2012 Season Review/Stats

[James Gustina]

Chases: 8
Miles: 5118
Tornado Days: 3
Tornadoes: 6
States Chased: OH, IN, KY, IA, MN, NE, KS, TX, OK

Even though 2012 wasn't stellar by any means, it was by far my best season out of the past five. Finally got my first tornado on March 2nd in northern Kentucky (think it was the same one you saw from a different angle Adam?). Also got my first Texas and October tornadoes on the same day (October 12) as well as my first Kansas tornado (May 25).

February 29: Learned the hard way that night+Kentucky does not work. Didn't get jack except for some lightning.

March 2: Came into the notch from the north after dropping the northern supercell as it headed for the river into Ohio. Got lucky and caught a tornado as it touched down to the left of the road. Came within about 1/2 of a mile of it and it ended up doing low-end EF2 damage down the road (thankfully no one was badly injured).

May 24: I had a long separation between my first and second chases of the year. This was the first day of my trip out to the Plains for 5 days. We got suckered into the moderate risk up in Wisconsin and ended up playing around in some early evening junk in Iowa/Minnesota before heading for Des Moines.
May 25: By far the best day of the season for me. Rolled out of Des Moines early and after stopping in KC for BBQ, ended up making it to Great Bend about 20 minutes before the first storms initiated. Caught the first supercell of the day and got some nice structure before the RFD shredded it. Ended up seeing 2 tornadoes near La Crosse around and after dusk.
May 27: After a down day in Omaha went out and played with some of the high based storms that came out of northern Kansas. Got some "ok" photos of the shelf cloud/gust front with some small gustnadoes before we got cored.

June 29: Got skunked big time on the derecho. Ended up too far north with the initial convection and when things sped up got trapped in Indianapolis traffic. Truly awful.

October 12: Second best day of the season. Caught three brief tornadoes east of Hale Center and some awesome structure right around dusk.

November 10: A marginal dryline day that ended up blue-sky busting for us. One little cell did get going down in the Oklahoma panhandle area but it was already getting dark.

 

[Nathan Edwards]

Spent 3 weeks chasing this year from May 17th. Chased any day we thought there might be rain. I guess we had about 5 or 6 down days or travel days.


Tornadoes: 4 - All on May 25th. We were on tornado producing storms on june 6th and 7th also but standing back and admiring the awesome structure those days brought and whilst we saw some suspicious lowerings in the rain I'm happy only counting the ones I have photgraphic proof of

Structure: June 7th SE of Denver - The storm morphed into about 6 completely different structures over it's lifetime - Mothership Supercell, HP bomb, Shelf Cloud, structured mesocylcone at sunset, Stacked plates and finally a lightning lit 'twisted bell' updraft. Awesome way to end a chase trip!

Miles: 8000 (Lowest for the last 5 years though still waaaay too much).

States Chased: 7 - NM, TX, OK, KS, NE, CO, IA (+Travel through MO)

Biggest Regret: Busting on the Piedmont day late May (the one with the 6" hail). Started the day in Okarche and should have stayed there but ended up venturing into NW OK without the ability to roam onto Pioneers cell towers. Couldn't safely core punch the storms to get on the right side without data. Data in this area was an issue on multiple days :/

Coolest non-storm moment: May 20th sunset Eclipse although that may well have been edged out by some of the amazing Oklahoman hospitality I was subjected to

 

[Brandon Jenkins]

Chases: 11
Tornado Days: 4
Tornadoes: 8
States Chased: TX,OK,KS,NM

Notable Chases:

March 18: No explanation needed on this one. Was on the tornado maker from start to finish and witnessed 4 tornadoes of varying shape, none lasting longer than 2 minutes.

April 3: Left work around noon to catch rapidly evolving supercells just to the south in Johnson county. Witnessed the first tornado as it passed just east of Burleson and moved into Kennedale. Witnessed the second larger tornado from behind as Mansfield police blocked off the highway. Got stuck in traffic and called it a day.

April 30: Started the day near Silverton and ended up on the OK/TX state line where I witnessed a brief dusty tornado at dusk. Did a lot of hail dodging this day to save the windshield after witnessing several others who weren't so lucky.

May 29: Best structure I've ever shot although I was a bit closer than I would have liked. Followed the Piedmont storm from birth until we were forced to bail west to save the windshield close to dusk. Witnessed possible brief tornado under the Union City storm followed by more amazing structure after dark. Probably my favorite chase day of the year despite lack of quality tornadoes.

May 30: Biggest regret of the season by far. Hung around in the eastern TX panhandle for too long as storms got beat down by the cap. Missed the earth eater that had formed near Childress and with it some amazing structure.

All in all I cannot complain about the season despite how dismal it turned out for overall tornado count. My daughter's birthday just happened to fall during one of the biggest outbreaks of the season (April 13/14) so I missed out on some great action but had some delicious cupcakes

Here's to a more active season in 2013.

 

[Paul Sherman]

3 Trips to the States in 2012 - First was a 5 day trip for the April 14th High Risk, 2nd was the Chase Vacation for 7 weeks from May 9th until June 25th and lastly my 3rd year chasing the Arizona Monsoon.

Best moments had to be the amazing Supercell Structures in 2012, lots of frustrations at missed opportunities also reared their ugly heads.

Chase Miles : 23,250
Tornadoes : 16
Tornado Days : 7
Busted Windshields : 1 (June 7th in Colorado)
Speeding Tickets : 0
Best Structure : 4 way Tie between Paducah (30th May) Adrian (Early June) Canton to Piedmont (29th May) and Colorado Mothership (7th June)
Most Frustrating Days : 2 way tie between 19th May (Landspoutfest in Kansas) and June 22nd in Wyoming
States Chased: TX/NM/OK/CO/KS/NE/SD/ND/MN/WISC/WYO/MON/IOWA
Firsts Hated : First and last time chased in Wisconsin.
Firsts Loved : First time chasing in Minnesota and loved it!!

Although this season was a success it was mainly down to 3 or 4 Chase Days out of the 54 I had to chase in Tornado Alley which is not that great. We Blue sky busted in Western Kansas on the 12th April, witnessed the Cooperton Tornado on April 13th and about 4 Tornadoes on the High Risk Day, this was also a frustrating chase day as the initial target of Salina would have born fruit big time, just got suckered west at Wichita and luckily the Oklahoma Machine later in the day saved our frustrations.

Highlights in Mid May was the Roswell Supercell on May 13th that was a sight to behold especially near Artesia.
The 19th May was very frustrating as well drove away and actually through the initial storm near Greensburg that would produce all the landspouts in South Central Kansas as we had to be back in DFW later that day.
The 25th May was one of the most satisfying days, having blown off the Iowa/Minnesota Moderate Risk the day before we overnighted in Hays and just sat on the Dryline / Warm Front Triple Point and were on those storms with little effort, we ended up seeing 6 Tornadoes this day, most of them down near La Crosse when 2 were on the ground at the same time.
The 29th May was again an amazing chase day, chose Canton as the target and stuck with that struggling storm as it initially moved east and then South East towards Dover, we witnessed the Piedmont Tornado from about 3/4 mile away just outside of the 6" Hail.
The 30th May we chose the Southern Texas Panhandle around Childress and were rewarded with an Amazing Stacked Plates Supercell at dusk near Paducah.
Early June saw an incredible Supercell west of Amarillo near Adrian again with Structure to die for!
The 2 Denver Cyclone days were enjoyable with the 7th June giving us the Calhan Tornado and that amazing Colorado Supercell we only dream of!
Mid June tailed off quite a bit but had an enjoyable day in South Dakota and Minnesota on Fathers Day with some great storms if a bit junky.

Then the biggest regret of the season saved itself until last, my initial target of the Wyoming/Nebraska border was not a bad pick, sat in Chadron most of the day but got suckered south to some Supercells moving out of Colorado into the Nebraska Panhandle and we then found out Campo Mark II had happened just North West of Chadron.....Life Sucks! Lol

The Arizona monsoon was very good again, most of the action across the Mogollan Rim this year with bits and pieces down near Tucson and Phx.

Hoping 2013 delivers a more classic pattern throughout May as we are surely due another 590 Nados in the Month of May, its been a few years.

Regards

Paul Sherman

 

[William Reid]

Howdy all, Happy 2013!

My 2012 chase season was rather short on tornadoes ---- maybe a half dozen for me ---- but active enough from April 23 to June 23 to keep me busy and the tour guests content.

Click here for a summary with pictures, and links to all of the chase accounts.

William Reid
Westlake Village, CA
stormbruiser.com

Tempest Tours
tempesttours.com

 

[scott r currens]

2012 Chase Statistics

Chases: 23
Busts: 2 (May 5th and May 26th)
Tornado Days: 7 (Feb 28th, Mar 18th, Apr 14th, May 6th, May 19th, May 23rd, May 25th, and May 30th)
Tornadoes: 17
Photogenic Tornadoes: 6 (Mostly Mar 18th and May 25th)
Hail (>2 inch) Days: 7 (5+ inch hail measured on two consecutive chases)
Miles: 16,048
Ave Chase: 697 miles (Career High)
Minutes Viewing Tornadoes: 105
Miles Per Tornado: 944
Tornado Minutes Per Chase: 4.6
Tornado Success Ratio: 1 in 3.3
Success Ratio (Was it worth chasing?): 1 in 1.28
States Chased (most – least) - KS, NE, OK, SD, MO, ND, IL, TX
Largest Hail: >5.0 inch
Strongest Winds: Sustained at ~70 gusting to ~90 mph (May 30th SW of Seymour, TX)
Best Chase: May 25th LaCrosse, KS
Worst Chase: April 14th (I made sound decisions that put me in wrong place all day long.)

 

[Danny Neal]

1,800 ish miles
5 Chases
2 Tornadoes
1 Tornado Day
States Chased In: NE, KS, IL, TX, OK

A down year by my standards, but a year dominated by work and financial issues I'll take it.

 

[Jacob Ferden]

Chases: 5
Miles: ~ 1,835
Avg. Distance: 367 miles
Tornado Days: 2
Tornadoes: 4
Success Ratio: 1 in 2.5
States Chased: KS, OK

Overall assessment: Slow storm season leading to an all-time low for chasing time, exacerbated by various personal issues. Two successful tornado days coming on April 9th near Woodward, OK and April 14th in southern Kansas. The 14th wound up being my last chase of the year. I think Shane's word "bittersweet" is an extremely appropriate description.

 

[Blake Naftel]

The 2012 season was my first back to the Plains and Midwest after taking 2011 completely off, and having work restrictions conflict with prior years after 2006 -- so certainly, just returning to a storm observation mode during a planned mini-vacation between the 13-15 of April was a treat so to speak. The top days for me transpired in April. The 13-April-12 event near Norman, Oklahoma resulted with an unexpected tornado east of the OU campus, in the heavily wooded regions north of Highway 9. The overnight marathon drive from Michigan paid off! The 13-April-12 was a different story entirely. Several brief tornadoes were witnessed, but as many high risk days prove, it was frustrating in the fact that everything was evolving quickly, and the highly publicized weekend high risk event in southern Kansas drew out masses of individuals which made for interesting observations (including being flipped the bird). That was a first. Regardless of that, it was fun catching up with old friends, and just being out "there" again. I made it a point to shoot the season on multiple vintage multimedia formats, including VHS, 3/4" U-matic tape, and Super 8mm motion picture film for a project that is underway. The results were great, and fortunately all tape/film based formats compensated for a hard drive failure which resulted in the loss of much of my HD video. My season held off until early June, with a trip venturing into southern Saskatchewan, Canada. All in all, an interesting year. I'll admit it was fun -- and I look forward to experiencing a few events in 2013 as well!

 

[Bob Hartig]

Blake, it's great to read your report and see you back here, bro. Here's hoping that 2013 gives us ample cause to hit the road. A few backyard opportunities in IL, IN, and OH thrown into the mix would be even better!

PS You've reminded me, I need to get my driver's license approved for border crossings.

 

[Chris C Sanner]

Hmmmm 2012 was an odd duck of a year...

CHASES: 21
MILES: ~12000 maybe? I doubt it was that high.
TORNADO DAYS: 8
TORNADOES: ~20-25 (depending on how you define tornadoes/occlusions/etc)
GOOD STORM DAYS: 12
STATES CHASED: OK,KS,NE,SD

Seemed I had a good year, missed several days that others seemed to have gotten tornadoes on such as 4/3 and 5/19. Best days were 4/14, 4/9, 5/25 and even 10/12 to a certain extent. Really wish we had taken more chances on 4/13 as we only had brief glimpses of tornadoes on that day. Best stat is our good storm days vs. blah days, which was above a 50% success ratio, which is huge for me. As long as there are photogenic storms, I'm incredibly happy with a chase day. Tornadoes are nice, but give me a great looking storm for a day to be considered good. Some of our days we simply were persistent, 4/14 we saw a couple of weak tornadoes in Kansas before dropping into Oklahoma for the entirety of the show near Waynoka to Cherokee. Chase season was challenging, but ultimately we fared good considering the circumstances. Can't wait for 2013 to see what it brings!

 

[Simon Brewer]

Chases: not sure
Miles: over 20K, but not sure
Avg Distance: not sure
Tornado Days: not sure (7 decent tornado days; not sure about brief weak and/or rain-wrapped tornadoes)
Tornadoes: not sure
Success Ratio: don't care; tornadoes aren't the only reason I chase
States Chased: 17-19

Made the best lemonade I could out of 2012. Most memorable tornado was probably the March 2 Henryville, IN EF5 (local NWS office rated it EF4, but it caused unbelievable EF5 damage to a highway southwest of Henryville peeling and tossing large 6-10 inch thick slabs of asphalt, some weighing around 10,000 lbs, 30-50 meters creating large and deep impact craters). The more memorable chases of year were tornadoes south of San Antonio, April 14 OK/KS tornadoes, Hurricane Isaac on Grand Isle LA, and Superstorm Sandy in NYC.

 

[Bob Hartig]

So as not to take this thread off topic, I'm opening up a separate thread on the asphalt scouring caused by the Henryville tornado.

 

[Nick Nolte]

CHASE DAYS: 28
MILES: 18,343
TORNADO DAYS: 6
TORNADOES: 9
STATES CHASED: MI, IN, OH, IL, WI, MN, MO, ND, SD, MT, NE, KS, OK, CO and Manitoba

TORNADOES
Mar 15 - Dexter, MI
Apr 13 - Saddle Mtn, OK
Apr 14 - (3) Tipton, Langley, Hesston/Moundridge
May 22 - Carpio, ND
May 25 - (2) Russell, KS
May 27 - Wolbach, NE

The Tipton tornado we unintentionally ended up within the circulation, so that was a first, and hopefully a last.

 

[Skip Talbot]

Finally finished my chase logs from 2012 and tallied up the numbers. Here are the updated stats:

CHASES: 22
MILES: 15,824
AVERAGE CHASE DISTANCE: 719
TORNADO DAYS: 4
TORNADOES: 9 (which includes 3 waterspouts)
BUSTS (Lack of supercell structure): 11
STATES CHASED: IL, IN, MI, WI, MN, ND, SD, KS, NE, CO, OK

Additional Misc Stats:
Miles By Airplane: 2679
Longest single chase mileage (including overnight drive to target): 1186 (April 12)
Shortest single chase mileage: 1 (June 19 cap bust)
Days with hail > 1": 2 (3/2, 4/13)

Updated chase logs and map through 2012:
http://www.skip.cc/chase