2024 Chase Season Epilogue

[John Farley]

I kind of need to update what I posted June 15 when I called my season very subpar. Although I am still at just one brief glimpse of a tornado and no pictures of one, probably my 3 best chases have been since that post. On June 19, I caught the nearly stationary supercell near Willard, NM that produced massive hail accumulations and flash flooding, leaving vehicles stranded for hours. And a number of brief but photogenic funnel clouds, like this one:



Then, almost a month to the day later, on July 18. while out initially just to shoot lightning, I got this near Las Vegas, NM:



And then last night near Pagosa Springs, CO, again out for lightning, I got some of my best night-time supercell pics ever, including these two:



I would now rate my season as still subpar, but only slightly so. Definitely was not a good year for tornadoes, but for storm structure and photography, it was not bad at all. It ain't over till it's over, and of course it is still not, with some of September and all of fall left to go.

 

[Jeff House]

2024 was my best sky year in a decade and perhaps lifetime, but I did not chase one severe thunderstorm. We saw our second total solar eclipse; shared TWO auroras with family in the South; and, documented my favorite comet since Hale-Bopp and Hyakutake. Comet nights were about 50/50 family and more serious observing.

Have I quiet quit storm chasing? Well the calendar never lined up in spring. Now with two kids at the Activities age vs just one, I may struggle to get out into the field for several years. Except slop in the South on weekends. Then something like Oct. 30 happens in the Plains, near the anniversary of much more successful fall chases, and I'm glad I wasn't out there. Maybe I will quit.

If I quit it will not be out of frustration or spite. Quite contrary. 2024 my non-storm year has been one of my best. More likely I will continue to play it by ear. I have taken a liking to more astronomy related events, but I reserve the right to park in the Plains if a standing Rockies wave sets up for multiple days in late spring.

Now time to look at travel plans for total eclipses abroad.

 

[James Wilson]

2024 was a great year for me with 54 tornadoes (so far) and a few very close-range intercepts. It is the first year in a long time that almost every chase day resulted in tornadoes. With that said I had bad days too like going to Nebraska when I planned on going north of Topeka then Westmoreland happened. I did fall for the “big tornado days” in Oklahoma twice but was able to salvage one of those trips with a Missouri tornadofest the next day. I drove out the other time to Tennessee only to see a weak birdfart so I packed a lot of milage in 2024. Here is a photo showing some of the tornadoes in 2024 and I will link a couple video to some of the better days.

- YouTube

Hopefully not done yet!