THAT'S A LOT--- LONGEST ROUNDTRIP STORM CHASE ?

[William Monfredo]

My head reeled just thinking about @Tony Laubach and his long drive of over 2K miles a few days ago for the Illinois/Indiana supercell.

Thinking back though, I once drove from San Marcos, TX to Grand Island, NE and back. That's ~ 1700 miles for a high-risk cap-bust.

Seemed like the less I knew, and the fewer experiences, the further I drove. Have you had some long, singular trips? Worthwhile?

 

[Tony Laubach]

DARN YOU!!! Now you're gonna make me go back and look up my data! Haha But I guess I should ALSO thank you, cause it turns out that my March 10, 2026 chase was only my SECOND longest chase ever... so thank for that.. below are my top 10 chases in terms of distance (only 3 of them hit/exceed 2,000 miles)

Typically, what makes some of these chases so long is that there were no events the day prior to lead me out there, or something on the way back. One-and-done type deals. I am happy to say that at least I saw tornadoes on all the 2,000+ mile chase events (including the Super Outbreak of 2011 - which was Shreveport to Alabama, back to Denver).

Rank	Date	Log Miles	TOR COUNT

1

11/4/2022

2,234

1

2

3/10/2026

2,148

2

3

4/27/2011

2,000

4

4

4/30/2012

1,854

0

5

6/7/2007

1,849

1

6

3/3/2008

1,818

Bust

7

4/19/2003

1,814

Bust

8

4/1/2024

1,800

Bust

9

4/26/2023

1,797

2

10

3/24/2023

1,788

0

Some interesting notes...

All the top 10 chases originated and/or terminated in Colorado (where I was living)... I moved to Illinois in 2013, Kansas in 2018, and back to Colorado in 2021. None of the top 10 occurred while living in Illinois, meaning anything that sent me High Plains targeting likely had multiple days of setups that broke up the round trip miles. And five of the top 10 happened since returning to Colorado in 2021.

 

[Dan Robinson]

I haven't kept full-chase trip mileage stats, only each single chase and totals for tornado/lightning/winter chases, then of course the annual total. That's been a necessity for tax purposes. I guess I could go back and add the individual days up for each trip back to 2001, but that's gonna take a while after all these years!

My longest single-day chase mileage was 1,082 on the Windthorst day (May 25, 2024).

If I had to guess, I'd say the biggest single-chase-trip mileage was likely the 2006 trip (May 22-June 3) where we were everywhere from Hastings to Sikeston, MO to Bismarck (where we were stranded for a few days thanks to car trouble). That trip adds up to 4,628 miles.

For season-total tornado chase mileage (Plains and Midwest), my record in that category is 2024 with 18,441 miles.

My yearly total record was 2019 at 35,516 miles.

 

[Drew Terril]

I don't keep close track of my mileage chasing, but I'd say my longest single chase trip (as in I went somewhere specifically to chase) was 3/15/16 when I drove to Illinois from Oklahoma to chase that event north of Quincy. I'm pretty sure I broke the 2k mile mark (in about 48 hours, give or take). I knew that was likely going to be my last chase of the spring, because a couple of weeks later I was in class for my CDL, which is why I jumped on the opportunity.

Longest overall trip with a chase involved was earlier that year when I went to visit my mom in North Carolina. Had a couple of stops in Kentucky and Tennessee, then chased the late February event that year (I want to say it was 2/26 but it may have been the 24th) in North Carolina, and I went via Atlanta that day to come up through South Carolina. I'm pretty sure I put over 3k miles on my pickup on that trip (I did drive the most direct route back to Oklahoma), but the chase was more of a target of opportunity while I was there rather that a trip specifically to chase. Had I made the most direct route on both inbound and outbound legs, I probably would have ended up somewhere between 26-2800 miles on the odometer.