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More Storm Chase Logs:
Great Plains storm chases
2003 Virginia chases
Bowling Green, VA - 8 Sept 2004
I visited my fiancee in Richmond that morning and left for
Fredericksburg after lunch-time. Around Virginia Center Commons I noticed a
thunderstorm to the northwest and what I swore was a wall-cloud. I vaguely
remembered that there was a threat of severe storms and I snapped into
reality upon turning to Channel 6 and hearing about warnings going up
around Metro Richmond.
I took note of a storm northwest of my position and took 295 toward
Williamsburg to investigate. I realized that even though I could see the
storm quite well I was going away from it. I turned around and got off
at Route 1 in Ashland to see if I could get close to a tornado warned
storm in northwestern Hanover County. I realized this was fruitless as
a report of a storm passing over Mechanicsville going north hit the
airwaves. It had potential and I cut up to Route 30 at Doswell to try to
intercept. At 301 I turned north and stopped at Frog Level to assess
the situation.
I didn't have any maps on me. I was completely unprepared to chase and
I was in an area where I was only familiar with the main roads. I had
no idea as to exactly which direction the storm was going. I know 301
headed north but visibility was limited for quite awhile. I took the
Frog Level road northeast in hopes that the storm had an easterly
componment and I could get closer. I kind of "felt" my way and came within
view of the storm. It looked nasty, but it was moving fast.
I won't say I was lost... I had a good grip as to my orientation with
the compass and just prayed that the road choices I made didn't veer me
off in the wrong direction. I did quite well as I found myself on the
Sparta Road, which I knew connected to 301. In all of my driving I
completely did not hear that the storm I was following had a tornado
warning. I got on 301 and broke out into the open and saw the top of a
large wedge tornado. By the time I realized what I saw, I couldn't see it
as it headed north on the other side of town. What I could see was a
road block set up at 205 and 301. I stopped and watched the storm from
a convience store and went in, noting the clerk didn't have power, and
asked innocently, to verify what I saw, why the road was blocked. He
reported "because of the tornado". Ha! I then asked for a detour
around town and he gave me one.
While I was driving I called NWS-Wakefield and made a report of what I
saw. I then had a dilemma. The storm was moving right over Fort AP
Hill, and I had to commit either due north with Route 2 or north-east on
301. This was important because by the time I could correct myself had
I made a bad decision, I would be separated from the other road by
about 12-15 miles with the Rappahannock River in front of me.
I chose Route 2 but I couldn't keep up with the storm. I called my Mom
because I knew our house could potentially be in the path of the storm.
By the time I got into Fredericksburg it was nearing rush-hour. I cut
over to Route 1 and caught a glimpse of the funnel again as it was over
Stafford Court House. There I called my impromptu chase off due to
time of day and frustration that I couldn't keep up.
Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures.
Hurricane Ivan, Fauquier/Culpeper Co. VA - 17 Sept 2004
Finally I got to see a Virginia tornado longer than just a few seconds!
Kristen and I headed up US 17 toward Faquier County along with my dad
to intercept a couple of storms that seemed to have potential. We ended
up in Sumerduck and saw an amazing
mesocyclone with accompanying wall cloud. We could not see
anything underneath, but I had a hunch that if something was, it could be
significant. My dad called the Baltimore/Washington NWS office at Sterling
and reported the rotation we saw. I later heard that we were looking
at the top of the F3 Remington tornado. We planned a route back to 17
so we could intercept the storm. Along the way we stopped several times
to see what we could see.
At Bealeton we decided to parallel the storm via county roads north
instead of heading into the traffic chaos that was Opal. (We later
learned that the storm
before us had two tornadoes on the ground through Opal). Kristen
expertly navigated us to Warrenton where we crossed the damage path. We
headed north on US 29 where we saw the tornado preparing to cross the
road ahead. Awesome.
Simply awesome. We watched the tornado head toward the north and we
regrouped and decided that chasing the tornado in a high density area
with a less than helpful road network during rush hour wasn't a hot idea.
Besides, numerous other storms had tornado warnings.
We stopped and watched to see if a trailing storm would do anything,
but it didn't seem as strong as the one before. While we were there we
were visited by a nice but foul-mouthed local and a deputy sheriff.
After hanging out for a few minutes we went back west and grabbed a quick
dinner at McDonalds and ate on the road. West of Opal we ran into very
heavy rain and showed no signs of letting up. I was getting very
nervous at the prospect of core-punching a storm and not knowing what we'd
find. We stopped as we saw a funnel cloud 200 yards southeast of us
swirl by. The wall cloud was directly over us and we had very few options
besides pray that nothing dropped on us. As it passed toward the north
we gave chase but as we were closer to the mountains, the narrow road
network did not allow us to follow it very well.
Interception
Map
Thanks to my Dad for pictures. For some reason I didn't have my
camera that day...
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