2017 Storm Chase Season Summary

Welcome once more to a William Reid chase season summary. The spring of 2017 was not a particularly active one with regard to tornadoes and severe weather on the Great Plains. As usual, I chased for much of May and June (and the first week of July) as the tour director for Tempest Tours. There were a couple of 4-to-5-day periods during which I had to head back home to California to work a couple of shifts at my regular job. Fortunately I didn’t miss any big days on the Plains. Truth be told, May and June were lame this year.

There were a few periods during May and June with a trough in the West and nice SW flow aloft over the Plains, but these were rather transitory and short-lived. The months seemed to be plagued, for the most part, with W to NW flow aloft and marginal low-level moisture. And, for the most part, the days which seemed like they might be big tornado days generally under-performed. The kiss-of-death this year was the 10-percent hatched tornado risk as issued by SPC. Those days wound up being duds for chasers…or maybe I should say “most chasers.” There was, as is bound to happen each spring, one day which was big for many chasers and on which I was not in the right area. This was May 18, when I was in SW KS when NW OK had a very nice tornadic supercell.

The tours and I did well on the other days on which tornadoes were forecastable, chase-able, and highly visible. These were May 16 (McLean/Sayre), June 12 (CO/WY/NE triple-point area) and June 28 (southwestern IA and northwestern MO). Interestingly, my best three tornado days this year produced tornadoes in seven different states: TX, OK, CO, WY, NE, IA and MO. And, on three other chase days, I observed “maybe” or very weak tornadoes in NM, KS, and ND.

This season I did not chase in MT, MO, MN, AR or LA. I was never in chase mode south of I-20, though Tempest ventured deep into south TX and along the Rio Grande in May when I was in L.A. for a few days. Here is the breakdown of states and regions chased from about May 1 to July 7 by me. Keep in mind that even very low-end chase days with junky storms are counted. On days when two states or regions are accessed, I selected the one that the storm started in or was strongest in. Down days and re-position days are not counted:

TX/OK Panhandles 5

Eastern NM 6

Eastern CO 4

North TX 1

Oklahoma 3

Kansas 7

Nebraska 6

South Dakota 1

North Dakota 3

Iowa 1

Eastern SD and eastern NE were real duds this season. In fact, all of SD was slow. The High Plains of NM and the Panhandles kept us busy for much of May. I did a solo chase in California’s San Joaquin Valley in March and in western Nevada in July. And, my finest moments for lightning photography were on San Nicolas Island on September 10.

May 2017 Chases

June 2017 Chases

July 2017 Chases

The long listing below provides a link to each chase day in 2017, with a sample of the photos that you will find in the chase account.

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March 21 San Joaquin Valley Chase Supercell near Chowchilla and a fiery sunset…did I mention that this is in California?