They need to go out further from the last place seen.
First of all, it was a warm sunny day the afternoon he disappeared. His grandmother called 9/11 at 1:19 p.m. to report him missing. One could assume grandma must have spent at least 20-30 minutes running around looking for him before she called for help, I think that would be about the norm out in a rural setting. The sun sets around 5:00 pm over in Tennessee right now. That would have allowed Noah to travel in whatever direction at whatever pace for at least 4 hours. As the sun began to set and he slowly began to realize that he could hear no one and see no one, the panic may have began setting in and he began running as fast as his little legs would carry him.
Next problem. Even though that area is considered rural, there are a good deal of homes and farms scattered around. The problem with homes scattered around close to a thinning forest is that light will travel further. People have porch lights, yard lights, and security lights. Some of them are super bright, and some of them not so much. Noah may have been able to catch a glimpse of some of those lights after sunset and began heading towards them in the early evening hours. There is an entire town closeby, he may have caught glimpses of those lights as well. Anybody that has ever spent much time camping in the winter months knows that one of the first things that catches your attention after dark is a light off in the distance. You always wonder who it belongs to and what it is for. To a 2 1/2 year old, that light off in the distance may have represented Grandma's house, or maybe Mom and Dad's house, unbeknownst to him that the lights were almost a mile and a half away, maybe two. He was lost, he would have tried to find something familiar to him in order to find Grandma.
The weather in that area continued to be pretty mild and fairly warm until after midnight Thursday and into early Friday morning. This pretty much means that Noah could have traveled in pretty favorable conditions almost all night long if he was able and willing. Whatever lights the searchers can see off in the distance tonight......Noah was able to see those same lights, and in my opinion, probably walked towards them. If I was hopelessly lost, I'd sure as hell walk towards those lights.
If you refer to the map, you will see there are two main areas that would have been lit up pretty good that night, and pretty much every night. To the southeast, the town of Henderson, which is 5 miles in a straight line from Grandma's house. This entire area would have been lit up with street lights, stop lights, and all the lights generally associated with an entire town. To the southwest, about a mile away, there is a much smaller community with what looks like about a dozen homes. Any lights in this area would have obviously been much closer to him, but whether he could see them or not is the million dollar question. The search teams should be able to confirm that one way or the other.
To me, in the mind of a two year old, the
number of lights and the brightness they put out would be more of a lure and a beacon to head towards. Unfortunately, that would have put him on a 5 mile trek cross country toward Henderson instead of towards a neighborhood about a mile away. Somewhere along the way he most likely laid down to take a nap and sleep for awhile. He would have woken up the next morning cold and with wet clothes as a rainstorm pushed through. At daybreak all of those lights would be gone, nothing in view now except forest.
The searchers need to find a starting point about 1/2 mile south of the grandma's house, or whatever point they deem reasonable that Noah may have been able to travel prior to dark. From there they need to focus in on visible lights in the distance, in whatever direction, and then try to chart a path and follow trails towards those lights. I don't think the weather would have been been a major factor for almost 12 hours after he was reported missing. The question is, how far was he able to travel in that 12 hours ?
Beginning the early morning hours of Friday, the temps. began to cool, the rains came in, and everything began to take a downward slide. If Noah was mobile on Friday, he likely wouldn't have tried to go very far. Of course, after that point, from Friday afternoon onward everything turned frigid and horrible.
Map here:
https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=zAAmDUXJe_aE.koApw5Wusksg&usp=sharing
ullhair: ) What were we answering? Oh, there are caves in the area, creeks, sink holes. 
