Re: 2006 - As I posted previously, I remember it being one of my worst chase trips (May 27 - June 5) and seem to remember nothing much happening after that in June either. But memories can be unreliably distorted, so I went back to my logs. Most years I type up a journal for each day. Some years I summarize the results of each day in a spreadsheet, other years I wasn't as good about doing that. When I went back into my 2006 files, I was surprised to see that I had geeked out and put together a PowerPoint slide deck, one slide for each day containing the SPC storm reports and a summary of our chase actions/results! I hadn't even remembered doing this, and it's probably one of the only years I did - evidence of just how bad it was, I was trying to wrap my head around it and maybe convince myself I hadn't missed anything...
Anyway, here's a rundown of every day during that 2006 trip, in case anyone is interested, since many on here were not chasing back then and may want to know what the "old days" were like
...
5/27 - no TOR reports on the Plains, only TOR Watch was in ND. This was actually my Plains arrival date.
5/28 - One TOR report in NE, around the eastern edge of the Panhandle and not too far south of the SD border. I actually have a note that a particular reputable chaser discredited this report based on his own observations. We actually blew off the NE Panhandle setup to not put ourselves out of range for a Kansas setup the next day. Also because temp/dewpoint spreads were high.
5/29 - Three TOR reports in west TX. My notes say these were landspouts and no TOR risk had been anticipated by SPC. This was out of range for us having been in North Platte the night before. KS just had hail reports and we just got weak storms on a cold front near Hutchinson.
5/30 - One TOR report in southeastern NM just above the TX border that runs east/west. My notes say we targeted the western OK Panhandle and that the areas was also favored by a lot of chasers but it did not verify. There was one hail and one wind report in that area. Numerous hail and wind reports in the TX Panhandle and in central KS
5/31 - TOR report in northeastern CO near WY border but no tornado mentioned by chasers. Later updated LSRs had a second tornado on the WY side of the border. Only other TORS were in IL and IN.
6/1 - No TOR reports in the whole US. There was a potential upslope setup in CO but we spent the day in Colorado Springs keeping an eye on developments; there were none. Only severe reports on the entire Plains were two hail reports in northcentral NM and southwestern NM and a couple in northeastern KS.
6/2 - A repositioning day for us, driving from Colorado Springs to the Black Hills area. My notes say "storms in and near Cherry County Nebraska were generally a surprise and a mesoscale accident. Area not in SPC Slight Risk (note - I think this was before the days of the "Margin" risk category). Storms referred to as "Sandhill Surprise" by other chasers." I remember seeing the anvil of this isolated supercell from a long distance away, with nothing but blue sky all around, the memory is coming back to me now - amazing, 14 years ago!
6/3 - One TOR report on the KS/CO border near Goodland, appeared to be an isolated landspout based on correspondence with other chasers. Not sure why the day before I had been heading to the Black Hills, but the only actual reports in SD today were way up in the north central part of the state (mostly hail, one wind)
6/4 - Only severe reports on the Plains were one wind report in southeast WY on the NE border and one in southcentral Nebraska
6/5 - Total of three TOR reports. SPC map shows red in southeastern SD and southeastern ND; I can't tell which red dot is actually two dots and which is one... (I only put the map, not the text, in my PowerPoint). We had targeted Kearney NE but it was on a cold front and pre-frontal trough, nothing good materialized but there are some hail reports.
In my 2006 chasing files, I also found correspondence with a veteran chaser - and I mean one of the originals in the "generation" (not necessarily by age but by when he started chasing) like Jim Leonard, Tim Marshall, et. al. - not much older than me (I don't think) but he was already a well-known chaser even when I started. I won't name him to respect privacy. But I found some correspondence with him where he called it the "worst chase alley season since 1987/1988" and his only highlight of the season (through May 31 when the correspondence is dated) was El Reno OK tornadoes on April 24. He noted if not for that storm, he would not have even taken a "picture of a supercell" to that point. He further wrote, "The pattern just hasn't been good enough to get me out the door the past few weeks. (Note - he lived in OK!) Ridging over the plains just won't go away and persistent eastern US trough has prevented/retarded return of deep, tropical moisture. Long range forecast for the next 8-14 days looks like deep summer and is pretty hopeless." In this correspondence, I had indicated that there had been no southern Plains tornadoes since around May 9 (but I haven't gone back to verify that). Based on my above reports, I must have been ignoring the 5/29 west TX reports as just landspouts and also must have been ignoring the NM reports because they were pretty far west and not so much part of traditional "southern Plains" territory.
EDIT: Since this was only a 9 or 10 day trip, I'm quite sure it was shortened on one end or the other precisely because it was so bad; normally my trips are 14-16 days including travel.
