2016 Storm Chase Season Summary

My chase season for 2016 as the tour director for Tempest Tours was quite satisfying. First and foremost, our company guides drove safely, they made my job easier, and we got all of our guests back to the base motels in one piece! The weather pattern was great during May, and mediocre at best during June. The Tempest Tours chase schedule runs for nearly three months, from mid-April through early July, and I was out on the Plains working for about nine weeks. I had to fly back home to Los Angeles on three occasions to work weekend shifts at my “regular” job as weather observer at the Point Mugu Navy Base Airport. I was actively chasing on perhaps 40 days, and the remaining days were generally “in-between” tours days or just “down” days when there was nothing to chase.

My chase season got off to a great start on April 19. I drove out from California on the 18th and 19th, met up with Chris and the Tempest group near a storm south of Fort Stockton, TX, and witnessed a long-lived tornado! The tornado was distant, but I’ll take it. The last part of April was fairly active on the Southern Plains, but a couple of days with strong tornado potential were big duds. Tour 2 was fantastic, with three consecutive tornado days from May 7 to May 9. The “Wray Day” of May 7 will be difficult to beat, as a very photogenic tornado formed nearby and came right at us. Tour 3 was fantastic, with four consecutive tornado days from May 22 to May 25, including the Dodge City tornado-fest and the long-lived Chapman, KS, beast. And, every year includes a day or two that I really wish I could do over, and this spring it was May 21. My forecast target of southeastern Wyoming caused us to miss out on the tornadic supercell near Leoti, KS.

After the Chapman tornado, I witnessed zero additional tornadoes despite about four weeks of chasing! And, it was not due to any particularly poor chase decisions or forecasting. The weather patterns were just poor for tornadoes on the Great Plains. Fortunately, there was enough flow for relatively persistent severe weather chances on the Great Plains from late May through June, and we witnessed plenty of interesting storms.

All of my chase accounts for 2016 may be accessed via the links from the monthly archive pages listed below.

April 2016 chase accounts

May 2016 chase accounts

June 2016 chase accounts

And, below is a handy-dandy summary of my storm chases, with a pretty picture or two.

April 19 Fort Stockton, TX tornado