More Specific place names please !

[tom hanlon]

Fellow Stormtrackers.

I chased kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas these last few days. I had a great time. Any chasers that I met where awful friendly. All in all you are friendly and helpful.

I did have one issue though. A lot of posts had me digging out the map and trying to figure out what was being discussed. When a front stretches from Texas into Nebraska and someone says " I like the backed flow near Springfield" Or " I like the upper level support near Linden" , I have to dig out a map and figure out what state you are talking about.


It would be good practice to include City, State when discussing targets, focussed areas or just about anything. Some of us do not know the plains like the back of our hands. Some place names are not specific by state. Time is of the essence out here and when I hear that a CU field is popping up on the panhandle.. I want to know which panhandle.


--
Tom

 

[Bob Schafer]

I second the motion. Also, everyone please keep in mind that finding a small, obscure location such as, say, Englewood KS, is a lot easier to find on a map if you'll add "(S DDC)" or something. Many times I have just stopped reading a post that names a location that would take me several minutes to find, and skipped to the next post, because I don't have the time, or wish to make the effort, to find the location you're talking about. You've taken the time, and made the effort, to make the post. Just a slight more effort there will have more people reading your post.

The same thing goes for communicating with your nowcasters, other chasers in the field, whatever.

 

[Skip Talbot]

http://maps.google.com

 

[rdale]

Typing "springfield" into maps.google.com won't do you any good...

 

[Skip Talbot]

Correct. You'll have to guess a state based on from those listed in the target area. Google maps will help when you've got an obscure town name being referenced and is much, much faster than trying to find it on paper maps.

 

[rdale]

Honestly can't remember the last time I used a paper map!

 

[Doug Lee]

Honestly can't remember the last time I used a paper map!

I hope you have some handy when the battery goes out in your laptop and your GPS goes on the blink.

Also, when refering to roads, I'd like to see people refer to a highway by the jurisdiction and the number, i. e. US 283, OK 51, etc. Most posters are good with US highways, but SR for state road doesn't help if you haven't already said which state you were in.

 

[rdale]

Laptop is plugged in when in the car.

 

[Tony Cook]

Google maps also won't help when you're not connected to the internet. I have Delorme's (2006, I think), but their 'search' function leaves a lot to be desired. Maybe I just don't know how to use it correctly. Actually, I don't care for the whole Delorme's user interface at all. A lot of things seem to be hidden in their bottom-of-the-screen menu madness. This again may be party my fault for not knowing how to set it up differently. Please PM me if you know some tricks. I love Delorme's other than that.

Other things can go wrong with the laptop setup, also. The laptop could fry a capacitor at the wrong time. You could accidentally dump a coke on it. The power inverter could die. etc...

I guess you could dump a coke on the paper map, too. I still like having the paper version as a backup, though.

TonyC

 

[Doug Lee]

I guess you could dump a coke on the paper map, too. I still like having the paper version as a backup, though.

TonyC

If your paper map is laminated, you can just wipe off the Coke.

 

[Justin Turcotte]

I think the geographically challenged should learn principle towns and route locations in the Plains. Knowing some of the county names can't hurt either. Perhaps I have this attitude because my SCSU synpotic prof rammed this stuff up his student's arses really hard... right down to the station identifier. This knowledge is essential for budget chasers without all the gadgets like GPS to to tell you what county you're in. When the NOAA Weather Radio is buzzing a tornado warning in Location X having some basic info in your head will save you time looking up the best route to get there.

A couple tidbits I'll throw out. Perhaps this is common knowledge... Even numbered U.S. Highways and interstates are east-west oriented in general. Odd numbered ones are north-south. Not applicable for state highways in many jurisdictions. Mile markers count down as you go south or west and up as you go north and east. They usually reset at a state line. This is also usually the case for the road number. I-5 is up the west coast and I-95 up the east coast. I-94 runs across the north while I-10 runs along the south. Works to some extent with U.S routes as well... U.S. Hwy 2 then 10, 12, 14, etc as you head south through the Dakotas. County roads (where good rooad networks exist) are usually one mile apart and often lettered or numbered in order based on the distance from some hub city or town.

 

[Bob Schafer]

I can't believe the amount of posts making it sound like it's our fault for not having every county, town, and county road memorized in the entirety of The Alley (in essence having a photographic memory of DeLorme's works), or that we shouldn't request that people type two more letters in their posts to identify the state (which would suffice in most cases).

Sheesh

/rant

 

[tom hanlon]

Note that I am NOT geographically challenged, but when I am in a hurry post like the genuine snippets below is hard to decipher. Note that when I went looking for these posts I found that the VAST MAJORITY of the posts are very specific. So I am perhaps being a little bit picky. But when you have a laptop in one hand, Ham radio in another, with data trickling in over a bad cell phone connection having to corroborate locations is no fun.

Here are some non-specific posts..
"I will be headed towards the Pampa area with options to go North etc. "

"Area I am liking is Woodward Canadian and Pampa areas. However if the front does go further North than expected Dumas to Guymon should be decent starting points"

More..
"I think we'll head to the Guymon - Perryton area - in Garden City just now so will be leaving very soon."

And..
"crazy and long day/night in the PH."
OK PH or TX PH or both ?

And...
"5 north of Kingman earlier as I was on my way home from Wellington."

This was my first chase in OK/TX panhandles. I know Nebraska pretty well. I know Kansas pretty well. My paper atlas has OK TX and KS on separate pages.. No fun. Texas Panhandle was a weakspot.. Of course now I could name the four northern counties if I was asked.

I assume that some of these archives will be used for scientific data or post storm analysis. No data gatherer is going to want to deal with guessing of place names.

--
Tom