Learning forecasting and chasing

[Andrew Pastore]

Hello, Just wanted to know what videos, and books are out there on how to chase and forecast. I have found lots of generic weather books that don't help much. I have read Tims chasing guide, and I am currently reading his forecasting handbook. I plan to order stormwatcher from Gene Rhoden. What else do you suggest?

 

[Scott Taylor]

Grab Tims "The Art of Storm Chasing" video. Nicely done video with excellent information.

http://www.weathergraphics.com/video/

 

[Thomas Loades]

The Tornado Video Classics tapes from the Tornado Project are pretty good for a lot of things — storm environment, history, etc. In particular, Tornado Video Classics II has a good stormchase sequence of an entire family (about 6 tornadoes in all, I think) in TX-OK-KS on May 5, 1993. The viewer's guide to that tape also has a very good glossary of terms and many images. Anyway, those are at www.tornadoproject.com.

Also, write either the NWS office nearest you, or, if no luck there, the NOAA Outreach Unit, to get a copy of the Advanced Storm Spotter’s Guide booklet. It's pretty useful.

 

[Bobby Eddins]

your on the right track with Gene Rhoden's Stormwatcher.

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

I found the thing that helped the most was to watch chaser videos, and read chaser chase accounts(chase accounts might be even better then vids). TVC series is cool and all, but I think one will learn more from chaser videos/accounts(certain ones). That long section at the end of TVC II is good(think II is right). It's the one mentioned above where Jon Davies and another chaser(man I can hear the name on the video) approach from 2 directions and meet up giving great discussions on the evolution. Otherwise, if there was one person's video to learn from I suppose I'd have to say Roger Hill would be one of the better ones. He talks quite a bit about things going on(often for the tour guests). Bill Reid discusses what is happening a fair amount too(maybe for guests again). There are MANY other great videos out there, but many of us don't say a whole heck of a lot. They are still good learning tools, but not as good I don't think.

 

[Andrew Pastore]

Yes, I do read alot of chase accounts. I actually have a notebook of printed accounts that I read on duty at the fire station. I am going to look for those tornado classic videos. Thank for all of your help!

 

[Glen Romine]

I see a lot of advice on chasing, but not much on forecasting. Unfortunately, getting good at forecasting takes a lot of practice, and a lot of days spent following events at the computer to begin to build a vision of what a tornadic vs. nontornadic setup looks like. And that is the easy part. Once you know basically what a "good" setup is, you can look through the plethora of model guidance well beforehand and the observations as the event draws closer in time to identify where things look to be coming together. Read the SPC outlooks, and then look through model products and observations to find the features that they are talking about. Those guys are pretty good forecasters of convective weather and often give thoughtful and thorough discussions. An over-reliance on models will often give disappointing results - particularly as the event draws nearer - and to really use them effectively beyond just trusting them as "perfect" (which is far from true), takes a lot of time following the model evolutions, learning their biases, and seeing how the forecast conditions compare to what actually occurs. Of course, this is a lot of work - and you can often do well just following the guidance of others (such as SPC) and using technology as a surrogate for accurate forecasting (use the model , NWS and SPC forecasts to get you in the neighborhood and then with the aid of new information in the field refine your position until you can go "visual" and follow the chasing tips).

Good luck,
Glen

 

[Tim Vasquez]

Just in case you haven't seen it, the "Library" link above has some pretty good articles from past Stormtrack issues.

Tim

 

[Joey Ketcham]

Definately "The Art of Storm Chasing".... I bought it towards when it first came out and it's awesome!. Definately a must have.

 

[Laura Duchesne]

Hello, Just wanted to know what videos, and books are out there on how to chase and forecast. I have found lots of generic weather books that don't help much. I have read Tims chasing guide, and I am currently reading his forecasting handbook. I plan to order stormwatcher from Gene Rhoden. What else do you suggest?

Here's just a couple links I had bookmarked a while back, containing some good info.

Chase Day Forecasting Tips
http://www.chasing-storms.com/feedback.htm

Lightning Effects
http://www.harkphoto.com/light.html

Charles Doswell's Chase Safety Essay - don't shoot me, it has some good stuff on there 8)
http://www.cimms.ou.edu/~doswell/Chasing2.html

NWS Storm Spotter Glossary
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/oun/severewx/glossary.php

Highway Overpasses as Tornado Shelters
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/oun/papers/overpas...ss/slide01.html

And of course, the StormTrack Library
http://stormtrack.org/library/

Hope all that helps. It's also a good idea to watch some good chaser videos to get an idea how it's done, etc.

 

[Thomas Loades]

I'll add this link, too, though I don't know if all the pages linked are still active:
Resources for the beginning stormchaser
www.onthefront.ws/gilbeg.htm

 

[Nick Smith]

Also check out:

www.theweatherprediction.com

There is some good forecasting information here, and be sure to check out "Haby Hints".

 

[Bill Hark]

All the suggestions that were listed are good for learning chase forecasting. Here is another good list of links from Tim Vasquez especially chase cases
http://www.weathergraphics.com/edu/index.htm

Tim Vasquez has done a Chase Hotline each year for a few weeks in chase season and will e-mail out forecasts. These are good to compare with one's own forecast even if not chaseing. Here is the URL: I don't know if he will do the Hotline this year.
http://www.chasehotline.com

He used to have archived forecasts for the last few years but I can't find them.

Bill Hark

 

[Mike Sharp]

Another idea which I have found helps is to get a decent home weather station so that you can see what the readings are and then correlate them to what is given out on the web or your local TV station.
If you can't afford one that has computer logging, try making a spread sheet up and entering the data from your own station, so that you can see trends as they occur. It all helps the learning process.