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August 9, 1998 Storm Chase

This day was busy for S. Ontario: severe thunderstorms swept throughout the region. I went out chasing with uncle Dave and Rita from 6:00 to 7:38 PM. We headed out towards Drayton, taking numerous regional roads. We had decided to head out to see if anything would develop, but all we encountered was rain, rain, and more rain. Nothing like a good cloudy, boring sky! The sky was overcast all evening, and it never looked promising. There was the odd thunder and lightning, but nothing severe. When we were just west of Drayton, we had lost our flat country. We were near the Conestogo River anyway, so we had decided to have a look at it. To our amazement, the river really dried up due to the drought conditions. Now it looks more like a stream than a river. After our quick stop, we headed towards Arthur, up to the town of Parker. By that time, there were no signs of storm development, so we headed back home. Well, we did make use of the chase: we looked around for more chase roads. I made up a list of the better chase roads. We had even brought the weather radio along. The forecasts never came through clear, but it makes a really good lightning detector. Overall this chase was a bust. On the brighter side, however, I'm glad nothing much happened anyway because we didn't have our camcorder.

Total hours: 1 hour 38 minutes

Distance: approx. 110 km