Does anyone "Night Chase"?

[Chris Lott]

I know this is probably a dumb question, and many of you don't recommend it, but chasing is about living on the edge, right? I was just wondering if there are any balls to the wall I'm gettin a nader no matter what night chasers out there. I've seen setups that were night time setups, so do you go for it or take the safe route and stay at home? Just curious.

 

[Dan Robinson]

Don't know about the living on the edge part, but with live radar (WxWorx), I can't see why it's any different logistically than chasing 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.

 

[Joey Ketcham]

Storm chasing at night, no. Storm spotting, yes I've gone out spotting at night given that I know ithe storms movement and what is associated.

 

[Jeff Snyder]

I'd say night chasing is fine as long as you know what's going on, and having current radar imagery helps immensely in this manner. I've had some successful post-sunset tornado intercepts, including the tornado north of Anthony, KS, on 5-12-04 (the pics of which Dan posted above). June 10th 2004 comes to mind immediately as well as a good nighttime chase (tornado near Red Cloud NE).

That said, I tend to be much more cautious about night chasing (for obvious reasons). There's usually a time when I say "screw it" and call the chase off, more often than not because I no longer feel comfortable / safe in the position. When I was blasted by the RFD on the 5-9-03 OKC supercell, I opted to take the safe route south and end the chase. Similarly, on the 4-21-05 chase (from se KS into sw MO), Gabe and I reached a point after which we no longer felt safe chasing the storm. In fact, we got chased BY the storm for a bit, all while it was tornado-warned and had very intense inflow. During this particular chase, we were driving south on a country road and had generally weak northerly winds, while the wx radio was harping on the tornadic portion of the supercell to our immediate southwest. We reach an intersection with another county road, at which time leaves and small twigs began to fall from the sky. As we turned east, we were blasted by very strong northeastly winds, and we could see a nice wallcloud to our immediate west. After this time, we were just doing whatever we could to get out of the way of this storm, and we eventually did. Just make sure you always leave yourself a safe route out of the storm's path, since things can creep up on you very quickly at night.

 

[nickgrillo]

Most of time you'll chase at night without it being planned... There will be times where you follow your storm well afterdark... There will be times where you find your storms initiating at sunset OR afterdark.

My very first tornado (brief touchdown) was afterdark on 7-27-2002 in southcentral MI... Followed by another afterdark chase, barely missing the F2 in central MI on 8-21-2003. In 2004, I chased several times afterdark... Including an afterdark chase on 5-30-04. I targetted east of the dryline, but didn't leave early enough (target was IND) and missed the long-duration tornadic event that occured around KIND. I followed the supercell northeast just to the south of Anderson... Before the line to the west started to move into the area, with a broken cell off the line becoming supercellular and exhibiting very strong low-level rotation (many reports of rotating wall clouds from spotters over the HAM). A tornado touched down about a half mile north of me, right off I-69 near Anderson. It produced additional confirmed tornadoes both just to the west and east of I-69.

This past year (2005) I chased quite a few times afterdark... The first chase of the year ended up occuring way too late and both me and Kurt Hulst ended up chasing an HP supercell in northern MS well afterdark (a string of tornado reports were occuring all around us, but I guess we were asleep LOL). I also chased at night on 5-8-2005 (severe storms in southern OK), 5-10-2005 (NE mothership), 5-11-2005 (brief funnel near Garden City, KS, and a very unexpected chase) 5-12-2005 (followed the south plains convection up into Childress, where we all slept) and probably another 5-10 times. I just recently chased on 11-5-2005 in western IL, where a developing bow echo raced over me, and gave me a decent structure and sustained 60MPH winds (with higher gusts)...

On days like 5-10-2005, 8-21-2003 (large event in central/southern MI) and oodles of others, where a capping inversion will not weaken / lift won't arrive in your target area until sunset/afterdark -- you'll need to chase afterdark.

 

[Doug Raflik]

I used to go out locally to get lightning shots, only after studying radar trends, and if the storm passed within 15 miles of home. Now that I have WXWORX, I have no problems being anywhere around the storms at night.

Doug Raflik
http://www.dougraflikphotography.com

 

[Darin Brunin]

I have no problem with chasing at night and I usually don't have radar when I do. I chase in what I call my "comfort zone". That usually means backing off a couple of miles from where I would position myself during the day. If you can't see the tornado from there then you have no business being any closer in my opinion. You want a nice clear cut backlit tornado and not some rainwrapped piece of junk. Also, lightning frequency is a big factor in whether I choose to chase at night.

Some of my more memorable night chases have been on 5/22/04 3 tornadoes and 6/3/05 2 tornadoes. It all comes down to personal preference and putting yourself in a safe position because you never know what could be forming over the top of you when you are concentrating on the horizon. I don't believe it's balls to the wall at all if you position yourself properly and choose your chaseable storms wisely.

 

[David Drummond]

Once I am out chasing, I am in it for the duration. There have been a couple of times I ended up chasing until dawn the next morning. About the only time I give up because it's night is if things have gone to MCS and the lightning isn't worth it either. Of course that goes for daytime as well though.

I agree with the others, having some radar data (preferably your own unless your in near constant contact with a good nowcaster) is essential to not only intercepting anything tornadic and keeping yourself safe.

Every scud cloud out there can look like a tornado in the dark, so you have to be extra observant. Many of the features you depend on during the daylight, you won't be able to see them all and their relationships all at once with the lightning. Add to that the strobe light effect of the lightning, it can sometimes be difficult to discern things. Oh but when you do, as the pictures above show, to me provides even MORE satisfaction in some ways than a daylight intercept, just because it IS more difficult to get.

If the storm has had a tornadic history for an hour or two before sunset, and that trend is continuing, I personally would recommend giving it up if your not already in position. Again, unless you have onboard radar data.

Before the days of onboard radar data, my rule was, if I wan't in position before the sun went down, I gave up on it.

 

[Karen Politte]

No!

:lol:

KR

 

[John Diel]

I don't chase at night per se, but when a storm is in the area, I'll go out and report on it as it moves into my local service area.

That's not to say I haven't. I did chase one into Joplin, Mo. from Ponca City. Storms didn't actually start up until they were almost in Missouri and we just kept on following them for a while.

 

[Brian Stertz]

I will only chase at night if I know the cloud bases are beneficially high enough to see the wall cloud or tornado. I don't have "on-board" radar with me usually and just rely on my past night experiences to guide me. The only troubles I have had at night were confusing tornado positions by what the NWS was indicating and what some radio/tv stations were "interpreting". This bad instance happened to me back on May 15, 2003 out near Sweetwater OK...a tornado magnet if there was one such place. Anyway, I knew I was approaching from a wrong way...from the north. I got through the golfball hail and was in that uneasy point of the inflow zone. It was getting pretty gusty and I could sense that something was near, but I heard 2 conflicting radar positions of the tornado...one had it still back in Wheeler Co. Tx near Kelton...the radar report on the radio said it was on the TX/OK border. The hail kept falling...golfball with occasional tennis balls. I was under a overhang and out of the hail fortunately. The hail opened up into a pretty strong core and then ceased immediately. To my west I could see something very low when the lightning flashed. Then the roar started up. It got louder and louder and before long I could see what was definitely a wedge tornado coming right for me west side of Sweetwater. I made the decision to head east when all hell broke loose behind me to the west of town. First baseballs started coming down and then I could see many power flashes. My cellphone was getting no reception so I could not call anybody. I blasted east on Highway 6 and got out of there just in time. Later I had learned that this in fact was a 1/2 mile to mile wide tornado...it was rated a F2. It passed very near where I had pulled over initially. It was close enough that it made me rethink my stand on night-time chasing. Now there has to be more certainty before I will vector into the meso zone at night. HP supercells are a definite no for me at night !!

 

[Mike Peregrine]

I'll agree that HP supercells are a no-go for night chasing ... they're scary enough during the day. I'll chase/spot at night at times, if the lightning is good and the storm bases are clear. I will run from the storm if visibility is bad for any reason. Because of the position of home base for me, if I'm chasing in Kansas or Nebraska, then we're often forced to drive through some pretty nasty storms at night at times just to get back home after the good stuff during daylight. We've had some intense conditions as we do this, which isn't a lot of fun considering we've spent a full day on the road by this point and the adrenaline has been steadily pumping for hours already. I can't recommend night chasing for anyone who has not already well-familiar with day chasing and storm motion.

 

[cdcollura]

Good day,

I have done my share of night chases, many in Florida storms (harmless except for lightning), hurricanes, and supercells in the plains (now that's scary at night).

I always made sure I had RELIABLE radar updates (Barons WX Works is great for this) for night-time supercell chases, so I always knew where the "business end" of the storm was relative to me!

Above: May 20, 2004 on night-time LP in NE Colorado (Weld County) ... We were the only ones who captured this tornado backlit by lightning!

Sometimes night-chases can make you score, but with safety in mind!

Chris Collura - KG4PJN

 

[Bobby Eddins]

Only at the end of a normal chase day. Usually when frustrated by what went on before (like a flat tire killing your daytime chase) and your determined to get something. Not really advised! Successful ocationally.

May 3, 1999, Near Peidmont, OK

with power flashes

 

[Tony Laubach]

I'm not a particularly huge fan of chasing at night, and normally I won't unless its a storm I'm already on at sunset. I've bailed on storms after dark simply because I don't feel secure; dirt roads after dark left me with a bad taste in my mouth and I try to avoid them. I do enjoy chasing lightning after dark, but tornatic storms must take me passed sunset as opposed to me catching up with one at dark, otherwise, I'll happily call it a night.