Your first chase?

[Peter B. Creedon]

What was your first chase? Mine was March 12th, 2006. It was a local chase. I have the report somewhere on a flash drive. I'll never forget it either. I left my house near dark and headed west on 70. Met up with the cells west of Columbia and followed them east. Made my way towards Lincoln and Montgomery County. Chasing after dark wracks my nerves. Didn't see any tornadoes.

 

[Ethan Lang]

My first chase was in june two years ago i got on a high based supercell that neared my home town just after dark since i was only 15 i had my dad drive and he agreed to take me as long as I kept us out of the hail which with radarscope was pretty easy. Although it was not tornadic at any point we were able to witness a spectacular gustnado.

 

[Marc R. O'Leary]

My first tornado chase was an accident. I went out to get set up for lightning. I didn't know squat about structure or tornadoes. Then this happened:

Southlands Mall / Aurora, CO / 06.07.09

 

[James Wilson]

My first chase resulted in my first tornado. I thought it would be easy after that chase as it was that day ... of course I was wrong but it was a great start.

This is on April 25th 2009 NW of Eudora Kansas.


My video ... I was quite excited as you can tell.

Damage the tornado did to a house ... I checked and everyone was unhurt.


Track, house and my locations.


Reports from that day to include my tornado.

 

[Jason Boggs]

I had chased very close to home in the late 90's, but my first real chase was in the spring of 2000 when I moved to Amarillo. I didn't know squat about forecasting, so I watched the weather channel and went to the area (Plainview, TX) where they were forecasting severe weather. I didn't see any storms that day, but it was the day that fueled my desire to learn how to forecast so I could improve my chase results.

 

[Ben Holcomb]

My first chase was on a MDT risk in Indiana/Michigan on October 18, 2007. I ended up in Fulton and Cass Counties in Indiana and witnessed a pretty cool funnel cloud.

The storm would go on to actually drop a tornado 13 miles east of my house in Williamston Michigan, rated EF-2 about 3 hours later. I never was able to keep up with the fast storm motions, but I do remember thinking it was the first time I had ever seen a rain free base.

Here's a picture from near Metea, IN

 

[Michael Towers]

My first chase was actually way back in 1987 when Hurricane Floyd made landfall in southern Florida. I was a student at the University of Miami at the time and when it became apparent the storm was going to make landfall nearby I headed to the beach to live the experience. It wasn’t a chase in the traditional sense as there was no forecasting, planning, navigating or any of the other things typically involved, it was just a college kid with a beat up ’71 Nova wanting to intercept bad old Floyd and that I did!

My first tornado chase was on May 19 & 20, 2001. I’d been wanting to do it for a few years, I kept toying with the idea but never got around to actually doing it. When I saw a forecast calling for severe weather on the plains for the upcoming weekend I decided to finally stop dreaming and do it so I booked a flight to Dallas and chased Texas & Oklahoma on consecutive days. I had no clue about forecasting, I just went by where the Weather Channel predicted the storms were going to be. I had very little knowledge about storm structure and behavior and my only tool was a weather radio. In spite of those limitations I still scored a supercell each day and it still gives me a chuckle thinking back this whale’s mouth I saw, it was the very first storm feature on my very first storm and I remember thinking that something that wicked looking was surely going to produce a tornado!

 

[Ethan Schisler]

Depending on one's criteria for a "chase" I could define a couple different dates. However my definition is the "pursuit of severe weather" so I will highlight July of 2004 (7/5/04 if I remember right) as the night of the first time we went after storms. I had witnessed a tornado while on a camping trip with my father on Memorial Day weekend of 2004. I had been interested in storms my entire life, however it was this event that pushed me over the edge of wanting to really see more.

We didn't see much on the night of July 5 2004 other than some scud clouds and possibly a wall cloud on a tornado warned storm in Fulton County, IL. Back then my knowledge of storm structure and behavior wasn't anywhere close to what it is now, so that was enough to get me excited!

Back then we just had a NOAA weather radio that was built into the CB radio in my dad's truck and a road map. I didn't even have a video camera until I got one the following year for Christmas, it took Mini DV tapes so most of the older videos I have a hard time getting onto the computer. I didn't know of the SPC until 2006 either! I can't imagine having to chase the Plains with that limited amount of knowledge. I definitely have respect for the folks that had to do it way back in the day.

We mainly chased local storms and I didn't really have any interest of going further. I chased local storms until 2010 when I decided to finally venture out of state to chase. Even after several years of chasing on the plains, I still have to say that I enjoy chasing locally more than anything. Not as many chasers here in Illinois on the roads as there are out in Kansas/Oklahoma. Not that, that factor will ever stop me from going the distance to see the sights that I seek!

 

[kevin-palmer]

Ever since I was a kid I've shot lightning from my backyard or close to home. But it wasn't until May 19, 2013 that I drove more than an hour to intercept a storm. I didn't know anything about forecasting or storm structure. I just saw a severe thunderstorm on radar and spontaneously decided to drive to Galesburg to meet it. I was a little late, getting there just as the outflow boundary passed over. But I got to see the whale's mouth with very strong winds kicking up dust underneath, which was exciting at the time.


Approach of a Monster by Kevin Palmer, on Flickr

 

[Quincy Vagell]

May 16th, 2007 was probably the first "chase-type" event, even though being in Connecticut and not traveling far, it was more of an intercept than anything. Winds gusted to 55 mph and there was an EF-1 tornado with a couple of miles of my location. I think this single event sparked what would be a growing interest for storm "chasing," even though I use that term loosely in the Northeast.

My first real chases in the Plains/Midwest were October 4th, 2013 and November 17th, 2013. Those were big learning experiences, because I hadn't had any prior firsthand experience with intense supercell thunderstorms. Chasing was a clear obsession by that point and I have regularly chased ever since.

 

[Royce Sheibal]

Don't know if this counts, but we were in a car, there was a tornado, we drove fast.

Council Bluffs Iowa, June of 91 or 92. I was still a kid and we were at the Ren-Fair at the local community college. We went every year with a good chunk of the family Sky turned green, sirens go off, we headed home asap. Dad floored it outta there in his Camaro, my aunt uncle behind us had to abandon their vehicle and get into the ditch, but we were clear. Tornado set down on the hills on the S side of I-80 and I watched it out the back window as we sped home. A couple years ago I pulled up the historical tornado data and supposedly it was an F2 that did little damage in the forested hills near the interstate.

None the less, it's probably a major reason why I chase storms now.

 

[Peter B. Creedon]

Somehow I wished my first chase would be during the day, but I had to settle on a night chase. At least I knew the roads.

 

[samuel stone]

March 27th, 2004 in South Central Kansas, missed the Kinsley, KS F-3 tornado by about 20 min. Was 14 years old and my dad drove me (We saw the June 12th Mulvane, KS tornado later that year). There are very few if any photographs of this large tornado. Only time I've seen a picture was on the NWS top news archives but its been removed since. Most people were in Oklahoma and they caught a couple photogenic tornadoes in NW part of the state.

Roger Hill Intercepted the storm just after the wedge F-3 dissipated, as he states on his page. http://stormchase.net/march-27th-2004-edwards-county-kansas-tornadic-supercell/

 

[Shawn Gossman]

My first chase was when I was 13. My buddy was 16 and had a car, a firebird TA. Neither of us knew what we were doing, we just heard on the radio that a large tornado had been spotted in the rural area of Murphysboro, Illinois and we went for it. The large tornado turned out to be an F-4 that was about a mile wide. This was before the EF scale was released. It was huge and it was powerful. My buddy got his car's speed quite fast, upwards of about 100 MPH on a straight-away rural route highway going right for this thing. The front end of his car started lifting, at that point sending me in extreme fear and distress. I even cried and begged him to back off. I was 13 after all, at least in my day, that was still a little kid. Eventually, my buddy also got a bit freaked out by it and we zipped around and got the hell out of there. The tornado remained in rural parts and didn't do a whole lot of significant damage or harm anyone.

After that day, I then knew I had to get some kind of formal experience or safety training on this particular type of activity so I joined Skywarn shortly after.

Most of my chase experience though came from chasing by myself, making mistakes, almost getting hit several times and age... Back in my younger days, I'd play with fire and core punch and get as close as dangerously possible, haha. Nowadays, now that I am older and more concerned about my health and well-being, I don't get as close and mainly just do spotter activities for my local community. I will still chase though, if the opportunity is present and I can have some kind of safety plan to boot. I remember doing a lot of night chasing back then, that is something I don't recommend, even if you know the area...

 

[Brad Dormer]

My first chase was March something of this year. Iowa/Missouri was supposed to get hit, turned out nothing but lots and lots of pea sized hail. It was fun and I am considering chasing Wednesday of this week since it is pretty close to being local