Do you chase at night?

[Patrick Martin]

As I've been going through the events of this past week and reading a lot of the chase accounts and viewing a lot of pics and video, I've noticed a lot of post sunset chases. It got me to wondering how many of you choose to chase at night and how many don't? Would also be curious to know why or why not?

For me, as someone with only a few chasing years under my belt, even though I chase with a laptop and some of the electronic goodies that keep me up to speed on data and radar, when the sun goes down, I point my car back to Denver. Darkness brings into play an entire new set of variables that I don't want to mess with. Just my personal preference.

 

[Dan Robinson]

With live radar (WxWorx) in the car, logistically chasing is not much different at night than during the day. As long as there is lightning, you're in business. Without the radar, I'd be a little nervous - but probably not enough to not do it.

 

[Bob Schafer]

It depends

How ironic that this poll was posted as I was composing a post of my own about the dangers of night chasing.

http://www.stormtrack.org/forum/showthread.php?t=11755&page=2

I will chase at night, and I voted yes, but with an asterisk. *It depends on the situation.

Do I have a nowcaster I trust (i.e. puts my safety as his #1 priority)? Do I have onboard data? Are the storms discrete and (largely) predictable? Am I convoying with someone who has WxWorx (since I don't)? Is the road network conducive to this? Is lightning aiding my visibility? Am I likely to see anything worth doing this? (Or) Would I rather get some pavement under my butt for an hour or two towards tomorrow's target? Am I likely to have issues with getting a motel room later on if I keep this up? (Some may find it acceptable to check in to a $150 room at 4AM... or sleep in their vehicle... I don't)

 

[Marko Korosec]

Yes, I do chase at night, actually almost half of my chases here were at night...simply since there is much less to shoot by day, mesos or those impressive strucutres are unfortunatelly a rare thing. So I look at the merged stuff like MCSs at the evenings and during the nights and enjoy lightning shows. Here is a sample shot from last season where I was chasing tail-end charlie supercell with incredible beaver's tail:

I have no fear chasing without a radar here, mostly because there is no big threat to be affraid of. But nighttime chase in the States without a radar... hell no.

If I can put one question here; how many of you would be able to chase without radar or internet access on the road at all? So actually just with target set hours ago and with your own eyes, looking for a success.

 

[Bob Schafer]

(H)ow many of you would be able to chase without radar or internet access on the road at all? So actually just with target set hours ago and with your own eyes, looking for a success.

Ahh, Zen chasing, LOL!

I bet most of us HAVE chased that way, at least those of us who've been chasing a few years or more, back in "the bad old days" before onboard data became the norm rather than the exception. My first two years, 1999/2000, I had no data. I didn't even have a computer at home. Zero meteorological knowledge. My strategy was to get close to the center of TWC's "red zone".

In 2000, though, on one particular day, I realized I had totally blown a chase and missed what had been described on TWC as a "very large multi-vortex tornado". At that moment, I made a mental note: "Get laptop and data access for 2001".

Would I do it again? Yeah, if for some reason I had to.

 

[Paul Austin]

I will chase at night, and I voted yes, but with an asterisk. *It depends on the situation.

Do I have a nowcaster I trust (i.e. puts my safety as his #1 priority)? Do I have onboard data? Are the storms discrete and (largely) predictable? Am I convoying with someone who has WxWorx (since I don't)? Is the road network conducive to this? Is lightning aiding my visibility? Am I likely to see anything worth doing this? (Or) Would I rather get some pavement under my butt for an hour or two towards tomorrow's target?

What he said. I have chased at night, and have decided not to. I have WxWorx, but the data lag time and possibility of debris-covered or flooded roadways give me reason to deliberate the night chase decision. Being caught off-guard in darkness or blinding rain without data is not fun. Lightning helps, but I find that often only portions of a storm are illuminated, and circulations occlude and reform/reposition all too often to trust known track history without visibility. And then there is the right turn factor. All that said, I have made the more risky decision, even with limited data. As unpredictable as weather can be, in all cases I pray a lot and try to learn useful lessons as I go.

 

[Mikey Gribble]

I don't have a problem with chasing at night. You can be pretty safe with Mobile Threatnet (XM) if you have GPS too. I have been having problems with my GPS this year, so I haven't done much night chasing yet, but as soon as I get it working again I'll be back in business.

 

[Dustin Wilcox]

I have chased at night many times most often without to much concern how ever days such as Wednesday are a little different, when your chasing large tornadoes at night on country roads the Tornado becomes just one of a plethora of issues to think about. You have to watch for flooded roads, downed power lines, damaged homes and victims walking on the roads. Also when you come across baseball sized hail stones it makes you a little leary of testing any cores. I however think if one puts them self in a decent position and keeps a level head you can have a safe succesfull chase. Now back to chasing some daytime storms!!

 

[Chris Frost]

Coincidental as this may seem but i actually was on my first "night chase" last night. I was tracking the mesolow that was cutting through ne KS and popping tor warnings. As it moved northward it developed a brief tor warned storm in Jefferson Co. That being said, last night was actually my first night trying to pursue anything at night without data in vehicle. But my house was only 5 miles away(in Jefferson co) just in case i needed a radar loop. lol. As for the storm itself? Nothin to write home about. So yes im a night chaser

 

[bvassmer]

I prefer not to chase at night if I can help it. Granted, I will go out to see and photograph lightning at night, but as for mobile chasing, that is something I find hard to justify.

I do not have reliable data in the field (as of yet), so this is a major reason why I prefer not to. I did stay with the storm near McLean, TX on the 28th, after dark, but I really didn't have much of a choice, plus there were about 1000 chasers out there giving their exact location on the road and the conditions they were experiencing.

 

[Joey Ketcham]

With live radar (WxWorx) in the car, logistically chasing is not much different at night than during the day. As long as there is lightning, you're in business. Without the radar, I'd be a little nervous - but probably not enough to not do it.

To an extent though. I'm suprised that many people will put their safety into the hands of WxWorx and depend on that to keep them safe. Don't get me wrong, WxWorx is very nice to have - but it isn't exactly reliable all the time though. I've seen some inaccurate data on there before. And also the fact that tornadoes can develop without ever being detected by doppler radar, especially the weaker ones. If you are relying on WeatherWorks to tell you when there's a tornado or not, you could be finding yourself heading into a tornado that wasn't detected on radar.

During the day you can better watch for these smaller, undected tornadoes.

 

[Joey Ketcham]

I didn't vote because I'm in between.

I am very reluctant when it comes to night chasing. In fact, more times than not i would just end up storm spotting somewhere within the county at night. Typically it's either a storm with low tornado potential or a isolated supercell that I know it's exact location and heading.

If it's an MCS with embedded supercells and tornadoes and the whole chase will consist of driving in the rain, screw that.

 

[cedwards]

This all depends. If visibility is good and there is plenty of lightning , I may chase at night. Even with radar, it can be dangerous. How many people saw the new meso and funnel cloud that was EAST of 70 on March 28 while the photogenic tornado was roping out? This was not far from 70 and came about 1/2 way down briefly while everybody's attention was to the west. If this can catch you off guard in the daylight, it will be almost impossible to see at night. I was very hesitant to drive north after dark that day into McLean as there was a strong meso just to our north and strong RFD at the time, just moments before, I saw a power flash to our NW. There were so many chasers trying to go north right under the circulation. Somebody even flipped us off as we stopped. The shoulder was WAY too soft to pull off onto. There was plenty of room to get around us, but I didn't want to get stuck in the mud and I SURE didn't want to drive into a tornado.

 

[Bob Schafer]

If it's an MCS with embedded supercells and tornadoes and the whole chase will consist of driving in the rain, screw that.

Amen.

(I never post without something to add. Until now.)

 

[Mikey Gribble]

I don't think anybody that uses weather worx to chase at night is expecting it to tell them when there is a tornado. I know I'm not looking for that. I have been on lots of tornadoes that never showed up as a shear indicator on XM. Wednesday's tornado in Decatur county was one of them. I expect XM to keep me out of the way of the storm. You can zoom in to storm level and with GPS you can keep yourself a mile or two South of the business end of the storm. Combine this with your visual observations and common sense and I really don't feel like it's too dangerous.