Summary: I was preparing to leave the University of Oklahoma to transfer back east to the Virginia Commonwealth University to study History. I loved weather and storm-chasing, but realized that it was not my calling as a vocation.

My uncle and dad met me after the semester ended and we chased together for a week. My dad, after getting experience out west, started chasing back in Virginia, and when I could we would meet to chase together.

7 April - 650 miles - North Texas

The day featured a very good warm sector, yet it was a bit too narrow. We figured the southern storms would be where the action happened, yet the north storm dropped a tornado in Throckmorton, Texas. Our storm got its act together right before the squall line swallowed it up.

13 April - 625 miles - Texas Panhandle

We targeted Quanah and then headed north to chase an outflow boundary. Aaron and the gang split off for home, disappointed in the long drive and seemingly hopeless situation as night fell. Kyle and I stayed back and watched a storm drop a funnel cloud outside Woodward, Oklahoma, but night came and killed the storm.

10 May - Western OK, Texas Panhandle

My uncle drove up from Texas and my dad flew out so we could chase for the next week. After packing me out of the dorm, we headed toward Texas but did not see anything.

11 May - Central Kansas

We sat underneath a stationary cold-front near Larned. We were caught off guard when the cold front exploded and started moving. As we got moving we saw debris and a tornado about 8 miles away. We tried to catch up to it, without good maps, while our only two options were to drive towards ever-larger hail to the south or a wall cloud to the west.

We got ahead of the front and stopped for gas in Pratt just as tornado sirens went off. We headed south and saw funnel clouds to the west. A tornado was reported by a police unit which we passed, yet we did not see it, (if it happened).

12 May - North Texas

We saw three separate wall clouds at the Texas Welcome Center just over the line from Oklahoma. We chased into farm country and saw funnel clouds, but nothing touched down. The highlight was almost running over an armadillo.

15 May - Southwest Kansas

We stopped north of Liberal and saw several gustnados, then moved north and observed repeating microbursts.

16 May - Kansas and Central Oklahoma

Nothing happened during the day while we watched, but after dark tornadoes dropped where we were.

26 May - North-central Virginia

My dad and I chased a couple low-topped supercells from Culpeper, through Fauquier and finally into Prince William. We saw several wall-clouds and funnel clouds in Fauquier. We chased through the Marine Corps Base Quantico, a feat as there was no visibility. However, at one wide spot we stopped and looked up and realized the wall cloud was right over us. We immediately retreated to the north and stopped to watch several funnels from from the storm, but nothing touched down.

26 June - Fauquier/Stafford County

Storms fell apart as we arrived at our target. Nothing severe.

27 September - North-Central Virginia

My dad and I chased the remnants of Hurricane Isidore. I was in Richmond at the time and met my dad up north so we could head west towards Orange County. Nothing happened there so we headed west towards the mountains. We called in a tornado warning to the National Weather Service after seeing incredible rotation in Culpeper County. According to my dad’s account, the NWS forecast he talked to said this:

“Thanks for the call…we’re pretty busy right now, and we’re releasing a warning for Orange County and….holy cow, 64 knots inbound Doppler velocity! Yeah, we’ll keep an eye on that one!!”

We followed the storm north into Fauquier, watching wall clouds seemingly everywhere. After dark I told my dad to stop because I could see, between an airport light and the little light left, a classic wall cloud only a mile away. As we became more uncomfortable being close to that in the dark, we headed towards home after a wild and crazy day.

11 November - Northern Neck, Virginia

Storms were moving NE from Lynchburg at 50mph. I met my dad in Tappahannock and we watched a wall cloud cross the Rappahannock River. Saw mammatus and some possible signs of rotation. On the way back to my car we saw another wall-cloud and watched it for a few minutes, but it couldn’t get its act together.