The first really active chase day of the year for Southern Ontario that was not a bust with widespread convection and severe weather ranging to hail to wind and even some local flooding. The entire day basically focus around an incoming low pressure system from Michigan with a trailing cold front that was crashing into very hot and humid air as a 500mb shortwave scooted past to the north.
After a quiet May and June, the storms were welcomed and helped to ease the drought conditions imparted across much of Southern Ontario thanks to a very dry and storm free spring and early summer.
Surface analysis 21Z Fri Jul 8 2016
I started the chase day in Woodstock Ontario around 2PM as I focused on two possible targets eventually narrowing it down to the area around Goderich. As with every storm chase, looking at the surface observations and being in position early rather than late is always important and critical! Playing catchup or being unaware of the atmospheres potential is never a good thing and can really make or break a chase day.
The storm was cranking out cloud to ground lightning like nothing.
Again, another lightning strike just a kilometre or so up the road. It's amazing, lightning hits everything yet somehow my car (thankfully) is not a good target!
This time just a little further off and closer to the rain/hail mix just west of me. I'm blowing north at this point trying to get to a road to make a right turn and keep going east. Strong outflow winds are batting my car forcing it right!
I briefly stopped to grab this photo, I barely had time! The storm was seemingly now accelerating rapidly as it made landfall and was moving at close to 90 km/h, well up from the meager 50km/h just 25 minutes earlier.
I managed to briefly outpace the storm which gave me just enough time to grab this photo as Mark, John and some other vehicles catch up to me.
If you're wondering, I never left the vehicle at any point to take photos! I took everything through the side window of the car. The natural faraday cage effect is what keeps you safe, leaving a car can be deadly.
I couldn't even turn around before another strike hit just a hair over from the one before!
The storm as it moved onshore was diving into an area of 2500 j/kg+ cape that was growing and advecting towards the north. So it was entering a much richer environment with more tangible energy. This is probably partly why the lightning was becoming so intense.
Realizing the storm was going to overtake me no matter what, I dove south towards Exeter. The winds weren't really all that crazy until I reached the edge of town. Then I saw a blue power flash!
The GoPro camera shows the blue flash area a little more! I was thinking "I hope it's just straight line wind" but there's always that "maybe it's something else" though in the back of your mind.
The Environment Canada radar was picking up the super strong winds which were just a hair from the radar site! The northern edge of town was literally just getting blasted! It's rare to have such a clear view of high winds rolling into an area.
I was just entering town as the high winds arrived and took shelter beside a McDonalds.
Same shot with the GoPro
This satellite image was taken at roughly the same time the highest winds would have been occurring. You can see a very clear overshooting top right above town marking a very intense updraft in the local area.
The tree nearest me on the right side of the screen is actually split in half. The thing on the ground that looks like a bush, is actually half of the tree that fell over! At this point little bits of dust, leaves and debris were whizzing past me.
Here's a great shot of some of the tree debris rolling down the street! Just before this video grab I recorded a 111km/h wind gust! That's not too shabby considering I was parked and completely motionless.
I decided to escape town and keep up with the high winds as they raced towards the radar site.
Even at 90 km/h it was tough staying with 100+ km/h winds! What a great radar scan though, the winds went straight for the radar site down the street from town!
Eventually I popped out of the storm near Exeter and fell south to intercept fresh developing storms near the 401 and south.
