot instead of trying to find the best view but end up with nothing.

Meh, there are a few other things, but these 3 days were by far the most frustrating for me.

 

[Danny Neal]

I've also noticed that instead of getting A view I usually want THE view. Like you said Dean. Normally our whole MO is to get right in there and get the extreme shot (not as crazy as some.... <2 miles is good) but the way I am I like to get a shot first. A shot from a moving vehicle while trying to battle other drivers and while still wrap around precip just doesn't cut it for me. I think this year has spoiled me in a way that every shot was a good shot, near or far. Most years if you don't sit and tripod from where you are you will end up driving up to it and your contrast will go bye bye or the tornado itself. I <3 2010 in that respect. Lots of high contrast, slow moving, tornadoes at least from my perspective.

 

[Dean Baron]

No doubt. Hindsight is always 20/20 though I guess. I've thought about 6/17 everyday since and what I would do different after Leaf Valley. I was just so freakin close I dont think I'll ever get over it. The biggest problem that day was all the trees north of I94, definitely not chaser friendly terrain up there. Like I say though, it's all helping out to a great chase some day, unfortunately it will be tough to beat the storm on 6/17. I shoud also add that I've chased an absurd amount of very fast moving storms (>50mph) this year. I've missed all the slow moving storms. Arggh...

 

[Chip Redmond]

My biggest reflection was on the 6/5 Illinois tornado outbreak. I have seen damage before from a large tornado after the Super Tuesday outbreak in Tennessee, but that was several days after. Though they were still searching for people it was very organized and calm. Earlier this month, after going through Elmwood minutes after the tornado struck is a definite eyeopener. It brings you to reality that though these are wonderful and amazing to see in person, they are going to undoubtably cause destruction and upend peoples lives. When we drove through the town it was in a state of chaos with people crying and in panic. The EMS were just arriving with debris everywhere. Though it wasn't a strong tornado, only a EF-2, it did substantial damage to many buildings. People were just beginning to go from house to house to check if everyone was alright.
This has motivated me to consider another long term career option. Though it is really depressing, its a time when people need help. When I chase, I almost want to be able to reach out to the people. Help them, comfort them, and aid in any way, shape, or form possible if the worst was to happen. Though I understand many times you can become more of a nuisance and just get in the way-I want to be able to be there when needed. I have considered and am going to look into becoming a Red Cross volunteer of some type now. I want to be able to assist these people that are victims of nature's destruction.

Just a reflection...

Chip

 

[Tony Laubach]

QUIT LEAVING COLORADO!!! LOL Seems to be a repeat thing every year.

 

[Adam Lucio]

I think the biggest advance Ive made within my personal chasing style is learning when to ditch a storm or know when there is no hope catching ones in progress. Its so hard to stick to a storm, or to blast 200 miles out of place for those first storms that go up but I have gotten a bit better at determining when/what to do.

Funny thing is, this comes with both a success story and a fail story.

5/19 - fail: I knew, just knew I should have gone south for the evening storm once the OKC storms were junk but was outvoted due to the area being crappy terrain, yet everyone else who was originally around us that made the move saw tornadoes...and we busted. Fair enough.

6/17 - success: I was torn between the Fargo target and the Luverne target. En route to Luverne storms went up near Fargo but I told myself there was no point in switching gears now and I would probably get there 10 minutes too late and I should just hold my ground and hope the other target lights up...yea. Best chase decision ever.

6/5 - mild success: Got suckered to IA, not sure how but it happened. I didn't go as far west as many though because watching IL kept me from doing so. I was able to blast back just in time to catch a less than desirable glimpse of 2 of the tornadoes west of Peoria...I mean, for numbers and redemptions sake it was nice, but it paled in comparison to what others got so it was a bittersweet victory.

Other than that not much else has changed, my style is and always will be aggressive. Not going to lie, the field incident won't change much how I chase. To not trust the mapping software means to not use one at all. Its there to navigate and you have no way of knowing which roads are real and which ones aren't until you're there. I dont like crowds and prefer back roads when possible, it comes with a risk and a risk Im willing to take, regardless of what any critics might say. Their opinions are nothing more than moot burps.

The biggest challenge I face is to not be lazy. Multiple times this year intercepts were blown because I/we simply did not want to get out of bed early. I really need to work on this for 2011. 5/24s bust was a result of this. There was no excuse for me not being there other than not wanting to get up early and look over things.

2010 has completely blown away my previous years, but also had its worst busts. I am thankful for them however, because with each fail comes a lesson learned and it helps keep my expectations of chasing within reality. I would rather not be spoiled and expect to get a tornado on every chase. I am happy to say that a chase with good structure and nice hail/wind can still make me happy [as long as a major tornado isn't missed on the same chase like 5/19 lol]

 

[Tyler Burg]

Reflections

5/10 - Learned a valuable lesson in positioning when storms are moving 60mph+, Need to remember to always stay ahead of the storm especially early in its life so you don't miss tornadoes later because you were out of position. Took too much time stopping and watching the storm rather than driving to stay in position. Played catch up most (if not all) of the day, and missed the main multivortex tornado.

6/17 - Really screwed up this day, mainly due to just dumb thinking. An area I need to work on lol. I knew there was much better low level directional shear further east and even some of the high res models had storms going up further east. As soon as I saw storms going up behind me (or on radar) I should have turned around knowing they'd be in a much more favorable environment to become tornadic. What kills me the most about this day is that I actually went up the day before and stayed the night at my parents house 25miles west of Minneapolis, woke up the next morning and saw the dryline would be well west into SD early on and most Models fired precip way west into SD. So I got west and drove through a good looking cu field thinking "hmm this looks pretty good" yet never thought anymore about storms possibly initiating there later. Even once I realized the western crapper storms wouldn't do anything I basically gave up and decided to try something in Iowa to be closer to home later. Actually was eastbound on I90 nearly to Lakefield when the southern storm went tornado warned near blue earth, MN. Of course I exit thinking I couldn't make it in time and hope for something in IA. Could have easily made it in time for the Albert Lea wedge, but due to stupid decision making and being lazy I missed one of the big days of the year. In a way I'm thankful for busting, just because I have this experience to learn from in the future. One thing is for certain, I need to stop trusting the models as much for predicting location of storm initiation. They are just models!
Satellite/surface obs and my eyes to the sky do a much better job of predicting where storms will go up. Granted I didn't have any data besides my phone with crappy radar, I still knowingly drove through that cu Field in C MN where the best directional shear was in place. I guess it really just comes down to chasing smarter.

One other thing I need to work on is not being as lazy, especially on days after a great chase when you feel good enough with what you saw the previous day that it doesn't matter if you miss anything that day. 6/10 we didn't get back till 6am, I had planned on chasing 6/11 but didn't know we'd get back that late and slept through the next day. Of course the area I was looking at targeting had a stationary beast with (public reported) three tornadoes on the ground at the same time. Another day similar to this would be 6/16. Should have chased, but decided I needed to get in position for what I thought would be the big day (6/17) and didn't chase. Another stationary beast. Can't be passing up good setups like that again. I've learned a lot from 2010, and can't wait to apply the lessons learned in 2011. Looking forward to what others have to post in this thread. Great idea Danny.

 

[Paul Sherman]

Interesting Thread and one I am glad has come up, I am sure many of you like me try to anaylise how the days went and what could have been done better etc, I know the guy who taught me pretty much everything about Chasing does this as well (Thank you Mr Ewoldt) and it makes you a better chaser if you try to be a Perfectionist.

The Good Decisions: 4/29 Waited near Mcpherson until 830pm with the faint hope the Warm Front would Fire, Storms further NW Near the KS/NE Border were Junky and when the Lone Supercell fired we got our reward with the Hope (Ks) Tornado and a Right Moving Supercell riding the Warm Front.

5/18 Target area was Dumas (Tx) and the dominant Supercell went up about 35 miles to the SW, Watched and intercepted 3 Tornadoes that day and like everyone else was dumped in Stinnett with no road options at the end of the Day.

5/19 Target of Pauls Valley, watched and documented the Dibble Tornado just SW Of Norman and followed the Storm to the I-35 Junction, noticed the Storm looked Outflow Dominant and High Based so went South to the Tail End Charlie Dryline Storm near Wynewood, then watched 2 Tornadoes at once from this cell and the later Joy (Ok) Tornado cutting off the Chase east of Sulphur. Like others have said the enjoyment of knowing when to cut loose from a Storm in pursuit of another is something I am getting better at, but it has taken a fair few years.

5/25 Target of Springfield (Co) and followed a Supercell through it's entire Life Cycle for 6 hours, others may have blew it off but at 9pm it collided with another cell to it's west and then put down an amazing Cone Tornado near Walsh (Co) just before light faded.

5/31 Target of Guymon but had some serious driving to do after picking people up at DFW, Thought we would not make the show but perseverence kept us going and got there with about 10 minutes to spare before the Campo Tornado dropped and the rest is history.

The Bad Decisions : 5/10 Target of Enid which was not the bad part, stopped just South of Medford and took a road too far to the west, not calculating the Storm speed and direction, the original North road we were on had the 3 dancing Tornadoes just 8 miles from where we were originally sitting. Still saw the Tornadoes but could have had some amazing Video etc

5/22 After chasing on the 21st with some LP Supercells in the Texas Panhandle I totally miscalculated the Distance to South Dakota and hence missed the Wedgefest. South Dakota hates me for some reason.

5/24 You would think I would have learnt.....Wrong! Started in Southern Nebraska with a Target of the Faith area but got suckered West from North Platte along the initial line, the rest is a day I would rather forget, lots of kicking of the tyres and doors on the rental!! South Dakota again!!!!!

So all in all a few good decisions and a few bad, it's what makes it interesting though.

Paul Sherman

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

My big goal for 2010 was to stop chasing days for the simple fear of I might miss something if I don't go. I wanted to only chase it if I thought it looked good or could produce. Heck I even wanted to sit out a day that went nicely just to know I could sit out something that looked decent and wasn't like southern TX away or anything and that being the excuse. Just wanted to get a grip on chasing stupid days in general. They drive me batty anymore after I do them and see nothing. And even just chasing less of every 10hr or less drive day, cause I'd largely just chase them all in that range before. For some crazy reason I do find skipping out those 10hr + days easier and easier every year. I live centralized enough and can chase any day of the year, I should be skipping pretty much all those 10hr + deals. They can fail like any day can fail, even the ones that looked great on paper.

One early one I skipped I guess was 4/22. Day that produced Goodnight TX, some in KS and more in CO. I didn't skip it because I thought all that would happen. Morning clouds concerned me for KS target and I just wanted to get in some of that whole "skip a few chases" deal. And then not fret when they actually turn out good. I don't know that I feel bad for missing that day cause I would have been on the KS one and really didn't think it produced anything all that crazy and hard to get over missing.

I skipped 5/19 high risk in Oklahoma too. The old me would have been all over both those days and others I sat out. Not really any regrets on what was missed not chasing that one either. Though I for sure would have went home at least content had I caught the lead northern OK one.

I'm getting more picky about what I hope for from a chase day and what just doesn't mean all that much anymore. It's a recipe for failure but when I drive any distance beyond like 3-4 hours I want the day to blow my socks off or be special. Less and it honestly isn't worth it now in my mind. I can enjoy any level of storm from near home, but if I drive somewhere far it really needs to be more than "cool" and to hell with the whole "got to meet nice interesting folks in all these small interesting towns on the plains". Blah. Blow my mind or I'd rather have just stayed home.

I did better this year but I still made dumb mistakes with this and those were waking up rested, a chase day that looked stupid ahead that day, and me thinking, "what else am I going to do today" and chasing based off that. I don't think that morning it will bother me to chase it and not see much cool. But after the chase is over and I'm half way across IA driving back home it eats away at me how I was so stupid. Just gotten a serious issue anymore with the whole "I should know better now" on many many setups. ESPECIALLY when I DID know better but just went cause I had nothing else to do that day and thought I'd keep it honest. My getting a grip on what days I chase deal needs work in that aspect of some days waking up rested as well as having nothing else to do. But I definitely improved this year and sitting out more days, mostly for hopes of later days being better. Too bad I blew a chunk of those later days I saved for lol

2006 I really started this chase them all mindset when they aren't producing. I thought, the second I slow up they'll start producing, so I'm not going to let up now. I chased them all and even repeatedly busted the few times things did produce. 2006-2008 just did something to my mind on all this lol. Something I needed/need to get the hell over and stop thinking I have to chase them all even when they look dumb, fearing the whole some storm will make the environment work deal.

And here is the obvious problem with this whole plan of action as a chaser. May 22 Bowdle and June 16 Dupree. It would be fairly safe to say on either of these days I wasn't convinced something crazy was going to happen. If anything they were a whole lot closer to days I would later be swearing at myself for being so dumb to chase. Though May 22 as the day itself went on looked more and more amazing. Yet at the same time there was a pretty solid thread of cap bust or if a storm fired it being blown too much across the boundary. Just watch a radar loop from that day and just how far right that thing had to turn. Which is why you had such a visible wedge while sort of on the eastern fringe of better mid-level flow. With really warm 700mb temps it doesn't seem you want that storm flirting with crossing into cooler surface temps(and it was scary as the first tornado dropped just how cool it was up there in its path at the time). Just an amazing radar loop to watch and how it looks like the hook is screaming in agony trying to stay rooted near the front. June 16 should be telling enough by just the utter complete lack of other chasers around. Very weak mid-levels but it worked out.

The trick becomes some crazy ass balance of thinking more on the days and realizing which ones have more legit potential to make it work. Slowly getting better and better at recognizing them. Like June 16 Dupree I went because I knew 25 knots at 500mb could indeed work with its orientation being sw and a storm turning right near/north of the warm front....then toss in strong low level southeasterly flow...as well as 60+ upper flow from the sw greatly helping any right turner with the rest going on. It was actually one of my more positive thinking drives on what could happen of the year. Doesn't mean I thought it would lol. And that is the thing, in a fairly big way it did fit the type of day I'd later swear at myself on if it didn't work out. Like if instead of holding supercell structure so long that thing just decided to blob out. Those days just felt great after the fact and nailing them, but I always have to offset that feeling with May 24th or June 17th. Just end up feeling sort of neutral lol.

I'm glad I let myself at least skip a few days I would have hopped on in years past, but still have work to do on finding something else to do on a given day if it doesn't look that great.

I also "should" learn to not beat myself up on positioning on days I'm on the right/a good storm. But I won't. I'm worse at that then any beating up on just blowing the whole day and being nowhere near the right storm. Like instead of pulling my hair out not getting further north of Bowdle I should just be happy I was ahead of its damage path earlier. It would have felt a heck of a lot worse to have been stuck south of those power poles, which totally could have happened. Seems very often a good chunk of chasers don't like to position themselves near/in the rain/hail and in the path...which was half the reason I was up there and not down the highway more to the south. The tornado causing damage and blocking the path sure as hell was never a thought that crossed my mind. Probably cause that is where I always go and have never even been blocked on a chase before that I can think of. November 05 Woodward IA I guess but the thing was moving 1 billion mph and dictating where I could even be lol.

Anyway, each year I swear I will learn what I need to learn to be a wiser chaser. End of each year I'm pretty sure I know them all and have a grip on what I need to have a grip on. Mid-way or most of the way through the following season and I'm in the same but maybe different position as the year before. Plenty of dumb regrets. Things I think I should know better on. But if one is honest there's just going to be a lot of this crap!

 

[cdcollura]

Good day all,

To me I was very happy with 2010, after such a horrible (and work-a-holic year of 2009). I nailed the May 22 stuff in SD and that was my chase of the year. I have made 3 trips (late April, early May, and mid-end of May) this year, and I have my chase logs for those, so I'll reflect on important mistakes I (and anyone else) can learn from.

1). First and foremost ... If there is a storm motion vector at or above 60 MPH, and you get behind the storm - You will NOT catch it because it is moving faster than your vehicle's average speed (not including traffic lights, RR crossings, and such)!

2). Ugh, April 22, the "suckered in between" day. I was chasing that day with Verne Carlson and my original target was SW of Wheeler, TX (Goodnight being less than 25 minutes from there). I sat in Wheeler, got impatient, and blasted north to Liberal Kansas / Guymon OK - I went "oops" when I saw what happened SW of my original target. The storm Verne and I saw was a funnel and brief / weak tornado. More tornadoes in KS and CO farther north too. Lesson learned: STICK TO YOUR ORIGINAL TARGET.

3). May 24 was another wasted day, complicated by a difficult forecast and two targets as well as not positioning early enough the night before. May 23 I was chasing, and caught 2 tornadoes, in SW Kansas. I wanted to wrap that day up by going as far north as possible when I finished chasing. My goal was to get to Murdo, SD or even Valentine, NE. I just got too tired, and settled into North Platte for the night. On the 24th, I saw the MD go up for NW NE / SW SD and was suckered into that, and saw the towers going up, and kept an eye on them during a MAJOR data outage as I spent nearl 2 hours trying to get through the Big Pine Indian reservation in one piece (where people just would cut me off and slam the brakes for no reason, at one poit my laptop sailed OVER the dash board) - What was with these people? And why no cell service whatsoever)? Coming to the "line of crap" and back into data, I saw nothing near me interesting and all the warnings and "mojo" near Faith, SD - And I was over 175 miles hopelessly SW of there looking at a gust front. That was a tough pill to swallow. Lesson learned: Get your butt out of bed earlier and / or plan for the NEXT chase day and just get to the town (Murdo in this case) ... Also, don't EVER assume a late show, Faith SD was a 3:30 PM event - And grab a few Red Bulls while your at it!

4). May 31 was a measly 2% tornado risk and a low-end slight risk. I was chasing in OK on May 30 the day before, and in NE the day before that, so I was just about beat. I was in Oklahoma City and woke up at about 10:30 AM. Not planning to chase, and having to be in Dallas TX the next day to return home, I settled into watching a movie in my motel room. At 11:30 I wondered what the heck I was doing, and actually made it out as far as Woodward, OK. There I looked at data again, and the low-end slight just did not justify heading out to my "virtual" target that day, which was Guymon, OK and points NW of there. I was tired, and turned around ... Hoping I was not turning my back on "something" big. I headed back to OKC, checked the memorial there (it was Memorial day, after all) and back to the same motel the night before. I fired up GRLevel3, and saw the "purple" box clusters and solitary supercell from Campo, CO and NW of Guymon. I wanted to throw up when I looked at the NOW thread on ST, and "what I turned my back on" (multiple beautiful tornadoes). I posted a "good luck" thread on ST and mistakingly to the same NOW thread, and I got and infraction. Lesson learned: If it's May, and there is ANY storm risk, GO CHASE - Period ... Roll the dice, don't EVER watch movies, don't sleep in, and don't post to the wrong thread on ST ;-)

5). Solo chasing has its advantages and disadvantages. I am SELF funded, single guy, roaming the plains using extra unemployment cash and time I look at being lucky to have. I did not have any chase group and put over 15,000 miles pounding the ground over a 2 month period and 3 trips, with flights from FL taken care of by accumulated airline "miles". Had I been in a small group, say 2 or 3 people, maybe taking turns driving and / or better positioning would have been paramount. Not really a "lesson to learn" in my case, but an idea: I think a small chase group is the BEST way to chase. Not some big "system" like V2, and not a single chaser like me, but a 2-3 person team will suffice (still flexible, and no "politics" or logistical nightmares). For instance, take the smaller TWISTEX group / Tony Laubach's team and compare that with V2 (Vortex II) ... I am sure you can see the difference in "success rates" right off the bat ... Heck V2 did not even chase on May 22, May 24, nor May 31.

These are my mistakes, and we ALL learn from them ... Hope these help and thanks for everyone making this a great thread!

 

[Rob H]

I can't really count all my firsts: chase out of state, tornado, multi-vortex, holding giant hail, well-defined shelf cloud, wedges.. I had one heck of a rookie year, and I owe most of it to a grizzled vet who took me under their wing.

Good decisions: Our forecast areas were almost always spot on. We only had one blue sky bust and that was a day that neither of us felt good about ahead of time. Otherwise, our worst chases still showed us hail, wall clouds, and tornadoes that we couldn't see. Starting to get more aggressive with positioning on the last few storms.

Needs improvement: Need to get out earlier on the same day chases in NE/SD/IA/MN. Need to improve nowcasting tremendously. Need to improve camera skills since I don't have many photos of the amazing things I saw. We need to fix the computer and power nightmare in the chase vehicle so that they aren't distractions.

4/22: We also got suckered in between, because my partner's gut was saying CO/KS and my gut was saying TX... so we ended up in Beaver, OK with one tornado. Trust your gut, it doesn't over analyze.

5/10: Don't let people push you into situations. Always chase for yourself, and you can meet up with friends afterwards.

5/22: Always trust your eyes over the data, and move closer when the only towers in the sky are going up.

6/17: If technology fails, don't let it bring you down. If you think IA/MN border looks good but heavily capped, and then see stuff going up down there - MOVE!

 

[Bill Hark]

I had my best storm chase season in my chase career. Either May 22 or May 24th would have made a season but I had both days. Wow! I acted on my instincts and got an early start since I had examined data the previous evenings.

I still made some very dumb technical mistakes that cost me some video and photos. I zoomed in on the May 24th tornado while using a wide angle conversion lens (not resetting the focus) and that video segment is blurry. Luckily, the tornado lasted a long time and I have more video.

In the excitement of seeing a beautiful tube on May 22, I forgot to check my camera settings. Although I bracketed (?sp), the camera was set at shutter priority 1/50 second. Just high enough that I didn't notice anything while taking the photos and the photos seemed alright on the screen. Only after reviewing the images did I notice the problem and the slight blur.

While chasing on May 22, I also was relying on DeLorme and found that an east option didn't exist. I just shifted northward by a mile and actually was in better shape after skirting the core. The error on the map was concerning.

I also should be more careful about dirt roads. A shortcut on May 19th in Oklahoma turned into a mudbogging fest. I almost got stuck.

Finally, closer is not always better. On May 22, I was a bit too close and found filming difficult due to rain and wind.

I had tornado days on May 18th, May 22 and May 24th. Overall, an amazing experience and I can finish out the year "fat and happy" with great HD tornado video and more pics to hang on my wall.

Bill Hark

 

[John Farley]

Things I did right:

On 4/23, sticking with what originally looked like a messy, uninteresting storm, as it evolved into a spectacular supercell producing multiple tornadoes and a wall cloud with up to three funnels rotating around one another.

On 5/3, bailing on the storms I was originally on and racing back northwest to intercept a supercell north of STL - should have made this decision 15-30 minutes sooner than I did, but still did it in time to get on the storm and see some great structure and at least 1 and probably 2 funnels.

Things I could improve on:

Like others, getting an earlier start. Might have seen the only tornado and the giant hail on 6/12 in the TX Panhandle if I had left an hour earlier and/or wasted less time on a stop along the way. It was still a good chase and the tornado was brief and rain-wrapped, but I wish I had seen it and the big hailstones (but only on the ground, please, LOL!)

Being more willing to drive some distance for situations with positives and negatives. Not seeing the Sedalia tornado on 5/20, when I was and had been watching that area all day thinking "this looks like a good cold-core setup" but also "it's iffy," was painful. Had I chased I would have been in that area, but I passed it up. Also I passed up May 10 because of concerns about fast-moving storms and chaser convergence, but despite these issues many people succeeded in the area I would have chased. In reality, commitments the next day would have made it hard for me to chase, but it was the perceived negatives with an otherwise great situation that really kept me from going.

And finally, there's always the question of decisions in the field. On 4/5, while I was getting gas in the north suburbs of St. Louis, I watched a small cell pass a mile to my west. I thought it looked quite interesting, and it was moving right for a warm front in IL (which should NEVER be disregarded), but I stuck to my northern MO target where all the models indicated better potential. By the time I was 30 miles to the west, the storm was SVR warned and I knew I had made a mistake, but did not think I could get to it given the driving distance was much more due to limited bridges over the Mississippi River. This storm went on to produce the only tornado in the U.S. that day, and as far as I know only one chase team saw it - all the rest of us busted well to the northwest. I am still not sure I would do something different, as it is often best to stick to your target, but I guess the lesson is don't ignore a storm that is visually interesting, especially if it is near a warm front in IL.

Oh, yes - can't forget photo and video mistakes. I missed getting video of one of the tornadoes I saw on 4/23 due to pushing the wrong button on my new video camera, which I was definitely still learning. Also messed up video of gustnadoes on 6/12 by trying to zoom too fast. One thing I need to do is practice more in non-storm situations, especially with video.

 

[Andy Jackson]

Ups and downs like the rest

This was my first real chasecation year where I could allocate some time doing it. I chased more storms, drove more miles, and slept at more motels than anticipated. Some things for learning:
1) I could have trimmed the fat off of some storm days such as early April.

2) I chased the Wakita storm and actually had a very exciting view of the multivortex I should have been more conservative with my positioning so I could have actually gotten some video.

3) Learned the limits of my AWD vehicle as far as mud goes. I got stuck in the mud around Guthrie on what the local farmer called the "sh*** road". This was in the path of the hp monster so I got out in the nick of time thanks to the very kind farmer couple who insisted on towing me out, almost got stuck again on the 19th.

4) I lost 5-10 minutes of footage for the Bowdle wedge due to a bad road choice.

5) I was late to W. SD on the 24th I wasn't anticipating W. SD so early, I actually think I got a glimpse of the Faith supercell from a distance for the storms rotation was obvious.

6) Targeted too far west for the Minnesota outbreak really hard to catch up with some of the roads out there. I didn't chase ND because of the concerns of morning storms stabilizing the environment.

Future goals:
Avoid OKC and surrounding populated areas. I think most know the reasoning behind this.

For next year:
Better forecasting

Better positioning

Better footage