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April 20, 2003 Storm Chase

On April 19th, I noticed that Environment Canada had put out a Convective Weather Statement hinting at severe weather for southern Ontario the next day. I didn't really think much of it then. The next day, the 20th, I didn't think much was up. We had some high cloud and sun, but when I looked to my south/southwest, I noticed a thicker cirrus desk moving in. I then went onto my brother's computer since it was turned on. A severe thunderstorm watch was issued for most of southern Ontario at 10:33 am. I decided to check out the RUC on Nexlab's site. Things were not looking too bad. The cold front was positioned over western Michigan, and there was enough moisture in the atmosphere. Bob Berry came online and we chatted about the potential. He offered to come down and pick me up for a chase. I figured the peak of activity would occur at around 7:00 pm judging by the RUC, and that areas west of Waterloo would see some action. Radar showed some small cells developing over southern Michigan, tracking northeast. Ron Gravelle came online, and told me he was going to activate the Kitchener CANWARN net. Ron told me that areas north of Woodstock could see some possible severe weather, with a chance of a tornado. He seemed pretty optimistic we wouldn't bust on this chase, and told me to stop by his place for some quick information. Bob Berry came over to pick me up at my place, at 3:30 pm to begin our first chase of the season.

The three of us, George Kourounis, Bob and I, met at Ron Gravelle's place to decide on a chase target. We eventually decided to head towards Mount Forest, because that area would be the first to see anything worthwhile to chase. Capes were 3000, with LI of -9 and a lapse rate of 9 over that region! We would be looking at possible golf ball sized hail with the line. Ron had the Kitchener CANWARN net up and running, with condition green. He loaded radar and showed us how far down the cold front with thunderstorms was extending. A line of thunderstorms went all the way down to southern Texas, with the low center positioned more up by us!

Bob and I left Ron's around 5 pm and headed north on 86 towards Listowel and then up 12 towards Arthur. Once we got up to Arthur, we decided to head northwest towards Mount Forest on highway 6. Got up to Mount Forest and did a quick pit stop at a Tim Horton's, grabbed a quick bite to eat. I looked west and noticed some nice sharp towers moving in from the west. We headed a bit more west, while Ron was giving quick radar updates to the CANWARN spotters over the net. We decided to listen in on the net during the entire chase so we could get any information that would help us. We then decided to head more towards Harriston to meet up with the storm. Shortly after 7 pm, we took highway 9 and the storm was in full view. We were now in between Clifford and Harriston. I then spotted out a bit of a shelf cloud off in the distance ahead of us. As we got closer, the shelf cloud became more apparent. We pulled onto some dirt road not far from the main highway. Afraid that we might get "golf balled", we decided stayed south of the heavy precip core and get a great view of the entire shelf cloud. Banding was going right across. It was more round due to the outflow winds blowing towards us to the south, bending the shelf cloud. It was quite picturesque, so I took a couple photos. I should have used my wide angle, but I didn't really have much time because I had to set up the tripod and this storm was racing eastward. The winds started to kick in, at around 60 km/h with a very little blowing dust and no damage. We saw a little bit of in-cloud lightning light up the precip core.

After about 10 or 15 minutes, the shelf cloud raced eastward and blended into the dark gray sky. We noticed a little bit of scud rising into an updraft when we head slightly more east to get a better view. Bob tried calling Ron on the cell phone to report the shelf cloud, but couldn't get ahold of him, so he called George. Turns out George was in the same area almost. He left Ron's place an hour after we did. We eventually met up with George in Clifford and searched for an opened gas station... unfortunately they were either closed or abondoned, so we headed to Walkerton to get gas, since we were out that way. Bob and I saw a small anvil trying to glaciate west of us.

The three of us did a bit more driving around, then decided to head back down towards Kitchener. We got word from the net that there was another line moving up that way. We made a couple small mistakes, and had to back track, which took up some time. We eventually came back on 86 towards Waterloo. We encountered another line, with just high winds of about 80 km/h and some rain. George was ahead of us, and some piece of debris hit the left rear of his truck. It looked like some kind of softer material, and it rolled in front of us on the road. At about a quarter to 10 pm, Ron closed the CANWARN net. He noted that drier air was already moving into the region and that the severe activity was diminished and no more storms were expected. We headed back to Ron's for a bit, then Bob dropped me off at home before 11:30 pm, after we had something to eat at Tim Horton's.

Notes: Overall, we thought the chase could have been better, but we still had fun. The cold front didn't quite move as fast as we figured; it was still positioned over Michigan when we went to Ron's after the chase. Most of the storms didn't really glaciate, hence we saw very little lightning activity. I would just like to thank Ron for keeping the net well informed on what the storms were doing. Although the information was more for the CANWARN spotters on the net, George, Bob and I found some of the info useful.

Total hours: 5 hours 20 minutes

Distance: 456 km