It is now official: I was completely shut out of Virginia storm chasing during the entire months of September and October 2013. The last chance for October involved a strong surface low pressure and trailing cold front that originally looke…
Can we move this area eastward a bit?An approaching cold front will pump warmth and moisture northward into the Mid-Atlantic Wednesday and Thursday this week before punching across the region to the coast. This will be another high shear / low CA…
A convective line did come through the Roanoke valley Thursday evening (10/17) but the action was too little and too late. I was able to sit at a local perch and watch as the low level scud and the mid level clouds scooted in different directions…
Today’s frontal passage – accompanied by a developing surface low pressure – may provide a brief period of chasing excitement in western VA late this afternoon. The limiting factor as usual in the fall is very little instability, with CAPE values…
Over the weekend I was dismayed to watch as each successive model run pointed toward an earlier time for today’s cold front passage through Virginia. The low CAPE / high shear regime looked enticing but the timing progressively got worse. S…
The strong winter storm now (Friday evening) firing tornadoes out in the Plains and upper Midwest states will drag a cold front into the Mid-Atlantic Monday Oct 7th. At the same time the remnants of TS Karen accompanied by robust low level helici…
After an abnormally wet spring and summer September flipped a switch and decided to be abnormally dry, which is never a good situation for chasing storms. However a peek ahead at both the GFS and Euro models shows that a cold front could trigger …
Today’s cold frontal passage was the first hope I’d had of chasing in September but I didn’t go out. Even though the low level shear was very robust the widespread overcast and low ceilings suppressed instability and produced ghastly visibility values….
Nine years ago today northern Virginia experienced a tornado outbreak created from Hurricane Ivan’s remnants. That day wound up being the most productive Virginia stormchase I’ve undertaken to date in terms of tornadic activity. The followi…
On the last day of meteorological summer a short wave over the Ohio Valley sparked an MCS that rolled southward into Kentucky and West Virginia. At the same time a weak warm front was progressing eastward across southern West Virginia, a remnant …
