How Has YOUR March Chasing Been?

[Tony Laubach]

I wrote a fun blog entry this morning regarding my history of chasing in March as we all look to this upcoming system as the first potential severe weather maker of the season. I can't say I was surprised with what I turned up, but its fun to see how all this falls together when you start putting some numbers to it.

Being the statistical guru I am, it was a pretty easy case for me, but I'd be curious to know how you all have done in the month of March.

Blog entry up at http://www.tornadoeskick.com (I fixed the issue where my posts were being cut off on the right side for those viewing on a non-widescreen monitor).

 

[Wesley Luginbyhl]

I have had 4 tornado days in March, but the non-tornado days is atleast 4 times that much. The earliest March date I have seen a tornado is March 23. Something special about that last week of March.

 

[Scott Sims]

Good post Tony, I had been wondering if it was worth a vacation day and a 500 mile drive to get in position myself as well. My only success with March came last year, although I don't have as many chases in March as you do to pull from.

I got into a beast moving at ~60kt that had a line segment with a south end meso in it that produced a small tornado near Baldwin, IL on Mar 8 2009. I could not see the tornado, but got into a big wet RFD with 1/2" hail and 60mph winds. I wouldn't call that one a total success, but like you said after a long winter its nice just to see something. I decided after that that I will do that locally again but I probably wont venture out to the plains if storm motions are forecast over 40-45kt.

The only "successful" March chase I had happened a few weeks later just south of the Red River on March 26, 2009. I have a video of what I saw on that storm, which included a very small brief spin-up just West of St Jo, TX.

So, my experience pretty much follows along with your general "last week" of March cutoff.

 

[Andrew Ryan]

I find it funny that you made March 27th your threshold, since that is my birthday. So, once I reached my birthday, I start to get some legitimate chase opportunities.

My first chase last year was on March 7th and we just missed the tornado in Hutchinson, KS. So, you never know. But your statistics were very interesting. Thanks!

 

[Laura Duchesne]

This probably has no relevance to you plains chasers, but being based in Ontario, I've only had one March chase, and that was March 28, 1998. We chased a tornado watch squall line and saw a funnel cloud. That was the earliest chase I ever had. About a week or so before then, we had a winter storm.

 

[Skip Talbot]

I have two March tornado days: March 12, '06 and March 28, '07. The latter being my career chase. With 6 tornadoes on those two chases, that's also a quarter of my total tornado count. So I'm probably a little skewed towards March. I still only regard the month as the "preseason" though. I won't hesitate to run out to the end of the Plains though if the setup looks decent.

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

For the longest time I had more February chases than March ones. Not sure why. I'm not sure I've had 5 March chases now. Only good one was March 28, 2007. I guess March 12, 2006 was good enough, especially since it may be the day I intercepted the most storms ever, starting with a couple morning hailers in St. Joe, after missing the really early KC one, then each of the "long lived duo's" just before they started producing tornadoes, then later afternoon some at KC again, then one of the night monsters, and finally after that the squall line. Heck March might hold my best ratio lol.

It seems I still have some restraint in March on jumping on "chase ops". I think April is my best month to waste away time and money in.

 

[Tony Laubach]

Its probably worth a mention here as it was in my blog that part of my jadedness for March also surrounds me having to sit out March 28, 2007. Not to say I wouldn't have hosed it up had I been out, but I think that would've taken more work than actually making one of my career days from it.

But yeah, I give that day oober credit, but also acknowledge it being after my March 27 threshold.

 

[Verne Carlson]

Yeah March seems to only yield 1 or 2 tornado days and late in the month. April maybe 3. Gotta chase whenever mother nature says so regardless of what the calendar says.

 

[Shane Adams]

I'd have to look up my hand-written stats to get the number of overall March chases (at work and tried to recall them from memory but I've been doing this too long for that anymore), but I've had six tornado days in March:

March 7, 2000 (1) http://www.passiontwist.com/3700chase.htm
March 22, 2000 (1) http://www.passiontwist.com/32200chase.htm
March 27, 2004 (4) http://www.passiontwist.com/32704chase.htm
March 30, 2006 (2) http://www.passiontwist.com/33006chase.htm
March 30, 2008 (2) http://www.passiontwist.com/33008chase.htm
March 23, 2009 (1) http://www.passiontwist.com/32309chase.htm

 

[Michael O'Keeffe]

I've had a few good March chases nabbing a few distant tornadoes on March 28, 2007 in SW Kansas, March 7, 2009 intercepted a few brief tornadoes in C Kansas, and then a small dusty tornado near Arkansas City, KS on March 23, 2009. If you didn't pick up on the general theme of small, brief, and distant then you can see I don't care much for March but I'll chase in March anyway because like Verne said you have to chase regardless of what the calendar says. You never know when you will get another March 28.

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_1990_Central_US_tornado_outbreak

That would have been a bad day to sit out cause it was March. At least those types of days will be obvious don't sit out ones. But then again I was tempted to March 28, 2007.

In Nebraska, several strong tornadoes touched down across the southern and central portion of the state including an F4 that traveled for over 125 miles.

Doh. Too bad that surely still meant you got one view of it anyway(speed). Hell of a track if just one though.

 

[Chris Wilburn]

Add me to the March 28, 2007 list. We only saw one tornado in the TX panhandle that day thanks to taking one road south too quick instead of the next one. That is my only March tornado day.

Although I didn't see a tornado this day, March 12, 2006 is what I always think of when thinking of March chasing. What an incredible day and incredible supercell that tracked through Missouri, Illinois and Inidana before having it's last reflectivity in southern Michigan. I think this is the same storm that developed in Osage County in Oklahoma. We chased the cell from Independence, KS to Fort Scott, KS to almost no avail. We got several looks at the storm, but it was moving too fast. I don't think it had a tornado report until it crossed over the KS/MO border.

 

[Kevin Crawmer]

I was always fascinated with weather, but got hooked on chasing in 2006. I got into golfball sized hail on March 11, 2006 in Columbia, MO and then nearly missed that long-lived supercell on March 12 because of being glued to the "Now" thread on here (I had no setup at the time). I chased it for several miles before being cut off by the Mississippi. I then dropped a relatively long track tornado after I lost it. Incredible day though.

 

[Rob Satkus]

For me March has been good and bad...My first chase tornado was actually on March 28, 1988. Other tornadic catches have been 3/26/91, 3/8/92, 3/17/92, 3/17/03, 3/27/04, 3/28/07, 3/30/08 and 3/26/09. With the exception of 3/26/91 and 3/28/07 all the tornadoes we saw were small and weak and even 3/28/07 all those we saw that day were after dark and in poor visibility. 3/13/90 will always be a "Why??!!" day for me, as it happened over spring break and was committed to go home and work for a few days to earn a little $$. I was off the day of but didn't have the time to go. Aaaggghh.