Hot and sticky…that seems to be the M.O. for this week’s weather, but since June 1st is the beginning of meteorological summer that can be expected.  Today through Sunday will feature high temperatures near 90, dewpoints in the low 70’s (i.e….

Today was another early chase, evidenced by the fact that I was back home by 5:45 pm.  A complex of storms pushed across West Virginia and fired more storms over the Shenandoah Valley, so I decided to intercept these new storms as they crossed the…

Sitting here in Culpeper county awaiting a line of storms to cross the Blue Ridge and reform.  The SPC has placed our region under a Severe TS watch, so I’m keeping an eye on things here and points east…UPDATE 3:25 pm:  Supercell composite …

The local forecast models called for two lines of storms to develop today:  one early in the afternoon (~2 pm) associated with a lee trough over the Piedmont and the other later (~ 5 pm) associated with an approaching weak cold front.  The fo…

Quick look at one forecast model this morning piqued my interest in Tuesday afternoon / evening for chasing.  Directional wind shear in Northern VA is evident – altho’ not much speed shear – so some rotation could manifest in storms that go up cou…

Okay, I have admitted that I am currently paying more attention to storm chasing than to local weather features (see May 13th post), and I also freely admit that I haven’t posted here for over a week.   Having said that, I find the lack of we…

I had to “force” a chase today, but I was rewarded with some great views.  Starting out in Culpeper at 2:15 pm I saw that the moisture and instability parameters resulting from the backdoor front hanging over the Blue Ridge mountains formed a corr…

Last night’s convection was impressive but waaaaay after I wanted / needed to go to bed.  Thus I am taking the opportunity this afternoon to watch for storms building near the Blue Ridge.  As of this point there are a few decent cells in the …

Sitting here at home watching radar and darting outside occasionally to keep an eye on the local convective towers that are struggling to break through the cap.  According to the radar loop the backdoor cold front (or a strong Chesapeake Bay breez…

This is the SPC’s forecast graphic for severe weather tomorrow, providing hope for a late day chase.  A mesoscale convective system (MCS) – an organized complex of storms – is forecast to roll from northwest to southeast across the Chesapeake Bay …