Although it didn't impact me directly, I have a lot of memories of the May 2003 outbreak sequence, as it was the first major severe weather event that I followed as it unfolded (although doing so was a lot different than now - no live chaser streams or streaming TV coverage directly from the impact zone, and no GR Level 3 or Radarscope to track the radar myself). I was 17 in 2003 and I had just "discovered" the SPC website (previously throughout my child/teenagerhood my main source of national severe weather information had been The Weather Channel) the year before, and thought being able to get the information "straight from the horses' mouth," so to speak, was just supremely cool.
It must have been on May 4th when I saw, on TWC's thunderstorm outlook, a "white zone" indicating an unusually great threat of severe weather (it was around this time, or possibly because of this event, that I realized that TWC's thunderstorm outlooks were essentially repackaged SPC convective outlooks, with the orange "thunderstorms possible" shading matching the general thunder contour, and the red "severe" shading matching anything slight risk or above, and the rare white shading accompanying a high risk). I fired up our dial-up Internet connection and loaded the site, and there was a high risk - the first one I'd ever seen, accompanied by a Public Severe Weather Outlook.
...STORMS WILL RAPIDLY BECOME SEVERE IN THE FORM OF DISCRETE
SUPERCELLS. DEVELOPMENT IS EXPECTED TO OCCUR ACROSS ERN OK AND
INTO NRN/ERN TX...AS WELL AS INTO NRN LA/AR AND POSSIBLY NRN MS/WRN
TN THROUGH THE LATE AFTERNOON/EVENING AS UPPER JET BECOMES MORE WLY
AND STRONG HEATING ERODES CAP ACROSS THE WARM SECTOR. THIS
ACTIVITY WILL ALSO LIKELY REMAIN SUPERCELLULAR. THE THREATS OF
TORNADOES... INCLUDING LONG-LIVED TORNADIC SUPERCELLS...AND VERY
LARGE HAIL WILL OCCUR ACROSS THE ENTIRE REGION. VERY POTENT
COMBINATION OF STRONG INSTABILITY...LOW AND DEEP LAYER SHEAR AND
DEEP LIFTING INDICATE SIGNIFICANT TORNADOES ARE LIKELY FROM THE MID
AFTERNOON UNTIL WELL AFTER DARK.
Holy. Sh!t.
Of course, this setup verified all too well with one of the most prolific, destructive and deadly outbreaks of the 2000s (perhaps exceeded only by Super Tuesday, 2008) with multiple long-track F4s and F3s from several supercells across eastern Kansas and western Missouri. Jackson, TN was also struck by an F4 overnight.
May 5th also had a high risk issued, although not much in the way of significant tornado activity occurred that day. Just three days later, another high risk was issued in the Plains on May 8th, which saw Moore, OK's second violent tornado strike in four years (although much less impactful than 1999, or the one that would come ten years later) as well as several other strong tornadoes in eastern Kansas.
Just two days later, another high risk would be issued encompassing areas from eastern Oklahoma to northern Illinois to the OH/WV border. While the May 10th event didn't quite live up to its apocalyptic forecast wording in terms of impact (thankfully), with the maximum tornado rating reaching F3 and no fatalities, it was the only day during this outbreak sequence to affect Wisconsin. That night my parents and I were in the town of Brodhead with my aunt and uncle, watching my cousins perform in one of their high school plays. On the way home there was spectacular lightning all around, but it wasn't until we got home and I got back online that I realized that there was a PDS tornado watch in effect for our area, and that lightning had been from supercells (even though we were barely within the edge of the slight risk)! Tornadoes were later confirmed near Benton and Belmont, WI, about 50 miles west of Brodhead. They were rated F1 for impacting farm outbuildings, trees and powerlines but based on video from a law enforcement officer that I didn't see until years later, at least one of them was rather large, substantial and likely capable of a higher rating had it hit (a) frame house(s). Not your typical Wisconsin "weak"-category, brief spin-up.
Although the longwave trough associated with this sequence finally moved off the East Coast on May 11, within a few days another event set up that warranted a high risk over the western Plains, and produced several strong and photogenic tornadoes in the Texas Panhandle on May 15th.
This was still the pre-social media era, and many storm chasers maintained their own websites to post their photography and often well-written, detailed, and gripping chase accounts. Within a few weeks the accounts of this sequence began to appear (although, sadly, most of them have long since gone offline now).
Five high risks in twelve days, four of them verified. I thought all Mays were like this, and that SPC was that good. Ah, to be young and naive.
