If you could re-document one chase...

[Jeff Snyder]

If I could redo one chase, it would have to be 5/29/04. Although I was on a long-track intense supercell that produced numerous tornadoes across central Oklahoma (the storm traversed nearly the entire state of OK), and I saw a couple of anticyclonic tornadoes E of Geary, most of the tornadoes on this HP were very, very difficult to see. On the other hand, I still can't help but shake my head when I think about what others were seeing on the prolific tornadic supercell in southern Kansas... That storm seemed to produce high-contrast tornadoes of many different shapes and sizes, and I was with a chase group that was so, so close to choosing to go W and NW from Enid instead of targeting the storm developing out near Roger Mills county. That very early decision sealed our fate. If we had gone NW from Enid, we would have ended up on the storm that eventually produced some beautiful tornadoes.

I've messed up some other chases (5/23/2008 Quinter day, 4//7/2002 Throckmorton day, 6/12/05 Kent County TX tornadofest, etc.), but 5/29/04 tops list of most painful days.

 

[Wes Carter]

April 9, 2010 near Murfreesboro, TN. Although I was not on the EF-4 that went through Murfreesboro, I was on a tornado just south of town. But in my excitement I somehow got out of sync with my camera and never even looked at the red circle that let me know I am recording. All of my footage is of the door of my car because when I picked up the camera and hit the record button, I turned off the recording. Then, once the tube went behind trees and was no longer visible I hit the button again and laid the camera down and again filmed my door.

 

[JeffGonzales]

I have two events i wish i could redo, both in 2011. The first event was on March 22, 2011 near Missouri Valley, IA. Most chases blasted to Creston, IA and I stayed near Omaha and chased numerous tornadic cells. We got a nice cone tornado paralleling the road near Missouri Valley. This was the first day with my dome cam and we were streaming live the tornado behind us as we drove. Once we got to an opening to stop we puller off the road. Ch. 6 in Omaha was using our live stream of the tornado when my friend got out of the car in excitement and got his foot caught in the power cord and camera shut off live while the tornado was close. Once we got it back on, I went to push record, but realized the tape was full with video before the tornado had dropped and we had no time to change tapes in the dome with the tornado being close. So ended up with brief footage and cell phone video.

The next one i wish i could redo is 8/11/11 Woodlake, IA. Went out on a low risk day and got a beautiful white tornado. We got amazing video of the RFD cutting out the funnel too. No one else was around us and I believe we got an exclusive. My first regret is I didn't take time before the chase to put on my dome cam. The 2nd regret this day was we passed a dirt road that lead right up to the tornado. I didn't notice this until later when I was watching the video and saw the power lines leading right up to it. The tornado was moving 5mph on a hill so we could have easily got right up to it. Instead we opted to stop and get video it from afar. Here is video from that day:

Watch video >

 

[Rob H]

It's funny what people pick, because I still consider Jeff's video of Woodlake to be one of my favorites. It's probably one of the things that keeps us all coming back, year after year - there's always the opportunity to learn more, intercept differently, and see new things.