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
