Yes, if you just happen to be in the right place at the right time, a tornado might just happen by. If you live on the plains long enough it is bound to happen. But if you want to find picturesque storms in a particular window of time (say a week of vacation?) - that takes some forecasting skill. You need to know when storms will initiate and in what area you are going to get adequate shear to support supercells and low level turning that supports tornadogenesis.
I highly recommend booking with a reputable storm chasing tour company. For example, Roger Hill is a storm chasing legend and he runs Silver Lining Tours ( http://www.silverliningtours.com/ ). Tornado season will be starting within the next month for the southern plains, and gradually move north as the season progresses. The month of May is considered "Prime Time" and you are usually just about guaranteed to find chasable storms if you plan to chase the last couple weeks of May. Nebraska's season is from late May into June, but last year we got passed by as the good stuff went into South Dakota and Minnesota. (Believe it or not Minnesota had more tornadoes than any other state last year. Oklahoma and Texas are really cheesed-off.) Roger Hill story... one day there were no warnings of severe weather from the SPC, but my wife and I noticed big lightning in the west as we came home from some shopping. I checked radar when I got home and was surprised to see a supercell that was CLEARLY producing a tornado about 50 miles west of me. Checking a map, it appeared to be close to Gothenburg, NE. The next day, I found out that Roger and his wife were the only people in the area and were on that storm. The next day, my son-in-law and I passed through that area on a chase and took damage photos just SW of Gothenburg. It amazed me that this guy from Colorado was good enough to be in the right area when this storm popped. By the way, there are different types of supercells and some are more photogenic than others. You want to stay away from HP (High Precipitation) beasts unless you like monster hail and enjoy photographing hurricanes. Roger is based near Denver where they get some amazingly photogenic LP (Low Precipitation) storms and photogenic landspout-type tornadoes. Even if you plan on learning to chase on your own some day, I recommend a good tour service like Roger Hill's for getting an education. Darren Addy Kearney, Nebraska -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
