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Storm Chasing.


LMolineuxLM1

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I am now trying to network out to all the fine people here in our regions sub-forum here. The reason for this thread is simple. As you people know my failures last year, this year I intent on not repeating my failures. Thus now asking for advice on great locations to where I should go to for the best filming with great views in all directions without much of obsticals in the way of filming, open land or such. I am prepairing for this thunderstorm season we will be entering, thus starting this thread early enough to get the best reaction and support and suggestions to put into my places to go during thunderstorm times.

Thank you.

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I am now trying to network out to all the fine people here in our regions sub-forum here. The reason for this thread is simple. As you people know my failures last year, this year I intent on not repeating my failures. Thus now asking for advice on great locations to where I should go to for the best filming with great views in all directions without much of obsticals in the way of filming, open land or such. I am prepairing for this thunderstorm season we will be entering, thus starting this thread early enough to get the best reaction and support and suggestions to put into my places to go during thunderstorm times.

Thank you.

well, its all relative to where the bands of severe weather setup, but a good place I like to go is Valley Forge Park...very open and you can see for miles in some spots...I got caught in a thunderstorm there 2 summers ago, and It was incredible, the rain was so hard I couldn't see past the front of my car, and the wind was shaking the car back and forth, It was actually bad enough I got a little nervous, but I always go there when T storms are in the area.

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As those have stated, K.O.P mall parking lot (over near Best Buy and the movie theatre) has a great view facing north-northwest. Also Valley Forge is a great recommendation. Also, if you are heading east on 422 between Collegeville, PA and Oaks, PA there is a great view facing south-southwest.

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Valley Forge Park. Depending on how adventurous you want to be, you can hike up to the tops of a few of the highest ridges. However, you'll need a fast route out sooooo, maybe by vehicle would be better? Some of the ridges are accessible by road and a really short walk. I do alot of taping up there myself. Message me during severe season and we can meet up if you'd like.

Another one of my all time fave spots is bayside in Town Bank (North Cape May) New Jersey. Got some of my greatest footage there last summer on 2 occasions, one mid-afternoon (awesome shelf cloud and funnel activity under a tornado watch at the time) and one around midnight late in the summer. When they roll across the Delaware Bay, the sky is the limit and you can isolate cells in a range from OC Maryland North thru Allentown depending on cloud height and distance.

Good luck!

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I am not familiar with this area at all, so I just went on google maps. Plotted out a circular parameter of the furthest I am willing to drive. Then looked at satellite to spot out larger parks and other open areas throughout my "zone". Then using the street view feature, found a spot for each area to safely park and a sheltered location for my car in case of hail... typed that information up, along with their addresses to plug into the GPS on the go. I keep a copy of it all in my car. My next step is to plot them all in a placefile to display on grlevelx.

Sure, it's a lot of work, but if you want to get good weather photography you can't be worrying about locations. If the storm moves in an unexpected direction, I can just reference my booklet to find another location and can be on the move.

Storm chasing in an area like this is a laugh but I try to make the best of it. :arrowhead:

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Depending on how much driving you want to do you might want to try the farmlands in W Chester or Lancaster Counties. Depending on terrain or farming you can get some good views almost to the horizon and you can move around somewhat on country roads without too much traffic. Also the environment for storm development tends to be better and storms tend to hit earlier in the day. Last summer I had a great view of a supercell while it developed near Harrisburg and then as is moved across Lancaster and Chester counties

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Bump.

I am also in need of suggestions for Camera's that i can mount on my house here to do 2 things one for the security and such, and 2 for Lightning and Storm Recording. I need a decent setup that will be very clear and can film pretty far away, I will be having 4 or more camera's installed. But I def. need the suggestions pretty quickly now that we are heading into spring, I'd prefer to get this project done before the middle of March, and to have all the kinks worked out as well before thunderstorms do start rolling in.

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Bump.

I am also in need of suggestions for Camera's that i can mount on my house here to do 2 things one for the security and such, and 2 for Lightning and Storm Recording. I need a decent setup that will be very clear and can film pretty far away, I will be having 4 or more camera's installed. But I def. need the suggestions pretty quickly now that we are heading into spring, I'd prefer to get this project done before the middle of March, and to have all the kinks worked out as well before thunderstorms do start rolling in.

Lee, im not sure you're going to find this information on here, try an electronics forum or something. Most people, if they do mount a camera just mount one not 5-10 to catch every angle of the earth.

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In Delaware there are some nice stretches of open area if you head down Rt. 1 towards the beaches. Plenty of great views to the north, south and especially west.

My in-laws live right on the Chesapeake up by Turkey point on the eastern shore in MD and they have the greatest views for severe. The bay is like 5 miles wide at that point with no obstructions. You can see storms coming from tens of miles away. It is awesome. I was down there last year for the storms that wrecked Delco with those 90 mph straight line winds that caused all the damage. That storm you could actually see the gust coming across the bay for miles along with mini-water spouts. Great stuff.

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The lightning machine at the Franklin Institute in philadelphia. They also make tornados out of water vapor in the weather center! Great pic opportunities there. :thumbsup:

Actually they moved all the weather stuff down into the "Changing Earth" section so that it's 80% Climate Change and 20% Meteorology. I was just there 2 weeks ago and I spent a long time looking for the huge weather room until I realized it's not there anymore. :thumbsdown:

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