Severe storms returning to the Plains

AccuWeather

The start of 2025 was very active for severe storms in the Southeast, but now, in mid-April, storms are back in the Plains, which makes tracking them much easier for storm chasers like Tony Laubach.

Transcript

00:00We are now joined by AccuWeather meteorologist and storm chaser Tony Laubach.

00:04Tony, you have spent most of your storm chasing miles this year in the southeast,

00:09but this afternoon you're going to join us now from eastern Nebraska.

00:12This area is much more chaser-friendly. Isn't that right, Tony?

00:18That is right, Jeff, and you might be wondering what exactly defines chaser-friendly in terms of terrain.

00:24Well, really, the simple answer is you can actually see what it is you're chasing,

00:30and it makes a huge difference in not only the way we're able to cover storms,

00:34but in terms of the imagery that we're able to bring to you as well.

00:38For storm chasing, there is no place like the Great Plains.

00:41Tornado Alley has miles upon miles of flat, open country where you can see virtually forever.

00:47Tracking storms in this region makes it easy to see what's going on with the storm and the hazards that it is producing.

00:52March and April saw hundreds of tornadoes, but not in the traditional tornado alley.

00:57In the southeastern states, the land is not as flat and clear,

01:01with many areas full of hills and trees, making chasing a storm much more difficult.

01:06Oh, yeah, I see the storm.

01:08Imagine a storm like this from Nebraska, and you can see under it for miles,

01:12but take that same storm and track it across central Mississippi, and it's a whole different type of chasing.

01:17You are usually limited to a very narrow view ahead of you,

01:21and you may not realize the storm even has a tornado until it's right there.

01:26The tornado's in front of us. Go, go, go.

01:30Storm chasers have to rely more on radar, trying to drive where a storm will cross

01:34so they can find the best area around them to view the storm for as long as they can,

01:39and even with a somewhat open area, the terrain may still block it.

01:43Roads in the plains usually run straight, often in a grid pattern,

01:46but in the southeast, you're limited to very curvy roads with fewer routes,

01:50making it easier to lose a storm.

01:522025 has been very active in areas that are difficult to chase,

01:56but as the season goes on, those setups will start to shift back west into the Great Plains of Tornado Alley,

02:01a welcome sight to chasers, not only because they can track storms much more easily,

02:05but they can do so in areas that are much less populated than the southeast,

02:09meaning the impacts can be much less, while the views can be much more.

02:16And we're going to be looking for some of those views here this evening.

02:23I'm currently based out of Fremont, Nebraska.

02:26This is just north of the Omaha and Lincoln areas,

02:28as we're going to be setting up for what you mentioned to be might be a hail of an evening, Jeff.

02:33We're also going to be watching the potential for maybe a couple of tornadoes out of this setup as well,

02:37and as we mentioned, we're doing so in an area where the views will allow us much better visibility on these storms,

02:43as we're going to be in the open fields of eastern Nebraska and likely moving into western Iowa later this evening.

02:50All right, very good there, Tony.

02:51It's good to give our friends there in places like Jonesboro, Arkansas, and Cape Girardeau, Missouri,

02:57a little bit of a break into the Gulf Coast states as well.

02:59We've had too much down that way.

03:00So we'll be checking back in with Tony soon as he is going to be on the road this evening.

03:05We want to take a closer look at what's going on right now.

03:08And we've had a lot of lightning up into the Twin Cities.

03:10Some disruptive thunderstorms are rolling north.

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