June 30, 2001
Storm Chase
Were
we going to see a storm today? Only time would tell, as I continued
to monitor the weather. Uncle Dave, Rita and myself boarded "The
Storm Descender" and left the house at 7:30 pm. We took highway
86, north. A cold front was going to cut through the region this evening,
and squall line thunderstorms were very likely. Off to the northwest,
we could see the cirrus cloud deck, indicating that the storms were
nearby. Storm cells were off to the north, and a severe thunderstorm
watch was issued. Our target area for this chase was going to be Wellington
and North Perth counties. As 7:40 rolled by, we noticed a gust front
to the NW, embedded in the dark sky. Several minutes later, we pulled
off to the side of the road to take pictures and video. At this point,
there was really not much to video. I looked up at the sky, and the
wind had started to gust. We got in the van and drove onto highway 12,
heading toward the Arthur area hoping we would see more action. We then
noticed that the roads were wet, indicating that rain had passed through
this area. At 7:56, we pulled over once again to wait for the storm
to arrive. Where was it? We heard the static from the lightning on the
scanner, however we could not see any around. By this time, we figured
the storm had pooped out. All that came of it were big rain drops. After
waiting around a little big longer at 8:10, we decided to call it quits.
By the time we got back home, we could see in-cloud lightning over Waterloo.
Figures. We arrived back at 8:33 pm, and drove a total distance of 60
km.
Total hours: 1 hour
3 minutes
Distance: 60 km
