Just before initiation - where do you like to be?

[Terry Tyler]

Downstream. Thats really the only place to be if your trying to chase here in the south. I usually sit about 60 miles or better downwind of where the storms fire. I also like to be on a N-S oriented highway that enables me to chose between storms while i still have time to watch them develop. That way i can try to find the superior cell. It varys on the type of set-up, but typically id say i like to be as far away from the main initiation point as possible. I find that i often only have one good intercept with a storm per chase day. Most days when you get close enough to the storm to see it, its going to overrun you. Unless your on a really good blacktop highway and your comfortable with risking getting nailed for speeding, its probably going to overrun you. Once it passes, its often useless to try catching up. Most days, my mantra is that a storm 60miles away will only take an hour to get to you. Like shane said, if you go from initiation, sometimes it can take an hour or better for a tornadic storm to really get going. Some storms down here have been known to last up to 12-14 hours and cycle and cycle and cycle. If you only get one chance per day, you want to stay as far ahead of it as you can, find a good spot to view it from and stay in control of the situation until your ready. Thats how i look at it anyway.

 

[J Holder]

Hopefully out of the path...

4-5 miles SE if possible. With the crazy roads in the flint hills and the turnpike you don't always get that luxury.

 

[Andrea Griffa]

It depends on many factors, generally speaking 15 miles ahead of the dry lines. At any rate one of the most important factor is the storm motion and then the road option: if the motion is too high it's better to stay well ahead of the boundary, and it's still better to stay where you believe that the supercell could become tornadic, in a similar enviroment.