Missouri Ozarks
A few cities include: Jefferson City, St. Louis and Springfield.
Local tornado season: Peaks between mid-April and mid-May.
Terrain: Rolling hills, a few mountains, lakes and dense forests.
Road network: Irregular and inconsistent.
Radar coverage: Poor in some areas, decent in others.
The Missouri Ozarks area sticks out like a sore thumb between the Plains and Mississippi River Valley, as it seems to be a gap of sorts for tornadoes. The Missouri Ozarks falls in an interesting area, as it is usually too far east to be affected by a true dryline or deep lee cyclogenesis over the High Plains.
On the flip side, the Missouri Ozarks area is often displaced west of storm systems riding up the Mississippi River Valley, that go on to produce tornado outbreaks in Dixie Alley or the Ohio Valley. With that said, tornadoes are no stranger to the Ozarks, it just so happens that most historic severe weather outbreaks have taken place west or east of this area. Severe wind events are also common in the Missouri Ozarks, which can make storm chasing the rugged terrain dangerous.
Terrain
The terrain of the Missouri Ozarks is downright rough. Hilly terrain with thick forests makes attempting to see storms, let alone chase them, very difficult. The terrain across central Missouri is somewhat less obstructive, but even here it is still challenging to storm chase. The St. Francois Mountains fall on eastern edge of the Ozarks, which create an area that can be next to impossible to storm chase.
Another area to avoid is the Lake of the Ozarks and surrounding areas in west-central Missouri, as the terrain is completely unfavorable for storm chasing. Farther south, lakes to the west and east of Branson will also get in the way of anyone attempting to chase storms close to the Arkansas border in southern Missouri.
Road network
Road networks in the Ozarks generally do not make storm chasing any easier. Due to terrain influences, most of the roads are very windy and irregular. This means that any storms moving at near highway speeds will be impossible to keep up with. The road network in central Missouri is slightly less awful. However, densely populated areas near the state Capital of Jefferson City can be hard to navigate.
Storm chasing in southern Missouri, in the heart of the Ozarks, takes a lot of patience and some luck. It might be best to pick an area to intercept a storm, rather than try chasing through the rough terrain. Damaging winds are another issue. It doesn’t take much for downed trees to block roadways and cut a storm chase short in the Ozarks.
Interstate-44 bisects the Missouri Ozarks region from southwest to northeast, connecting Springfield with St. Louis. Storm chasing southeast of I-44 is very difficult, while northwest of I-44 is hard, but sometimes manageable. North of I-70, geography transitions into the Mid/Upper Mississippi Valley, marking the northern bounds of this chase area. US-60, traveling east-southeast of Springfield, can be one of the few somewhat chaseable roadways in southern Missouri. This is assuming that storms are moving in a general west to east fashion.
Radar coverage
Despite radar sites all around the perimeter of the Missouri Ozarks, none seem to cover much of the area. KSGF covers southwestern Missouri, while KLSX covers parts of central and east-central Missouri. MZZU has been a recent addition to radar coverage in central Missouri, but the data range is small and otherwise less detailed than provided by KLSX.
A pronounced radar hole in southeastern Missouri, when combined with very rough terrain in the area, makes it just about impossible to storm chase there. The general area between Rolla and Poplar Bluff falls into this gap of radar coverage. KLZK is a bit too far south to cover the area, while KNQA and KPAH to the east are not quite close enough to provide much data. If you feel that you must storm chase in the area, hope that storms are coming out of the west and are still being sampled by KSGF.
In summary, the Missouri Ozarks area is simply not a good area to storm chase. The hilly, forested terrain combines with windy roads and limited to non-existent radar coverage. The result is a difficult, dangerous or downright impossible environment to navigate storms through.