The best chasing territory

[Tony Laubach]

Kansas hands down; Colorado #2; Texas #3.

 

[Mikel Shively]

I voted Iowa. The terrain is pretty good and road networks are on 1x1 grids for the most part. After that, I would vote Kansas #2 and Nebraska #3.

 

[samuel stone]

Gotta go Kansas #1(love Kansas!) then I have to say western Oklahoma/east Tex panhandle #2, Nebraska a close 3rd.

 

[Scott Olson]

I voted South Dakota (yeah im bias). The eastern half of the state is marvelous flat generally tree free chase country. There isn't much in the way of towns to slow one down. I would also have to agree Kansas is generally prime chase country.

 

[David Toner]

Personally I've had the best luck in southern Kansas and northern Oklahoma. That is since moving to SW Missouri anyway. Back when I lived in Texas I'd have to say it was northwest texas into northcentral Texas. For what it's worth anyway.

 

[Dan Robinson]

It's really hard to pick a state because all states have good areas and bad. Just from experience, I'd rank the following areas in the top ten:

1.) Texas Caprock
2.) Western Kansas
3.) Western Oklahoma
4.) Central and southern Illinois
5.) Eastern South Dakota
6.) Eastern Colorado
7.) Northern and western Ohio
8.) Southern Nebraska
9.) Northern Indiana
10.) Northwestern and central Iowa

And the following in the top ten worst (of places I've actually chased):

1.) West Virginia (mountains, trees, no straight roads)
2.) Piedmont North Carolina (unbroken tree canopy)
3.) Tennessee (trees, hills)
4.) Southern Missouri (trees, hills)
5.) Central Alabama (trees)
6.) Eastern North Texas (trees and hills)
7.) Southeastern Oklahoma (trees and hills)
8.) Southern Indiana (trees and hills)
9.) Southeastern Ohio (trees and hills)
10.) Western and Central Pennsylvania (trees and hills)

 

[Jim Bishop]

I would vote Illinois if it were an option. Central and Northern Illinois is the best chase country I've ever seen. Not only is it dead flat with hardly any trees, but there is a grid of roads that virtually covers the entire states. And most (if not all) of those farm roads are paved!

Kansas has great chase country for most of the state, and you gotta love South Central Kansas. I think my favorite area (asside from Illinois as I don't find myself chasing there very often) is Eastern Nebraska/North Central & Northwest Iowa, Eastern South Dakota & Southern Minnesota. That whole area is great.

I'll always love Southwest Oklahoma, too.

 

[Kenny Drake]

Western Iowa and southern Minnesota does have some great chase territory. And you dont have to worry about hitting those darned Armadillos. To generalize, anywhere west of I-35 to the Rockies is great chase territory from MSP to DFW. This is based on topography, road options are another issue.

 

[Andrea Griffa]

So far we had 90 replies and this is the classification.

And the winner is: KANSAS!!

1 Kansas

2 Texas

3 Nebraska

4 Oklahoma

5 Iowa

6 Colorado-South Dakota-North Dakota

7 Minnesota- Illinois

8 Missouri

9 New Mexico

 

[Matthew Havin]

Another vote for Kansas........followed by northern OK and east NE.

If Kansas was a woman, I would be dating her right now.

 

[Shane Adams]

I know Shane won't like the results so far. He hates it when Oklahoma doesn't get any respect. LOL

www.violentplains.com
[/b]

LOL, I'm used to it. Seriously, what bothers me is all the people who say it's crap are the people who've only been around the past five-six years. People tend to love the places they themselves have had good luck, and blow off the places they haven't. That would be like me saying Iowa sucks because I've never seen anything there. Which of course is silly. But it's all relative, states don't take things personally, and I don't care where my tornadoes come from. I just love to chase.

The thing that still makes me laugh is seeing the legions of chasers in OK every time there's a slight risk. Quite a feat to be the most-hated and most-chased state at the same time

So far we had 90 replies and this is the classification.

And the winner is: KANSAS!!

1 Kansas

2 Texas

3 Nebraska

4 Oklahoma

5 Iowa

6 Colorado-South Dakota-North Dakota

7 Minnesota- Illinois

8 Missouri

9 New Mexico
[/b]

In 1999 it would've been OK
In 2000 it would've been Iowa
In 2001 it would've been Minnesota
In 2002-2003 it would've been South Dakota

I love these polls, because they are excellent indicators of what area's been hot recently.

 

[Andrea Griffa]

LOL, I'm used to it. Seriously, what bothers me is all the people who say it's crap are the people who've only been around the past five-six years. People tend to love the places they themselves have had good luck, and blow off the places they haven't. That would be like me saying Iowa sucks because I've never seen anything there. Which of course is silly. But it's all relative, states don't take things personally, and I don't care where my tornadoes come from. I just love to chase.

The thing that still makes me laugh is seeing the legions of chasers in OK every time there's a slight risk. Quite a feat to be the most-hated and most-chased state at the same time
In 1999 it would've been OK
In 2000 it would've been Iowa
In 2001 it would've been Minnesota
In 2002-2003 it would've been South Dakota

I love these polls, because they are excellent indicators of what area's been hot recently.
[/b]

Shane I can agree with you, but we are talking about chasing territory in general not about the best place where it happened something good in these last years. The poll regards only the territory that you rate fine when you chase IE the place that geographically you like more when you go chasing.

 

[Joe Zemek]

Shane I can agree with you, but we are talking about chasing territory in general not about the best place where it happened something good in these last years. The poll regards only the territory that you rate fine when you chase IE the place that geographically you like more when you go chasing.
[/b]

Yeah, but Shane's point is that Kansas could have won the poll because it was the Chase State of the Year last year and did pretty well in 04. Is Kansas the best state overall because the whole state is chaseable? Probably. But would Kansas have won this poll--i.e, would people have been just as apparently objective--if other states had the better tornado action in recent years? We don't know either way.

I like Nebraska because that's where I've had success, as well as finding it beautiful for reasons I don't totally understand. That's where I'd rather chase. However, the Sandhills pose a road problem that Kansas doesn't. So, I ought to have rated Kansas over Nebraska... but I didn't. So acknowledging one type of subjectivity, who knows how objective we are being here, or, in the end, do we even care to be objective.

The best chase territory is next to an isolated classic supercell west of I-35

 

[Patrick Kerrin]

I personally like chasing in Texas! Also enjoy the W Half of OK, KS, NE and E CO. Chased for the first time in SD in 2003 (Presho - Kennebec supercell) and really enjoyed that as well, but saw how much of a logistical problem the river could be!

There seem to be some nice pockets of chase country scattered around N America - Central IL comes to mind, IA, and I am sure there are many others.

In S Ontario the area W and NW of London can be as flat as flat gets and generally is well cultivated so the visibilty is good (the only exceptions are the occasional small river valleys) and is very nice to chase in.

 

[Andrea Griffa]

Yeah, but Shane's point is that Kansas could have won the poll because it was the Chase State of the Year last year and did pretty well in 04. Is Kansas the best state overall because the whole state is chaseable? Probably. But would Kansas have won this poll--i.e, would people have been just as apparently objective--if other states had the better tornado action in recent years? We don't know either way.

I like Nebraska because that's where I've had success, as well as finding it beautiful for reasons I don't totally understand. That's where I'd rather chase. However, the Sandhills pose a road problem that Kansas doesn't. So, I ought to have rated Kansas over Nebraska... but I didn't. So acknowledging one type of subjectivity, who knows how objective we are being here, or, in the end, do we even care to be objective.

The best chase territory is next to an isolated classic supercell west of I-35
[/b]

Yes I understand your point guys, but in theory the poll concerned only the geographic reason and probably some people voted as Shane said, IE also with an influence come from the recent chasing facts.
We may say that probably this poll is not objective at 100% but we can trust it at least partially.