Posts Tagged: squall line
April 18th 2013
On July 19, 2016
- 2013 Storm Chases
Surface analysis 18Z Thu Apr 18 2013
Hard to believe that less than a week after the ice storm I was out chasing a large ragged bowing squall line with temperatures around 25 Celsius. April is really a month of extremes!
Storm motion with this bowing segment was 59 degrees (Northeast) at 57 knots (105 km/h)
You'll see how the storm progressively bows as it progresses north along the line
Here's a quick screen grab from my tablet showing the radar at the end of my storm chase day. You'll notice the a large bowing segment heading off towards Uxbridge, that there is the storm which bowed out right over my head in Bolton/Caledon.
July 8th 2016
On July 10, 2016
- 2016 Storm Chases
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.
The next storm I intercepted was a mean one!
Dashcam Video from Exeter with strong winds blasting in.
May 11th 2015
On June 1, 2015
- 2015 Storm Chases
On this day a messy warm front which was severely stunted by the cold water of the great lakes struggled to make it into Southern Ontario. Shear profiles supported a linear squall line at best along a trof line and energy was very weak with peak cape around 800 j/kg.
So there was plenty over hyped optimism about today's potential storms. Heck, even the SPC had a 5% chance of a tornado!
Despite all the optimism, I was more pessimistic. I had been in downtown Toronto most of the day and it was dreary! I was watching my home weather station and it was a sunny 28C, meanwhile 22km to the south it was 12C and cloudy. The problem was lake moderation from the frigid waters of Lake Erie and Ontario.
This map from Wunderground shows exactly what was going on. You can see the single digit temperature air near the Lake Ontario shoreline, the location of the now stationary warm front and the super warm air to the west.
I was really concerned that nothing of any substance would make it east of Hamilton, but everything west of Woodstock looked like it was washed out by rain. I gambled that the trof pushing east would do something in the small pocket of warm air south of Cambridge and a squall line began to form.
Because moisture was abundant and there was lots of potential for scud and stuff due to pockets of lake moderate air mixing in here and there I thought that maybe a shelf would be possible. Unfortunately this part of the Niagara Escarpment is a terrible area to find clearing! The blossoms on the trees however did look beautiful!
I found one area with a little bit of clearing but was not satisfied it would be good enough.
I eventually found a hill in St. George and parched myself atop it. Then slowly a shelf formed as the squall line drew closer. BINGO! Success!
The shelf began to really begin looking pretty. There were these neat striations all throughout the clouds upper deck.
On radar the growing squall line was quickly intensifying.
By now the shelf cloud was really coming together and looking cool!
While not severe, it sure had a cool mean look to it!
I'm trying to get the St. George watertower in with the squall line.
By now the squall line was almost above my head and closing in quickly. My very brief chase would be coming to an end soon!
Not sure what to make of those turbulent waves near the top right? Cool though.
This was how things were progressing on radar with the strongest part of the line now bearing down on me.
I decided to break out my Fish-eye lens and grab some cool 180 degree images.
This was my last photo. The winds were now picking up and drops of rain were falling but you'd never know with just how wide the fish-eye lens is. Fun little chase for early May in Southern Ontario.
