Breaking the Misconceptions: What Storm Chasing is Really Like

Storm chasing is perhaps unlike any other hobby in the United States. No other hobby requires such intricate knowledge of not only severe thunderstorms, but the forecast processes behind them, photography, and navigation. Since more light was shed on the hobby in the mid-late 90 there have been more and more folks entering the hobby with preconceived notions. This post is simply to expose three of the misconceptions people have coming in to help them determine if they really want to make the financial and physical commitment to chasing storms.


1. Storm chasing is a thrilling, action packed adventure. This is probably the biggest fallacy people come in hearing. About 85% of storm chasing is driving to get to a target for storms. An average chase will usually only have about 1-2 hours of excitement on a storm (note that's an average). Compare this with the 5-10 hours of driving both ways just to get there and you sometimes have a very dull experience, especially when the setup ends up busting and you're sitting in Great Bend, Kansas with 90/65 spread looking at clear blue skies. This is why having chase partners who you get along well with and who you can have fun with even on busts is extremely important. Storms are only part of the equation to having fun on a chase.

2. I will see lots of tornadoes my first season. Coming in with this mindset will most likely lead you to serious frustration in your inaugural season. Very few chasers see even one tornado their first season, let alone a lot of them. For example, it took me four seasons to see my first tornado. When most people start out, they tend not to have a wide enough knowledge base in forecasting and storm evolution to bag a tornado. This is why coming in with lower expectations and just learning from your first season is so critical. Even if you don't see a tornado, there's a good chance for learning important things that will aid you in later seasons.

3. Being a meteorology major gives me an edge. I hate to say it, but I see a lot of this at OU. Some of the freshman seem to suffer from the delusion that being OU meteorology students gives them some special status. This ties in directly to the second point: No matter how much you think you know, there will be vast amounts you still need to learn. Other chasers don't care if you're a meteorology student so don't wear it on your arm.

A Brief Look at Instability on Soundings

So recently I've noticed people have been having problems understanding how to "see" instability/buoyancy on an observed sounding so I though I'd shed a little light on the subject. The amount of instability (CAPE) on a sounding can be eyeballed by looking at the parcel path relative to the temperature line. The parcel path of a sounding is the theoretical path any given parcel (imagine a box) of air would take in the environment. The temperature line is simply displaying the temperature on an X/Y axis throughout the atmosphere (millibars on the Y-axis and temperature values on the X-axis). Below is an example of a sounding with very high ML/SBCAPE values from June 29, 2012, a day that would produce a derecho that caused extensive damage from Ohio to Maryland:

The parcel path is represented with the dashed brown line and the temperature line is the red line. There is a large area in between the two indicating an extremely unstable environment and positively buoyant parcels (tendency to rise). The larger the area in between the parcel path and temperature line indicates high instability. Be wary though, there was also a thermal inversion at 850 mb which can put a damper on rising parcels due to the parcels not being warmer than the surrounding air at 850 mb (i.e. not having positive buoyancy).

While the thermodynamics for this sounding are very favorable for severe thunderstorms, the shear environment isn't favorable for discrete severe thunderstorms i.e. supercells. This sounding however does show a favorable environment for linear thunderstorms, especially organized bows/derechos.

So when looking at soundings in the future, you can always eyeball it if the nice CAPE values below aren't available!

Official End of the Season

Well after a series of false posts, I can now say that the 2012 chase season is over. After a fun bust in south-central Kanas yesterday it looks like the pattern should go zonal with the gulf closing for the foreseeable future. Had a great season with roughly 5100 miles, 6 tornadoes and a lot of new friends. Looking forward to chase season 2013, roughly 108 days left until March 1st!

2012 Stats Update

Well folks I experienced a bit of Panhandle magic yesterday and ended up coming back to Norman with three tornadoes and an extra 1000 miles under my belt. I updated the chase stats on the post below and needless to say, I feel awesome. None of the tornadoes were long-lived or fully condensed but they still showed up rather nicely in some of my photos. I'll have a full account up in a few days. Night!

Chase Season 2012 Stats

Just a brief recap of stuff that wasn't covered back in my June posts. Here are all the stats for my 2012 season:

Chases: 9
Miles Driven: 5118
Tornadoes: 6
Largest Hail: Ping-pong (1 1/2 inches)
Highest Winds: 71 MPH (RFD March 2nd supercell)
States Chased In: Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Kansas, Nebraska
Busts: 4
Best Chase: May 25
Funniest Experience: Driving under a supercell's base on March 2nd and having Ryan say "oh look its spinning" right over our heads
Scariest Moment: See above
Worst Experience: Deciding to chase the May 24th bustola in northeastern Iowa/southeastern Minnesota that wasted valuable time for the next day
Creepy Country Folk Encountered: 3 (March 2nd)
Strongest Tornado: EF2 (March 2nd)
Best Structure: Rush County Supercell (May 25)
Moderate Risk Fails: 2 (May 24, June 29)

For all intensive purposes, 2012 was not that bad of a season for me even though it was sorely lacking in tornadic setups sans two major outbreaks early in the season and a few sleeper days in May. I chased farther and longer than I ever have before (extended 3 days of nonstop chasing and over 3000 miles covered in 5 days). I also got my first tornado and possibly one of my favorite all time structure shots. I'm greatly anticipating spring 2013 in Tornado Alley and am hoping for an even better season. Until then, I'm gonna be re-living the memories:

Life in Chase Mecca & the Fall Season

Well folks I've been in Norman for almost a full month now. So far its been amazing, I went to my first Sooner home game yesterday night where they opened a can of whoop ass on Florida A&M (thank god, no UTEP repeats). I also have been exploring the National Weather Center for the first time since I've been here. It really is an amazing place.

But moving back to the point of this, its looking like the upper air pattern over the CONUS is not gonna be conducive for any real severe weather opportunities in the next week and a half/two weeks. A high pressure dome is basically going to be sitting squarely over the Central Plains for the foreseeable future. Meanwhile back home in Cincinnati a huge squall line came roaring through Friday night and put down an EF0 just across the county line in Clermont County. I know I sound like a broken record, but I somehow figured something like that'd happen. All in all I'm not expecting anything special like November 7th from last year, but I really am hoping I get a nice surprise in the next few months.

2012: Year of Fallen Expectations

Its that time of year folks, where the bitching and whining begins about how mediocre this chase season was. After one of the quietest Junes I've ever seen there doesn't look to be any good setups in the next week. Technically this was one of my better seasons since I got my first two tornadoes this year, my plains trip in, as well as some of the best structure I've seen whilst chasing but the year lacked a lot in terms of overall good setups. It basically hinged on two days: March 2nd and April 14th. I chased the 2nd and got a  tornado in Kentucky but never have I seen a year with only two outbreaks even after May and most of June. Of course there were other big days, May 19th in south-central Kansas, May 25th in western Kansas, May 30th in central Texas, June 5th  in Montana and so on. But the biggest issue was the number of big bust days. Even with all the ingredients in place (strong shear, moderate-high instability, great moisture and modest lift) days still busted like its 1988. We had the fewest confirmed tornadoes in May in history. We have yet to hit 1000 tornadoes even (we're currently at 841 reported) and its the end of June almost. The cap won over on a lot of setups along with moisture being mixed out early. This year almost reminds me of 2009, but I've been hearing a lot of comparisons to 2006 (I wouldn't know considering I didn't get into chasing until roughly 2-3 years later). The only good thing to be considered is this:
-I got tornadoes for the first time this season
-Big seasons "usually" come after weaker seasons and I'll be out on the Plains for school next year

All in all, I can't complain about it too much but a far more active season would have been appreciated. This season also saw another uptick in anti-chaser articles and other such bullshit, but hopefully it'll blow over now that the season has taken such a downward spiral. Below are some of the best images from the season:
                                         
                          Southern supercell near Long Ridge, KY. March 2

                         Rope tornado near Long Ridge, KY. March 2

                        Rope tornado near Long Ridge, KY. March 2

                         Supercell 1 south of Russell, KS. May 25

                        Supercell 1 south of Russell, KS. May 25

                         Supercell 2 with tornado east of LaCrosse, KS. May 25

                        Contrast shot showing tornado east of LaCrosse. May 25

                         Contrast shot of tornado east of LaCrosse. May 25

                         Multicell rain shaft/microburst S. NE. May 27

                         Multicell rain shaft/microburst S. NE. May 27

                         Closeup of dust being kicked up. S. NE. May 27

                       Rain shaft north of Wilber, NE. May 27

                       Rain shaft/elevated updraft base. Lincoln, NE. May 27

                       Updraft towers. Lincoln, NE. May 27

                        Mammatus. Hays, KS. May 25

                        Mammatus. Hays, KS. May 25

                         Mammatus. Hays, KS. May 25