frostfern Posted March 12 Share Posted March 12 13 minutes ago, Jackstraw said: Dude, after what you went through you not only picked a great storm to chase again but you did it right (except for one thing). It sounds like you (and from your posts during) were patient and waited for them/it to come to you which is always the best way IMO. ESPECIALLY in the Lakes/OH Valley where we get more 60 mph screaming F3's than most places. Your one mistake was getting on 65. NEVER GET ON 65 when theres bad weather lol. 65 will kill you and I'm serious. It's a Semi UFC ring as far as I'm concerned. It's bad enough on a sunny day. I seldom chase anymore because about 10 years ago my buddy and I were about killed when a Honda Pilot with Harbor Freight flashing lights plastered on it and 3 Iphones hanging out the windows going 90 mph blew through a 4 way stop sign and missed us by inches. Our chase turned from the storm to them and when we caught them we put the fear of God into them. They said they were "pros" and I told them so is this baseball bat. After that nope. You have more chances of getting killed by another chaser than a storm nowadays. Study, prep, pick, sit, wait. Thats my method now if I do lol. Thanx for the vid and hope you exorcised some demons I find the biggest problem with chasing is not having a partner. To be successful you really need two people. You need one person fully dedicated to driving and another person fully dedicated to radar and navigation. My problem is I don’t know anyone else willing to drop whatever they’re doing on a dime to come with me. Then, even if I find someone, most people I know are clueless about meteorology and reading radar. I’ve tried having my wife be the driver but she gets anxious and can’t stand being yelled at. Telling someone else who isn’t a chaser how and where to drive just leads to fights. So I’ve kind of given up. I’m too old to do it alone. It’s too much stress. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vortex Posted March 12 Share Posted March 12 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cyclone77 Posted March 12 Share Posted March 12 1 hour ago, Jackstraw said: Dude, after what you went through you not only picked a great storm to chase again but you did it right (except for one thing). It sounds like you (and from your posts during) were patient and waited for them/it to come to you which is always the best way IMO. ESPECIALLY in the Lakes/OH Valley where we get more 60 mph screaming F3's than most places. Your one mistake was getting on 65. NEVER GET ON 65 when theres bad weather lol. 65 will kill you and I'm serious. It's a Semi UFC ring as far as I'm concerned. It's bad enough on a sunny day. I seldom chase anymore because about 10 years ago my buddy and I were about killed when a Honda Pilot with Harbor Freight flashing lights plastered on it and 3 Iphones hanging out the windows going 90 mph blew through a 4 way stop sign and missed us by inches. Our chase turned from the storm to them and when we caught them we put the fear of God into them. They said they were "pros" and I told them so is this baseball bat. After that nope. You have more chances of getting killed by another chaser than a storm nowadays. Study, prep, pick, sit, wait. Thats my method now if I do lol. Thanx for the vid and hope you exorcised some demons I used to love chasing back in the day, and did a decent amount of it. I've completely lost interest in it over the past several years, just too many damn people out chasing now. Takes all the fun out of it for me. Maybe it's because I'm getting older and less aggressive? Not sure, but I enjoy just watching it all unfold from home these days lol. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KeenerWx Posted March 13 Share Posted March 13 3 hours ago, vortex said: Sucker (thankfully) missed the house by roughly a third of a mile. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nvck Posted March 13 Share Posted March 13 Quick edit from pontiac, also got a ton of shots from this storm with my film camera, which'll be neat to get developed 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyhb Posted March 13 Share Posted March 13 Another death has been unfortunately found in a damaged home in Aroma Park from the Kankakee-area tornado. 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IWXwx Posted March 13 Share Posted March 13 13 hours ago, cyclone77 said: I used to love chasing back in the day, and did a decent amount of it. I've completely lost interest in it over the past several years, just too many damn people out chasing now. Takes all the fun out of it for me. Maybe it's because I'm getting older and less aggressive? Not sure, but I enjoy just watching it all unfold from home these days lol. I wondered why you haven't mentioned chasing when you've had several opportunities to fairly close by recently. I'm like you about the hordes of chasers. I remember when I could go on a chase in Indiana and be the only car out there. Jackstraw is seriously right about the other chasers being more dangerous than the storm itself. I will still do it if it's within an hour's drive though. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CheeselandSkies Posted March 13 Share Posted March 13 22 hours ago, Jackstraw said: I seldom chase anymore because about 10 years ago my buddy and I were about killed when a Honda Pilot with Harbor Freight flashing lights plastered on it and 3 Iphones hanging out the windows going 90 mph blew through a 4 way stop sign and missed us by inches. Our chase turned from the storm to them and when we caught them we put the fear of God into them. They said they were "pros" and I told them so is this baseball bat. After that nope. You have more chances of getting killed by another chaser than a storm nowadays. That's where you tell them "So if you're 'pros,' who's paying you so I can sue them into oblivion for hiring your dumb a**?" Fortunately, while I've seen a few "questionable" driving decisions, nothing egregious like that around storms...so far. Actually had a chase partner for the first time in a while on Tuesday. It was pretty low-key around the Galesburg/Kewanee/Princeton cell, probably because most people were either on the Kankakee storm or frantically trying to get back to it (which no doubt resulted in more bad driving). That sounded like a highly stressful intercept for just about everyone involved, and it seems it was only photogenic for a short time before rain wrapping and/or darkness set in, so I'm not too broken up about missing that. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nvck Posted March 13 Share Posted March 13 16 hours ago, cyclone77 said: I used to love chasing back in the day, and did a decent amount of it. I've completely lost interest in it over the past several years, just too many damn people out chasing now. Takes all the fun out of it for me. Maybe it's because I'm getting older and less aggressive? Not sure, but I enjoy just watching it all unfold from home these days lol. this is why, IMO, northern high plains is one of the best chasing regions in the country. sure the road networks are pretty sparse, but there's a fraction of the chasers as in the midwest/south plains, and the structure is insane. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frostfern Posted March 14 Share Posted March 14 On 3/12/2026 at 6:43 PM, cyclone77 said: I used to love chasing back in the day, and did a decent amount of it. I've completely lost interest in it over the past several years, just too many damn people out chasing now. Takes all the fun out of it for me. Maybe it's because I'm getting older and less aggressive? Not sure, but I enjoy just watching it all unfold from home these days lol. I can’t handle the stress anymore. My nerves are shot. I’d go if others are in charge of driving and navigation / radar monitoring. I just want to be able to take footage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pen_artist Posted 3 hours ago Author Share Posted 3 hours ago Good breakdown by Trey on the Kankakee supercell 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CheeselandSkies Posted 1 hour ago Share Posted 1 hour ago 2 hours ago, pen_artist said: Good breakdown by Trey on the Kankakee supercell So pumped I get to chase with him starting in a little over a week. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pen_artist Posted 55 minutes ago Author Share Posted 55 minutes ago 12 minutes ago, CheeselandSkies said: So pumped I get to chase with him starting in a little over a week. Stoked for you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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