Post your 2014 chase stats here!

[Chris C Sanner]

As a guy who chases almost exclusively Southern Plains, this year was about as bad as it could get for chasing. My tornado count includes nothing impressive, so it's not like I'm boasting there. A few of the tornadoes we saw, we couldn't confirm but they'll be going in the Storm Reports DB thanks to later surveys and/or other accounts. Really, the best storm down here this year was on June 22 in the OK/TX Panhandles. It produced several very weak/brief tornadoes and incredible structure and lightning.

Chase Days: 17
'Tornado' Days: 8
Supercell Days: 15
Keeper Photo/Video Days: 7
Blue Sky, why did I ever chase this, Bust Days: 2
States Visited: Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, New Mexico (First Time Chasing There)
States Almost Visited: Literally 50 feet from Arkansas on 4/27 before turning back. Would have been a first too.
Strangest Sight: Storm dying W of Spiro, OK on 4/27 extremely fast, looking back to see a wall cloud with legit motion but no tower above it. Was definitely a first.
Strangest Sight (Non Weather Wise): Drive to NM on 5/22. We ran into an illegal car hauling operation at 2-3am on a highway in NM, and also drove past a likely illegal immigrant at 3am who seriously looked like Super Mario.
My Top 3 Chases of the Year: 6/22 in TX, 9/1 in KS, 5/11 in KS

Good news is, there's no way we can be more quiet than this in the Southern Plains -- at least i don't think. I'm sure if you had a time machine and went back, this year is probably as quiet as it has ever been. So congrats to everyone who scored great material up in NE/SD in Mid-June, and congrats to everyone else for making it through a tough year. Here's to 2015 being a bunch of beautiful storms over open fields!

 

[Ben Holcomb]

2014 will go down as my worst chase season ever. Without the run east on the system at the end of April I'd be looking at a single maybenado near Denver and some stuff in lieowa at the end of June.

I was glad to catch the pretty unique easter Sunday storm near Childress. That might be the only photo worthy thing I captured all season. Missed the stupid June days because I started my new job 2 weeks prior and wasn't going to take time off. I felt better that I had a meeting with Jeff Piotrowski about some Baron equipment in the morning of Pilger day, and hung out with Evan Bookbinder that evening (and following 2 nights) so I wasn't the only one suffering that day.

2014
Storm Chasing Days 24
Tornado Days: 4
Tornadoes: 6
Photogenic Tornadoes: 0
Busts: 8
Largest Hail Encountered: 2"
Highest Wind Gust: 75mph
States: OK, KS, TX, CO, NM, MS, AR, AL, NE, WY, IA, MN
Miles: 15,521
Stats for all my seasons are posted at http://www.benholcomb.com/statistics

 

[Jesse Risley]

2014 was a really good season for me, but a lot of the early season tornadoes were amorphous and the most photogenic.

I went out and chased ten times, and I was fortunate to see tornadoes on most chases, even if they were landspouts.
States: KS, NE, IA, MO, IL - As an aside, almost all of my tornadoes were seen in Nebraska this year, with one in Iowa and another landspout in KS.

My count is somewhat uncertain because of June 17th. The cell that produced the Coleridge wedge kept producing tornadoes after dark that were intermittently very visible by lightning illumination, but at times it was hard to tell whether or not it was a new tornado or a different phase of a previous tube. Obviously the twin tornadoes at Pilger probably take the cake for best intercept, the tornado fest on the 17th was one of only two times that I have ever seen a supercell produce so many tornadoes in a "training" fashion after dark. That would put my count at no less than twelve tornadoes, but could be as high as 15-16 because of the nighttime fest on the 17th.

 

[JustinPhillips]

2014 was an extremely photogenic season for me, probly my best in 6 years of doing this though tornado count was low. My stats are skewed a bit though as I chase alot of see text and general days if they are local (which really paid off this year with some big surprises on "crap" looking days)

Number of chases: 30
Successful/photogenic days: 24
Non photogenic busts: 4
Blue sky busts: 2
Tornadoes: 3 (Madelia, MN) (Hardy, Iowa) (Gilman, MN)
Tornado days: 3
Largest hail encountered: Just over ping pong size near Milaca, MN
States chased in: WI, MN, IA, ILL

Highlights of the season: May 8th tornado near Madelia, MN. Was short lived but a very photogenic cone. June 16 rain wrapped multi vortex tornado in northern Iowa, bailed as far west as I could after work knowing I wouldnt make Neb, intercepted rain wrapped multi vortex before embedded supercell merged with other tor warned storms to form a cluster and change to a wind event. Also my scariest chase yet as this was my first close call with a tornado. June 20 tornado warned supercell near Wadena, MN on a 2 percent tor day that the SPC showed no love for. Models werent much better but they were just interesting enough especially in the directional shear that I decided to go for it. Ended up documenting the most amazing supercell I have ever seen.

Overall, happy with 2014 as it was my most photogenic season yet. Just wish I could have made it a little further west on June 16 for the Pilger show instead of the sloppy seconds in northern Iowa as the tornado was rain wrapped while Pilger was....well Pilger. Hoping 2015 is the year Wisconsin/Minnesota return to 2010/2011 tornado form as the past few years most Wi tors have been squall embedded and at night. But even seeing one incredible tornado would make up for numbers as I have yet to really see a real amazing tor in 6 years of chasing. Alot of your typical Wi 10 second lame-nadoes or else rain wrapped. Heres to 2015!!!

 

[Ashley Poling]

Chase Days: 4
Tornado Days:2
States: KS, AR, IA, MS

Given the very limited amount of chasing in 2014, I had a statistically successful year. The only bust I would count would be 4/27 in Arkansas. Almost blue sky busted until the Little Rock storm exploded. Tried to race to catch up to it, but car issued slowed us down and we were caught in traffic on the interstate after the Mayflower tornado went through. After finally getting through there and Vilonia, we made our way to Memphis for the night and then proceeded in the morning to Tupelo to stage. We didn't have to go far. In fact, that tornado passed just a few miles to the north from the gas station we sat at for awhile. We repositioned as the storm was approaching, and got in a position to witness the incredible rotation in the wall cloud and a couple of brief funnels before we had to reposition to get out of any danger. We followed the storm, perhaps a little too close at one point, and made our way north on a main highway and came across the heaviest damage the tornado had done just minutes prior. It was clear that we were one of the first on scene and ceased the chase to offer our aid to the local authorities.

6/14/14 was an amazing structure day and witnessed the landspout tornado it put down near Stockton, KS. Being from TN, we don't get the amazing structure as plains storms, so the landspout was just icing on the cake. Next chase day was a slight risk in Lieowa on 7/12. Saw wall clouds and funnels that day but that storm just couldn't quite produce.

All in all a very short season, but overall well forecasted targets 3 out of the 4 times we ventured out of TN.

 

[Alex Heimberger]

Chases: 5
Chase Miles: 2750+
States Chased: Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska.
Tornadoes: 1
Tornado Days: 1
Blue sky cap busts: 1
Days I should have and could have chased but was lazy: 1st weekend of July. Traer, IA Tornado in Tama County. 30-45 mins. from the house I was currently living in.

 

[NealRasmussen]

Worst year ever. Zero tornadoes. And really bad, zero supercells. One cell 'tried' to go super near Chandler, same day a tornado in OK about 50 sw of Norman.

This is the pattern I think. 2-3 weeks of of tornado potential in OK, then the SW fire winds start and it's all up in KS/NE.

 

[Randall Cooper]

I didn't really get out in 2014. Financially, I just couldn't make it happen, and my life has been pretty crazy since becoming a father. I maybe went on 3 chases riding along with Chris Rice. The only funnel/maybenado I saw was on a day when we had storms locally here around St Joseph, MO. Got on a tornado warning about 30 miles southwest of town near the town of Atchison, KS. And that was pretty much my year. I was hoping to get out a lot in 2015, but life threw another curveball and my wife and I are expecting another little girl due in July. Hopefully I'll be able to get out a few times this upcoming year, but not gonna expect a whole lot.

 

[Randall Cooper]

Here is the photo of the maybenado/definite funnel in case anyone wanted to see.

 

[Gerry Davis]

I find this stats thing interesting. Is there a reason you keep all the milages? tax write offs? I suppose you would have to keep logs if you are doing this as a business interest or even a hobby income.

 

[Ben Holcomb]

I definitely keep mileage for tax season.

 

[Paul Sherman]

2014 was going to be one of my worst seasons since the awful 2005 and 2006 Seasons but those 3 magical days in June changed it to a career best for Tornado number. Some Stats

Chases : 40
Miles : 24,578
Tornado Days : 8
Tornadoes : 26
Miles Per Tornado : 945
Best Chase Day : June 16th (Pilger)
Best Structure Day : Tied between 10th May in Kansas and 6th June near Roswell.
Largest Hail : 3.5 inch on 14th June near Limon (CO)
Worst Bust : 21st May after doing 1,500 miles from CO-DFW-CO - Not worth it!
Windshield Cracked : 14th June near Limon (CO)
Times Stuck : 0
Speeding Tickets : 0
States Chased or Through : 16
Firsts : First New Mexico and South Dakota Tornadoes
Firsts : Twin Wedge Tornadoes
Firsts : Kentucky and Ohio Chases 12-14th May

Highlights :
---------------

The 3 Day Siouxland Outbreak in Nebraska was almost like it was something out of a dream, seeing up close 4 violent EF4 Tornadoes on a single day was not something I thought I would ever see, following that the almost stationery Coleridge Wedge and then more stunning Tornadoes in South Dakota on the 18th from a half mile away were the highlights. Storm structure was also some of the best since 2010. Chaser convergence on May 11th was a nightmare in Nebraska but other than that we never saw anything too whacky whilst out chasing.