I want to learn... but don't know where to start.

[Royce Sheibal]

You don't necessarily have to take a class or a guide or a tour. A lot of learning about forecasting, and then chasing, is from 1st hand experience. I took a severe storms class at UNL from Dan Nietfeld (forecaster out of Valley, NE NWS), and it was a great class, but for the most part classes like that are very rudimentary, and 90% of those classes are basic review for the majority of us, even before we finished our degrees in Meteorology.

My suggestion is to read current forecasts like a madman. Read the SPC EVERY DAY, not just on big days. Compare their findings to model outputs such as the SPC composites or I like to use weather.cod.edu (college of Dupage). Also read your local office forecasts, or read the forecasts from the NWS out of any areas of interest that day. Read and compare, and you shall learn! Oh and read the forecasts in the chaser's forum. You'll learn some of the idiosyncrasies about chasing in various situations or areas (such as why to calculate your shear from the ML LCL and not the surface) on late season chases.

 

[John Olexa]

Another link you may enjoy.

http://www.spc.noaa.gov/faq/tornado/

 

[czenzel]

When I got started in meteorology I found that open courseware web sites were very useful. You don't get actual credit for them, but they are great ways to introduce someone to the content. I actually took a meteorology course at Penn State World Campus when I was attending. It was a great course. Tough and challenging and put my skills to the test. They had great content.

If you are looking to start out I recommend one of the following sites:

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/earth-atmospheric-and-planetary-sciences/index.htm

https://www.meted.ucar.edu/

The UCAR Site is a great one. I used their site in the past, before they updated, and they had a lot of great content.

As always, with the others, I do agree that Tim Vasquez's books are well written. His books helped me with my school work, related to weather. When I was unable to understand something his books helped a great deal.

Thanks,
Chris Zenzel

 

[Robert Forry]

Matt, while a lot of us have had a go at this chasing solo, as stated above, I would totally recommend getting hooked up and chasing with a veteran chaser. Then become a sponge - for forecasting, targeting, chasing, hell, just having someone to bounce ideas off of. Then, get out there, test what you know, learn from your failures, and celebrate your successes. My best learning opportunities have come chasing and hanging out with veteran chasers like @Bob Hartig, @Bill Oosterbaan and some of the best guys out there today, and I’m very grateful for it. See ya out there!