home

chase summaries

storm photos

chase videos

chaser links

about & contact

June 10, 2001 Storm Chase

It all began on June 9th. Several folks have told me that an MCS was possible for June 10, and were keeping their eyes out for some action. Originally, they, including myself, have thought that these storms would be nocturnal. Nocturnal storms were something that I did not really fussy because that would mean that I couldn't chase since it would be dark. But little did any of us know that something interesting would be shaping up for SW Ontario in the late afternoon and early evening hours. But I was still interested. If the storms would be nocturnal, that would offer some opportunity for lightning photography. But I wanted to chase. I wanted to get out of the house and feel Mother Nature's power out in the country.

On the morning of June 10th, I got up at around 10:00 am, had a shower and did a bit of some "munchies shopping". When I got home, around 11:00 am, I turned on my computer and started to track the system that would be moving into the area by the evening. The first Convective Weather Statement was issued at 4:00 am by Environment Canada. It stated that severe storms would be possible in the southwest. Today just had to be a chase day. I had that "feeling" since the night before. I logged into WeatherTap and sure enough a storm system was over central Michigan. That's when my fun began. I continued tracking the storms all afternoon.

I downloaded a satellite image, and saw several areas of lake breeze convergence. Lake breeze fronts were also visible. David Sills sent an email to the WX-CHASE-CAN mailing list just before 2:30 pm and mentioned that a lake breeze front was extending all along the coast of Lake Erie, another front was coming off from Lake Ontario, and that another one was coming from Lake Huron, but was not visible on satellite. The warm front was moving east, and the Lake Erie lake breeze was moving north. Perfect. There would definitely be some interaction in the SW. I printed off a surface analysis map of the Great Lakes area and plotted the lake breeze boundaries. I also circled an area where I thought there would be severe potential.

Dave Patrick and I discussed about the situation via MSN Messenger. His target was the Grand Bend area. He was going to play the Lake Huron lake breezes. I also thought that was a good area to target. A lake breeze in Michigan was running along the coast from Port Huron to Saginaw Bay. If the line of storms were to cross that boundary, those storms would continue to stay severe. And if the lake breeze boundaries in SW Ontario would interact with the storms, something interesting could happen. Lo and behold, the first severe thunderstorm watch was issued at 3:30 for the southwest. I called Uncle Dave (Szozda) and told him about the situation that was setting up. Dave Patrick left for his chase shortly afterwards. Uncle Dave logged into MSN several minutes later, and discussed about the possible chase with some fellow storm watchers. I gave Dave Patrick a call on his cell phone. He was now located in the London area, seeing some TCU starting to build. I looked on satellite, and noticed that the Lake Erie lake breeze had shifted north, up by London. I mentioned to Dave that there was TCU because of the lake breeze. His target area was still the Grand Bend area.

I continued to watch the line of storms get closer. They were still holding together. Good, good. Now the real challenge was for them to make it across the lake without falling apart! As the storms neared Windsor, they were still looking interesting. Okay, I need to intercept this thing! WeatherTap’s radar revealed base reflectivity on the main part of the squall line around 55 to 60 dBz. On MSN Messenger, Uncle Dave said he was ready to come over. I gathered my chase gear and got ready for the chase. At 4:30 pm, he came over and I made my last checks on satellite and radar. I showed him on the map where we should head. I wanted to target South Perth County, which was in line with Grand Bend, where Dave Patrick was headed. He said that we would have to go through Stratford, like the way we do for going camping at Pinery Provincial Park, to get to our target. Originally, Uncle Dave wanted to head a little more due north, but I felt it was too north. I thought we would see more if we headed more southwest.

I quickly printed off a base reflectivity radar image to get an idea where the main part of the storm would be heading. Uncle Dave, Rita and I loaded the “Storm Descender”, our chase van, and parted Waterloo at 4:41. On this chase, we took a different route to get out into the country. This time, unlike any of our other chases we have been on, we took highway 86, going via Kitchener. In order for us to get to our target, we needed to go through Stratford, which was the quickest way. We anticipated that the squall line would arrive in southern Perth County by around 5:30 to 6:00.

I looked out the van window and at the sky. The current state of the weather could have fooled any individual who would be unaware of what was to come. Cumulus clouds sat in the sky like big, fluffy cotton balls, and “the painter’s brush strokes” (cirrus clouds), wisped across the sunny, blue sky. A warm and light southerly breeze was felt in the air, and the birds were chirping.

A few minutes later, I decided to give Dave Patrick another call on the cell phone. He didn’t pick up, so I left him a voice mail message, “Hi Dave, it’s me Laura. We have headed out now. Our target is southern Perth.” As 5:00 rolled around, we were now going through New Hamburg. We were now driving on highway 7/8, heading west. At 5:09, we went through Shakespeare. By this time, the cirrus cloud deck was starting to get thicker. We knew that we were getting closer to the storm by the moment.

Finally, we make it to the Stratford area. It was 5:22, and we were now on highway 26. About twenty minutes later, we pulled onto a side dirt road to observe the surrounding sky. I got out of the van. Overhead, a towering cumulus (TCU) was forming. We liked how things started to look. I snapped several pictures of the TCU. What I found interesting was that the wind was blowing from the SW. I was looking for signs of inflow. Since the squall line was coming from the west, I was expecting the wind to change direction and blow from the east, which it didn’t. Okay so what’s going on now? We realized that we had to head more west. We boarded the van and continued due west on highway 7. We tried giving Dave Patrick another call. Finally, after several tries, Dave answered. Uncle Dave told him where we were, and asked where Dave was. It turns out that Dave Patrick had headed more south than what he had originally planned. He was now near Sarnia, watching a rotating cell.

We headed southwest on highway 7, which was exactly north of London, and east of the small town of Ailsa Craig. We looked ahead. Dark skies were before us, now. Okay, this looks like the storm! As we drove through the town, we watched as a lowering of scud ahead of us loomed. This almost looked like a wall cloud. Some trees obscured our view, but we made it out to the country once again. Finally, at 6:03, we encountered showers. The sky was very dark, almost black. I looked out the window, and saw something. A shelf cloud! It was racing east, and behind it is where the heavy rain and hail core lay. Heading east, I took several photographs before it would pass overhead and I could lose my chance. As the shelf cloud got closer to us, I could see a white band behind it. Hail. It had to be hail. Since large hail was possible with the squall line, we avoided it. I didn’t want to find out first hand how big the hail was. We continued driving on the highway, near Ailsa Craig, up a hill. As the shelf cloud had passed overhead, the winds started to pick. Uncle Dave said he could feel it shaking the van. I sat still and felt the wind. Several minutes later, the heavy rain hit us. Lightning was also increasing, but it was not intense. It was mainly inner-cloud. We pulled over, off the road, to wait the rain out. Visibility was near zero.

We sat there, watching the heavy rain and listening to the Weather radio on the scanner. No severe thunderstorm warnings were issued yet. Okay, so where is Environment Canada? This storm looked intense. We watched the scud clouds gather and possibly rotate after the rain had cleared up a bit. Uncle Dave said he saw some scud hang down and rotate slightly and go back up again. He demonstrated what he was with his hand. A few minutes later, I looked out of the front windshield and saw lowered scud gathering and starting to slightly rotate. This looked like one of those possible wall clouds. Okay I guess it’s time to make a severe weather report! It was now 6:30. I asked Uncle Dave to dial the CANWARN number for me. He handed it over, and forecaster Phil Chadwick, at the Weather Office in Toronto, picked up. I told Phil who I was and that I was a CANWARN spotter. Just as I was about to tell him about the shelf cloud, I ran into problems with the cell phone. He couldn’t hear me! He kept saying, “Hello? Hello?” and I asked if he could hear me. I guess not, because he hung up. Great! Just wonderful. So I gave Uncle Dave the cell. He said the antenna was not up, that’s why. So, I attempted to make the call once again. Phil picked up again. I told him who I was, again, what we have seen and been through, and what time these events occurred. I told him that I saw a shelf cloud near Ailsa Craig at 6:00, and that there was heavy rain and some possible rotation. He seemed interested. Phil said, “Ahhh… I wouldn’t have doubt that you had seen some. There is quite a bit of that around.” He also asked if I saw any damage from high winds, so I said that we didn’t see any yet, but we did encounter some strong wind. He thanked me for my report and we hung up. By now, things had started to clear up, so we started to head back east. Several minutes later, we re-encountered the heavy rain, and the first severe thunderstorm warning was issued. Yes! It’s about time! I assumed that my report might have helped put the warning out. It was issued for several counties to the east, and said that the main storm was 10 kilometers north of London. That’s the one we were on.

As we headed due east, we continued to watch the sky for any wall clouds and rotation. We decided to pull over at 7:00 pm. We saw a possible wall cloud try to gather. I got out of the van, and started taking pictures. As soon as I clicked the shutter release button on the camera, a bright CG flashed in front of the possible wall cloud. WOW! I hope I caught that one on film! My shutter speed was about 1/30th of a second, so maybe it caught the last remnants of the “spark”. But if I didn’t catch the CG, it wouldn’t surprise me either. Trying to capture lightning on film during the day is very challenging. But who knows? I could have been lucky. Only time well tell when I get the photos back from developing.

I got into the van, and we headed east some more. About ten minutes later, we saw another possible wall cloud. We were along highway 7, southwest of Stratford, looking east. This one was nice looking. It had a nice hard edge, and the precipitation core covered part of it. I snapped several shots, before my film finally ran out. Not now, camera! It just had to be the moment when I would run out of film. I rewound the film and loaded a new one in. By this time, the wall cloud had dissipated, and there was nothing left but a flat base with a rain core. The wind was rather cool in this spot, and that suggested to me that we were in the outflow region.

On the way home, we stopped at a McDonald’s to buy some fries for our quick dinner at 7:23. After spending several minutes of trying to figure out how to get out of Stratford (yes, that city has some screwed up signs!), we were on the road again, headed home. As we neared the Waterloo Region, we noticed that the ground was dry! The area showed no signs of rain because cars on the side of the road would stir up dust. We figured the squall line had to have dissipated before it got here. It’s a good thing we headed southwest for our chase! We got back to my house at 8:24 pm. What a great chase this one was!

Total hours: 4 hours 23 minutes

Distance: 250 km