Good day all,
I am keeping my schedule in May and early June OPEN after May 6. May 6 (I am sure this day will be 26 tornadoes through IL, IA, and OH) - I am visiting FL (family) as I am in Ohio for work right now.
I am NOT doing a 2-3 week "chase-cation" as I did the past 6+ years since the famous "May ridge" tended to leave me SOL after committing to an airfare and time-off work.
Had I done this, I would be ripping my hair out right now if I saw all that is happening in TX Panhandle the past 2 weeks and I was "locked" into a trip starting May 15 and ending June 1 or something like that - Agonizing wait, then I would get out there, and I am looking at rocks and wildlife (example: my group and I were some of Carlsbad caverns' best customers) ;-(
Been there, done that, too too many times.
This May, if there's a big setup - I am on it, just for a couple of days or so. If it gets "ridged" (LOL I hate saying that word), then I do NOT go, period.
Last year I was out there in May from May 17 through June 1 and I was ridged in, and even worse, forced to drive all the hell over the central USA (I saw Canada, only 2 days after seeing W Ohio)! Only with marginal setups (many slights that SPC degraded to "see text" at best), I put the same distance on my rental than if I drove from NYC to Tokyo (over 9,000 miles - if there was a bridge there - just for comparison!) ... I was solo, and cheapest gas prices were $3.29 a gallon - Go figure, never again.
Yet in SE SD on 9-16-2006, saw a cyclic tornadic storm, and this was leaving STL on a Friday and returning Sunday around lunch and the tornadoes was on Sat. Money wise, this whole thing costed about 1/20 of what I spent in May 2006!
Just one "hot chase" like this can make an entire chase year ;-)
Now for international chasers, like from Europe, "spot chasing" is really not an option. But in the USA, even far from TX, even a last minute flight, costing 2-3 times as much as one planned 2-3 weeks in advance, is WORTH it - Because you WILL be on a good setup, and not HOPING for one over a time "window".
I will "spot chase" this year ... Hope to see some of you out there "under the meso" and not "under the thermal ridge" ;-)
The extended GFS has shown hints of a few waves moving through the plains roughly May 4-8...I'll take that.
. Work actually cooperated and I have an open schedule (I call and tell them if I want to work each day or not) beginning May 10, so bring on the storms already...I need to make up lost time!!!!!
