An SDS Thread: Tornado Droughts & Your Last Tornado?

[Shane Adams]

I was thinking this morning about 2013 and tornado droughts. Because many of us are probably suffering from some degree of SDS as we're in the height of the chasing "off season" for most folks, I thought it would make an interesting thread. Personally, I went through the longest tornado drought of my career in 2012-2013, which broke my 17-year streak of never going a full calendar year between tornadoes (longest previous gap was 11 months, 24 days). My last tornado of 2012 was on April 14, and my first in 2013 was on May 15, which gives me an easy-to-remember new longest tornado drought of 1 year, 1 month, and 1 day. My last tornado came on May 29, which should make it relatively easy to stay inside the calendar year window (barring an absolutely horrid season).

So two questions for everyone....

(1) What's the longest tornado drought you've ever had?

(2) When was your last tornado?

 

[Skip Talbot]

My last supercellular tornado in '12 was also on April 14, and my first tornado of '13 was on May 27. 1 year, 1 month, and 13 days is my longest span between supercellular tornadoes since my rookie years in '04 and '05 when I went between April 20, '04 and June 29, '05 between my first and second tornadoes. I make the distinction of supercellular since we caught a landfalling waterspout in September of '12 so technically my tornado drought from '12 to '13 only lasted between September 22, '12 and May 27, '13. I count all spouts as tornadoes, but that one was actually logged in the LSRs as a tornado.

It's easy to have long droughts if you're inactive, but I was no slouch between '12 and '13 either. I had logged 29 (!) chases between supercellular tornado intercepts of April 14, '12 and May 27, '13.

'13 was shaping up to be one of my worst years since I started chasing. I got spoiled right at the end with October 4 and two dramatic wedge encounters, and another on November 17. Something catastrophic will have happened if I go a year in '14 without having seen a tornado.

 

[Adam Lucio]

Interesting stat I've never thought to conjure up before (I love stats, so stuff like this is fun.)

My longest drought is between the 08/09 seasons with the last Tornado in 2008 being on June 7th near Chicago and the first of 2009 being May 13th near Edina, MO (Kirksville day.) So if my math is correct, that comes to 331 days. Or 11 Months and 7 days. The only thing that prevented 2012/2013 from being my longest drought were the wimpy tornadoes I saw in the Texas Panhandle on October 12th, 2012.

My last tornado was a hog. The EF-4 Washington, IL tornado (intercepted near Roanoke) of November 17th, 2013.

I really seemed to make the most of 2013, so SDS hasn't really sunk in at all this winter. I've actually been embracing and enjoying all this damn snow we keep getting. Funny how that works. The same period a year ago I was binging heavily and trying not to commit murder.

 

[James Gustina]

Considering my first four seasons were tornado-less, my longest drought was from October 12, 2012 to April 17, 2013 which is 187 days if I counted right. Although, the time between April 17th and my next tornado will be probably the longest drought. I just failed it up this season.

My last tornado was this piece of garbage just outside of Lawton on April 17, 2013. I hate even having to count this one:

 

[Adam R Davis]

My last tornado was a brief one near Hartsville, IN on May 01 2012. I will likely cross the two year mark before I see the next one.

 

[Dan Robinson]

I had a goose egg season in 2009. That produced a tornado drought one month short of 2 years in length, from May 26, 2008 to April 22, 2010. I only made one short trip to the Great Plains in April of 2009. During that trip, I busted on the 26th high risk, then didn't chase on the 29th because I was staying in Tulsa and didn't want to drive all the way to the TX panhandle. Those two days were the only good chances I had to see a tornado in 2009.

My last ones were during the MCV tornado machine on July 1 and 2 in eastern Illinois. Living in the Midwest gives me some insurance against tornado-less years. If I completely bomb in the Plains, there's always something local here.

 

[Jason Boggs]

My last great tornado was the Campo tornado in 2010. Not sure why I'm on a dry streak, but I don't care. I'm more of a structure freak anyway. Don't get me wrong...I love tornadoes, but give me a nice structured LP and I'm happy!

 

[Warren Faidley]

The drought looks to continue well into the 2014 chase season, so get ready to head east into Sherwood forest if you want to break your own tornado drought in the near future. I'm suspecting we'll see the same thing as last year, with the dryline setting up in central OK offering a short window of dangerous urban chasing before storms cross 1-35. The only thing that will save us is an infestation of pine beetles!

W.

 

[Jon Strebler]

The drought looks to continue well into the 2014 chase season, so get ready to head east into Sherwood forest if you want to break your own tornado drought in the near future. I'm suspecting we'll see the same thing as last year, with the dryline setting up in central OK offering a short window of dangerous urban chasing before storms cross 1-35. The only thing that will save us is an infestation of pine beetles!

W.

I sure hope that isn't the case. As sad as it is, I have been following the drought monitor and do see improvement from last year at this time. Obviously it's only January so that may be meaningless though.

 

[Albert Rodriguez]

No tornado drought for me, I documented a tornado each spring session since 2010. The streak looked in jeopardy for 2013 until May 17.

 

[Brandon Jenkins]

Have yet to have a tornado-less spring but 2011 was officially the year of the bird fart as every tornado I witnessed that year could easily be classified as such. An early intercept on march 18th 2012 kept the drought short for me, however, and 2013 was a fairly successful spring despite a few bad calls and near misses. If I use meaningful or photogenic tornadoes to plot a timeline, well, that's a different story. May 10, 2010 - March 18, 2012 between fully condensed tornadoes lasting longer than a few seconds.

As far as last tornado goes, may 31st, unfortunately.

 

[Jeff Duda]

My last tornado was on May 19th, 2013 (the POS near South Haven, KS).

My longest tornado drought was 371 days, from May 29th, 2008 to June 5th 2009.

I have seen at least one tornado every "season" (between March 1 and June 30) every year since 2008. Although in some years, it was just one tornado (including 2013).

On an interesting side note, I have chased on consecutive days (two in a row or more) on 11 occasions. In zero of those occasions did I see tornadoes on more than one day of the stretch.

 

[Brett Roberts]

Since I started in late 2005, I'm thinking my longest drought would be between 5/22/07 (Hill City) and 5/23/08 (Quinter), so 367 days.

If you want to get into subjective territory on "quality" tornadoes, that would probably be between 5/23/08 (Quinter) and 4/22/10 (Jericho). The amount of poor decision-making and just plain bad luck I had to get through in the 2008-09 timeframe still pains me to this day!

Technically, I can at least take solace in having seen a condensed tornado every spring since 2006.

 

[Shane Adams]

My last tornado was on May 19th, 2013 (the POS near South Haven, KS).

If that's a POS, you've got ridiculously high standards LOL. Unless you're not referring to the white elephant trunk tornado.

 

[Brandon Lawson]

Hmm. This thread is depressing, lol. Nothing like reliving tough stretches of tornado drought! My longest stretch lasted (correction) 444 days. After the chase filled year of 2007, my first chase in 2008 occurred rather early on Jan 7th in Monett, MO. Foolishly, I thought this meant I was going to have a good year. I couldn't have been more wrong. After blowing some marginal setups in the Panhandle earlier in the Spring of the same year, I was sidelined from chasing during the month of May due to my grandmother being in the hospital. Of course, the month of May ended up being the whole season. My next successful chase wasn't until Mar 26, 2009 when I randomly ended up in Kiel Ortega's SUV with Brett Roberts. We managed to see a brief spin-up near Saint Jo, TX in north-central Texas:
http://www.skyinmotion.com/gallery/photos/chase/2009/2009-03-26/2009-03-27_6186.jpg

My last tornado was the Climbing Hill, IA tornado on October 4, 2013 with Brett Roberts and Daniel Betten. It was my first Fall tornado/first Iowa tornado. So that was pretty cool.