There were vacation and retirement homes 15 years ago also. Yet roughly the same cohort drove home sales then and now. Seems like something is afoot.

Never leaving your car is the final stage of veteran aurora chasing. Now to figure out how to start the car for heat without all the lights flashing on.

I learned to ignore the aurora day 2 hype after everyone catches up on social media photos from day 1.

And here's a short explainer on aurora colors! 🎨

Graphic design was their passion

The OsmAnd app (Android, iOS) uses offline data you save to the device in advance by simply selecting which states to download. I update mine at the start of each season and do smaller live updates on a per-chase basis. So it doesn't depend on internet access at all.

Other maps are happy to route you right into a plowed field with no distinction in road surface. But in OSM road surface is a metadata tag subject to crowdsourced editing! I've made a ton of edits myself and it feels like I'm actually accomplishing something on those completely busted storm chases.

For me there's a couple of great features in particular:
-Ability to edit the underlying OSM data to make corrections when necessary -- especially important for road surface integrity
-Ability to use a custom map rendering style to instantly differentiate road types for safe and efficient navigation

Lawn care co recently warned me about "native grasses" in my yard. Banish the thought!

Those, candy parades, and general fearmongering (see NextDoor et al) killed it here.

I stopped using DeLorme after unexpectedly dead-ending in a plowed field too many times 😵

Yeah that's crucial. OsmAnd uses offline data you save to the device by simply clicking which states to download. I update mine at the start of each season and do smaller live updates on a daily basis. So it doesn't depend on internet access at all.

Former DeLorme user here. I've been chasing with Open Street Maps on the OsmAnd app with great success. I made a custom rendering style that highlights road quality and I've spent the last several years updating the data while I'm out.

Double whammy for me - I hung back because the chaser circus was so dense and where I wound up the contrast was awful

Was this August 2nd? Some crazy merging that day (followed by a major ramp-up in CGs!⚡)