2015 post mortem

[Taylor Wright]

It's funny reading all the posts from September, not realizing that there would be an active Fall season and a big November outbreak for some of them to jack their count up. I wasn't one of them, unfortunately. My previous total for all 3 previous years of chasing was 3. 2015 was by far my best year, with 13-15 tornadoes seen depending on how you count them. Lots of maybenadoes as well. I'm not the greatest stat keeper, but my favorite and least favorite days are highlighted below:

April 8, 2015 (2 tornadoes): One daytime tornado near Medicine Lodge, KS (EF-0), another near Garden Plains, KS (EF-0) from a distance in the dark.
May 9, 2015 (6-10 tornadoes): Maybenado north of Eads, CO (we were just late for all of the rainbow action), 6-10 nighttime tornadoes in the dark near and north of Grinnell, KS (max damage EF-2). Lost count, and did not get any pictures of these tornadoes as I was driving through the mud trying not to slide off the road.
May 16, 2015: Missed the Elmer tornado that seemingly everyone and their mom saw, due to messing around up north too long.
May 23, 2015: 30-hr total drive time with no sleep, 5% bust in Colorado.
June 4, 2015: First epic lightning photos near Gove City, KS
June 20, 2015 (one tornado): Funnel cloud behind us later confirmed as EF-1 in southern Iowa
July 2, 2015 (one tornado): EF-1 tornado in Lees Summit, Missouri.
November 11, 2015: (one tornado): Maybenado near Grand City, IA, with powerlines and trees going down next to us and dark mass inside circulating rain curtains directly behind us, then got directly behind confirmed EF-2 in Iconium, IA where we documented severe damage. I also did 3 live phoners that day (my first).
States Chased: KS, OK, TX (1st this year), CO (1st this year), NE, IA (first Iowa tornado this year), MO

Overall a very successful year, but still haven't got that up-close, high contrast tornado that I've been trying to get for 4 years. Almost all tornadoes this year have either been from a distance, barely visible, or in the night. This year provided me with a ridiculous amount of weekend chases, which allowed me to chase a lot more. I don't expect to be able to get out as often as I did this year. Oh, and it looks like there could be another chase next Saturday somewhere, so this might not be the whole list by the time December 31st comes around.

 

[Ethan Schisler]

Figured I might as well go ahead and post my stats as well, barring anything significant happening this weekend. I don't keep the closest stats, so I don't really have a total on mileage. I know it is quite a bit though! I will go through some of my better days this year below, I'll keep it to days that I saw confirmed or possible tornadoes, to avoid going any longer than I have to!

May 8, 2015: 2 small tornadoes along the Red River with HP supercell. Saw another HP supercell south near Throckmorton, but missed the tornado there.

May 9, 2015: Counted around 7 tornadoes in Northwest Kansas near dusk and after dark from I-70 northward. The most photogenic was the first near Oakley, KS that occurred in the day-light. I missed the Colorado show this day, so while still a good chase, could have been better.

May 15, 2015: Saw a couple supercells in Western Nebraska this day, funnel cloud, possibly brief tornado. Mostly just large hail though and got some good lightning pictures after dark near Grant with the stars out overhead.

May 16, 2015: Caught the long lived Elmer-Tipton, Oklahoma tornado at close range just north of the Red River a couple miles south of Elmer. Saw hail about the size of softballs in the RFD and some fierce winds. Had to navigate through large hail and high winds to get back ahead of the storm where we saw another tornado further east.

....missed the action during the last week of May in Kansas and Texas due to obligations at home and I just made a poor decision not to chase.

June 4, 2015: While not a tornado day for myself, I did see a rather incredible supercell in Northwest Kansas with some of the best lightning that I've seen in years. I was sad for missing the Colorado tornadoes, but this somewhat made up for it in the photo department.

June 5, 2015: Caught 4 tornadoes north/northwest of Vona, Colorado including one fairly large one.

June 22, 2015: Caught a large, significant (EF2), tornado near Taylor Ridge/Edgington, IL and got fairly close to it

June 28, 2015: Caught a close range tornado near Eolia, Missouri which almost flipped over a truck right in front of us!

July 16, 2015: Caught multiple (6+) tornadoes from Burlington Iowa to almost my home of Galesburg! Several were rather photogenic and large as well, sadly Cameron IL got quite a bit of damage, which still isn't cleaned up almost 5 months later.

August 18, 2015: Chased a supercell near my home again that possibly produced a brief tornado near Gilson, IL. I can't confirm this though and no survey was ever done. The verdict is still up in the air, so it will remain in-conclusive! Regardless it's always fun to see a good storm close to home

November 11, 2015: Chased storms all across the state of Iowa on this day. Caught a supercell north of Corning, Iowa early in the day which produced a likely tornado with damage, didn't get many pics due to driving. However we managed to get ahead of the storms again on I-80 and drop south at Iowa City and catch an EF-1 tornado near North English, Iowa. We were probably a mile to mile and a half from this and watched it occlude which was rather fascinating.


Like I said, unless something crops up in these next couple weeks that I decide to chase, this will likely be the wrap on another long, but successful year of chasing. Got quite a few nice photos this year as well on many other days, which I've chosen not to include to avoid making a lengthy post even lengthier lol.

Here are just a few selected photos of mine from the year (please enjoy!):


May 16, 2015: Early stages of the Elmer-Tipton, OK Wedge Tornado


June 4, 2015 - Lightning and awesome structure in Northwest Kansas.


July 16, 2015 - Large tornado causing power-flashes at close range in Western Illinois. This is an HD video still, wish I had shot photos!


June 22, 2015 - Another Illinois tornado! This one near Edgington, IL. We got fairly close to it, within a quarter mile I'd say at times.


...Until next year!

 

[Quincy Vagell]

2015 stats:
Chases: 51 (Chased almost everything, including several marginal days)
Tornadoes: 10
Funnel clouds/landspouts/inconclusive: Far too many to bother counting
Miles (chase-related): Over 46,500 (My home base during the season varied from Oklahoma City to Atlanta, so the commute for the latter portion particularly skewed this number)

Chases by state:
Texas - 10
Kansas - 7
Iowa/Nebraska - 5
Colorado - 4
MO/NM/OK/SD - 3
IL/LA/MN/MT/ND/OH/TN/WY: 1
(Only counts the predominant state when chasing a given day in multiple states)

The only clear, easily photographable tornado was the Mount Hope-Halstead, KS twister. Tipton was a beast, but low-contrast made it very difficult to see via footage without some modest enhancement. I saw several tornadoes at night, perhaps more than counted above, but again, they were not easily photographed.

There were plenty of great photo opportunities, despite the number of messy, HP days.

Only missed a few events, due to a roadtrip in late May (poorly timed, but the severe setup at the time looked very marginal and we switched plans after back-to-back busted setups) and a collision with a deer in North Dakota at dusk. My chase season did not begin until the last week of April, so I wasn't around for Rochelle, IL.

Halstead, Kansas, May 6th:


Tipton, Oklahoma, May 16th:

 

[Patrick Martin]

2015 was odd, fewer chase days than in prior years due to work and family obligations, but some big highs and a couple not so highs.

5/9 - First chase of the year...I was with the Eads storm from it being a bird-fart near Springfield, to ramping up between Lamar & Eads and eventually dying south of Burlington as it belched out enough hail to cover the road south of I-70 in 39 degree temps and then a bonus drive home in a raging snowstorm from Byers back to Denver.

5/16 - Bust...Loooong drive from Denver to Garden City back to I-70 and back to Denver for a drive in the rain.

6/4 - My 13 day chasecation kicked off 6/4 with my chase partner flying into Denver that morning, leaving town at 2:30pm, and having a front row seat for the Simla storm throughout it's lifecycle. Probably my single best day, and certainly the most photogenic tor I've photographed. It was our redemption day for choosing (epic fail) to sit out the Campo day during our chasecation that year.

6/5 - Frustrating day due to a tactical error(s) on my part staying up on hwy 34 starting in Strasburg, and ending up behind the storms.

6/12 - Tor warned storms west and south of Lubbock but no tornadoes.

In total somewhere around 12 chase days among being out for 15 days total, 2 tor days. Traveled around 5500 miles and largest hail was a baseball size stone to the roof of our rental vehicle on the Simla day.

 

[Alex Heimberger]

2015 Storm Chasing Stats

Out of State: 5
Local: 6
Blue Sky Bust: 1
Tornado Days: 3 (3/25 5/6 5/9)
Tornadoes: 8
Largest Hail Encountered: Golf Ball
Best Chase Day: 5/9
States: NE, CO, KS, OK
Miles Traveled: 3,500 - 4,500k

 

[Marcus Diaz]

Storm Chasing Days: A lot, honestly I don't keep up with this.
Tornado Days: 12
Tornadoes: 26
Photogenic Tornadoes: 11
Busts: 1
Largest Hail Encountered: 3.75"
Miles Driven: 25k-ish
Windshields Replaced: 1
Times struck by lightning: 1
Best Chase Day: May 16/November 16
Worst Chase Day: July 13
States chased in: TX, NM, OK, CO, KS, WY, MT, SD, IL

My tornado lists is as follows:

• April 11 - Borger, TX (1)

• April 16 - Conway, TX (1) and Kellerville, TX (1)

• April 22 - Lockney, TX (1)

• April 24 - Catherine, KS (2)

• May 5 - Ralls, TX (2)

• May 15 - Hoyt, CO (2)

• May 16 - Shamrock, TX (1) and Elmer, OK (1)

• May 24 - Plains, KS (3)

• May 27 - Canadian, TX (4)

• June 19 - Broadus, MT (1) and Belle Fourche, SD (1)

• August 17 - Kiowa, CO (1)

• November 16 - Groom/Pampa/Miami, TX (4)

 

[Shawn Gossman]

2015 for me was the year of getting a better job, so I never really got a whole lot of time to do much that was weather related besides the things I did concerning my Skywarn forum. I am hoping this year will be different, hopefully I can get out and chase a bit more around the area and maybe even travel a bit for some chases.