Favored Chase Areas Map

[Verne Carlson]

Where do we all chase in the US?

Using the replies from the Turnpike Chasing thread, here is the latest Favored Chase Areas Map. This shading on top of the forest density map seems to give a pretty clear picture of where everyone likes to chase.

 

[Rob Wadsworth]

Great!
It will be interesting to see how this turns out.
How many votes/contributions have been made so far?
What about the possibility of getting PM's to members and get a large number of contributions, so that there will be less skew?
What is your formula for this, Verne?
Cutoff point?
Just curious...

 

[Tim Vasquez]

It seems that road density should be factored in there somehow. The data is out there, but GIS data tends to be badly managed and I was not able to turn up any real leads on Google.

Tim

 

[Skip Talbot]

That map is looking good, Verne!

I thought about making something similar before using Google Maps. The map would have a LAT LON grid on it, and chasers would click on the square and rate it 1-5. The squares' votes would be tallied and color coded accordingly. I could produce the interactive map, but I'm not sure how to store and regulate the votes.

 

[Jason Foster]

My chase map (in the link below) is more of a zone with impossible chase areas marked in red blobs. Verne, your map has me thinking I'd like to enhance the map a little to give it more rank like yours does.

http://www.weatherwarrior.net/chaser/map.html

On the same page is a fun map I did that shows radar sites.

 

[Dustin Wilcox]

Excluding any "home base" bias, I'm not sure how you can choose any locations more optimal than SC NE, very few areas are you going to find an area so extensive, that contains some of the best grid networks to be found on some of the flattest land known to man. You might find a grid just as good somewhere and flat land somewhere else, though in few areas do the two coincide over such a vast area; Not to mention its a bullseye for tornado frequency....

 

[jeremy wilson]

Awesome! That rocks dude. I'd love to see some kind of tornado frequency overlay. It would be very interesting me thinks.

 

[Scott Weberpal]

Excluding any "home base" bias, I'm not sure how you can choose any locations more optimal than SC NE, very few areas are you going to find an area so extensive, that contains some of the best grid networks to be found on some of the flattest land known to man. You might find a grid just as good somewhere and flat land somewhere else, though in few areas do the two coincide over such a vast area; Not to mention its a bullseye for tornado frequency....

Sure, Central Illinois is flat, treeless, and has a great mostly PAVED grid. Extend that area into N. Indiana and Ohio and it is more vast than SC NE. Of course no one chases there because it's outside the "typical" chase alley, and everyone thinks it's just hills and trees which couldn't be further from the truth.

IMO, the most vast flat, treeless area is NW IA, W. MN, and the eastern 1/2 of the Dakotas, it's an absolutely massive area of flat farmland that I'm not sure can be matched elsewhere with the possible exception of the western TX panhandle into E. NM.

 

[Danny Neal]

Sure, Central Illinois is flat, treeless, and has a great mostly PAVED grid. Extend that area into N. Indiana and Ohio and it is more vast than SC NE. Of course no one chases there because it's outside the "typical" chase alley, and everyone thinks it's just hills and trees which couldn't be further from the truth.

I very much agree with you. Chasing the US. 24 corridor from Peoria east to then IN border in IL is absolutely amazing. It is like someone took a rolling pin to the land and then a bulldozer on top of that. Once you get west of the IL River Valley then you get your normal rolling hills and intermittent forests. Illinois is the chase land that no one outside of people that live out here know about. Problem is we don't get the same caliber and frequency of storms that S NE or KS, or OK/TX panhandles get that often, maybe 2-3 GOOD tornado setups. Next big time set-up to Central/Northern IL - Northern IN, I challenge you fellas to make the trip, I don't think you will regret making it.....terrain-wise that is.

 

[Dustin Wilcox]

I challenge you fellas to make the trip, I don't think you will regret making the trip.....terrain-wise that is.

I've chased IL a couple of times, and I will say it isn't all that bad of chase terrain.

 

[mikegeukes]

Online Severe Weather Climatology shows Severe Reports in the Radar Coverage Area
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/climo/online/rda/

Mike
http://geukesweather.blogspot.com/
http://westmichigantornadoes.blogspot.com/

 

[scott r currens]

Sure, Central Illinois is flat, treeless, and has a great mostly PAVED grid. Extend that area into N. Indiana and Ohio and it is more vast than SC NE. Of course no one chases there because it's outside the "typical" chase alley, and everyone thinks it's just hills and trees which couldn't be further from the truth.

IMO, the most vast flat, treeless area is NW IA, W. MN, and the eastern 1/2 of the Dakotas, it's an absolutely massive area of flat farmland that I'm not sure can be matched elsewhere with the possible exception of the western TX panhandle into E. NM.

I disagree, people don't chase there because you don't (usually) have a dryline. It is either cold fronts or of gambling on the warmfront. It seem to me the most chaseable events are on the warmfront but they are also the most difficult to forecast. I've driven through IL and IN a lot but rarely see setups that look like they would be any fun to chase.

 

[MatthewCarman]

It is interesting how Iowa and Oklahoma (the epicenter of tornado alley) is almost tied with the amount of tornado reports. around 1300 tornado reports for Iowa with around 1500 for Oklahoma. According to that link you posted Iowa sees almost as many tornadoes as the main tornado alley states. Western KS and Eastern NE are also hot spots with around 1500 tornado reports.

 

[Mark Sefried]

It looks like the cat is out of the bag now concerning how good central/east central IL is when it comes to terrain and road networks. I have chased just about everywhere across the plains and Midwest and in my opinion it is actually the best area to chase until the damn corn comes up in early summer. However by that time of the year the good action is usually further north near the U.S. Canadian border. As others have mentioned a true dry line set up is rare across IL and most of the tornadoes around here occur on a warm front situation, with embedded lines, or with outflow interactions. My second favorite area to chase is NE CO where you can usually see for miles on end, have a decent road network (although hard dirt) and I swear everytime I chase there the structure on the storms is jaw droppping. Tornado wise it is one of the most active areas in the U.S. as far as tornado frequency. However, a good chunk of the tornadoes are landspouts.

 

[Mike Johnston]

Yeah, I think factoring in actual tornado frequency to such a map is realistic. I mean, the northern 2/3 of Illinois might be good chasing terrain, etc., but how does it really stack up to the eastern 1/3 of Kansas, western 1/5 of Missouri, and far NE OK? In the draft map, the latter area looks like it is totally disfavored as a chasing area. But, is that really the case? How many chasers would actually avoid chasing a promising storm in the vicinity of Arkansas City, KS, Parsons, KS, Yates Center, KS, Garnett, KS, Picher, OK, Nevada MO, or Harrisonville, MO? Even if you carve out the Flint Hills proper, KC metro, and the immediate Missouri River valley, this is still a section of the country with very ample tornado frequency and good visibility. Yes, the road networks break down a bit from the pure grid of the plains, and Missouri in general has sub-par road networks, and there are some small trees in the shallow valleys and creek bottoms, but this area is by no means unchasable, and certainly has enough frequency to not be excluded altogether.