I did chase today, starting out in Culpeper at 4:30 to - hopefully - intercept a lone cell out ahead of the approaching cold front. The models and forecasts indicated that a cap (an upper level "lid" on convection) existed but would start breaking down after 5:00 pm east of the mountains, and sure enough it did. The cell shown above went up west of Culpeper and screamed northeastward at 40+ mph, so my "chasing" involved trying to catch up to it before it reached the horrendous Northern Virginia traffic. I did see a lowering south of the rain shaft about 5:25 or so but was unable to photograph it as I was on a major highway amidst mondo traffic.
After losing the race with this cell I returned to Culpeper to (a) grab some dinner and (b) grab some WiFi for some situational awareness, finding out that a large amorphous rain mass was headed my way. That explained the gray/black mushiness to my southwest, so I hightailed it eastward toward Fredericksburg in an attempt to get east of the area and see if there was anything interesting on the backside. Alas, this rain mass was also moving along at a pretty good clip and it caught me before I reached Wilderness. I saw nothing of interest so I headed home to watch the radar and see if anything chaseable would occur nearby. So far that hasn't been the case, so it looks like this chase is done for the day.
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