Night time tornado chasing - WHY??

[Greg Campbell]

Hi all.

This last weekend I got a chance to watch Tim Marshall's 2003 Chase Highlight video. In one of the more spectacular chases Tim and the Rhodens - Gene and Karen - took off after a night time tornado as it chewed through Northern OKC.

http://www.stormskies.com/ChaseDiaryFri9thMay03.htm

With little more than power line flashes and spotter reports to guage the storm's distance and heading, Tim and company overshot their target and set up directly in the storm's path. Realizing their mistake, the trio dashed for cover, and wound up hunkering betwen overpass girders (TM: "I'm not real proud of that...") while the tornado passed just to the North.

Watching the video leading up to that encounter, I kept asking myself, "WTF are they doing, and what do they expect to get out of the chase???" As far as I can see, all they got was some (too) exciting video and few fuzzy lightning illuminated shots of the wedge as it bore down.

So I'm asking anyone willing to write about it, "What's the point of night time chasing?" If chasers as experienced as Gene, Karen, and Tim can lose situational awareness and come within a few hundred yards of experiencing the suck zone first hand, nighttime chasing must be dangerous as hell. What's the payoff?

Thanks

Greg

 

[Jeff Snyder]

Anytime I see a tornado I'm getting the payoff... Day, morning, evening, night... A tornado is a tornado. I strongl prefer to not chase at night, but if a situation presents itself, I'll go out to see what I can find. My chase techniques during the night are quite different than during the day, however. I tend to play more of a 'spotter' during nighttime chases, in that I won't try to play w/ the 'bear's case' -- I'll keep my distance more than I would if it were daylight. It's a lot more stresful chasing in the dark, so I'd really need a nice supercell to pull me into the dark. Given one (e.g. May 9th 2003 OKC supercell), however, I'll see what I can find.

 

[David Drummond]

It is very different and much more dangerous at night. For me, it's pretty rare for me to set out AFTER dark for a chase. BUT, if I am already chasing, I usually won't pull off just because it got dark.

There are many payoffs and cool things to see, depending on what you like to see, nighttime adds more drama to it, but part of what I justify is that I just travelled 600 miles to chase a storm that day, I certainly am not giving it up just because it got dark, ESPECIALLY if the storms fired late.

Knowing the people that you mentioned, I am betting Gene, Karen, Tim and gang wouldn't have gotten in that situation had they not been in a metro area. Metro area chasing is tough, day or night. :shock:

 

[Jeff Wear]

If I have good visibility and a good road network, I'll continue the chase after dark. It's always amazed me how often the storms really don't get going until the low level jet kicks in after dark. Another thing that's nice is that there isn't nearly as much traffic around storms after dark....the 5/29/2004 storm in Oklahoma was a great example of this.

5/9/2003 was one I willingly sat out though.....in addition to the darkness, the storm was in a major metro area, the visibility was terrible both due to the smoke and the relative lack of lightning, and it was moving fairly fast.

 

[Justin Teague]

I agree with Greg, what's the point? If I am ever chasing a tornado after dark, it's because it's heading for a town and it needs to be reported. Night chasing is dangerous, and very frustrating. :x

 

[Bryce Stone]

I don't like to chase at night, and rarely do it. I rather stupidly drove through the rain core of that May 9th storm for 20 miles. It was nearly impossible to see the road. There were about 8 or 9 cars (chasers?) following me all the way. At one point, I was driving straight and without realizing it drove onto a side road (the main road curved sharply to the left). Almost every one of the cars behind me followed me onto this side road, and then followed me as I turned to get back to the main road. So I know that they were just following my taillights and couldn't see much of anything either.

Fortunately, I never broke out of the blinding rain into the tornado. Unless conditions are just right, (or unless I'm spotting) I don't see what purpose there is in a night chase. Even experienced chasers can get into trouble quick at night. On a side note, I will say that when I caught up to that storm from the east at Union City it was the most incredible lightning show I have ever seen. The lightning was almost continuous. And I will testify that chasing in a metro area is very frustrating, especially at night.

One thing that was actually kind of funny: I was driving down I-44 that night and there was one cop driving about 30 straddling both lanes. He had a LONG string of cars in both lanes and every time someone tried to pass him he would swerve over so they couldn't. He was swerving so much it looked like he was driving drunk.

Night chases are especially bad with HP supercells. I could see maybe chasing an LP at night, but once you start talking heavy rain I head for home.

 

[Mikey Gribble]

I don't think night chasing is that dangerous if you just give yourself a little more room than you typically would during the day. If you have radar and GPS I really don't see any reason not to chase after dark.

 

[James McCormick]

Different strokes for different chasers. I like being on storms after sundown.

I have never understood how night chasing is any more dangerous than some of the daytime chasing done by some of the crowd who like to push 100 MPH on wet roads in low visibility. At night, I am always on my own storm, at my own leisure, and sometimes you find a treasure. And you get spectacular lightning shows if you decide to stay out from underneath the beast or give up on him.

It is imperative that you understand the mesoscale conditions in your local area, have a strong conceptual model based on what your storm is doing, and a strong knowledge of the local geography. I do limit myself to night chasing in areas where I know the road network. Radar is nice to have but I would say it's dangerous to trust radar for your safety - go with what you can see and what you know.

 

[Gabe Garfield]

Why I chase after dark:

http://www.wxnut.net/redcloud.htm

Gabe

 

[Melanie Metz]

To begin, the reward of a night time chase for me is the incredible lightning show, updraft towers illuminated from within, anvil crawlers, and the occasional tornado backlit by lightning.

I believe that most experienced, intellegent chasers can get into dangerous situations night OR day due to unique circumstances of that particular chase (including reasons already mentioned such as road networks, lack of radar, etc). Granted, at night it certainly is more difficult to "go visual" on the chase. Thus, it is more important to have radar at hand or updates from a nowcaster on a night time chase.

While you certainly shouldn't depend entirely on radar it does help to have continuous radar on the back roads which is now possible with the XM Mobile Threat Net. After initiation, I rely on visual clues in the sky and the storm. However, radar helps with clues as to direction, speed, intensity of the cell and, of course, the possibility of rotation. If I know where the cell is on radar I can be sure to come up behind the storm rather than approaching from in front of it's path and having to punch the core (which we all know is dangerous but has to be done at times).

Peggy and I found ourselves chasing into dark when we followed the storm which destroyed Hallam, Nebraska on 5-22-04. And yes, it was scary. That was the only time I felt scared on a chase. And I believe I would have felt more confident if we had a radar image to analyze, but we were out of digital range (and it was after this day that we purchased XM). We approached the cell from the North as the sun was going down. We did have a nowcaster providing us with radar updates. Based on movement of the cell he advised a specific route which would have led us to intercept the storm near Hallam, approaching from the NE as the cell moved NE (meaning we would have punched the core to pop out in the F-4 tornado). Since the nowcaster was awed by the radar image, reports of a large tornado were coming in, and it was beginning to get dark, I opted to go West and then drop South to come in BEHIND the storm. Of course, this meant playing catch up and intercepting at a later time but this was the best decision I ever made. It is possible that we may have driven right into the tornado if we didn't have a very updated radar report. Given it was getting dark, the tornado was very low contrast, and we may have driven straight south instead of going West and then south if we had not know specifically where the storm was on radar at that time.

So, in the end, I do not think radar is necessary for a successful chase but I do believe it makes the odds of safe intercept better, especially at dark or in low contrast, rain wrapped situations.

Mel

 

[Melanie Metz]

Ok, so I spelled "intelligent" incorrectly. How apropos.

 

[David Schuttler]

It's an adrenaline rush ,,, can't help it.

I stayed away from nightime chases until 2003 when after missing a tornado around Perry , Ok on 5-9-03 I sat and watched the OKC coverage on the portable tv of the turnpike cell. After awhile I decided I could make it to Bristow before it.

S. of Bristow
[Broken External Image]:http://www.homemyhome.com/sitebuild...es/.pond/untitled00070060001.jpg.w180h135.jpg
After that night I was hooked.

Visual is less and you need to be able to trust your instincts and be gathering all the info you can.

and yes you can find yourself saying , oh Ö

Oneta 05-30-04 1:12 am
[Broken External Image]:http://www.homemyhome.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/.pond/112am07.jpg.w180h135.jpg

 

[Joey Ketcham]

Greg,

You certainly propose good and legit questions and so far you have gotten great responses with a mix of feeling on the issue. This really just depends from chaser to chaser. Storm chasing at night is obviously a lot more difficult to do than during the day. It’s hard to see important features and it’s definitely hard to recognize the presence of a tornado unless you know of its exact location or can see power flashes.

Regardless of how experienced of a chaser you are, the same challenges of night chasing applies to all and each chaser is exposed to a more dangerous environment. Now the issue at hand here is still the need for ground truth and spotter reports; whether it be day or night. The NWS does not promote night spotting and they certainly don’t encourage it, but they still need those spotter reports just as much as night than in the day.

That would be the overall benefit, public safety and storm warning verification. This can also be a great photographic opportunity for storm chasers who are also photographers and want to do lightning photography.

Now that’s just an overall statement at the issue at hand.

On a personal level I will generally call off a chase when night sets and I’m dealing with a tornadic storm. Now that doesn’t mean I don’t go out at nights to storm spot for the county, anytime a warning is issued for the county I live in I will go out storm spotting; always a go on just severe thunderstorms and it really just depends regarding tornadic storms.

But in contrary of the situation you’ve described, these situations can even happen to any given chaser even during the day (I’m sure David could vouch on this one). I’ve seen a number of storm spotters and storm chasers place themselves in situations that they don’t desire to be in; so those risks are there both day and night.

Storm chasing at night can be dangerous, so can storm chasing during the day. It’s just harder to observe certain elements of the storm at night because of the lack of light.

And the link Gabe posted to his pictures, http://www.wxnut.net/redcloud.htm, is a great reason for why some chases at night. The photo opportunity presented to us is awesome and makes for great photography.

Everyone’s provided great answers, but the feeling towards night chasing is going to vary from one chaser to another. Some chasers might think it’s stupid to chase at night, some may think it’s just dangerous while others may be ok with it. It just depends on their level of comfort.

Just last year I did some spotting in the county at about 2 AM and watched an awesome funnel cloud pass about 2 miles north of me.

But the main thing is that regardless it’s always important to have that ground truth from those in the field. Radar can only see so much, radar may show that a storm has strong rotation but beyond that you can’t say whether or not a tornado is on the ground. So there are points of being out there at night.

Joey

 

[Susan Strom]

Do I night chase?

Arizona Monsoon: Always

Plains: I don't set out to do just that but will continue photographing if I'm already on a good storm in the area anyway. I am realistic though, night-chasing the Plains can be hazardous. I have had some good experiences at night in the Plains but some freaky ones too, a few scary ones as well.

My pros & cons:

Monsoon:
Pros:
*Lightning photography, dramatic desert temperature drop, peace & solitude, tornado in the dark not as much of a factor in the Southwest.
Cons:
*Cannot see flash floods, critters are very active, crime increases (metro areas and especially the border, best to stay away from there), drunks can be out on the road.

Plains:
Pros:
*Lightning photography, dramatic cloud images, usually you're out there already anyway finishing the day's chases, so why not work it while you have it...
*Cons: HAIL you cannot see, chance of tornado that could be closer than you think, road washouts or highway construction with poor visibility, big MCS's that rain or hail all night with deluges, creep-factor alone in some of the small towns, drunk drivers again.

Works for me:
*Stay doubly alert
*Don't drive tired
*Escape route...always
*Watch radar religiously and never turn off the spotter reports
*Stay respectful, don't get complacent
*Don't follow the herd blazing into the night, go with your gut
*Turn interior light off in car while photographing (so critters don't hitch-hike home with you).
*Be especially wary of water on the road
*Know where you are

 

[Bryce Stone]

I completely forgot to mention this, but the first tornado I ever saw was at nighttime, so I guess I can't be too hard on night chases . . .