I've missed my fair share of storms and tornadoes over the years... some hurt more than others, but it seems as time goes on, most of those vanish into the void that is memory. However, one day ALWAYS makes my list, no matter how much time has gone by.
March 28, 2007... I don't know why to this day why I still hang on to that one. I missed it for good reason... college. I was in a Meteorology class (I cannot even remember which one) that evening and my professor threatened to fail me if I ditched class to chase. It was an empty threat, but I begrudgingly stayed behind. It was a guest lecture; nothing I recall being too exciting (and certainly one in hindsight I would have been fine missing to chase). I spent the entire time watching radar on my laptop anyway, and eventually brought in half the class once the outbreak began to unfold. I was pissed, and I let my professor know it. Perks of being young and stupid, I guess. But alas, two years later, I walked out with a paper that said I'm a meteorologist, so all's well that ends well. Still, I do not know WHY to this day that day of all the days I have missed, still burns me. Perhaps it was because I was young and it just stuck with me. Even today, I can look someone in the eye and say it no longer bugs me, but yet, immediately when asked about such a scenario, March 28 always is the top of my list.
Speaking of lists (and boy do I LOVE lists)... with March 28, 2007 being the #1 spot... I figured I would fill out the rest of my top 10 biggest misses... I'll rate them on a scale of 1-10 (10 being worst bothersome, 1 being least bothersome), but will order them chronologically from most recent.
May 9, 2016 - Wynnewood, OK Tornado (Rating: 5) I chased this day, but thinking the best storms in OK would be east of I-35 in the trees, I settled for the secondary target in north Kansas. I picked up a decent hailer, but was immediately graced with the imagery of what came out of Oklahoma, a target I easily could've made and opted to NOT.
June 4, 2015 - Simla, CO Tornadoes (Rating: 7) This would've been a 10 had it not been for the epic, all-night lightning photograpy marathon that ensued in Kansas. What made this sting... WE STARTED THE DAY IN LIMON. I think it was all of what, 15 miles? We ignored CAMs and went east into Kansas for the giant CAPE bullseye out that way. Colorado lit up, Kansas did not... at least not til evening. For a couple hours, there was not a hole deep enough for me. But a gorgeous LP, 3"+ hail, and the nearly 5 hours of lightning photography later, I felt a little better. We ultimately made up for it a bit more the following day with several tornadoes in northeast Colorado.
April 9, 2015 - Rochelle, IL Tornado (Rating: 4) I would think this would be higher, but it really never was a sting at the time. I think I regret it more in hindsight than I did in the moment. I was due to fly out of town that morning on a trip I EASILY could've rescheduled. I didn't... but at the time, it was a worthy sacrifice. Looking back, I would definitely reschedule that trip.
May 28, 2013 - Bennington, KS Tornado (Rating: 8) Another one of those I started here and went elsewhere... in fact, I went to basically the same place on this day as I did on Simla. And leaving from Salina that morning for western KS, I hated myself in earnest. This one stung because it was the first time I had stayed in a spot the night before that went on to produce an insane show, and I left that spot for another target that did not produce. Unlike Simla, there was no redeeming moments from this. I chased crap storms that day, and we all know what happened three days later. Bennington kinda fell off the board pretty quick after El Reno, so it kinda blurs a bit during that time.
May 18, 2013 - Rozel, KS Tornado (Rating: 2) This makes the list cause I hung around up along I-70 too long, but I saved this day with getting the pink sunset tornado near Sanford. Fortunately, this was one of those days where social media was a big help, cause I saw the Rozel images being shared and I immediately gave up on the warm front and rocketed south. I caught the very tail end of Rozen from a distance, but had a great, front row seat to Sanford. That saved what otherwise would've been a very painful miss.
June 16 & 17, 2010 - SD/MN Tornado Outbreaks (Rating: 9) I group both these two days together because the events of the 16th affected the events of the 17th. This was perhaps our biggest busts with TWISTEX during our stint together, and probably WOULD be my #1 worst misses if March 28 didn't always pop to mind. On the 16th, we got caught in flooding that stranded us just east of Red Elm, less than 10 miles away from the tornadoes. We had a satellite graze us, but otherwise missed the entire show. When the waters receeded enough later that evening, we got set up somewhere in SD for the night, but had run over debris in the water, which left us with a flat in the main truck the next morning. Unfortunately that delay combined with several one-way construction zones enroute, lead us to arriving in Wadena as that tornado died out. We missed the rest of that outbreak as we assisted in Wadena. This was an awful couple of days for us... and easily ranks in the top of my worst misses. I felt like everything was out of our control and working against us, and we missed out big time on both days.
May 31, 2010 - Campo, CO (Rating: 5) You'd think this one would sting more... but it's weird cause I kinda can forgive myself. After a couple weeks straight of some pretty hard chasing, I was feeling a bit under the weather and opted to NOT join the TWISTEX crew who was heading to KS for the memorial service. Enroute, they took the scenic route and I watched them pull into frame on the live stream of the Campo tornado on TWC from home. Needless to say, I felt even worse after that, but still surprised how little that one bugs me given the epicness of that particular tornado. Even more so knowing I would've been in that truck and had that view of that tornado.
May 24, 2004 - Pick Any Tornadoes That Day (Rating: 3) I think in time, this has gone down greatly... but it was a hard-chased day that seemed like every storm we got on had just finished producing tornadoes, did not produce a tornado the entire time we were on it, then would go nuts after we left for another storm. Later that night, I was held up at gunpoint by SWAT at a Motel 6 in Topeka as they were doing a drug bust downstairs in another room where I appeared to get ice. A perfect ending to a perfect day.
May 10, 2004 - Cedar Point, CO Tornadoes (Rating: 2) This was my first big miss... it hurt early, but like most from these days, it kinda faded. I chased big old hailers in northern Colorado while a nearly stationary supercell dropped half a dozen or more tornadoes west of Limon. It would've been a cherry picking day. This one stung, but I think I was new enough in my career not to understand that kind of defeat. Still, I hated myself a little for picking the wrong target. Now, it barely holds a memory to me.
DAY I DO NOT REGRET MISSING (May 20, 2013 - Moore, OK Tornado) If I go my entire career without seeing a legit EF-5, I'll consider it a victory. This day, of all the days I have chased, presented the easiest opportunity to see one. And halfway along the drive to our OKC target, I bailed. My gut was telling me this was not a good idea, so after getting to Tulsa after staying in southeast Kansas, I had lunch, and left the caravan I was driving down with. I ended up going to Wichita for the night and watching the Moore EF-5 live on TV. Obviously there is NO way to know what might have happened with me that day had I gone through with the chase, but regardless, I have no regrets in walking away from that chase.
May 25, 2016 - Chapman, KS is a day I see on many lists, many of you guys doing the same thing we did (targeted Wichita area). We immediately bailed on the ICT storms as soon as we saw the first tornado reports go up there. That proved to be the saving grace for us as we managed to get up there in time to see the last 45 minutes of that monster tornado along I-70.
