Chaser reports and radar-poor areas.

[Stan Rose]

Was just reading Bob S's post which mentions a story reporting Holly, CO as being in a radar 'blind spot' (more accurately, it is far from a WSR). That and an earlier post discussing the 'debate' between spotter and chaser reports prompts me to reiterate the importance of chaser reports.

I am only speaking for myself, but I urge chasers to report important info to the local WFO. Don't ever assume others have done it for you, or that you are bothering someone at a busy time, or that radar already shows the whole picture.

Unfortunately, due to the rural area (very sparse spotter network), speed of the storms, and particularly the fact that the outlooked area and chaser targets were all east, we had no ground truth prior to the Holly EF-3. Visual clues are often far better than any radar image in helping decide whether a storm is potentially dangerous or less dangerous. Chaser reports are invaluable, and can save lives!

 

[Cameron Redwine]

I second that Stan, especially in areas with poor radar coverage like SE Colorado, but all the time is the way to go. I had an interesting experience down there that some of your coworkers can attest to. I ran into a few tornadoes in the dirt roads southeast of Walsh in Baca County in July of 2000. Conditions were not really favorable for severe weather and I wasn’t expecting any (I love boundaries), I was out shooting lightning. The storm began to rotate and produced three tornadoes before I found a little farmhouse and asked to use the phone to call the office. While I was calling it in, another tornado developed just south of the house and moved about 1/8 mile to the south east of the house. I was a little excited when I made the call because I had been watching intermittent tornadoes for almost twenty minutes, without even a severe thunderstorm warning. PUX hardly showed a thing. Freak event; surface temp was 90 degrees F, and hardly any flow aloft. I still don’t know what happened, but I have pictures to prove it

Along the same lines, Hodanish and I were on the Brady storm in May 2000 and observed the same incredible event as many other chasers. A tornado warning was in effect for Lincoln County for the second of third time that afternoon but Ho and I were, to my knowledge, the first people to report a large tornado on the ground to North Platte, even though the tornado had been on the ground for several minutes. I made the assumption that it had been reported due to the magnitude of the tornado and the number of people out, but it had not been. So even when there are numerous chasers out, like Stan said, don’t assume that others have done it for you.

 

[jason kissam]

I was wondering is it possible to have multiple radar sites that may "overlap" each other? I was viewing that storm in Holly on Pueblo radar as well as Dodge City and Goodland Kansas radars. it seemed to show the storms ok but yet a "blind spot" was evident from the pueblo site and didnt detect rotation.

 

[rdale]

The goal is to have as much overlap as possible, but it's not always achievable based on distances between sites.

 

[John Diel]

One thing to remember, the radar has a "Line of Sight" limitation. The lowest angle that the radar sight in question will "see" is probably 5000 to 6000 feet over the city. A lot can happen in that distance.

I know that in my particular area, we are "covered" by 3 radar sights. KVNX, KICT, & KINX. KTLX and KDDC also give some long distance coverage as well. Even with all this, the lowest angle is still a good 2000 to 3000 feet over my head.

Ground Truth reports are always good. In response to an earlier thread about being beat up the the local WFO and having your report "blown off", I see it this way: the more reports the better and the squeaky wheel will get the oil. Enough reports of something happening and someone will take notice. As far as "Assuming" that someone else called it in? Don't do it. If they have, then it's simply another confirmation of something going on.