2018 Travels, Stats
This was my fifth full year storm chasing and while it did not feature a lot of tornadoes, there were plenty memorable storms and other experiences.
The year 2018 started in a unique way, with a severe weather outbreak poised to impact parts of the Tennessee River Valley region on March 19th. I witnessed some of the largest hail I’ve ever seen, at 2.75 inches (baseball-sized) in northern Alabama. As big as that was, just one town away from where I was chasing, there was 5 inch hail observed, shattering records for the state. I had one other chase in Texas in late March, otherwise the spring got off to a very slow start.
I almost went the entire month of April without a storm chase, but the drought ended on the last day of the month, marking the fifth April in a row with at least one storm chase.
Speaking of droughts, dry weather, in part, led to a historic wildfire season in western Oklahoma. I chased wildfires for the first time and also witnessed a fire that led to the formation of a severe thunderstorm.
Oklahoma Wildfires, April 12, 2018
Fire-Induced Supercell, May 11, 2018
The rest of the season was fairly active. I had 16 storm chases in May, the most I’ve had in that month. Despite the number of chases, I witnessed no tornadoes in May. June was active as well, as I also chased 16 times, tying my previous high from 2015.
The tornado drought ended on June 19th, as I saw my first tornado of the year in Colorado. I wasn’t particularly close, but it ended up being one of the best overall chases of the year. I caught my first Montana tornado on July 9th and this time, it was just a brief glimpse.
Despite being my second most active chase year to date with 56 storm chases, it was by far the quietest in terms of tornadoes. With that said, I had many memorable chases and continued to improve my ability to catch photogenic storms in the absence of tornadoes.
I seemed to chase the High Plains the most, over a region from West Texas into the western Dakotas/Montana. Compared to previous chase seasons, I rarely found myself in the Cornbelt portion of the Midwest, i.e. Iowa and Illinois, very little.
Other 2018 stats…
- Total mileage by car for 2018: 66,564
- Total car chase mileage: 35,747
- Average mileage per chase day: 638
- Most-chased state: Texas (10)
- Most-chased NWS CWA: Amarillo
- Canadian chases: Two
This was the first year I kept official stats of how many miles I drove during every chase. While the 638-mile number seems high, keep in mind that several of those days included me starting and finishing at home in Oklahoma City, meaning I was willing to drive a long distance for a day chase, without having to stay in a hotel. One of those days included driving over 1,000 miles to start in Oklahoma City, chase in New Mexico and head back home later that night.
I did have plenty of long drives as well when I stayed away from home. When I chase multiple days in a row, there is extra driving time in the morning to get into position for storms, as well as additional driving at night, to get closer to the storm chase target for the following day. I am less likely to make a particularly long drive for a one-off chase, unless I feel there is the potential for something significant. On the other hand, if I have several days off in a row, I have no problem driving as far as I have to in order to catch storms. After all, I don’t want to miss out on something major, simply because I wasn’t willing to drive a little bit further.
Although most of my traveling was storm-related, I took the time to visit family in Connecticut, as well as a few short trips across parts of Deep South Texas and the Southwestern U.S.
I will probably post more stats later this month to recap my first five years of chasing.
