Poll: worst storm chase seasons in recent history

[Jeff Duda]

Consider the period 2005-and on.

You can vote for two years (the number of choices are limited by the forum software...sorry. If you want to add a different year, nominate it in a reply).

Consider both your own experience in a given year and the overall sense of the quality of the year, but weight more towards your own experience.

For me, 2013 was horrendous, but I won't count it because it was objectively acceptable.

 

[Mark Blue]

I voted and it appears I hit the same years as the majority have. I don’t recall any memories of 2012. Does anyone have an opinion about that year? This should end up being an interesting thread and poll once it has run its course!

 

[Paul Sherman]

2012 feautured LaCrosse on 25th May that Season.

Can you Add 2006 as that was the worst I have experienced 2nd would be 2009

 

[Bob Schafer]

I chose '12 and '20 but I think 2006 was even worse. My claim-to-fame for 2006 was one *possible* tornado seen and photographed from about 30 miles away. Biased to my own experiences:

2009 I had one good day: multiple tor's northeast of Floydada 4-29 (You should see David Drummond's unreal vid of that), and there was also a honking beast from near Rapid City down to Valentine July 13. [edit] found it.

2012 was really bad, but I did see one halfway-decent tornado.

2014 I don't think should even be on the list because of Pilger, the following day and Wessington Springs (SD).

June 12 2017 was so good in the WY/CO/NE corner I can't choose that year.

2018 was awful, despite the CO Landspoutfest and some great structure around Borger TX May 30, but it only places it 3rd-worst.

2019 I did actually see 8 tornadoes (none of which were good enough to post anything on YouTube), so for me cannot be chosen as one of 2 worst.

2020, the Holly and Kansas storm last week didn't do much for me.

 

[Brett Nickeson]

Hands down, 2020 wins and I'm not even sure it matters what happens in June. I've had one chase to northwest KS last Saturday and it was a bust. The second place finisher was tough though, so I went more from a personal level.

I hadn't started chasing yet in '09 so that's out. 2012 was pretty bad but early in the season had enough storms including the high risk day on 4/14. 2017 was absolutely awful until the Carpenter tornado day but that one day salvaged the season. 2018 was tough and a very late start, but I made the most of my few chances and scored almost every time. Got Tescott, WY tornadoes, and the spout fest in CO. 2019 was extremely slow since I wasn't going to venture down to the hellhole known as Oklahoma. But I got the Nebraska tornadoes starting with McCook and the Tipton, KS tornadoes from relatively close range.

2014 is my second place finisher. It was an ungodly slow year with any storms that did occur not living up to expectations. Then I traveled to Iceland in June, fairly confident that no severe weather events would occur since the longer range models showed next to nothing. On my last three days, we spent most of them huddled up in the camper van out of the rain watching twin EF-4's, wedges, and beautiful SD tornadoes come across our social media feeds. All these were within three hours of where we live. I think I've seen one tornado within three hours of Omaha in the last 10 years and it was on a <2% day. The level of depression watching those videos from my home state as I was thousands of miles away was worse than every other bust that year combined.

God I'm pissed off just thinking about it.

 

[Drew Terril]

I'm hesitant to judge 2020 until we get through June. If we're excluding anything after the end of May, 2014 and 2018 were no better IMO. If you didn't get Tescott in 2018, you basically got nothing in May. The only notable tornado in the southern plains in 14 that I recall was Quapaw, and that was the day prior to my birthday in late April. In fact, that's the only reason I didn't chase that day. My folks would have killed me if I didn't show up for my own birthday meal.

Certainly there have been more opportunities this year being based in Oklahoma than there were in 2014, assuming you can call off work the day prior, which I cannot. Even with that, I still managed one successful chase. 2014 never presented me with another opportunity after I sat out the Quapaw storm (which was just over an hour from my hometown of Catoosa). Didn't have a good enough paying job at the time to jump on any of the stuff from Nebraska and points north that year.

 

[JamesCaruso]

Ugh sorry I accidentally clicked the check box for 2019 instead of 2020, any way my vote can be reset so I can resubmit? Sorry to be any trouble!

Agree 2006 should be added, that would probably be in my top two, maybe even number one worst.

@Paul Sherman yeah 2012 had Lacrosse so wouldn’t make my “worst” list. Shows that one tornado day can make a trip for chase vacationers like me - but not necessarily enough to keep it off the “worst” list for the season as a whole (although I can’t remember much else about 2012; I do keep journals but not in the mood to go retrieve them right now...)

EDIT: Also I understand 2018 generally sucked, but I always come back to the fact that one *could have* seen tornados three days in a row - WY, the CO landspout day, and DDC (I may have the last two in the wrong chronological order, I can’t remember). I screwed up on all three of those days, but I always blame myself for that and never really think of it as a bad season because those opportunities existed. Not every chase vacation of mine even had three available tornado days.

 

[JamesCaruso]

June 12 2017 was so good in the WY/CO/NE corner I can't choose that year.

I voted 2017 as my worst and you reminded me of something that made it even worse - everything suddenly blew up that one late-season day which, IIRC, was the first day outside of my available chasing window. I had left the Plains early because of inactivity, and had a window I could have gone back, and that big day was I think the first day after my window had expired. Salt in the wounds for sure.

 

[Alex Elmore]

I don’t recall any memories of 2012. Does anyone have an opinion about that year?

2012 was my first "real" chase year and it went fairly well, so I probably look back on it with rose-colored glasses. I bagged a couple crappy tornadoes, but structure was pretty good and I'm a sucker for structure. I was out May 25 - June 3 and it was one of my favorite chase periods in my chasing career. Since that first year, I've never been on of "the big one" days, so take my input with that in mind.

 

[Mark Blue]

I tweaked the settings so you can change your vote @JamesCaruso. Or anyone for that matter. Please stick with your gut though and don't let the discussion sway you one way or the other.

 

[Paul Sherman]

I have kept a Blog since 2005 so its relatively easy for me to check the notable days I saw Tornadoes

2005 :- May 10th Grand Island Supercell to May 13th Childress HP was a decent Period
2006 :- God Awful
2007 :- Greensburg EF5 and Sporadic Tornado Events upto the 3rd Week
2008 :- Absolute Insanity 21st to 30th was Incredible with 3 High Risk Events
2009 :- God Awful
2010 :- May 10th High Risk, May 18th and 19th Oklahoma Events May 25th Walsh Tornado and May 31st Campo
2011 :- Landed day after Tuscaloosa and Changed over a Tour for Joplin but May 24th High Risk saved it with Canton
2012 :- Lacrosse Tornado Day 25th May in Kansas
2013 :- Granbury EF4 on 15th, Graham 17th, Shawnee EF4 19th May, El Reno 31st May and some decent June Tornadoes
2014 :- Non Descript May but 16th to 18th with Pilger, Coleridge and Alpena saved the Season
2015 :- Canadian 27th May and Simla 4th June were the Season Savers
2016 :- Wray, Wynnewood, Felt, Leoti, Perryman, Turkey, Dodge and Chapman including a 5 day Tornado Run
2017 :- McClean 17th and 12th June but overall a poor season
2018 :- May 28th Landspoutfest in CO, June 19th Keenesburg (Co)
2019 :- Mccook 17th and various tornadoes upto the 25th and a few High Plains Tornadoes in June 2019

So its easy to see why 2006 and 2009 get my vote although had we made it over I think 2020 would be up there in first place.

 

[Jeff Duda]

I have kept a Blog since 2005 so its relatively easy for me to check the notable days I saw Tornadoes

2005 :- May 10th Grand Island Supercell to May 13th Childress HP was a decent Period
2006 :- God Awful
2007 :- Greensburg EF5 and Sporadic Tornado Events upto the 3rd Week
2008 :- Absolute Insanity 21st to 30th was Incredible with 3 High Risk Events
2009 :- God Awful
2010 :- May 10th High Risk, May 18th and 19th Oklahoma Events May 25th Walsh Tornado and May 31st Campo
2011 :- Landed day after Tuscaloosa and Changed over a Tour for Joplin but May 24th High Risk saved it with Canton
2012 :- Lacrosse Tornado Day 25th May in Kansas
2013 :- Granbury EF4 on 15th, Graham 17th, Shawnee EF4 19th May, El Reno 31st May and some decent June Tornadoes
2014 :- Non Descript May but 16th to 18th with Pilger, Coleridge and Alpena saved the Season
2015 :- Canadian 27th May and Simla 4th June were the Season Savers
2016 :- Wray, Wynnewood, Felt, Leoti, Perryman, Turkey, Dodge and Chapman including a 5 day Tornado Run
2017 :- McClean 17th and 12th June but overall a poor season
2018 :- May 28th Landspoutfest in CO, June 19th Keenesburg (Co)
2019 :- Mccook 17th and various tornadoes upto the 25th and a few High Plains Tornadoes in June 2019

So its easy to see why 2006 and 2009 get my vote although had we made it over I think 2020 would be up there in first place.

Unfortunately, we no longer have many long-term members who were around for the 2005-2009 seasons to provide a strong enough voice for how terrible some of those years were. I should give you about 10 more votes so you can repeatedly vote for 2006/2009. I suspect if this current crowd had to deal with another 2006, the complaints would be about as loud as they are for 2020.

 

[Brett Roberts]

I think 2006 is the closest match to how 2020 has evolved to this point: actually decent (relative to the meager early season Plains climo) up through the end of April, then miserable afterwards. However, 2006 was a bit more active in March-April, whereas 2020 has been a bit more active in May itself. We've snuck in several decent May chase opportunities in the S Plains so far, but of the ones that are mainly structure-focused and lacked quality tornadoes, it's hard to say whether 2006 may have also had similar opportunities that very few chasers bit on. I think that window from 2005-2010 is when most of the explosive growth happened in our hobby -- particularly the emergence of the "never stop chasing" contingent -- so the reporting biases for marginal/non-tornadic events may also have changed drastically around that period.

In my objective (LSR-based) chase season rankings I've mentioned here before, 2006 comes out as by far the worst May-June combo in the dataset, which stretches back to 1955. So, it comes down to whether you're a local vs. vacationer, and how you weight the early season. It would be very difficult to have a year objectively worse than 2006 if you weren't around in March and April that year.

 

[Bob Schafer]

Unfortunately, we no longer have many long-term members who were around for the 2005-2009 seasons

Here are a few notes about 2005, and 2008 (2006 and 2009 are pretty well covered already. 2007 I did not chase for personal reasons).
I mostly looked at various data for dates for which I have some videos or photos.

2005:
Paul mentioned the May 10 Grand Island (to York) supercell.
After that I had to go to PA for a funeral. My next record chasing anything significant was on...
May 31 storm from Clovis to Lubbock. SPC has 7 tornado reports from TX that day.
June 5 storm invof Mountain Park & Snyder OK
June 9 multiple tornadoes in KS, esp. Hill City/WaKeeney area. 45 tornado reports (nationally) on SPC page
June 11 TX PH tornadoes SPC: 10

2008:
May 22 48 tornado reports from SPC, mostly KS, CO and WY
May 23 SPC has 64 tornado reports
May 25 53 tornadoes nationally
May 29 71 tornadoes nationally
June 5 37 tornadoes in The Alley
June 11 64 tornadoes C KS to Minneapolis MN
June 12 32 tornadoes, mostly in a line from ~Salina to MI

Oh, and as for 2004, There was a wedge tornado near Perryton on April 19. It was controversial. There was an argument about whether or not it was even a tornado at all, but in the end the "yes it was" won out. Then on June 12 was Mulvane, which was my career day up to that point. Mulvane doesn't even qualify for my top 5 now. I didn't personally see much of anything else in 2004, and I don't know how other chasers did that year.

 

[Drew Terril]

Unfortunately, we no longer have many long-term members who were around for the 2005-2009 seasons to provide a strong enough voice for how terrible some of those years were. I should give you about 10 more votes so you can repeatedly vote for 2006/2009. I suspect if this current crowd had to deal with another 2006, the complaints would be about as loud as they are for 2020.

Jeff, you make a good point. I never really thought of it because for one, I had zero connection to the chase community (didn't know any other chasers at all) until 2011, and two, I was still living in Kentucky at the time, and never had the resources or time to make chase trips out to the plains. I did get my first tornado that year (in Kentucky east of I-65 of all places), but hadn't payed as much attention to the plains that year since I couldn't chase it as I was working full time in the construction industry, in addition to my duties in the Reserves.