6-27-10 Local Storms (not really a chase)

Very unusual day as several rounds of storms rolled through, the first the worst (though I missed 'em). Nothing in the way of damage. As the last round began to move through I went out in the backyard and shot a few pictures of its approach. Very unusual lighting as the core was pink from the setting sun backlighting the rain. The complex weakened greatly as it approached because of the stable air this far north from the earlier systems. I got off this panorama of its approach. Sorry 'bout the diagonal lines in the image, I didn't feel like photoshopping them out for hours...


What I was really going for was a lightning shot with the pink sky but it never works out that way. To get any lightning since it was so light out I had to turn the ISO waaaaayyyyyy down and jack up the apature just to get anything. Here is an anvil crawler I got, but my settings were just set too dark.

Of course, this is when the lightning really let up too. Figures. As it approached, there was one that shot down a half mile from me (standing in an open field at that), the first close one and it spooked me because there was only intracloud strokes before. I got off this last shot and moved next to the house. There is an anvil crawler towards the top, but its faint.


When I stationed near the house another went down in the same place as the last close one. Par for the course, there was a darn tree in the way. I really wanted to bring out the stroke with no chance of it whiting out hence why it was so dark. Stroke looks good though, well...the part that didn't get blocked out by the tree anyway!


Chip

6-23-10 Local Chase

It had been nearly a month since I had seen convection worth doing something about. Finally it happened. I picked up a fellow OU meteorology student, Kyle Clem, in Wadsworth and we left around 1:30pm. Todays intent was to get as far west as possible to have a good position for the squall line that was beginning to develop and also have a shot at any cells that developed ahead of the line. While trekking west, the Ashland/Richland Co storm went tor warned ahead of the line and looked excellent on radar. Having such a late start, we weren't able to get to the south of it but here is the updraft base from the eastern view we had. (The more I look at it, the rain curtain was definitely wrapping around the updraft and was exhibiting weak rotation).

Was fairly organized and looked promising but-the squall line caught it to quickly and it went linear. Here is the developing shelf cloud that evolved while we were sitting at the intersection of 301 and 71.
A look at the ongoing convection of other cells to the south, we wanted to see what they could do but with a bridge being out where we were we had no chance. We let the squall line overtake us at that position. It had some very strong winds, 45-50mph would be my guess. Here is a shot of the trees "blowing in the wind."Upon getting home after the somewhat dull intercept, I arrived to the worst damage of the day. Its nice knowing that you probably could've seen more action had ya just stayed home... Here is the neighbors very young tree that got snapped off at the base. There were also alot of large limbs down in the area.

Oh well. Nonetheless, it was a fun quick little chase to get the blood pumping a bit. Hoping for round two later tonight and the opportunity at some lightning shots....

Chip

I needed a home.

So, I will give this joint a shot and see if I like it. Hopefully someone, somewhere will visit and enjoy. Now if only I can figure out how to add the photos!



Whalla! I am not an idiot and I have added an image! Let the games begin.