David Dildine
EF1
Tornado watch went up early so I had to shake off the hangover and focus on the task at hand. We don't get too many opportunities up here to chase so today was a big day. Three cells of interest today, all three tornadic during their lifetimes.
Storm #1 ditched me before could get to the tornado in central MD near Columbia. Beautiful radar presentation on that one.
Storm #2 rolled off the Blue Ridge Mtns. and quickly reached severe levels in northern Fauquier County, VA. I found a great place to watch it in Haymarket, VA. The CGs were deafening.
While following this cell into western Fairfax County, VA, it flourished and boasted nice structure over Centerville.
So yeah, play the old "is it scud or is it a funnel" game: this feature got a lot of attention from the people along Rt. 29 in Farifax. Tons of people pulled over to watch this thing swirling around. Many of them called it in as a tornado but I never saw it actually touching the ground. I slowly had to concede to poor roads and watched the cell fade away (and thankfully eventually weaken).
Storm #3 was already in the process of developing over northern Loudoun County over the Potomac River and by the time I made it to the captial beltway I was ready for more. Thankfully I didn't call it a day. This one paraded into northern Montgomery County, MD with really cool structure. Just south of Rockville, MD was the place to watch this one.
These storms contained some wicked lightning. The drive back was a mix of lightning and fireworks. Awesome. http://www.f5tornadosafaris.com/ddildine/2007chaseJULY.htm
Storm #1 ditched me before could get to the tornado in central MD near Columbia. Beautiful radar presentation on that one.
Storm #2 rolled off the Blue Ridge Mtns. and quickly reached severe levels in northern Fauquier County, VA. I found a great place to watch it in Haymarket, VA. The CGs were deafening.
While following this cell into western Fairfax County, VA, it flourished and boasted nice structure over Centerville.
So yeah, play the old "is it scud or is it a funnel" game: this feature got a lot of attention from the people along Rt. 29 in Farifax. Tons of people pulled over to watch this thing swirling around. Many of them called it in as a tornado but I never saw it actually touching the ground. I slowly had to concede to poor roads and watched the cell fade away (and thankfully eventually weaken).
Storm #3 was already in the process of developing over northern Loudoun County over the Potomac River and by the time I made it to the captial beltway I was ready for more. Thankfully I didn't call it a day. This one paraded into northern Montgomery County, MD with really cool structure. Just south of Rockville, MD was the place to watch this one.
These storms contained some wicked lightning. The drive back was a mix of lightning and fireworks. Awesome. http://www.f5tornadosafaris.com/ddildine/2007chaseJULY.htm
