Thursday, June 24, 2010

Catching up, getting ready

I need to write up Tuesday's (6/22) chase before I chase this afternoon, as a cold front is kicking off a line of storms that is approaching from the northwest.  Anyway Tuesday's setup looked good for mid-afternoon as two of the local models showed a few storms firing by 4 pm, with everything being east of I-95 by 6-7 pm.  Thus I made my way to the Culpeper vicinity by 3 pm to make ready, and within 30 minutes two updrafts fired in Greene county just north of Charlottesville.  Rollling south on U.S. 29 I stopped in Ruckersville to face westward and observe the approach of the western storm and noticed another cell going up on its northern flank.  This one showed indications of a wall cloud but little or no precipitation early in its cycle:
Twelve minutes later this feature showed up which I have since classified as a probable funnel vice just scud:
As this cell built and moved eastward it quickly became an HP (high precipitation) cell and I moved back northward on Rte 29 to stay with it.  Unfortunately after a brief intensification it decided to rain out and eventually disappeared within 45 minutes.  I motored back up to Culpeper and checked radar (no echoes within 100 miles) and conditions (surface trough was moving east of I-95), and decided to call it a day based on those checks and the model forecasts from earlier in the day.
UNFORTUNATELY,  my prognostication was flawed and a short line of intense storms formed 3 hours later - from Culpeper north toward Warrenton - via the lift provided by an approaching short wave.  Caught out of position I chased very locally, winding up on Brooke Road 3 miles NW of Fredericksburg and catching sight of a wall cloud (looking northward) on the southern edge of a nice-looking rotating updraft:
This feature was accompanied by frequent CGs and what appeared to be an inflow band streaming in from the southwest:
I called this in to the NWS Sterling office and then tried to give chase to this cell which was already approaching the Potomac River.  I ran out of visibility and real estate and didn't see anything else even tho' this storm crossed into southern Maryland and wreaked all sorts of wind damage. What was that again?  Oh yeah, never give up too early on a chase!

1 comments:

ahd said...

Hey!

I just wanted to give you a quick thank you for your blogs, and especially your chase reports. I love weather and have a basic knowledge of severe weather. It's great seeing locations I know with a great run-down on what was going on. Keep it up! Maybe sometime I'll get to run with you on a storm!

Best--