So... what's the verdict... 2011 chase season

[Mike Ridgeway]

Brian, that is awesome! Let's see, do we take the kids to Disneyland or to the plain states for a vacation? Kids love storms, and yours will have a memorable learning experience for a lifetime. I teach high school meteorology, and always joke with my students about loading up a bus and chasing storms for a few weeks. Can you imagine the sound of hail on a school bus?

 

[J Allen]

I would call it a tough season for chasers. Clearly chasing early in the season paid off the most (Mapleton, Girard, Superoutbreak), and if you weren't fortunate enough to get the run from the 21st-25th then you were going struggle. The other thing against chasers was behaviour/storm mode. Precipitation became a huge issue for many of the storms, and the photogenic aspects of tornadoes suffered because of it. We chased Intensively May 8 - June 14, did 18,000 miles and came away with 22, which while great on paper didn't really stack up in the quality of tornadoes seen. Still I suppose I can't complain, we got to see alot. Out of those only a few really spring to mind for appearances, one of our best was the Grove OK EF-3 and those near Canton. After finally getting some desired structure and lightning yesterday we find ourselves wanting to come back and get a better year for chasing and less tornadoes in the jungles. So heres to 2012.

 

[Paul Sherman]

Pretty frustrating for the overseas chaser this year but the 2010 benchmark was a hard one to follow. Lightning was incredible this year though and the structure on the 11th June in Ellis County was mind blowing, May 24th was the real deal and our changeover days screwed us on 3 occasions. Ended up with 6 Tubes which compared to the 23 last year was dissapointing but seeing the Canton Wedge made up for that. Coming back in 8 weeks to chase the Arizona Monsoon so more opportunities to be had in August thats if the wildfire situation calms down.

 

[Brandon Lawson]

For someone who has complained year after year about how underwhelming Oklahoma has been regarding tornadoes, I find it very humorous that the only tornadoes I've seen this year have been in Oklahoma; and on four different chases to boot. 2011 has been a horrible chase season for the Plains, but all things considered, I'm happy. Though it would be really nice if we could manage one more decent setup in the Plains before the jet-stream shifts too far north.

 

[Terrence Cook]

For someone who has complained year after year about how underwhelming Oklahoma has been regarding tornadoes, I find it very humorous that the only tornadoes I've seen this year have been in Oklahoma; and on four different chases to boot. 2011 has been a horrible chase season for the Plains, but all things considered, I'm happy. Though it would be really nice if we could manage one more decent setup in the Plains before the jet-stream shifts too far north.

You mean moves too far North for an Oklahoma chaser to realize what great terrain he's missing up there.

 

[Kelly Sugden]

This year has been quiet and very dry for the high plains. Dodge has only had 3.13" since Jan 1 which is ~6 inches below normal. Near record number of red flag warnings as well. The drought will continue to fester. I'm waiting now for the locusts Kansas crops are in poor shape (particularly western Kansas). Despite what happened east, 2011 will go down as a dud in my book.

 

[Paul Townsend]

My best year in terms of number of tornadoes, so far, with more to come I hope.

4 tornadoes in northwest IA on April 9.

2 or 3 tornadoes in far southeast MN/western WI on May 22 including the Hokah, MN area ridge-rider and the Sparta, WI powerflash producer just wsw of the WI 16/I 90 interchange

3 tornadoes in the Canton/Fairview, OK area on May 24

2 tornadoes in the Sedalia, MO area on May 25

2 tornadoes in sw WI on June 8 including a widely spaced in time and space, multivortex tornado just northwest of Mount Horeb

 

[Jeff Duda]

Well, I suppose I can now post in this thread since I bet MY season is over (but the season may not be fully over yet).

This has been a year of disappointment for me. Most of that is due to being a Midwest/Central Plains chaser. As others have pointed out, it's been a pretty lame season north of I-70 save for one or two events. Some of them I managed to see a tornado, others I didn't. Some of that was my fault, and some of that felt like Mother Nature telling me, "I don't care how hard you try this day...you ain't seein' s--t." I've been spoiled by some big days in the past 3 years (2008: Tipton-Beloit supercell/tornado, 2009: La Grange, WY and Aurora, NE tornadoes, 2010: Bowdle, May 24th, June 17th in S MN), so this feels like my worst year since I started seriously chasing in 2008, but it really hasn't been all that bad given I have still seen a tornado and a supercell.

I have two tornado days this season (funny how they're both in IA):
-April 9th, NW IA: all after dark, and all from a far distance (missed the Mapelton tornado despite driving through town 15 minutes before it hit), but really the BIG DAY for me this year
-May 22nd, EC IA: managed to be one of the only chasers who got a tornado from the northern storm of the pair of supercells that crossed I-80 early in the day

Due to finances and my situation, I can't really take a chasecation, so I have a leash to stay on when it comes to my geographical area. I stretched the crap out of my leash this year only to be horribly disappointed more than once:
-May 11th, SC KS: Woke up at 4 AM, left at 5 AM, got to Pratt at 2 PM and realized it would be a cap bust. Turned around and drove home, getting back at 2 AM or so, for a 21-hour, 1050 mi car drive in which I saw absolutely NOTHING, AND I missed the random ass tornadoes in Iowa that day with meager 500 mb flow (and of course, such activity wouldn't dare happen this week despite the same damn scenario).
-May 24th, NC OK: Essentially a repeat of May 11th except I managed to find myself BETWEEN the two clusters of tornadic supercells. Of course the Canton storm, which we initially targeted as we sat SW of Wichita, evaporated as we punched into NC OK and lost all of our data for 30 minutes, and then that little oversight of the OFB in C KS lights up. I swear, even if we had left an hour earlier, those supercells in Oklahoma would've developed an hour south of where they did.
-June 13th, SE NE/NW MO/SW IA: Of course the boundary began retrograding southwest like it had before and nothing but stratus existed north of the boundary. No watch, not even an MD. Got to Falls City, NE and turned the f--k around.

And I missed March 21st in SW IA because I'm a dumbass.

It's pretty damn pathetic that I've only had one June chase so far. That goes to show just how pathetic of a season it has been in IA, NE, MN, ND, SD (unless you're in the far western portion of those states, and I'm just not willing to drive all the way out there...plus you'd have to admit the Colorado-upslope season hasn't exactly been stellar this year).

ADD:
After June 20th, although my general opinion of the season remains, I am now satisfied with the season. Those who say one day can make a season are right, if it's a good enough day. Yesterday in Nebraska was wildly successful for me. I can live with having no activity for the rest of the year.

 

[Scott Hammel]

2011 has been a pretty disappointing season for me as well. Of course, it's hard to compare to 2010 which was by far my most successful. I've seen 4 tornadoes this year. 3 of them were CO land spouts and the other in KS was on the ground for about 2 seconds and I wasn't even able to get my camera out in time. I've logged nearly 10k miles so it's definitely not a lack of effort. Hearing Jeff's description of the May 24th high risk in OK makes me feel a tad better as that was pretty much the exact same situation that happened to us. Not far enough south in time for the Canton tornado but too far south to get back up to the good central KS stuff. Man, I hate high risks! I'm now 0-6 on high risks. The CO season has been abnormally slow. I've spent countless days out on the Palmer where it appeared all of the elements were good to go but then nothing would happen. I'm gonna get one last chase in tomorrow before my chasecation is over and I'm back to work so maybe I'll get rewarded for my efforts? Hahaha, not keeping my hopes up. I am keeping my hopes up that CO will have an active summer, so who knows. But yeah, 2011 has been a dud in my opinion.

 

[Doug Drace]

Suprisingly for this Oklahoma storm chaser the season has been overwhelmingly successful! The main reason is my willingness to chase east of I-35 consistantly for the first time in 16 years. 4/14 captured 3 tornadoes, 1 east of Sulpher, 1 near Pontotoc and a huge multi-vortex just east of Tishamingo which was the same meso that within an hour spawned the Tushka monster. 4/26 ventured east of I-35 in TX this time and captured the Mabank cone at super close range. 5/19 got the first SW OKLA chase in and nearly got run over by a rain wrapped tornado just south of Cooperton, then got another gorgous cone tornado west of Apache out of the HP Beast before it got rain wrapped. 5/21 out of the blue chase, nailing 7 tornadoes in one day from Sulpher to Ada, including a couple large tornadoes from 2 cyclic tornadic supercells that according to most....just werent gonna happen that day. 5/23 chased in basically the identical area as 5/19 and caught 2 tornadoes, 1 elephant trunk, followed by a very large stovepipe SW of Apache, east of HWY 58, which most missed by jetting into the hills to quickly. 5/24 another fruitful day...though somewhat frustrating as we had to stay in our local stations viewing area. We were all over the Lindsay to Dibble to Goldsby tornadic storm near Ratliff City when we were called off it for the new tornado warned storms in Love/Carter Counties. We did end up getting a large multi-vortex tornado near Ravia, OK, even got in the outer circulation as it became rain wrapped, but it still didnt compare to what we could have got that day if we had been able to stay on the previously mentioned tornadic supercell. All in all....long breaks between clustered chase events...but possibly our most successful year to date as far as overall tornado intercepts at 21. I do look forward to a better "West of I-35 Season" next year as we transition back to a Neutral Pattern....especially with more promise of getting to chase the Tex Panhandle and SW KS which have been complete dead zones this year...

 

[Steven Martinaitis]

Although I did not chase much at all in 2011, I don't have too much to complain about. The highlight of the year came during the chase-cation James mentioned in an eariler post. The sunset-lit, low-topped storms in southern KS on May 20th and at least five tornadoes with the Hickory/Ada supercells on May 21st were phenomenal. Other storms worth mentioning are the Ponca City storm on the night of April 8th and the high-based photogenic supercell in southern KS on April 9th. And even though I did not chase during the May 24th outbreak, it was my first time being a part of the NWS damage survey team. The images and the stories are something I will never forget.

 

[BradMiller]

My best year in terms of number of tornadoes, so far, with more to come I hope.

2 tornadoes in sw WI on June 8 including a widely spaced in time and space, multivortex tornado just northwest of Mount Horeb

Paul, do you by any chance have any pictures or video of this storm? The tornado path went about a mile south of my apartment south of Madison, but I couldn't see much due to trees and buildings. A friend of mine was able to get some footage of a funnel, but that's about it. We have been looking for footage of it, but haven't seen any yet. Do you have any, or know of any at all?

 

[James Gustina]

Season has been pretty trash for me. Considering I have a pretty local bias though (Ohio/Indiana/Michigan) I guess I can't say much except that Ohio and Indiana have mostly blown except for a few events in mid-late May. Best two chases for me were May 22/23 and May 25 but that pretty much ended it due to the high pressure that built in over us (and is just now moving out). The thing that has gotten me about this season is the lack of actual supercells (its Ohio but even for us its surprisingly low). Only have seen one storm that I can definitively call a supercell. We'll see though, this weekend might redeem it partially and theres *usually* a brief window in August for some activity.

 

[Josh VandenTop]

since when did the season end in June, here things are just firing up

 

[J Holder]

It was a slow year here, but then again I drive through Reading, Ks twice a day in order to go to work. Seeing half the town gone tends to bring another perspective.