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August 1, 2003 Storm Chase

After having several frustrating chases this season, Dave Szozda, and I decided to head out on our 6th chase of the year. We left my house at 6 o'clock pm. Our target was the area just west of Stratford. A squall line was moving eastward towards this region. CAPE was 2000 J/kg, with a Lifted Index of -6. We took hwy. 86 northward, then cut west. By 7:10, we ended up a little further west than originally planned... we were in Mitchell. Ahead of us, the sky was dark looking. We saw the leading edge of the storm. Before we knew it, the heavy rain had hit. There were also a bit of lightning and outflow winds. I wasn't too impressed, because I was expecting the squall line to be a bit more severe.

Besides the heavy rain and wind, nothing much else was happening, so we decided to turn around and head back towards Stratford to get some gas and have a coffee at Tim Horton's. We figured the storm had fell apart. There was nothing much out there to support it, and the lake breeze boundaries had probably already moved inland. Dang, talk about a wet bust or what? It didn't really surprise me... with the luck (or should I say bad luck?) we have been having this year. We got back to my house at 8:45. Overall, this chase season has not been very good. Oh well, there's always next year!

Total hours: 2 hours 45 minutes

Distance: 198 km