The very best chances in my experience are in spots where a large tree or several large trees have been blown down or toppled from old age. These events open the forest floor to sunlight and, in the case of blown down trees, the earth is often disturbed. Another excellent place to look is where fire has opened the forest floor. For years I found large black morels around a spot behind the house where I burned a slash pile on the edge of the woods. Another good place is around your outdoor barbeque pit, if you have burned sticks and limbs there.
Morels have to have moisture to thrive, and the first warm nights are always good stimulators.
All varieties will appear sometime during April in Indiana, later in Michigan and Wisconsin, earlier in Kentucky and Tennessee, excepting the mountains. Although not as prized as their larger-capped relatives, these 'shrooms are very tasty too. To realize good success as a mushroom hunter, you have to spend a lot of time looking. You will often see a car or pickup parked along a country road in the mornings this month, as morel hunters stop on the way to work to make a quick check. That's a pretty small leaf.