After talking about the 6 year anniversary of the best tornado chase of my life (Hope you enjoyed the videos), I wanted to touch on how massive this two day outbreak really was! 193 reported tornadoes in a two day period according to the SPC... If I remember correctly the official final number was 166 tornadoes over a two day period, which it the second largest tornado outbreak (by the numbers) over a two day period... Amazing!
I'll have an quick update to my 2010 hurricane thoughts/ideas tomorrow, even though not a whole lot has changed... If anything things look a little more scary and seem to be a little more progressive than I first thought!
Before I go I wanted to leave links to two great sites! The first link will take you to Jim Leonard's site... He is the first known person to ever chase a hurricane! To the best of my knowledge, Jim's first "chase" was hurricane Agnes in 1972... However, growing up in South Florida he has experienced many tropical cyclones before Agnes... The second site will take you to Richard Horodner's site... He is the second known person to ever chase a hurricane! Again, to the best of my knowledge, Richard's first "chase" was hurricane Carmen in 1974 with Jim... He also grew up in South Florida, so he saw his fair share of tropical cyclones as well before Carmen... Jim & Richard were the first, which was follow by the second wave of hurricane chasers in the early/mid-80's.... This included people like my friend Michael Laca and others like Steve Wachholder, Andy Dressler, Jack "Thunderhead" Corso, Terry Nixon, and Richard Pasch...
We always hear about the pioneers of tornado chasing (Roger Jensen, David Hoadley, & Neil Ward), but you almost never hear about the pioneers of hurricane chasing... As someone that loves hurricanes (my true passion) and weather history in general, I feel it's very important to talk about these pioneers.... It's essential to understand the past in order to appreciate the present IMO! As a teacher I try to tell this to my students all the time... Without a doubt Jim Leonard & Richard Horodner started this path and paved the way for others like me! All I can really say to them is thank you! Another thank you goes out to Michael Laca for the hurricane chasing history lesson!
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