Our first proper chaseday

[Jesper_Copenhagen]

Hello!

We are a group of three Danes who are here in the U.S for chasing servere weather. Tomorrow would be the first day for us where there are anything worth chasing.

Currently we are Colorado Spring but early this morning we are heading for Kansas and maybe down close to Oklahoma.

I have been following the preceeding discusions here and on SPC so I know what the setup should be, if the weathergods are in a good mood.

But I have some practical questions. It seems like convection should start being initiated somewhat around after noon.

We all have laptops on can get access to internet on wifi hotspots, should we pick a target area and then sit and wait and watch radar and satelitte images? Or should we stay ourdoors and "read" the sky?

Do any of You have a decent sugestion for a decent target area, or might even be willing to take some Danes along?

 

[Bob Schafer]

Jesper, we've been under a "death ridge" pattern for a couple weeks now that keeps The Alley pretty quiet. This ridge will break down in the next few days, but the transition will be to a zonal flow that will not be seriously conducive to severe weather, either. My advice would be to target NE Colorado the next couple days (today and tomorrow), though the likelihood of "good" storms is lousy. Don't expect any tornadoes, but you may get some decent structure photos before any storms quickly bomb out. Keep an eye on the forecast for Monday/Tuesday-ish as a spinoff of upper energy from the cyclone off the NW Pacific Coast may create something chaseable in the High Plains.

I hope you are going to be here for awhile! Storms will return eventually. June has been a much better chase month for me, personally, the last couple years, than May, and this year looks like a repeat.

Bob

 

[Michael P. Morris]

I have never been great at "reading the skies". I prefer to find a nice air-conditioned hotel or restaurant (IHOP generally works nicely) with internet access so I can sit down and make sure nothing too strange happens without my knowing.

 

[tom hanlon]

We all have laptops on can get access to internet on wifi hotspots, should we pick a target area and then sit and wait and watch radar and satelitte images? Or should we stay ourdoors and "read" the sky?

[/b]

Welcome to the plains.

Read the sky vs internet data. Internet data is a must at various points along the day. I like the spc's exper/mesoanalysis/ for chase day activity.

Once storms fire sometimes things happen so quick that noaa weather radio and your eyes are more efficient than stopping for data. When minutes count and you get to a point of picking what cell to get under sometimes your eyes are your best guide.

Of course it is nice to have both but I just have WiFI access so getting to a hotspot takes precious time.