Blowing it during big outbreaks

[John Farley]

One of mine would be May 25, 1997, when I managed to position myself right in the middle between the tornadoes in Harper Co., KS and the ones in southern OK - and too far to get to either. Got a nicely backlit wall cloud and possible funnel, but that was nothing compared to what was to my north and to my south.

Another would be May 29, 2004. I was on the monster HP supercell in OK, but missed all the obvious tornadoes. Did catch a nice anticyclonic rotating wall cloud that may have produced a brief tornado, and saw what may or may not have been another tornado or two mostly hidden in the rain, to the point it was impossible to tell. However, due to bad positioning and a detour to cross a river, I missed most of the best stuff with that storm, by only about 15 minutes or so. Not to mention missing the tornadofest going on to my north in Kansas at the same time.

Finally, there was May 5, 2007 - I made a bad road decision northwest of Woodward OK and ended up hopelessly behind the storm that produced multiple tornadoes well up into Kansas.

 

[Robert Edmonds]

May 22/23 of last year (I think). I kept ending up on storms that I couldn't keep up with, didn't produce, or end up on a road that was too muddy and slick. I think I even fell behind on something that created some large tornado on one of those days. I hated turning on the TV at the hotel those nights. At least it sorta made up for it by catching a tornado a few days later.

 

[Alan Switzer]

Missed it by that much...

The big one I missed was the tornado fest on October 9, 2001 in Western Oklahoma. What really ticks me off is having someone nowcasting for me telling me I should keep going north to the Woodward area because the storms down by Elk City didn't look like they were going to do much. Tried to get back down there but most of it was done and gone by the time I got there.

 

[Jeff Passner]

I have a long list of these busts, so I'll just give a few "classics."

1. May 26, 1997 --- This one still stings. After a good day on May 25th in Kansas, I got fancy and decided to stay north of the boundary on the KS/OK State line. Then I decided I'd go south... I got trapped north of several cores and missed EVERY tornado in an outbreak event SW of Tulsa and near Tulsa. I saw one funnel and spent most of the event hiding from baseball hail.

2. April 26, 1984 --- I just had too much work to do and I really wanted to finish grad school and actually graduate from OU someday.. So I decided to skip a slam-dunk chase and work on a computer program... Late in the day, I couldn't take it anymore so we took off and got to OKC, but missed tornadoes near Guthrie and Stillwater,

3. May 13, 1989 --- Another painful one. Sat in Abilene eating lunch at Burger King with my chase partner while the warm front was exploding at 1:00 p.m. Missed warm front tornadoes to the north (Knox City) and dryline tornadoes to south... Could see the last of the dust from the Hodges, Tx tornado but I was driving in massive hail and missed everything. Then we had to drop south of the massive, incredible Buffalo Lake, Tx hailstorm. Man, I was terrified but we made it S-SW without getting destroyed.

4. May 10, 1991 -- Yikes... This one was bad, bad, bad... We were right there and it was my stupid decision to pick the south storm near Monhans while an F4 tornado was observed NW of LBB...

5. May 15, 2003 -- Everything that could go wrong did.. Loaded up the car and noticed that I had a flat tire. Got it patched quickly. Started driving and hit a road block at White Sands Missile Range. Sat in my car until 10:30 a.m... Drove 40 miles and just recognized that I would never make it to the Panhandle on time. Turned around and went to work.

There are many more.... May 11, 2005 in Kansas, April 26, 1994 Gainesville, Tx. April 22, 1985 Clinton, Oklahoma.... Still so many good ones that I hardly think about some of the classics listed above.

 

[Rich Thompson]

Let's see, here are a few I'd like to forget:

7 May 1986: Tornadoes near Canadian, TX. We drove to Quanah and looked at an orphan anvil. This was my first true tornado bust chase.

6 June 1989: Finally released from the shackles of verifying WSR-88D algorithm prototypes, we arrived 5-10 mins after a big tornado died about 40 SE of LBB.

13 March 1990: A good forecast, a bad decision to leave a "struggling" storm in nrn OK (saw Hesston in the distance, and the storm we left was the Wakita supercell), and a later flat tire cost us all tornadoes. Arrived back at OU to multiple stories of tornadoes!

24 May 1990: I'd never chased into KS at that point, so I decided to play volleyball instead of drive to central KS (mile wide tornado).

31 May 1990: I forecasted the warm front/dryline intersection as a target in the NE TX Panhandle 3 days in advance. Decided not to chase the day of the event for some reason, and missed the Spearman supercell.

31 May 1999: Put out the 13z MDT centered on Sitka, KS. Came off a mid shift and took the "scenic" route to SW KS via I-40 (!), and joined the hordes in missing the Sitka tornado by 5-10 minutes. My reward was a drive back to Norman and a 2nd midnight shift!

5 June 1999: Left Norman at 9am and drove all day to the area N of Norfolk, NE, the day after my chase partner had been "grounded" by his wife. After a 10 hr drive, we were still 100 miles short of the lone tornadic storm, and faced a season ending (for us) drive back to Norman.

17 May 2000: This day convinced me to get a laptop for chasing. Saw a supercell with wall cloud S of I-80 in NE after starting the day in Kearney. We had to navigate around a lake, only to find a flat, featureless storm base when we emerged from the bad terrain. Figuring the storm was weakening, we guessed there must be something better to the SE. It turns out the storm we were looking at was the new Brady storm. We literally turned around and drove away about 40 minutes before the spectacular tornado.

7 May 2002: Stayed in Norman to avert a softball team forfeit. It turns out the other team didn't show up!

8 May 2003: I had to work evening shifts during the first half of the massive May 2003 outbreak sequence. My lone chase opportunity on 8 May led us to Emporia on what seemed to be a slam dunk chase. Unfortunately, we got nervous with the poor visibility and almost non-existant radar data, and then left for the only cell we could see to the north. This storm led us to Topeka, at which time we made a wrong turn and ended up on a turnpike going the wrong way! Me and both chase partners limped back to Norman to start a set of midnight shifts, tornadoless.

10-12 June 2004: Awful sequence of long drives, poor sleep, bad decisions and bad luck across KS, NE, and IA. Three days, thousands of miles, and one cheesenado.

12 June 2005: Sleep deprived after prior chases coming off mids, and with one functioning arm following surgery on a ruptured bicep. Watched the first storm leave its anvil behind, and wondered when the wind profiles would improve. Sat with the family in Dickens until 2:30 pm with everyone tired, hot and cranky, then we drove back to Norman.

23 May 2008: Technically saw the EF4 in KS, but it was the least satisfying view I could imagine. Ended up chasing 5 supercells from 4pm to midnight, but never seemed to be in phase with tornado production on a record KS tornado day.

Fortunately, there are lots of other great chases to counter these fine examples. Over the years I've gotten better at not getting too irritated about all the days I've missed while working.

Rich T.

 

[Kory Hartman]

Aug 24, 2006 -- Maybe not a well-known event and I didn't exactly blow it, but still gives me heartburn:

Started the morning at my job. I work every day in Huron, SD. Left work at noon to pick up chase partner. Drove to the SD/MN border. Sat there for 2 hours messing with new GPS and SpotterNetwork and listening to bad severe weather coverage on the radio.

Decide to head toward Mankato and get about half-way there and hear about storms dropping picturesque tornadoes just east of the Missouri River in central SD! Whip a u-turn and head back toward HURON at a few mph over the limit.

Made it back to in time to catch a rope that did some crazy things south of Huron, a thick cone near Cavour, and a thin tor that just wouldn't rope out near Iroquois. Not a bad day, but still missed THIS:
http://www.stormchase.net/2006/20060824sd.htm

I could have left work (HURON!) at noon and driven west at 15 mph and caught it!

 

[Connor McCrorey]

Although I don't know how much I would have been able to see anyway, I made a huge rookie mistake on 5/10/08. After sitting in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, for a few hours, we took off after a small group of showers that had gradually strengthened and organized into a decent looking supercell. About that time, I decided we could possibly make the tubefest in Eastern Oklahoma before dark, and headed west. After 10 minutes of heading west, it was clear we couldn't get there before all of those supercells got undercut by the cold front, so again we turned around and headed for the first, now very intense supercell. Of course, the time that little sidetrip cost us, combined with the horrendous traffic in Hot Springs, caused us to arrive in Stuttgart, Arkansas, just minutes after the EF-3 tornado moved through. Lesson learned: Pick a storm and stick with it, unless you know it won't produce.

 

[Paul Sherman]

5th May 2007!

Like another poster got on a Tornado Warned Storm down near to Pratt and followed it all the blinkin way to the Nebraska Border whereas we should have just waited for the next Storm to come along, those that did ended the day with about 5-8 Tornadoes all around the Stafford area, learnt my mistake though and on the 23rd May 2008 sat tight just South of Quinter and scored 5Tornadoes last year on that day, at least I learnt!

12th May 2005

Missed out on the South Plains Tornado that turned into a Great big Dirt Wedge due to a dreadful Road option in Kansas (Having Chased 11th in Nebraska) at least my windows did'nt get smashed by the 4" Hailstones when everyone else got trapped.

Paul Sherman

 

[cdcollura]

Good day all,

I guess I'll admit May 24, 2004.

This was a HIGH-RISK day ... Leaving my group and I with nothing more than "lots of mileage and impatience"!

Great setup ... My group (weathervine chase team) and I lost patience (and one of my crew pressured NOT to chase in Missouri and hated "negociating" the Missouri River) in western Missouri on the to-be tornadic storm there ... Found out what we missed later and crapped ourselves.

After leaving (reluctantly for me) Missouri, we blasted west (and got stuck by two freight trains) to near Bellville, KS and got on that "tornado machine" minutes AFTER the last of several tornadoes. It was like we killed the storm with our "arrival" ... Second supercell formed S of the weakening (post-tornadic one) and did nothing more than a weak funnel.

Eventually ended up back SE near Topeka, Kansas near I-70 southward along highway 75, got hail and supercell / line cluster but not much else after unexpected road construction made navigating this aweful.

Amos M even commented: "This was the WORST chase day of my life."

Tony L ... I think you were one this one too?

LOL ... This was painful - Road closed!

 

[Tony Laubach]

Good day all,

I guess I'll admit May 24, 2004.

This was a HIGH-RISK day ... Leaving my group and I with nothing more than "lots of mileage and impatience"!

Great setup ... My group (weathervine chase team) and I lost patience (and one of my crew pressured NOT to chase in Missouri and hated "negociating" the Missouri River) in western Missouri on the to-be tornadic storm there ... Found out what we missed later and crapped ourselves.

After leaving (reluctantly for me) Missouri, we blasted west (and got stuck by two freight trains) to near Bellville, KS and got on that "tornado machine" minutes AFTER the last of several tornadoes. It was like we killed the storm with our "arrival" ... Second supercell formed S of the weakening (post-tornadic one) and did nothing more than a weak funnel.

Eventually ended up back SE near Topeka, Kansas near I-70 southward along highway 75, got hail and supercell / line cluster but not much else after unexpected road construction made navigating this aweful.

Amos M even commented: "This was the WORST chase day of my life."

Tony L ... I think you were one this one too?

LOL ... This was painful - Road closed!

Yup, that was one of two of my painful memories... pretty well said exactly what I did... Not a fun day.. made up for it on the 29th, though!

 

[Scott Bell]

May 23rd 2008 was pretty painful for me. I actually targeted the LaCrosse, KS area and we were there for lunch. As storms fired to the west, we headed west on hwy 4 and intercepted the first cell to fire. As it raced NNE, we were a bit behind it, and I was stubborn, trying to stick with it rather than letting it go and catching the next SEVERAL storms in the line. But, we avoided the hoards of chasers that saw the Quinter tornadoes

Tony and Chris: We followed the exact same path on May 24th '04. There was quite a bit of tension in the car as we kept hearing more reports of sightings to the west.

 

[cdcollura]

Good day,

Tony and Chris: We followed the exact same path on May 24th '04. There was quite a bit of tension in the car as we kept hearing more reports of sightings to the west.

LOL ... Ever see a Chrysler Town and Country Rental at 104 MPH?

 

[Matt Sellers]

October 4, 1998 still strikes a nerve - not because of busting - but because of my photography inexperience. I have never gotten more pissed as a result of something I did (or failed to do, in this case) or anything else that had happened while chasing.

Shane Adams and I initially targeted southern KS west of ICT that day. Storms up there looked like junk so we decided to head south back into OK... just in time to punch through the back side of a storm at MM178 on I-35 and see a big stovepipe about 6-8 miles to our east (the Lake Carl Blackwell F2.) The only camera we had that day was my Pentax stillcam, and I barely knew how to use it. I turned the shutter speed down a couple notches... to 1/125... then shot away - using the rest of the roll of film.

In retrospect, I shouldn't have been surprised that I only got 2 pics back out of that roll, from earlier in the day in Kansas. The tornado occurred to our east at ~1830CT with sunset less than an hour away... in using 1/125 shutter speed, I may as well have been taking pics of my floorboard. But on October 5, 1998, that didn't matter... I was furious at myself after getting those pics back.

Today, I think of that day as one where a good decision to blast south resulted in success... and no pics to show for it!

 

[markstauss]

May 4, 2003. After reading this thread I'm glad to see I'm not the only one that busted on this day. Left KC and headed across the MO river in Leavenworth. Watched storm one come in with a nice wall cloud. Heard reports about the developing storm south us near the Kansas speedway. Decided not to punch the core of that storm (probably was a good idea in hindsight). Go back across the river the way I had just came to see a nice lowering on the storm we were on. Platte county sheriff's had 92 hwy blocked off so we missed that storm. Decided to head south and intercept what turned out to be the big storm in the KC metro that day. Missed that one too barely. I got a little concerned about the path of that storm and my house being located right in the middle of the projected path. Watched the funnel (two actually) from about a mile from my house. The tornado tracked to within a mile from my house, everyone that new I was chasing saw the tornado but me. I still get crap for that.

 

[John Farley]

May 4, 2003. After reading this thread I'm glad to see I'm not the only one that busted on this day. Left KC and headed across the MO river in Leavenworth. Watched storm one come in with a nice wall cloud. Heard reports about the developing storm south us near the Kansas speedway. Decided not to punch the core of that storm (probably was a good idea in hindsight). Go back across the river the way I had just came to see a nice lowering on the storm we were on. Platte county sheriff's had 92 hwy blocked off so we missed that storm. Decided to head south and intercept what turned out to be the big storm in the KC metro that day. Missed that one too barely. I got a little concerned about the path of that storm and my house being located right in the middle of the projected path. Watched the funnel (two actually) from about a mile from my house. The tornado tracked to within a mile from my house, everyone that new I was chasing saw the tornado but me. I still get crap for that.

That was a painful day for me, too. I took too long getting to the target by coming down from Iowa on back roads rather than the freeway, because I thought they offered a shorter route. Maybe, but a slower one, too! I got into the area just as the storm died out. All I really accomplished that day was getting hailed on a couple times by later storms.