Turnpike Chasing; Uggh.

[Joel Wright]

As many others have said a good chunk of Illinois is pretty good chase country. The biggest problem out here is the quality and number of chaseable storms. We tend to get a lot of the HP variety of supercells in Illinois. We all know how much fun those are to chase.

Central and northern Iowa, and into southern Minnesota are pretty good areas to chase. Very good road network up there, and lots of flat farmland.

Iowa/Illinois have great areas to chase in, but it's a matter of getting the high quality storms to traverse these areas that determine everything.

 

[Josh Richardson]

Central to Western Minnesota into eastern SD and Northern IA is awesome chase territory. The only bad thing about Northwestern Iowa is that data can be sketchy there for most companies.

Agreed, NW IA has a 3 county area where data coverage is almost impossible. Then of course the rest of the state is fantastic for road network and data if we could just get some decent storms on a regular basis, lol.

 

[Jeff Duda]

I don't have the hi-tech tools like GPS and all, but one tool I like to use when chasing, and something I haven't heard anyone else mention, are the state gazeteers. They have every single road that exists save for driveways and private roads. Each page (which is large atlas size) covers generally one full county and half of each surrounding county, so it offers a "zoomed in", "hi res" map of the road network. A gazeteer has only failed me once when I was trying to link from one highway to a county road in a blinding downpour near sunset, and I couldn't see the actual intersection because the road stopped for about 50 ft before it picked up again and hit the intersection. Had visibility been above 15 ft I would've likely been able to see it.

I will echo others in that NW Missouri is notoriously poor chase country around my area. The roads can twist and turn unexpectedly, they bunny hop a lot, some aren't well maintained, and data coverage is crap there. Also, Missouri is the only state I've chased in where I actually got stuck on a gravel road behind a tractor going 15 mph for 5 minutes.

Pretty much all of Iowa except for near the Mississippi, far NE IA, and far W IA near the Missouri River (the loess hills) is pretty decent chase territory (I haven't chased in far NW IA so I can't say anything about there). There are hills, but they are low and rolling, and trees are pretty sparse. It's mostly farmland!

 

[Jim Zandonai]

I agree with Joel..Chasing in N.IL-C-IL is easy and south WI in the I-90 region is easy..However good chase days are tougher to come by..The early storms traverse Central IL much earlier usually in the March-April area but up here its May sometimes..
Indeed there are not too many storms like the Roanoke IL tornado for instance (and that was in July) in this region but on a day like that its prime..there is certainly not a problem with a crowd in this area.

 

[Brian Stertz]

C.Illinois is certainly great between I-55...I-70...and I-80. It is just battling those HP favored supercells there that made it challenging. I used to chase there often and it was a tough go to sort the tornado from the thick wrapped up circulations. Storm structures from the distance were nice until you headed up close and saw a fierce bears cage. Some of the high instability/shear combos like the Roanoke day make things very nice however.

 

[Andrew Pritchard]

Seriously...

Everything you're hearing about Illinois is a lie. It's awful... please never chase over here. Continue chasing the "alley" only...

My avatar was a fluke, we don't actually get tornadoes.

 

[Scott Weberpal]

All I can say is the paved section roads in IL were the only reason I was able to keep up with a tornadic supercell on May 10, 2003 moving NE at 55 mph for over 4 hours...tough to do that on dirt or gravel roads elsewhere.

 

[Jim Zandonai]

I have been chasing in S-WI and N.IL for over 25 years..For the guy that wants the tornadoes, IL. can be tough but I have encountered nice HP supercells which show great structure and I never had an issue getting around. Your days are few compared to the plains obviously. For many if some dont see a tornado its a bust. For me I am easy to please..great structure, or a large hail,high winds event or getting the bow echo to move over my location if good for me. Of course filming a Twister would be ideal but here you take what you get unless you trek to the S.Plains.

 

[Andrew Pritchard]

All I can say is the paved section roads in IL were the only reason I was able to keep up with a tornadic supercell on May 10, 2003 moving NE at 55 mph for over 4 hours...tough to do that on dirt or gravel roads elsewhere.

I hate to admit it to the rest of the chasers on here, but it's true. Every time I chase the plains I long for the Illinois terrain and road networks. How can you complain when you know, every 1 mile there will be another straight paved road. I know Illinois isn't a huge secret to everyone, and that a lot of people just don't have the time or money to bother coming over here but I have to wonder why some will drive to bufu North Dakota from Texas for a marginal day, and then ignore a classic setup in Illinois. HP garbage in Nebraska generates an 8 page reports thread, while on the same day large multiple vortex tornadoes touch down in Illinois and the thread generates a couple hits and one or two overlooked reports. It's been fun while the secret lasted and the roads were empty, but I fear one slow spring on the plains and a couple more threads like this and the plague will strike our virgin territory.

 

[Jarrod Cook]

Doh! Well, first time there is a KS-like convergence in IL in May, I don't want to hear any of you IL chasers complain about it! You encouraged it!