Nebraska chasing...

[joel ewing]

(Mods, please put this in correct area if this is incorrect..thank you). Jeff, I MUST take exception to your statement about Nebraska only getting "modest" tornado action. According to Storm Data, Nebraska ranks 5th nationally in tornadoes from 1950 thru 1995 (I think it was '95.) Florida came in #4, and we all know that every little wimpy non-tornadic waterspout gets counted in those statistics. I studied Nebraska's tornado output recently....and usually once or twice every ten years, Nebraska actually beats Kansas on an annual basis. Personally, I think Nebraska is one of the most under-rated states nationally. About one third to one half of Nebraska is what is termed "the Sandhills" area.....with a copious amout of rangeland and fat, happy cattle. The Sandhills run from approximately east central Nebraska all the way west to the Nebraska panhandle. Some of the largest counties in the country have the least amount of people...and road networks are lacking, at best. Western Nebraska gets more tornadoes than eastern Nebraska, and huge ones at that. It's no secret to those that study tornadoes....some of the largest tornadoes on record have been seen on radar in the sandhills....but there are so few people or structures out there that it's most difficult to obtain resultant damage verification. Speaking of scant populations, grab an Atlas sometime, and thumb thru the populations per county in western Nebraska. It's not unusual to have some counties....ENTIRE counties...with maybe 500-600 people TOTAL in them. And lots of counties have a thousand to perhaps 1500 people in them. I'm a Nebraska native (3rd. generation) who has grown up in Tucson, Arizona, and I was curious from a young age how many tornadoes Nebraska would get. Put it this way......they SHOULD be #4 on the list, with Florida behind them. I truly believe that easily one fourth of Nebraska's annual tornadoes never get counted. Heck, nobody ever sees them....much less bothers to call them in. One thing though....Nebraska can tend to get touchy with respect to having good setups get nuked. Usually the culprit is cold air moving down from the Dakotas or from Wyoming to it's west....it can tend to stabilize the atmosphere or undercut existing severe storms. Also, lots of Nebraska's tornadic storms are high-precip when compared to the dryline Texas or Oklahoma storms..and this obviously impairs visibility. But if I were on the proverbial "desert island"...and was given the mandate to pick just one state that I had to chase in for the rest of my life...I'd be extremely happy if it were Nebraska. Thank you....Joel Ewing,

MOD NOTE: Split from 2011-06-20 REPORTS thread

 

[Mike Moore]

LMAO! Well if it makes you feel better about defending Nebraska they grow more corn than Florida does.

#winning!

 

[Warren Faidley]

Nebraska produces a lot of tornadoes, but about 75% + of the state has inadequate roads to chase.

W.

 

[Jason Boggs]

I've never even been to NE, so I'd love to get the chance to chase there and see one of those sandhill tornadoes. Maybe next year!

 

[Warren Faidley]

The road network around Grand Island reminds me of the Lubbock area. Great roads in perfect grids. If Joel Ewing can chime in, he's been chasing in NE for as long as I can remember (since statehood...lol) and knows the region quite well.

W.

 

[Derek Weston]

I've chased Nebraska a decent deal. Great territory. Perhaps the state with the best terrain, on average, in tornado ally. Eastern half has a great grid. Western half... not so much. (though southern half in both is much better gridded)

 

[Andy Jackson]

Good roads but data network takes patience.
Interesting side note: google Bradshaw, NE they have had a past of some seriously destructive tornadoes, kind of like the Moore, OK of Nebraska.

 

[Kevin Walters]

I think anywhere a person has had a successful chase(s) sticks in their mind and creates a favorable opinion of that area. Same thing applies in negative opinions about some areas or states. A few busts can lead some to label an area as bad chasing territory. If you have chased for a long time you learn that things are very cyclical and patience is a virtue. It is surprising how often statements are made about tornado climatology that are simply inaccurate.

 

[Ben Tillotson]

(Mods, please put this in correct area if this is incorrect..thank you). Jeff, I MUST take exception to your statement about Nebraska only getting "modest" tornado action. According to Storm Data, Nebraska ranks 5th nationally in tornadoes from 1950 thru 1995 (I think it was '95.) Florida came in #4, and we all know that every little wimpy non-tornadic waterspout gets counted in those statistics. I studied Nebraska's tornado output recently....and usually once or twice every ten years, Nebraska actually beats Kansas on an annual basis. Personally, I think Nebraska is one of the most under-rated states nationally. About one third to one half of Nebraska is what is termed "the Sandhills" area.....with a copious amout of rangeland and fat, happy cattle. The Sandhills run from approximately east central Nebraska all the way west to the Nebraska panhandle. Some of the largest counties in the country have the least amount of people...and road networks are lacking, at best. Western Nebraska gets more tornadoes than eastern Nebraska, and huge ones at that. It's no secret to those that study tornadoes....some of the largest tornadoes on record have been seen on radar in the sandhills....but there are so few people or structures out there that it's most difficult to obtain resultant damage verification. Speaking of scant populations, grab an Atlas sometime, and thumb thru the populations per county in western Nebraska. It's not unusual to have some counties....ENTIRE counties...with maybe 500-600 people TOTAL in them. And lots of counties have a thousand to perhaps 1500 people in them. I'm a Nebraska native (3rd. generation) who has grown up in Tucson, Arizona, and I was curious from a young age how many tornadoes Nebraska would get. Put it this way......they SHOULD be #4 on the list, with Florida behind them. I truly believe that easily one fourth of Nebraska's annual tornadoes never get counted. Heck, nobody ever sees them....much less bothers to call them in. One thing though....Nebraska can tend to get touchy with respect to having good setups get nuked. Usually the culprit is cold air moving down from the Dakotas or from Wyoming to it's west....it can tend to stabilize the atmosphere or undercut existing severe storms. Also, lots of Nebraska's tornadic storms are high-precip when compared to the dryline Texas or Oklahoma storms..and this obviously impairs visibility. But if I were on the proverbial "desert island"...and was given the mandate to pick just one state that I had to chase in for the rest of my life...I'd be extremely happy if it were Nebraska. Thank you....Joel Ewing,

MOD NOTE: Split from 2011-06-20 REPORTS thread

You're supposed to keep that a secret! But I agree. Most of my first chases were in the sandhills/western Nebraska and that area and even up into SD/ND/MT has been the most rewarding for me. Although it is difficult to chase due to very few roads in those 20,000 square miles.

 

[Dean Baron]

I havent chased Nebraska a ton but I've driven through it quite a bit on the way to other chases and it seems once you get west of Grand Island it becomes no man's land. South of I80 isn't bad, but north of the interstate (which is the majority of the state) is very sparse and as others mentioned the roads are far and few between.

 

[Jeff Duda]

Joel, I didn't necessarily mean to start a competition between quality of chasing in various states. I was really alluding to some of the qualities that I would put into the storm chasing suitability map I mentioned in a thread some time ago. While I won't disagree with you that there are parts of the state that are not so great to chase (which can be said of every state in tornado alley), Nebraska never disappoints me, and some of my best chasing experiences and images have come from there. The biggest reasons I think so highly of it include the road network in the Polk, York, Hamilton, and Hall (and probably other neighboring counties that I haven't personally chased in) Counties is second to none in my opinion. There are roads almost every one mile, all but about 5% of them are perfectly straight and flat and don't randomly terminate, if they aren't paved they're made of a hard red sand or a crushed brick texture that holds up very well to water and wind, and are very easy to drive fast on. Also the paved roads tend to have very broad shoulders and wide enough emergency lanes to safely park a car on. I've never found an area with a better road system for chasing. Also, since the roads are flat, so is the terrain. Yes there is an occasional river valley to contend with, but those are shallow and wide as well. Other than the occasional farmstead, there isn't a ton of trees to interrupt long distance views. Also, Nebraska is highly accessible being close to the middle of the Plains/Midwest tornado alley.

 

[Rob Wadsworth]

Well, I've done a little chasing in E part of NE (Sioux City, O'Neil,and to Omaha).
The cell/data signal has always been better (actually, it was excellent) than it is in the W part of IA.
That is a positive note - eh?

 

[Jeff Duda]

Well, I've done a little chasing in E part of NE (Sioux City, O'Neil,and to Omaha).
The cell/data signal has always been better (actually, it was excellent) than it is in the W part of IA.
That is a positive note - eh?

Good addition, Rob. I second that. Usually on big chaser convergence days with multiple tornadoes I lose data for a long period of time. I had only minimal data loss Monday. Lots of times I was getting 3G!

 

[Adam Lucio]

Ive chased Nebraska for 5 years without reward until the recent outbreak. It was my Iowa #2 until now. Ive been to just about every end of the state and I have to say the roads and terrain are pretty good for the most part but like any state there are areas that are pretty difficult to chase such was west of 83 in the SW part of the state. The highway 20 corridor near the SD border area is tricky as well and on May 31st this year [also along the 20 corridor] we were in an area with absolute crap for roads west of Atkinson.

There are some really large areas of grid though, so overall Id say its a pretty chaser friendly state unless you want to eat dinner after 9pm and your more than 50 miles away from I-80. I never seem to have data issues out there, slow in spots but I dont think Ive been to an area that doesn't have Verizon coverage.

 

[Jason Foster]

Nebraska is schaweeet ! ! Cherry County aside....road network is fine (unless you need to be all up in tornadoes biz'ness). Yeah...back roads are more common, but if you know what you are doing, it's not a big deal. Many/most of the back roads have enough crushed gravel and such that you can maintain a decent speed on them. If you stay out of the cores long enough...you can stay with the storm easy enough. Had my best & most success in NE. Hallam is still the biggest tornado I've chases (by F/EF-scale). Didn't spend a ton of time in NE this year (KS as the mileage winner for my 2011 season), but cross crossed it again and nothing seems to have changed from the past years.

I can say that I don't blame those that chase in RWD or even FWD vehicles only though...but I would think that affects many chase areas.

Of course...I love me some backroads...probably more than the average chaser.