...or really stupid. My dad and I met up today to again chase some storms. We had a few minutes and pulled out the maps and pieced together what happened Thursday when we saw the Spotsylvania tornado. The red numbered dots are where we saw or encountered the tornado. The green marks represent where my dad saw damage during his recon on Saturday.
1. The Pamunkey Road, Route 612, was our main highway. We approached the storm from the east via the Post Oak Road, which branched off state route 208. We went past Mastin's Corner and determined we were too far west, and labeled 612 as our "escape route". Since the storm was traveling southwest to northeast, we figured this road would be our friend.
As we doubled back to the east and took a left on 612, my dad pointed out that he could see a tornado through the trees. I, as the driver, found out that roads posted with 45 mph could handle speeds of 65 mph. I reckoned the police had more pressing matters, as did we - namely, get out. Complicating safe spotting was the lack of visibility. The trees were incredibly thick with the roads extremely windy.
2. We pulled off at Shady Grove Corner where the rain lessened and we knew we gained on the storm. I was completely trusting my father with navigation, which was interesting as his dilated pupil made it difficult to spot street signs. He told me to travel west towards Logan - I initially questioned the decision but as I had only glanced at a map I deferred to his judgement.
We had not traveled a quarter of a mile before we rain into debris falling around us. The road was traveling downhill towards the right with trees lining both sides. All we could see were branches falling around (and on) the car. My dad hurredly instructed me to turn around, no small feat for even my Civic with a narrow road. I thought we had run into the tornado whereas my dad thought it was another storm. Later analysis proved that it was the tornado.
3. We raced northeast and pulled off just below Todd's Tavern facing north. I was stressed with having to drive through heavy rain behind some very slow drivers. I knew they were trying to be safe, but I also knew what was behind. Only two minutes after we pulled off we saw rain curtains rotating in the field across the road opening up to reveal the tornado. We knew it wasn't very far away (we later determined it was less than 150 yards, if not less), yet initially felt safe as it was supposed to generally cross in our front.
Unfortunately, "generally" allows for some variation, and that variation caused the tornado to move toward us faster than it was moving away. We high-tailed out of there toward the southwest and from there lost the storm in the thick wilderness characteristic of that area.
The tornado proved to be an F0, meaning it damaged trees and whatnot, but left most structures and even powerlines intact. The rating allows for wind gusts up to and around 75 mph.
Chasing in Virginia can be tough. Navigation through unfriendly terrain has proved to be the key in finding the tornado. Unlike the plains where a general forecast along with a friendly and predictable road pattern is enough, forecasts must be more accurate and knowledge of the topography is a must.
Additionally, awareness of tornadoes in the east is not as high among the general population as it is in the plains. Less spotters combined with denser populations make spotting critical. The LaPlata, Maryland tornado a few years back helped show folks that destructive tornadoes can happen in the Mid-Atlantic, but even still, I was proud to help our community out - even if the
National Weather Service goofed.
