Chasing storms: Southeast vs. Great Plains

AccuWeather Meteorologist Tony Laubach shows how storm chasing in the Southeast differs from chasing in the Great Plains.

Transcript

00:00For storm chasing, there is no place like the Great Plains. Tornado Alley has miles upon miles

00:05of flat open country where you can see virtually forever. Tracking storms in this region makes it

00:10easy to see what's going on with the storm and the hazards that it is producing. March and April

00:15saw hundreds of tornadoes but not in the traditional tornado alley. In the southeastern

00:20states, the land is not as flat and clear with many areas full of hills and trees making chasing

00:26a storm much more difficult. Imagine a storm like this from Nebraska and you can see under it for

00:33miles but take that same storm and track it across central Mississippi and it's a whole different

00:38type of chasing. You are usually limited to a very narrow view ahead of you and you may not realize

00:44the storm even has a tornado until it's right there. Storm chasers have to rely more on radar,

00:54trying to derive where a storm will cross so they can find the best area around them to view the storm

00:59for as long as they can and even with a somewhat open area the terrain may still block it. Roads in

01:05the plains usually run straight, often in a grid pattern, but in the southeast you're limited to

01:10very curvy roads with fewer routes making it easier to lose a storm. 2025 has been very active in areas

01:16that are difficult to chase but as the season goes on those setups will start to shift back west into the

01:21Great Plains of Tornado Alley. A welcome sight to chasers not only because they can track storms much

01:26more easily but they can do so in areas that are much less populated than the southeast meaning the

01:32impacts can be much less while the views can be much more. For AccuWeather, I'm meteorologist Tony Laubach.