The best of 2015 tornadoes

[Marcus Diaz]

We really should (with permission from everyone) have a thread at the end of the year with the best pics or vids of each nominee and run a poll on which tornado was the best overall.

 

[Dan Robinson]

Sunday's Adams County, Iowa tornado is probably a contender for the top 3 in my book.

 

[chrisbray]

Another year of several top notch tornados in IL and I missed them all either due to being on the wrong storm, beign on vacation, etc. At least I did manage to catch a mesoscale accident on a 0% day 5 miles from my house! Still, I'm bitter about Rochelle.

 

[Rachel Donoghue]

Even though I wasn't out chasing this season, I have watched some of these storms unfold at home. In my personal opinion, The Rochelle EF4 tornado takes the cake for my favorite tornado of 2015. Hands down. It was huge and powerful, very photogenic and not rain wrapped. This tornado seemed just perfect. (Aside from the loss of life and damage.) Another tornado that is a second for me would be the Canadian Texas tornado. Very photogenic and beautiful tornado.

 

[John Farley]

My chasing during the peak of the season was very limited due to international travel this year, so I have not seen any tornadoes this year and have no personal horse in this race. That said, from the pictures, reports, and videos I've seen I would rank Rochelle first, Adams County, IA second, and third would be close between Manitoba and Simla. Seeing any one of these certainly would have made the season for me.

 

[Verne Carlson]

Here's a list we compiled back in mid June on FB. The August Iowa tornado should be added in as well as Hutchinson for how photogenic the were.

1. June 04, 2015 Simla, CO
2. April 09, 2015 Rochelle, IL
3. May 09, 2015 Cheyenne Wells, CO
4. May 16, 2015 Elmer, OK
5. May 27, 2015 Canadian, TX
6. May 29, 2015 Dora, NM
7. May 05, 2015 Big Spring, TX
8. June 05, 2015 Cope, CO
9. May 09, 2015 Cisco, TX

 

[Matt Ashworth]

I haven't seen anyone mention the June 4th Berthoud, CO EF3 yet, and I also feel the March 25th Sand Springs, OK tornado is worth mentioning. My chasing this year has been severely limited, but for having only been on three chases so far I've seen funnels on every one, with this latest one having actually scored a legitimate tornado, so I'll be a little biased towards those. This includes the Berthoud tornado because I was actually on a delivery at work when it occurred and could see it clearly from nearly 10 miles away and the brief Kiowa, CO tornado. May not have been anything particularly powerful or even photogenic but the chase that led up to that lucky catch makes it noteworthy to me.

So here's my top 5 so far...

5: April 9th, Rochelle, IL
4: March 25th, Sand Springs, OK
3: June 4th, Simla, CO
2: August 17th, Kiowa, CO
1: June 4th, Berthoud, CO

(Attached files are of the Berthoud tornado, one taken by my coworker and the other by myself.)

 

[Jason Blum]

Excuse the terrible dust on my lens. My lens actually broke just as this tornado dropped (!) and I had to scramble and use an old, dirty lens. These were taken near Eads, Colorado.