Whats your tornado count in your chasing career?

[Brian Stertz]

I am of the school that a single tornado counted is with every individual tornado cycle (unless accompanied by a separate satellite or parasite tornado). So if you've got an occluding tornado northwest, and a new tornado forms on the typical southeast flank, this would be counted as 2 tornadoes. Not that I've been able to religiously keep up with my actual tornado count through the years, but this is my thinking of how to keep a solid tally.

 

[JF Massicotte]

I only keep stats just for my own personal history, seen about 7 since 1998, but most of it was real brief / weak. Hope to see more this year.

How many of them happened in Ontario? I think southern Ontario is a really good place for tornadoes except they are just not reported. Being from Montreal I am planning a few week ends down there.

 

[bvassmer]

I have seen 12 tornadoes total since moving to the plains in 2002. I have chased since 1999, but all those chases were in N IL, S WI - and there I saw no tornadoes.

Of those 12, 4 are from 2007, so I am off to a good year.

 

[Jay McCoy]

Like Charles said it depends on how you count them. I can say I saw at least 12 or so on 3-28 but thats not how I counted them. It has to be off the ground for at least a few minutes before I consider it another tornado. if it lifts up and drops again 15 seconds later to me thats the same tornado. The funnel has to dissapate for it to be another tornado (the way I count them) so I counted 6 that day.

Counting in that fashion I have 154 to date since 1985. I will say the past 10 years and especially the last 4-5 have been the best so far thanks to a huge increase in available data on the road. I have 55 tornados since 2004. It took me 18 years to get the 1st 100! The internet and cell/wifi connections have brought chasing into a whole new realm. back when I started you had the wx maps you got from the local NWS and whatever you could get off the car radio or Ham. it was mostly blind chasing. Overcast or tricky days were almost impossible to catch anything good. Cell phones back in the mid 90's helped with nowcasting and now with WxWorx and such you can go right to the storm in overcast or dark conditions. Much easier to chase today than 10 or 20 years ago. Targeting doesnt have to be so close and you can see whats happening over a much larger area and catch storms that blow up 100 miles away.

 

[Bob Schafer]

***67 (since June 10, 1999)

Triple red asterisk because ~third of those were gustnadoes, LOL. Until just a few years ago, I counted gustnadoes. I had been to a severe wx workshop early on where a presenting met said that gustnadoes are *real* tornadoes (honest). There is no way for me to go back and revise my count.

(Free tip for newbs!: The best way I know of to be scorned by vets is to count gustnadoes.)

Oh, I was also wondering... am I to assume from what some of you say that you would count only one tornado invof Mulvane on June 12, 2004?

 

[Paul Townsend]

1 - June 29, 2005 - far northern Watonwan County, just southwest of the southern tip of Lake Hanska. I am still mostly a blind chaser, that never has gone on a chase vacation, and only ambles out to the northeastern Plains on a 1 day jaunt. One of these days...

 

[Verne Carlson]

I'm someplace in the 60's - just keep a rough guestimate from year to year.

 

[Tarmo Tanilsoo]

From the time I started(in 2004) thunderstorm observations and therefore started giving more attention on weather: 0
There have been funnel clouds and shelf clouds though.

 

[Dan Robinson]

am I to assume from what some of you say that you would count only one tornado invof Mulvane on June 12, 2004?

Between this (just east of I-35):

and this (just west of Mulvane):

there was this for at least 10-15 minutes:

Although arguably from the same meso, it would be hard to argue that they were the same tornado.

 

[Jay McCoy]

The NWS counts them by tracks if I am not mistaken which means if one lifts off the ground and another drops 100 yards away they are seperate tornados. Thats not how I do it but I can see where they would have to count it that way to keep accurate count of the tracks. and possible damage.

if I counted that way I coulnd tell you how many I could easily add 100 to my count. I could add about 8 or so alone from 3-28-07. I just never liked to count the small skips a tornado may take while trying to really organize. LIke I said I prefer the funnel dissipate and a new one form before I count it as seperate tornado.

 

[Michael O'Keeffe]

Mine is around 20 maybe more. It is incredible that in 2007 I have seen 10 of those tornadoes!!!!!

 

[Jeremy Ludin]

I only have one under my belt, but I am also just fresh into my 2nd season of chasing. The tornado was spotted in Delavan, IL, although not reported. It appeared as a very weak, snake-like tube and was off across the field a ways. Many more to come!

 

[KMcCallister]

My favorite chase topic is back!!!!

I've seen somewhere between 40 and 4000 tornados, depending on counting method, photography standards, and the definition of tornado.

Just this morning, I chose to watch some old tornado video from 2001 and revise my total upwards by a factor of six.

Oh..I have missed this topic!

 

[Chris Hayes]

I've seen at least 10 tornados since I started chasing in 2002. Since I only have a couple weeks to chase per year, my count isn't as high as others. I saw 2 tornados in 2002, 1 in 2003, and 7 in 2004. I didnt see any in 2005 because of bad decisions, and didnt see any in 2006 because of the horrible pattern while I was on the plains. There have been a few instances where I think I might have seen a tornado, but I dont count them.

 

[John O'Keeffe]

In the two years I have been seriously chasing, I have seen about 20 tornadoes ranging from an F0 to an EF4. I am hoping to double that number by the end of 2007.