Storms of the decade: the 2010s (main-discussion and preliminary voting)

[Devin Pitts]

6-12-2017 Wyoming/Nebraska. Many photogenic tornadoes in great terrain, but it's main significance comes from being the furthest west PDS Tornado Watch ever issued.

 

[Paul Knightley]

Chase quality: Campo, May 31, 2010. The perfect chase - open terrain, very slow motion, all aspects of severe encountered, topped off by one of the most photogenenic tornadoes of all time.

Meteorological significance: Although El Reno rings hard in my head (having, like many others, been there and being too near at some point), I have to go with April 27, 2011...the 'perfect' ingredients, at the high end of the CAPE/Shear diagram, was an extremely rare set-up.

Human impact: Again, El Reno is deep in my mind, as is Joplin (for a single tornado, this must be the top), overall I think April 27, 2011 tops it for me (a dubious accolade, of course, in this category). The sheer number of folk impacted, and also who were at risk on this historic day, means I think it is the top.

 

[Wes George]

Moderator note: This event was added to the list in the OP

I agree with all of the submissions, but I'm a bit surprised the November 17th 2013 outbreak isn't mentioned. It's meteorological significance is great due to being a very large off season outbreak for the Midwest, particularly Illinois and Indiana. The outbreak is responsible for the Washington IL EF4 and the New Minden IL EF4. The Washington EF4 was noteworthy not only for it's strength and location for the time of year, but it was well documented not just by chasers and spotters, but by numerous residents as the tornado passed through and very near the Peoria suburbs, making the human impact near the top of the charts, with 121 injuries, and 3 fatalities. The high end EF4 featured an impressive radar signature with a debris ball. The supercell dumped debris from the Peoria suburbs onto the Chicago suburbs, over 100 miles away. The Nov 13th outbreak featured a rare High Risk outlook issuance from the SPC, as well as a PDS Tornado watch. These facts are once again particularly noteworthy given the location and time of year. The outbreak also featured numerous instances of straight line winds measuring over 100Mph, and 4" hail in parts of central IL. The outbreak caused nearly 200 injuries, 11 fatalities, and approximately $1.6 billion in damage with the Washington EF4 alone being responsible for approximately $1 billion of that total.

 

[Jeff Duda]

Last call on this before I start tabulating votes and putting up a final vote. I was really hoping there would be more discussion on this, but it appears many are choosing not to participate. If that tendency holds, I will likely weight the opinions of those who do respond less than equally. So, come on, peeps! If you were around in the 2010s following severe weather, and especially if you chased at all or personally witnessed any of the events proposed...this is your chance to advocate and opine as to the greatest events of the past decade! I was thinking of making some kind of podcast or video discussing or highlighting the remarkable aspects of the top events (PM me if interested in partaking). I think this would work the best if it was supported by a quorum of Stormtrack.

 

[James K]

I can't really comment since I've never been chasing...but this does sound like a cool little project. I'd deff watch the resulting YouTube video(if you do one) when its all complete.

(as a side note, if I had to pick just 1 storm, it'd be the 2013 El Reno ... simply because of the fact that's by far the one I've watched the most videos of on YouTube)

 

[Nelson Daniel]

I have not been chasing long so I can't contribute to this as much as I would like to but there is one day and storm that should be considered for that 2015 list. It was December 26th 2015, with the Dallas County - Rowlett EF-4. It was the reason I started chasing, the wife and I spent a good portion of that day dodging torwarned cells (https://www.weather.gov/images/fwd/dec26outbreak/img/maps/all_sbw_poly.png). We ended up taking a 3 hr detour to get home and shortly after arriving we hear that 10 people were killed as the their vehicles were blown off the interstate overpass that we were on just a few minutes before. It was a nighttime monster but there is some decent footage out there, some showing excellent storm structure with horizontal vortices (captured at night!). It was no Joplin for Human impact but it was massive for the DFW area and deserves a spot for 2015.

Also not much love for Wray, that has got to be some of the sweetest footage out there. Also the twin Pilger EF-4 wedges should have their own category for ominous beauty, especially when that rope started circling the wedge and there was a perfect positive strike...was just an amazing thing to see on so many chaser videos. Might even prefer it to the gorgeous Dodge City outbreak.

 

[John Farley]

Chase Quality:

1. Rozel, KS, 2013 - Spectacular tornado, slow-moving, during prime chase season. I am probably biased by the fact that I consider this my best chase ever.
2. Dodge City Outbreak, 2016 - Numerous tornadoes, occurred during prime chase season. For me, not quite as good a chase as Rozel because I misjudged the storms movement and ended up a little too far away. Still managed to see 6 of the tornadoes, though.
3. Campo, CO, 2010 - Even though I was unable to chase that day due to having concert tickets. One of the most spectacular tornadoes ever, and it just sat there and let people come to it.

Meteorological Significance

1. Super-outbreak of 2011, for sheer number and strength of tornadoes. Only a handful of comparable events in history.
2. El Reno, 2013, due to the size and unusual movement of the tornado.

Human Impact:

1. Joplin, 2011 - Most deadly, destructive tornado in recent history.
2. Super-outbreak of 2011 - This, along with the Joplin tornado the following month, was very humbling to those of us who thought great progress had been made on preventing tornado deaths.
3. El Reno, 2013 - Greatest human impact on the chaser community.