Scariest chases and close calls

[Mike Bennett]

This may have been done before in a past thread, but I thought it would be interesting to hear about close calls and/or scariest chases anyone may have experienced. Examples of close calls like, brushes with lightning, flash floods, tornadoes, RFD ect...

 

[Josh Murfield]

I'm sure this will pale in comparison to what many of the other more veteran chasers here will post, but my scariest moment was in May 2008, during the time that the tornado went through Kearney, Nebraska. My wife and I were late on that chase due to work, so we were screaming west on I-80 towards that monster cell as it was tracking right along I-80 just to the east of Aurora. We were keeping an eye on this thing on AccuWeather radar (low res on the cell phone) and it appeared to be staying just to the north of the interstate so we thought we could skirt along the south side to get behind it for some better visibility. This was an HP beast, and we ended up driving right into the insanely heavy rain this thing was producing, we had practically zero visibility. Local radio was reporting that there were supposed spotter reports of a tornado on the ground at or near the spot where we were. We couldn't see a dang thing, but at that moment we were getting absolutely pummeled by wind gusts that came out of nowhere- that is the only time I truly got worried or even scared on a chase! We found an emergency turn-around and screamed back ahead of this thing, only to find out that a few minutes later semis were overturned along the interstate and power lines were taken down right at the spot where we had been before turning around. Not sure if an actual tornado ever hit there, though- I don't recall if anyone ever got any visual confirmation there due to the extreme HP nature of that storm.

 

[Skip Talbot]

Like Josh, my scariest encounters have been moments when I've wound up in the core of a tornadic supercell and experienced abrupt shifts in the wind direction.

This happened to me while tracking an F3 at night through Springfield, IL on March 12, 2006. We followed the the tornado from behind the hook, backlit by lightning. After it roped out, the lightning also died down but we stayed behind the storm at what we thought was a safe distance. The weather radio announced the tornado's position as one mile to our south, so we came to a dead stop to plot a course not wanting to drive into it. At the same time we got blasted by intense winds that abruptly did a 180 and came howling from the opposite direction. It was unnerving to say the least. It turns out we were still well behind the bear's cage and the report on the wx radio was probably just delayed.

It happened to me again on June 14 last year after the Ulysses, KS tornado. After the tornado lifted, we tried to race the core south and lost, and got caught in the hook. The winds were definitely over severe levels, the rain blinding, and again there were abrupt shifts in wind direction. I don't remember being as spooked though as I think I was more focused in getting us out from under it, which we finally did.

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

2006....I saw an Illinois state sign, followed the next day by an Indiana state sign. Hands down the most scared I've been chasing. I was like, wtf am I doing in Indiana! It's a bad year when you come from the plains to chase stuff in Indiana.

Seriously, last January sliding off the road at 75mph after finding the onset of the area that had received icing, a day later, untreated. That will be a hard fear to top, short of being airborne for some reason.

The one thing that I've learned to really hate is watching a ne bound storm come and pass you by, then having to drive north into the rain and back east through the core, in hopes of beating whatever is now there. Often having to do it north then east, instead of east than north in the clear, is the quickest route. Not sure I've ever enjoyed those. Did that Greensburg night but on the nc KS storm and later thought, well that really is pretty dumb...considering it could have been doing a Greensburg type wedge for all I knew. The worst part about all those times doing that is you know you have to do it quickly, and you're in the worst of driving conditions with ponding, hail, and no visibility. And once you have committed to it, you will often end up in a spot you don't feel great going back where you came or going further or even holding there. Hate those moments where you realize, that it was dumb and now you are where you would rather not be and gambling.

 

[Adam Lucio]

It happened to me again on June 14 last year after the Ulysses, KS tornado. After the tornado lifted, we tried to race the core south and lost, and got caught in the hook. The winds were definitely over severe levels, the rain blinding, and again there were abrupt shifts in wind direction. I don't remember being as spooked though as I think I was more focused in getting us out from under it, which we finally did.

I wish we had that on film.

The scariest moment I've had was during the Super Tuesday Outbreak. I was sitting near Turrel, AR with an isolated supercell's hook heading straight for me. It was pitch black except for lightning and I could hear sirens blaring. Normally this wouldn't bother me but by now I was made aware just how strong and violent many of the tornadoes were.

First I see this:

Then only a few moments later this:

A large tornado was reported on the ground with this storm at the time. Given what I was seeing and what had been going on all day I decided to flee after this. I took refuge in the core [lol] and once it passed I looked back and saw a well defined funnel, I fired up the camera and by the time there was another decent flash of lightning it looked less impressive

I don't get scared easily, I've had closer calls than that but was never really afraid during any of those moments, something about the above scenario was different for me I guess.

 

[Mike Bennett]

I've had a few close calls. None have been with lightning because I rarely get out of the vehicle. None have been with flood waters because I won't drive through water. (By the way, of all the hazards related to storm chasing, the one that scares me the most is flash floods.)

On 3-28-07, I was chasing a tornadic supercell from Lipscomb Co.(TX Panhandle) into Beaver Co.(Okla.Panhandle). This tornado killed a farming couple NE of Elmwood. As the tornado was weakening about 11 miles NE of Elmwood, I wanted to get closer and get a closeup shot. I knew I was driving underneath a new wall cloud and told my chase partner to watch behind us in case a new one formed. I knew better but couldn't resist the lure of the dying tornado. I no more than said this when I looked in the side mirror and saw a cone slam to the ground about 1/4 to 1/2 mile behind me. I had no east west escape routes(mud) so all I could do was to blaze north and out run it. My problem is I've still got a weakening tornado west/northwest of me which was about 1/2 to 3/4 miles away. As I blazed north about 3 miles, the blacktop I was on turned west (only). Luckily, the old tornado dissipated. I went 1 mile west and turned around on top of a hill and watched the new tornado cross the road 1 mile east of me.

On 4-25-09 I was chasing a tornadic storm after dark over Enid,OK. I was on the northeast side of town looking west and saw power flashes. I thought the power flashes were approx. 2 miles west of me. I drove west to North Enid and turned north, all the while continuing to look west as I thought the tornado was still at least a mile or more to my west. I then got blasted with high winds that would abruptly change directions multiple times. I continued north at a fairly slow speed and as I exited North Enid and merged onto Hwy 81 a friend of mine (deputy) began yelling at me on the radio telling me to move my a$$. He later told me the tornado was about 100 yards behind me. I didn't see it until I was north of it and turned around. It was rated an EF3 the next day. This is why, even with GRLevel3 and GPS I don't like chasing at night, but will continue to do it.

 

[Connor McCrorey]

On 3-28-09 I was chasing a tornadic storm after dark over Enid,OK.

I figure that's just a typo, mostly because of this: http://www.spc.noaa.gov/climo/reports/090328_rpts.html. Assuming you accidentally put the wrong date, what was the actual day? Just curious.

 

[Mike Bennett]

Correction

I figure that's just a typo, mostly because of this: http://www.spc.noaa.gov/climo/reports/090328_rpts.html. Assuming you accidentally put the wrong date, what was the actual day? Just curious.

Thanks Conner, I don't know what I was thinking. The correct date was 4-25-09.

 

[Jason Foster]

Two, one tornado, one hurricane:

Hallam, NE 2004, I've told the story a lot here already, but the graphics speak a bit too:

unfinished summary page:
http://www.weatherwarrior.net/chaser/bydate/040522_hallam.html


Ground Zero for Hurricane Charley. Intercepting a Cat 4 hurricane OUTSIDE is about as close you can get without being maimed or killed. Jim Edds and Mark Rackley were event less protect than me, Jeff G., Chris C. and Doug K.

 

[John Farley]

One of my scariest moments was on my first chase encounter with a tornado, in Evansville, IL on December 23 (yes, December, no typo!), 1996. I was tracking a large, partly rain-wrapped lowering, associated with an HP supercell embedded in a squall line, and got confused about directions. And the road I was on, instead of crossing east just north of town, turned and went into the town. Then I got into golfball hail. After the road wound around, I was thoroughly confused about direction, and ended up going east when I thought I was going south. Suddenly the hail stopped and it was brighter to my right. My impulse was turn right into the clearer area, but fortunately I knew just enough to realize that I could have crossed to the inside of the bear's cage, and there might be a tornado there to my right. So I kept going, but was not really crossing ahead of the storm by going south as I thought, but staying barely ahead of it by going east. Eventually I cleared the worst of it, and when I came back, trees, power poles, and the remains of the town's bowling alley were in the road where I had considered turning right. I must have crossed through that area a minute or two - maybe less - before the tornado did. Full account of this chase on my old Web pages at: http://www.siue.edu/~jfarley/chased23.htm

Another scary moment, also involving 1) an HP supercell and 2) my failure to have my escape options as well figured out as I should have, was on April 13, 1998. In the end the escape route I had worked out OK, but I did not plan for the northwestward jog on I-255 as I tried to reposition from Pontoon Beach, IL to east of Edwardsville to get back ahead of the northeastward moving storm - that north then east move that Mike mentions above - and ended up getting pounded in the bear's cage, knowing there could be a tornado just to my WSW but not being able to see it. I drove way too fast for conditions as the escape instinct took over, and eventually did clear the wrapping rain - but then being on the freeway, got at best a brief glimpse of the tornado that hit Edwardsville less a mile from my house. By the time I got to where I could stop, the wide, truncated funnel I had briefly glimpsed (and wasn't even sure at the time that it was a funnel) was again hidden in the rain. Fear and frustration wrapped up in one chase. The one lesson I took from both of these chases is to always have an escape route that you know exactly - and don't lose track of what direction you're going. Of course, since my last couple cars have had compasses in the mirror, that part is easier now.

 

[Tony Laubach]

I gotta go with the day after Greensburg near St. John when myself along with Tom Dulong and Ed Grubb punched north ignoring the fact that every chaser and their mother was stopped at the highway junction. We went a few miles north, right as dark fell, and ended up racing the other way to get out of the way of a very large tornado.

As we raced south, Tom called out another tornado, a satellite, and it, too, was closing in. We raced south, got out of the way, and fortunately other than the inflow vs. RFD wind shift nearly blowing me off the road, we were fine. The night gets better as we get stranded in Great Bend due to all the flooding while ANOTHER tornado was bearing down on us.

That was a crazy day, and probably one of the closest calls I can recall.

@Mike H, I recall that 2006 season. I think I recall seeing you at one point in IL. The following day, Chris Collura and I punched the Ohio border where I would eventually follow a tornado-warned storm embedded within the squall line straight into my hometown. While not scarey, it was definitely a triumph for me to accomplish that feat!

 

[Chris Hayes]

I havent had any real scary moments while chasing but there were a couple of "stressful" incidents that come to mind.

May 15, 2003: Missed the tornados in the northern TX PH, but got on a storm that formed west of Wheeler. Continued chasing into the early night. Got into a 60mph inflow jet that was filled with dust. We tried to see the reported tornado in the lighting but the base was so low it was impossible to see it. There was one time when I thought I saw a large wedge lit up by lightning, but dont count it. Later found out a couple days later that there was a mile wide F2 tornado not far from where we were.

June 12, 2008: Ended up storm hopping NE of Wichita, and south of I-35. We went off a main road to get a look at a storm coming up from the SW. The storm was very HP so I wanted to get back to the main road. Ended up on a road with a sign that said "road not maintained drive at own risk" We got back on the main road, think it was 77. It sounded like we had a tire filled with mud. Turned out to be a flat tire. Not just flat, but starting to shred. Ended up parked alongside the road as the storm we were fleeing over-ran us, and heard about a nearby tornado.

 

[MatthewCarman]

I did have several times in my life where I was really worried and several other times where I should have been worried.

I was 16 I believe because I had just received my license not long before this event. I went morrel hunting at Lake Red Rock and on my way home saw some tornadic looking skies. I had to watch the road and my parents never looked around to see what was going on. I drove into a blinding rain shaft that had just moved over the area. I went home only to find out my younger brother saw a funnel cloud as low as the trees and a few weak tornadoes was reported in the area. I have never seen a funnel that low and was disappointed I missed it.

The April 8, 1998 event was another scary one for me. I remember 98 and 99 being really bad years for tornadoes. I went outside after watching the tornado outbreak unfold on TV. A tornado (EF2) was reported moving to wards Baxter where I lived at the time. The winds were blowing the grass around pretty good and I saw the darkest clouds I have ever seen associated with a low area of clouds. There was no funnel cloud and these clouds were shaped similar to mamatus clouds. I saw no tornado or funnel but I did see a cone shaped cloud with no tip and it was below the other clouds. It was perfectly round. I don't call it a funnel because it was not rotating that I remember but I was young and I was told these are common. This was on the south side of the storm because it never rained and it was sunny to my east. The storm was moving north and I am positive I saw the area of the storm the tornado was in.

I ran outside for another storm (the date I don't know) that had such violent rotation it produced a funnel cloud that quickly raced to wards the ground and after getting a little ways down it went right back up. I remember the funnel being 3 rings with space between them but I was very young. I also once saw a storm with such violent lightning there was 1-2 lightning strikes every single second with it. I have not seen anything like I did in the late 90's.

May 22, 2004 was another scary date for me. The sirens went off 3 times that day/night. After the main storms weakened and it looked as if the event was dying down a bow echo formed in Warren County from a few storms. The line quickly became severe as a DOT truck was blown off the road and a wind gust to 106 MPH was reported. Then the tornado reports started coming in. I was just starting to doze off when I saw this on TV and quickly woke up. The last time the sirens went off it was after midnight and a tornado was reported on the ground heading to wards my home town. I had to wake the family up and go to the laundry room because we lived in an apartment building at the time. Nobody else was down there with us. Thankfully no damage was reported. Hopefully we never have another event like that for a long time.

 

[Ric Burney]

May 12, 2009. I had been around the Childress, TX area watching a few cells. Not much going on with them so by dark I headed back home on 287 toward Dallas. As I went I checked radar every so often and noticed several cells developing SW of me starting to move NE. As I approached Vernon, TX just crossing the Pease River I got blasted from what I believe were winds in excess of 80 from the south. My car was shaking violently and I slowed down to maintain my lane. That wasn't working too well.. I felt like the car was as light as a piece of paper.
I couldnt see very well but made out the off ramp for Vernon going by so I headed for the highway shoulder just past the ramp. I set both right tires off the pavement to angle my vehicle toward the wind. That helped a whole lot but the vehicle still felt like it was about to tip over onto the highway. Wind, rain, small hail and what looked like most of the Pease river bottom continued flying past me for several minutes with the wind changing direction several times. A short video can be found toward the end of this page: http://wxdallas.com/wx05122009.html
My data was not updating due to a faulty jumper to the antenna I discovered later on so I really didn't know what I was in at the time. The WX radio did have several tor warnings going on in the vicinity though.
Traveling alone at night with all this going on around me, even though in familiar territory, certainly kept me from having to worry about falling asleep on the rest of the drive back home.

 

[PeteMcConnell]

Close Call

Lots of close calls, but the most chilling experience was being caught in what I believe was an inflow jet. Winds cranked up to an estimated 80-90 mph range. I thought I was going to die.