Yep! Storms and a chase of sorts happened. I noticed on radar a nice looking cell crossing northern Stafford county that appeared to be turning right - a good sign of severity - as it neared the Potomac River so I pointed the chasemobile to the nearest school parking lot and quickly found that I couldn't see well enough underneath what I knew to be a large rain free base. With my chasing antenna prickling I maneuvered my way via back roads down to the edge of the Potomac where I caught this view at 5:58 pm of what appeared to be a wall cloud that I couldn't see clearly:
Turns out this likely was a wall cloud, since the radar view at 5:43 pm showed a tornado signature:
Frustrated at not being able to see this base clearly, and not wanting to head further east into the wilds of the Potomac River edges of King George county, I motored back toward home and noticed yet another complex moving into the area. I parked at the school I had originally made for and watched the approach of a curious feature that appeared to be the beginnings of a forward flank mesocyclone as seen in the differences between the first (6:13 pm) and second (6:22 pm) photos below:
By the time of the second photo I was almost certain it was slowly rotating, but I wasn't sure for a few minutes more. As the leading edge passed almost overhead the left-to-right circulation of this feature became evident. (I took some video but will have to edit it before posting.) Only saw one CG and heard only a bit of thunder to go along with the pounding rain, but it was a chase nonetheless!
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