December 31st, 2010: The First (Mediocre) Chase

Tornadoes: 0

Highest Wind Gust: Don’t remember, but non-severe

Largest Hailstone: 0”

This was what I consider my first actual chase. I don’t remember many details since this was almost 5 years ago now. But I do know that I was 11 at the time, and it was New Year’s Eve. I had no clue that there was a severe weather threat until that morning, when I was watching The Weather Channel’s live coverage. A strong tornado had struck downstate Illinois, and a tornado outbreak was occurring all across the lower Mississippi Valley.

I remember watching one tornado warned storm on radar, calculating the closest point it would come to my location. I saw that it would probably go through portions of Livingston County, and told my dad that we should go there. He definitely hesitated for a while, but eventually gave in. It makes me wonder if deep down he did want to go, but didn’t feel like taking the time. My only real strategy for the chase was “follow the tornado warnings.”

It was a very uneventful chase and a waste of gas, but that didn’t stop me from getting REALLY excited. Every EAS alert gave me the same adrenaline rush that seeing a tornado would now (stupid, I know). I can only imagine that if we ended up seeing a tornado, I probably would’ve died. The only particularly interesting thing I remember about the chase was that there was still snow on the ground.

We travelled down to Cornell as the last tornado warning expired. We saw probably 3 bolts of lightning the entire chase, and we were behind the storm the entire time. I still wanted to deploy my (very stupid and pointless) ripoff of the CSWR’s tornado PODS (this was still during the time Storm Chasers was airing…), so we stopped and deployed it for a while. All the mediocrity was somehow incredible for my inexperienced mind.

The only documentation I have is some very embarrassing video of my prepubescent voice screaming at the EAS alerts. Of course I posted it on Youtube thinking it was incredible footage. Parents, don’t let your 11 year old upload videos to Youtube. Not for “internet safety” reasons, but because they’ll regret it sometime down the road when they can’t remember the password for them to be able to delete it.

I’ll post it here so you can either laugh at me or rip your ears off.