Epic Fail Chase wall of shame

[Paul Sherman]

Would have to list May 10th as kind of a fail as well, like another poster previously saw the Medford Spin up but then encountered snapped poles, 18 wheeler's thrown off Highways, houses moved of foundations but never caught up with the Nado, we started from near Highway 9 in Oklahoma that day and if we had used the Hotel's Jacuzzi and done a spot of shopping then lunch we would have been handily placed for the Norman White Cone Tornado that drove itself pefectly down Highway 9!

May 22nd and 24th also suck big time, 24th Moreso as my intention was to drive straight into South Dakota with plenty of time to spare, but got suckered West to the line in the Nebraska Panhandle on route and got pounded by low visibility sandstorms, gave up in the end and went into the 50f air the other side of the front, seeing the Wedgefest Mark2 did not help at the Hotel later on the weather channel.

All was re-deemed on the 31st May Campo Tornado, I feel Chris's pain as I started out from OK City that day as well at 11am, even went to the KrispyCreme Donut shop on route and made it in plenty of time, happens to us all Chris, I remember your Beloit Tornado pictures from 2008 and that was one of my epic fails staying on I-80 That day and blowing off the North Kansas risk that evening when we would have made it in plenty of time.

Good season overall in the end and everyone screws up some of the time, thats what makes it more fun imo

Paul S

 

[Dave Kaplow]

Worst personal chase fail? Oh yeah, that one's easy, it was May 21st, 2004.

For the whole '04 season I was lucky enough to be working as a driver/navigator for Jim Leonard's Cyclone Tours. On the 21st, some of our tourists had to be back at the airport for their flight home, but the people who didn't have to leave wanted to keep chasing, so the group split up, with Jim driving to OK, leaving Mike Theiss and myself temporarily in charge back in IA. I was only just beginning to learn the art of forecasting back then (Jim taught me a lot that year, for which I'll always be grateful) but I eventually settled on a target of Norfolk, NE for the 21st. What followed was a series of eminently justifiable but patently bad decisions, for which I take full credit/blame.

Early on the afternoon of the 21st, on the way to our target in NE, we stumbled upon a young but vigorous rotating updraft in E. Iowa that was just too promising to ignore, especially since the area was now under a tornado watch and SPC had a MD out mentioning an outflow boundary somewhere to our north. So the original target was forgotten, and we chased the young supercell through central IA. It looked really great at times, but after a couple of hours it seemingly fell apart, becoming outflowish in the extreme. There was outflow scud everywhere, no real updraft base to focus on... Nothing left but a precip shaft. The severe warning on the storm was canceled. There was no cell phone coverage so we had no access to data (this was 2004, remember), and due to the last-minute nature of the chase we had no designated nowcaster we could call... But I though it was still early, there might well be new development to our west... So we decided to blow off the IA cell and make our way back towards the original target in NE. I remember one of the tour customers absolutely pleading with us to keep chasing the cell we were on, to which I replied, to my everlasting shame: "sorry, but there's nothing left to chase."

The long and the short of it is: WRONG! A mere 20 minutes after we left that cell for dead it had regained it's severe status, and not long after that it hit the aforementioned outflow boundary and proceeded to go crazy. Now t-warned, it took a hard right and eventually completely destroyed the town of Bradgate, IA. By then of course it was far too late for us to do anything but listen to the reports and agonize. We pursued various other supercells in NE long into the night, grimly determined to do whatever it took to bag the tornado that would redeem us and vindicate the decision to bale in IA, but... Alas, not only did we not get a tornado, despite some rather dangerous nighttime chasing, but to add injury to insult we found out there had been a nice tube right in Norfolk, NE, exactly where my original target had been!

Epic Fail, with a capital F! My moment to shine, as a forecaster and a chaser, and I botched it completely. It still bugs me to this day.

 

[Nick Nolte]

Adam, chalk me up for a fail on 5-19 too. I admittedly was a bit tired from tracking the Dumas/Stinnett supercell the day prior (although I did not see a tornado, perhaps a fail in its own right, but it was a spectacular storm) and did not plan terribly well for the 19th. I figured, high risk, what the hell, tornadoes should find me, right? lol. Yeah, planning is crucial, and that was probably the first chase where that really got hammered home hard.

I also was unprepared for the convergence of craziness (of which I think 50% were locals) that happened that day. I was amazed by what I saw on 5-10, I didn't think it could get worse...dead wrong on that account. Spent so much time in traffic and trying to find alternate routes around that Watonga/Kingfisher storm that I never did get in front of it. After a dead end road I was completely frustrated and almost called my chase vacation that day. Good thing I didn't because I was there for the 5-22 and 5-24 events in SD. But I think I'll swear off high risks around major metropolitan areas from now on

Yesterday (6-15) was also a fail for me. I hadn't planned on chasing at all. Had looked at the data the day before and that morning, but probably not as thoroughly as I should have. SPC rolls out moderate risk and I decide I need to leave work early and shoot down to Indy. I should have known better, looking at the setup, it was going to be a wind event, and considering I didn't leave work til 1:20pm, that didn't help, so the cells that fired out in front of the line in KY were too far for a half-day chase. So, I suppose, chalk another one up to lack of preparation, lol.

 

[Danny Neal]

May 30th, 2004 - Sat just east of Secor, IL all day. Squall line was moving in from the west, saw isolated convection going up 30 miles to the east down US 24. Made the decision to abandon Secor and go east toward Gilman..... well.... I will just let this webpage finish the story http://www.crh.noaa.gov/ilx/events/may302004/may30.php >:-(

 

[Andy Jackson]

I've had my share of fails this season but some of your stories are scaring me.... especially with a big event tomorrow.

 

[Brett Roberts]

Just about every big day that I (attempted to) chase prior to this year would probably be a candidate for my list. I think it would be awfully hard to even narrow it down to a top 5.

However, the #1 spot is actually fairly easy: May 29, 2008. I woke up that morning not even expecting to chase, but ended up dashing out of work early around noon, thinking I'd probably end up late to the show (HIGH risk in NE/IA) but desperate enough to try anyway. After averaging 15 mph over the limit all afternoon on I-35/135 through OK and KS, I finally arrived on the formerly-tornadic Kearney supercell near Hastings at 6:30pm -- just as it was becoming a complete outflow-dominant, worthless mess, of course. No problem, though -- the best of the day was still to come, right? Trouble was, I was still relying on tethering my AT&T phone for data. I dropped S from Hastings like everyone else, but had no service (voice or data) whatsoever for well over an hour. I needed to be back in Norman for work the next morning, and starting hydroplaning like mad in the mess of HP mergers around Red Cloud, so I blasted E towards Hebron to speed up the journey home, as the last radar update I'd received didn't look all that promising in KS. It wasn't until I reached Concordia over an hour later that I started getting calls about the Glen Elder beast, whose structure to this day remains in a whole different league than anything else in the past five years, maybe longer. As someone who only shoots stills and focuses on wide-angle structure shots, that was the ultimate kick in the junk. Not just missing it, but being too far north after leaving Norman so late... being so damn close but completely oblivious to it throughout its entire life cycle... and everyone else and their dogs intercepting it perfectly. Oh, and this was a solo trip of 980 miles right around when gas was pushing $4.00 in the rural Plains.

The Deer Trail storm last week finally brought me some redemption, as I thought the structure+tor combo was a bit similar -- but ultimately, it will likely be years or decades before we see updraft structure quite like Beloit/Glen Elder. I'll probably manage to miss it when it does happen, too.

 

[Wes Carter]

April 10, 2009. I was just 15 miles South of the Murfreesboro EF-4 unaware what was going on up there. I was 'filming' a birdfart tornado only to realize that I had gotten out of synch with the record button. I recorded a lot of my dashboard and none of the tornado. So not only did I miss the main show, I didn't document the side show.

 

[Jim Hunt]

Ok, not exactly a chase but a case of fail at home...

I had a ripping sinus headache and could hardly think straight all day. I finally ditched work a bit early and went home to sleep. It was April 20, 2004. A tornado touched down in the city limit of Kokomo (where I live) and destroyed several businesses including flattening a roller rink. Skywarn spotters have photos and others had video as it passed over the divided highway.

I woke up finally about two hours after the fact only to see news reports from my town with helicopter views of the damage path. FML...

 

[Matthew Crowther]

Campo this year- was in OKC the day before but decided to not chase because the day was "marginal".

June 9th, 2005- farted around too long in southern Nebraska, was on the west side of the Hill City cell so missed all those great tornadoes- and got to the southern storm only in time to see the last tube from that one. There are more, but those two stand out.

 

[John J. Holt]

My epic fail actually could have saved my life. I was chasing south of Greensburg, Kansas May 4, 2007. At the time I didnt have my laptop computer for radar and was using my blackberry which had limited reception for the area. I had to be back in Alva, Okla. for work at 9:45 so I ended my chase at approximately 8:45 and raced to make it back to work on time. Just as I pulled into work reports were coming across the radios about the monster wedge destroying the town...

 

[Paul Knightley]

Not a fail in forecasting, but a fail in positioning. May 23, 2008, Quinter, KS. Stopped just south of town on a dirt road, on the south side of I-70, with the first tornadic supercell 15-20 miles to the south. Lost our nerve as we were only using ThreatNet, and I wasn't convinced we would be OK! Bailed to the east and missed the first tornado. Then headed back to Quinter to the gas station (to see pics and vid of the 1st tornado from other chasers!). Then, with the sirens blaring, and once again not being convinced we would be in the clear, we bailed east. We did see the wedge on our way back west, but like many others, got held at the road block. If only the next exit hadn't been 10 miles to the east of Quinter we would have been OK!
I guess because we were concerned for our safety it wasn't a fail as such, but it still felt like that after seeing others' videos!

 

[Nathan Edwards]

My biggest and most painful chase fail (not involving muddy fields) would be May 13th 2009. Probably my only chance of a tornado all 3 weeks I was in the states and I was chasing the OK panhandle on the 12th. I made the decision to head East that night and got the cheapest Motel room I could find in Weatherford, OK at 1:30am. Charged everything up and after less than 3 hours sleep, I was on the road again. Drove upwards of 750 miles that day before I reached the Kirksville storm and another 100 after, with an original target of Quincy,IL. Had I not messed up, I'd have been there i time to head to Kirksville but sitting on a Bee and getting a very nasty sting which meant I could barely sit, never mind drive delayed me by 15 minutes whilst I treated it. Construction completely blocking a road in MO took another 20 minutes. I headed into IL 'to check out the terrain' as nothing was showing up on GRLevel 3 as firing, before realising it was paused on an old radar update. When I clicked through the new updates, I saw the cell appear and it was already tor warned with me still 20 miles NE of Quincy. I then took the main street through Quincy rather than the business loop, at what was then rush hour losing probably another 15 minutes. The storm was through Kirksville at that point and heading towards Edina. Rather than take the perfectly direct HW 6 to Edina, I took a south road option, worried the storm might turn further right, and the road ended up being full of 30mph 90 degree bends. Reached Edina with the tornado passing by the country club to the north, and couldn't see a thing because of the rain wrap. Ended up driving 900 miles that day got within 1 mile of the only chaseable tornadoes of the 3 weeks I was there and I didn't see the thing. Had I not had any of the problems above, I'm, sure I'd have been in better position in Edina, and with none of the above quite likely in Kirksville also.

The Pampa cell a couple of days later was probably the only other notable storm and I didn't fancy the trip back that way, and played in the Grungefest near KCMO instead... Saw 3 severe storms in 3 weeks that year and spent most my time visiting national parks Come to think of it, I think we should just put the whole of 2009 as Epic Fail Chase Wall of Shame

 

[Jack Beven]

An oldie, but baddie: On May 12, 1997, myself and one of my co-workers were at the Econo Lodge in Norman when the very photogenic tornado went through downtown Miami, Florida - our hometown!

Jack Beven

 

[Eian Greene]

Sounds like missing the big one is the biggest moment of shame for most on here. I missed 5/31/2010, but I'm not too upset about it. Although not an SPC chaser, had I driven from Chicago to SE CO just to find myself sitting in a 2% and a blue box, I'd be wondering what the hell I was doing out there. Its just disappointing that some one of the best days of the year occur on what looks like the most marginal setups. I had played a number of upslope flow days already this year that looked just as good, but didn't turn out like that of course. You literally have to chase every single setup and have unlimited resources if you want to catch every amazing event like this, and that's just not realistic for me so it doesn't bother me.

Anyway, I posted video of my "shameful" moment driving into the culvert on June 11. Its pretty amusing:

I hate to say it, but I lived about a mile east of there in Calhan from '03 to the end of '09. You guys got stuck out @ N. Soapweed road and US24. I used to hang out there on that ridge and 'spot' storms when I lived in Calhan.


As for my chase fail, It was near Deer Trail on 5/26/10. I took after that very anorexic LP sup southwest of town. It looked like it could drop a spout or a weak tornado, but it never could get its act together.

I missed the show around DIA since I was playing the eastern edge of the storms, hoping for something 'good' to come by. Live and Learn I guess...

 

[Robert S. Thompson]

I have had plenty of fails during the past few years out chasing (Beloit KS 2008, Pratt KS 2008, Goshen WY 2009, Colorado 5/31/2010). My reasons for missing those storms have been similar to those already mentioned. This thread has been great at giving me perspective and reminding me how everything has to come together perfectly - the morning forecast, the storms themselves, road network, timing, equipment, etc. - but it rarely does. Thanks, everyone.