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June 26, 2003 Storm Chase

June 26th was supposed to be another active day in store in for SW Ontario. The first severe thunderstorm watch had been issued for southern Ontario at 9:14 am. A sharp cold front was supposed to sweep through the region, cooling off the air after a heat wave. Humidex values were in the 40s. It was also very humid, so severe storms were expected to fire up just ahead of the cold front. The storms were expected to reach Windsor at around 4 pm and arrive in Toronto at 8 pm. Finally at 1:44 pm, the first severe thunderstorm warning was issued for Middlesex, Oxford and Perth counties. I decided to continue to watch radar and see if the storms were holding. Satellite showed a bunch of TCU fire up, as a result of the lake breeze convergence setting up in the area. Surface based CAPE ranged from 2500 to 4500, with a Lifted Index ranging from -6 to -8 respectively. Dew points were also the 20s, which indicated there was plenty of moisture. Things were setting up, and I wanted to be there before any of the action started.

Uncle Dave and I left my place at 2:20 and took hwy 86 north and headed west. Traffic on 86 was slowed down due to road construction. Our target was Huron and Perth counties. We saw a bunch of TCU fire up, but they seemed to only get so high up. Around 3 pm, we noticed a nice cumulus congestus cloud to just our northeast. We were not too far out of Listowel. We figured this would be one of the storms that would go severe. We sat there watching it, taking pictures and a little bit of video, but it didn't seem to be glaciating at all. As it moved eastward, it didn't look very good anymore. Then the cell phone rang. Unfortunately we could not answer it because it said Restricted Number. Oh well. We saw other TCU that started to build, but unfortunately that's all they would become... the towers had downdraft pockets in them. This was not a good sign. It appears there was a cap in place. We decided to head east a little bit, and we waited some more. Unfortunately we could not see anything good around us, even in the distance. It was also hazy out, which made our visibility a little more difficult. At around 5 pm, figuring we had busted, we decided to call it quits and headed back to see what radar was showing.

As soon as I got home ten minutes later, I loaded radar. Uncle Dave had already left. Then I was floored to see that radar showed showed severe storms in the area where we just were! With warnings issued! I quickly called Uncle Dave to inform him on the sudden development of the storms. He was already at home, and said we wouldn't be able to get to them in time, because he would have to pick me up again and there was the construction on hwy 86. Oh dang it! We called it off too early! What a lesson to be learned :-(

Total hours: 3 hours 30 mintues

Distance: 155 km