In the Autumn as the days begin to shorten, every supercell feels so special because it could be your last of the calendar year. 2013 was no different, with the October 4 chase day really showing a lot of promise and delivering with some sweet structure near Clinton, Oklahoma.

The famous day of El Reno — our view here wasn’t as exciting as others as we stayed to the right of the path at all times, despite the somewhat unorthodox (but not unheard of) track the tornado took. Oftentimes, big and messy HPs along boundaries can behave this way so its always best to…

Supercells erupted up and down the Highway 81 corridor and moved into the I-35 corridor into the late afternoon/evening with gorgeous structure and even a couple of weak tornadoes. This was almost a prolific tornado outbreak, but low level winds were just slightly off, preventing a larger event.

Storms formed across NW Oklahoma with a supercell rapidly forming NE of Ft. Supply, OK. This storm eventually merged with several others, with a monster MCS the result into the evening.

Storm chasing isn’t the easiest hobby to deal with, but Sanner talks a bit here about what its like and the challenges that come with chasing.

This was the start of a fun multi-day excursion across the plains which culminated in the May 31, 2013 El Reno chase day. On this day, the storms weren’t too cooperative but we made out with a fantastic sunset anyways!

There isn’t much more you have to say about this day. It was a horrific, tragic day of chasing. While we certainly do love storms and the complexity of the atmosphere, this was where chasing them down wherever they happen wasn’t at all what we wanted. The thrill of a forecast correctly made and chase…

While a supercell to our north was doing enormous, untold, historical damage — we were in southern Oklahoma chasing a supercell which went on to produce a cone tornado. For us, this was a worst case scenario from a chase standpoint where we weren’t ready to commit north until it was too late to get…

The view in the chase vehicle and outside of it as we filmed a distant tornado near Duncan, OK. This tornado was a pretty stout one, but it was the only one this storm could manage to produce as the environment seemed to go downhill quickly after it formed.

A localized outbreak of tornadoes struck the central Oklahoma area, with several recording strong ratings and one SW of Shawnee, Oklahoma earning an EF4 rating. This was a day we chased extremely well, as we were on the first to last tornado of the day in Oklahoma, seeing multiple tornadoes from a couple of supercells…

This was at the tail end of a long chase day in North Texas where we observed several tornado warned storms and a couple of tornadoes. This supercell gave us some hope we might just eek out another for a bit over open land before it all but faded away with the sunlight.

This was a pretty interesting chase day with two separate targets. We chose the easternmost target with the better moisture over the dryline. This moisture gradient almost acted as a second dryline with storms forming along it and eventually going on to produce tornadoes from the DFW metro north towards the Red River.

This tornado encounter was one where we really never could afford a great view thanks to a lack of good roads and dense trees. We ended up having to back up about 1/2 mile with this one (probably a bit excessive all things considered in retrospect 6 years later). Overall this was a day I’d…

This turned out to be a decent photography day even though the storms were pretty pedestrian spring severe weather things. Storms quickly formed into a line but there were a few embedded/transient supercells. It was a solid day to get started with the 2013 storm seaosn.

This is an outtake from a storm chase in 2013. A tornado had just occurred on the west side of Lawton, Okalhoma

This was one of the first days we really began to get not so fond of Veer-back shear profiles. These profiles are when winds, instead of gradually veering with height (supercells like this) actually back after a time. Oftentimes, this makes for messy looking storms and bad photo opportunities — even if a day still…

This was a great photography day in north Texas. A supercell formed late in the day with some incredible storm structure as it moved across North Texas. No tornadoes from this one, but the storm was certainly spinning on the large scale, which made for some fantastic views.

The 2013 season started early with some brief/transient supercell structure. This was a pretty big throwaway day all things considered. We definitely noob’ed out later but generally this was a forgettable day with a bright moment of structure.

Southern Plains winter storms may not be the big, bad productions of the northern parts of the country — but they are a nightmare for local residents as ill-equipped local governments struggle to maintain good roads when the snowfall becomes overwhelming. Of course, when mother nature creates chaos we tend to feel the urge to…