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 in-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
