Storm Chaser’s Guide to the Mid-Missouri Valley

Map of the mid-Missouri Valley, where red indicates unfavorable road networks for storm chasing. (Gaps and densely populated areas) Green represents densely forested areas. County names are also identified.

Mid-Missouri Valley

A few cities include: Kansas City, Omaha and Sioux City.

Local tornado season: Peaks between May (southern areas) and June (northern areas).

Terrain: Rolling hills, forested areas and a few rivers.

Road network: Generally good away from the Missouri River.

Radar coverage: Poor in northwestern Missouri, mostly good elsewhere.

The Mid-Missouri Valley is a transition area between the Central Plains to the west and the Upper Midwest to the east. The mid-Missouri Valley has experienced many strong, long-track tornadoes over the years. This includes several historic tornado events that have been centered near northeastern Nebraska.

Showing characteristics of both the Plains and Midwest, supercell storms can sometimes be low-precipitation types and photogenic in nature. In other cases, they can feature rapidly rotating updrafts that produce large to very large hail. On the other hand, grungy, high-precipitation supercells also occur, especially with southward extent from far southeastern Nebraska and northeastern Kansas into northwestern Missouri.

Terrain

The Missouri river cuts through the region from southeast to northwest and the terrain on both sides of the river has similar characteristics. Forested areas and rolling hills are common in the Mid-Missouri Valley, which can make storm chasing a bit challenging. The land on the immediate west and east side of the Missouri River is a flood plain, so navigating close to the river can be difficult, if not impossible, during wet seasons and times of recently heavy rainfall.

Road network

Roads display a general grid-type pattern in eastern Nebraska and far southeastern South Dakota. Most of the main roads in western Iowa are curvy and irregular, which can be tough to use while chasing a storm. Also note that some of the back roads are dirt or mud, which should be avoided at all costs when there is flooding.

Northwestern Missouri has a somewhat better road network than western Iowa, but it’s far from perfect. Roads take a mixture of gridded and irregular paths. Many of the lettered state roads appear to be straight, but be prepared for 90-degree turns along the way. It is also best to avoid roads near the Missouri River when there has been recently heavy rainfall.

While only a small portion of northeastern Kansas is included in this chase zone, the same general rules apply. The road network is good in some spots, but not so great in others.

The Kansas City area is one of the largest metropolitan areas in terms of physical size and population in tornado alley. You can be 10-15 miles away from downtown, but still have dense population areas and heavy traffic to navigate around.

The main freeways of relevance to storm chasing in the Mid-Missouri Valley will be I-29 and I-35. I-29 parallels the Missouri River from Kansas City, all the way to South Dakota. This may be a good corridor to start a storm chase. It is easy to get north or south, especially if you need to find a river crossing into Nebraska. Interstate-35 connects Kansas City to southern Iowa. Along this corridor, the terrain tends to be more forested to the east of I-35 in Iowa and Missouri.

Radar coverage

Radar Coverage roc.noaa.gov

For radar coverage, KOAX has most of eastern Nebraska and western Iowa covered. KFSD can be used around the Iowa/Nebraska/South Dakota border area, which is sometimes referred to as Siouxland. Some spots in northeastern Nebraska and northwestern Iowa end up toward the outer ranges of KFSD, but data is never completely lost and KOAX is usually a suitable backup for storms approaching from the southwest.

KEAX covers the greater Kansas City area and portions of west-central Missouri. It is north and east of St. Joseph in northwestern Missouri where radar coverage is quite limited. TMCI is available, but it does not offer coverage for far northwestern Missouri. In far northeastern Kansas, KTWX and KEAX overlap enough to keep that area covered.

In summary, the Mid-Missouri Valley may be an alluring storm chase target for its tendency to produce significant tornado events, but chasing here is not always easy. Hills and forested areas are common throughout most of the region and heavy rain can leave roads near the Missouri River underwater. Also of note, northwestern Missouri has a lack of radar coverage that can be a glaring issue in the area.

1 Response

  1. Barb Boustead says:

    As someone who has chased this area extensively, I’d encourage you to mention (explicitly) that the crossings over the Missouri River are spaced quite far between. Many a chase day has been thwarted by needing to jog north or south 10 or 20 miles to get to a crossing!

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