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Day 1 Convective 
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An active and approved membership to WxChat.com is required to participate so go and sign up for your FREE membership You are the lead forecaster for a storm chasing company. Your job is to make your clients happy by finding the BIG ONE! On your journeys, you will be rewarded for different severe phenomena that is spotted. It's easy to play: each day go to the Virtual Chase forum and check on the "Chase Status" for the next day. You will also be able to see the status on this page as well. Basically if the SPC has a Slight or greater risk on their convective outlook for Day 2 issued at 1730Z, the next day is an official chase day. You have until 0500 Zulu Time the DAY OF THE EVENT to pick your initial position within the US. You will not count any points at this initial location until 1200z. If you do not set an initial position by this entry deadline you CANNOT chase that day. During the chase, you can choose to move your position to a new location between 1200z and 2100z (if you submit a move between 0500z and 1200z, your move will automatically begin at 1200z.) Be warned, though: you cannot score points while moving, and you will sacrifice any “Stay Put” bonus points (explained below)! You may not begin travel to a new location after 2100z; if you are in transit at 2100z you will continue on your way to your final destination and scoring will begin when you arrive. Points can continue to be earned up until 1200z the next day. To send in your position, fill out your "Virtual Chase Entry Form" below. EVERY TIME THAT YOU MOVE TO ANOTHER LOCATION YOU MUST FILL OUT THIS FORM! Please do not fill in your "NEXT location" when entering your starting position for the day! This will alleviate confusion among the staff. If you decide to move simply enter your next location, and REMEMBER that you will be judged on how long it takes for you to reach your next destination. So if you send in a NEW location, you will arrive at that NEW location after the appropriate traveling time. Travel time will be based on this formula... Measure the straight line distance from your starting city to your destination city (in miles); the number of miles between the cities will be how long, in minutes, it will take you to get there. The mapping program will do that for you as well and will note your travel distance and time after you hit “SUBMIT” for your move. For example, let's say you are at Dallas, TX as your initial location. The new SPC discussion comes out and you want to head down to Waco, TX, and you submit a new form at 2000Z. The distance between Dallas and Waco is 90 miles, so your travel time would be 90 minutes, and you would arrive at 2130Z. But if you send in the report saying that you are moving to Waco at 2130Z this will NOT COUNT because the deadline for making moves is 2100Z. You may also change your location while you're in the process of moving. If you decide that you want to go to a city other than Waco 30 minutes into your travel time, then we would start your move to your new location at that point (30 miles outside of Dallas on a straight line to Waco). Scoring: Points are awarded for events occurring within a 25 mile radius of your chosen location: A hail or wind report gives you 5 points, regardless how near or far it falls from your spot within that 25 mile radius; a tornado report more than 10 miles from your spot gives you 10 points; a tornado from 5.01 miles to 10 miles from your spot earns you 15 points; you can score 20 points if there is a tornado report within 5 miles of your location. You only net points for your best scoring report each day. For example, if both a hail report and a tornado report fall within your 25-mile radius, you would receive a total of 10 points for the tornado, NOT 15 points. You also have a chance to earn some bonus points by sticking with your original starting forecast spot and not moving AT ALL within the Chase day. We call it the “Stay Put” bonus. Hail/Wind reports are worth 1 extra point for a score of 6 points; tornado reports>10 miles are worth 2 bonus points for a total of 12 points; tornado reports between 5.01 and 10 miles away earn 3 bonus points for a total of 18 points, and a tornado report that is 5 miles or closer earns 4 bonus points for a total of 24 points. But be warned, even if you score bonus points before the 2100z move deadline and then make a move after you score, you will sacrifice those bonus by making that move even though it was your original forecast location. So gamble wisely! This contest will begin on April 26th and continue until June 26th. (Your first entry will be due on the evening of 25 April.) After each chase day the "Virtual Chase Project Team" will tally up the scores and post them in this forum, as well as update the Current Virtual Chase Scores. You can monitor your score in the image below. The winner will be the chaser with the highest Points per Chase score. In order to be eligible to win, your number of chases must be at least 50% of the total number of official chase days! You may whether or not it is an official day. For verification, we will use SPC storm reports and specifically documented damage surveys by NWS Teams. If you would like to browse Local Storm Reports from NWSFO's you can use this page: MichiganWxSystem Storm Reports. If you find a report that is not being included, please post it to this forum or mail it to vc@wxchat.com WITH THE REPORT INCLUDED in the text and we will adjust the score if it is deemed valid. You must give some justification for your reasoning. Simply saying...well the radar looked really red won't cut it. The Staff at WxChat.com want to wish you all luck. Have fun chasing and if you have any questions please post them, and we will try and get you an answer ASAP! |