Is 2010 the most photogenic tornado year to-date?

If simply seeing the tornado makes it photogenic, then I guess it goes back to my "what year did more chasers see tornadoes" feel, which gives the award to 2010 easily simply on the number of chasers.
 
I agree with Andrew. The list that Skip made has a lot of tornadoes but I would also but into account the chaseability of these events. I mean how many guys chased a waterspout in California. Almost all of 2004's photogenic tornadoes happened on big, obvious setups with the exception of maybe the April 20 Illinois outbreak and a few July Nebraska events. While in 2010 this season has had its share of big, obvious setups (April 22, May 10, May 19) it has also had quite a few less obvious, non traditional setups such as May 31 and August 7 which would have likely gone unchased by most in 2004 compared to 2010 with the rapid increase of chasers and chase tours.

Just some food for thought.
 
Michael O'Keeffe said:
I agree with Andrew. The list that Skip made has a lot of tornadoes but I would also but into account the chaseability of these events. I mean how many guys chased a waterspout in California. Almost all of 2004's photogenic tornadoes happened on big, obvious setups with the exception of maybe the April 20 Illinois outbreak and a few July Nebraska events. While in 2010 this season has had its share of big, obvious setups (April 22, May 10, May 19) it has also had quite a few less obvious, non traditional setups such as May 31 and August 7 which would have likely gone unchased by most in 2004 compared to 2010 with the rapid increase of chasers and chase tours.

Just some food for thought.
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This exact topic came up when discussing with some others that while 2010 has gone nuts, it just hasn't felt like a "classic" big year. When I think back to 2004, it was constant moderate/high risk dryline days when it was simply pick your storm and film 5 tornadoes, rinse and repeat the following day. Constant classic setups across all of the central plains and then into the mid-west.

When I think 2010, I do think epic tornadoes, but classic dryline days were more rare. It was an epic year, but a year to be able to chase a LOT. If you were screwed by restrictions as I was, it ended up being a bit of a downer in that a lot of the bigger days were single day events, in a location 3 states away from the last event. Rather than constant classic dryline days, it was a storm managing to find that hidden boundary that wasn't evident the night before and go absolutely nuts.
 
FYI my comparison was based off the list Scott W put up so if those days were deemed the "photogenic" tornadoes of 2004 I thought it would be fun to see what 2010 had in comparison, even if all it had was a "non photogenic" bird fart tornado.

Try looking at it that way. How are you going to judge which year was better without seeing all it had to offer?
 
Adam Lucio said:
FYI my comparison was based off the list Scott W put up so if those days were deemed the "photogenic" tornadoes of 2004 I thought it would be fun to see what 2010 had in comparison, even if all it had was a "non photogenic" bird fart tornado.

Try looking at it that way. How are you going to judge which year was better without seeing all it had to offer?
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In that case, I guess I'm still stuck on the whole 2010 had a whole lot more to offer case in sheer numbers. I'm sure that without reading thru the entire thread someone has already offered up the idea of the many many more chasers being out contributing to the "better structure".

Being from Illinois, I've often found it weird when people constantly say after a good mid-west or Illinois chase that "structure like this never happens in Illinois" or "that's a good tornado/supercell for this area!" when in reality, it always has happened and will continue to do so, but the continual growth of people with cameras in the right place at the right time will make it more and more available for viewing after the fact by others.
 
A tornado by itself is just wind, debris, and condensation. The contrast, lighting, and an artistic eye that knows how capture it with a camera is what makes a tornado "photogenic." If no one is there to witness or photograph a tornado, then its not photogenic since its the observer and their media that make it photogenic. So I don't think 2004 should be given more credit since there were less chasers, or 2010 adjusted to 2004 levels since there were more chasers. If you have more photographers and the same number of tornadoes on two given years, the year with more photographers will have more photogenic shots of tornadoes than the year with less photographers.

I agree that some of the shots posted in my above list are not what you would consider the most photogenic tornadoes. I wasn't going to try and draw a line on what was photogenic and what wasn't so I listed more photos rather than less. I provided a cross section of events so that they could be compared to the other lists. You'll have to dig through them and stack up the best of 2010 against the best of 2004 and make your own judgement.

In terms of a classic chasing year, I also agree 2004 was better. With higher end setups centered in the plains, it was definitely a more favorable year for chasers as a whole. We should consider tornadoes outside of the plains and from less obvious setups too though if we are comparing the whole year in terms of how photogenic it was (including spouts on the coast and see texts way up in MT or the midwest).
 
Skip Talbot said:
I agree that some of the shots posted in my above list are not what you would consider the most photogenic tornadoes. I wasn't going to try and draw a line on what was photogenic and what wasn't so I listed more photos rather than less. I provided a cross section of events so that they could be compared to the other lists. You'll have to dig through them and stack up the best of 2010 against the best of 2004 and make your own judgement.
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It's sad just how many sites no longer exist to show stuff from 2004 even. Just browse some links Sam B made for like May 29...

http://www.k5kj.net/News_2004.htm#2004

http://tornadoes-r-us.home.att.net/OsbornCameron.htm Damon's gone or changed.
http://www.geocities.com/musicmelou/may292004.html Mel's gone.
http://www.jkdigitalphotography.com/may29.html Joey's gone or changed.
http://www.stormseason.com/?f Mike's gone.
http://www.garnerchase.net/hc3.asp Garner's gone.
http://stormguy.com/site/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=39&Itemid=62 Crowley gone.

I see Twister Sister's site is gone. Rozoff's is gone so no showing the mile wide bradgate IA tor. Naftel's site gone. News site links, forget it. So you'd be trying to compare a lesser chaser period, far less complete internet data(was using 9.6k cell when even that would pull one radar image), and with about a 50% or less likihood a site they might have been on is still even around.

Jim Leonard had been chasing 30 years and said it was the best year to be a chaser. Wonder where he places 2010. A lot of big years over a 30 year span.
 
I just tried looking for Brian Stertz pictures of the Bradgate tornado. I am sure he had some but his site also appears to be down. It seems like a lot of older chasers change site names or they take down the web page for good.
 
Another consideration is the available equipment in 2004 vs 2010. A lot of people were still shooting film/slide in 2004 and shooting video with MiniDV or Digital8 on cameras that had much less than stellar low-light capability. So what we see in a 2010 image or video that might be stunning and without grain, in 2004 may have been filmed or photographed by equipment that wasn't overly conducive to taking photos in conditions chasers are often stuck with. I noticed in going through that 2004 images that so many were very grainy (even 35mm slides) and it was obviously that advances in camera and camcorder sensors has come a long way since then. Heck, just the ability to preview an image on a screen and make on-the-fly adjustments on a digital camera can make all the difference in the world.
 
Here is some images from 2004 that have not been posted yet:

http://www.stormchaserco.com/20040510_T5_6.jpg

http://www.amsoil.com/testimonials/samaras/images/1_1500px.jpg

Roanoke, Illinois tornado:
Roanoke_tornado.jpg


May 29th, Danville Kansas
10177675-tornado-near-dansville-ks-may-29-2004.png


http://skydiary.com/gallery/chase2004/051204tornado02f.jpg

A house being blown away by a tornado in mid air:
http://skydiary.com/gallery/chase2004/051204tornado02e.jpg

May 30th, Secor, Illinois
250px-Secor_IL_tor_30May04.jpg


Edit: I could not find any good pictures of the Hallam, Nebraska tornado. Does anybody know of any good pictures of that tornado?
 
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2004 was an incredible year, and the fact that we're comparing 2010 to it is pretty impressive to be sure. A lot can be argued about the additional amount of chasers in the field this year, and the improved technology as well. Whether 2010 was as good as 2004 is a matter of opinion, but I personally rank 2010 up there pretty high. We've seen some incredible pictures and footage this season!
 
Dont forget the drillbit on May 22, that thing was incredible! photogenic for sure. Better looking from my point of view, but I've only got video caps of it.

n3ryfm.png


24v1obl.jpg
 
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