Really, I had no intentions of chasing today. After yesterday's bust I intended to spend a quiet evening at home, taking a walk, watering the flowers, and generally taking it easy. Then, I checked the radar...and after a very quick internal debate I headed out. Today's forecast discussion had mentioned that if the cap could break some strong storms would result, and it appeared that the cap was broken sometime around 7:00 pm and the previously restricted updrafts had begun to shoot upward. So at 7:35 I found myself racing around the house closing blinds, grabbing chase gear, and striding out to the chasemobile. I met the storm of choice in southeastern Fauquier county and was awed by the structure and coloring of the shelf cloud coming my way. I will post more pictures tomorrow, but this one gives you an idea of the coloring.
When the rain shaft threatened to swallow me I retreated along back roads to watch and take more pictures as the opportunity presented, until I wound up back on Route 1 heading south where I spied what appeared to be a rotating updraft just to my east. I took a few pictures (again, tomorrow) and followed the cell as far as I could until true darkness set in. I didn't see any signs of rotation on the radar pictures I checked but that could have been an artifact of the straight line distance to the radar up in Sterling. All in all, this chase was indeed balm for yesterday's bust.
Really, I had no intentions of chasing today. After yesterday's bust I intended to spend a quiet evening at home, taking a walk, watering the flowers, and generally taking it easy. Then, I checked the radar...and after a very quick internal debate I headed out. Today's forecast discussion had mentioned that if the cap could break some strong storms would result, and it appeared that the cap was broken sometime around 7:00 pm and the previously restricted updrafts had begun to shoot upward. So at 7:35 I found myself racing around the house closing blinds, grabbing chase gear, and striding out to the chasemobile. I met the storm of choice in southeastern Fauquier county and was awed by the structure and coloring of the shelf cloud coming my way. I will post more pictures tomorrow, but this one gives you an idea of the coloring.
When the rain shaft threatened to swallow me I retreated along back roads to watch and take more pictures as the opportunity presented, until I wound up back on Route 1 heading south where I spied what appeared to be a rotating updraft just to my east. I took a few pictures (again, tomorrow) and followed the cell as far as I could until true darkness set in. I didn't see any signs of rotation on the radar pictures I checked but that could have been an artifact of the straight line distance to the radar up in Sterling. All in all, this chase was indeed balm for yesterday's bust.
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