Dan Robinson
Caught up with several interesting storms Wednesday afternoon and evening, all within 30 miles of home. Great action for mid-October and great action for this part of the country, period. A few of the highlights:
We started out with a target on I-64 between Lexington and Ashland, Kentucky. But, when semi-discrete storms began firing in our immediate area (west and southwest of Charleston), we decided to stay close to home and see what we could get.
Rising motion was observed around this 'clear slot lookalike' in this updraft base over Nitro, West Virginia (10 miles west of Charleston). View is looking southeast from inside precip.
After this cell raced off to the ENE, we dropped south of Charleston on Route 119 to intercept a very nice-looking (on radar) cell crossing into Mingo County, WV from Kentucky. As we approached, the storm developed meso markers on WxWorx (which persisted at 80 to 92mph shear values for nearly two hours) and was subsequently tornado-warned in Mingo, Logan and Boone counties. We did not beat the storm across 119 at Chapmanville however, and had to turn down winding, curvy Route 17 south near Madison into the mountains to catch the indicated circulation. WxWorx showed peak shear values at 103mph as we approached. The steep, forested mountains made observations difficult, but we were able to get this view south of Madison as the indicated meso passed over the road.
Moderate rising motion was observed in this feature, but I saw no clear rotation nor rapid motion anywhere in the base. It may have been there somewhere, as we had a lot of mountain blocking our view. There were no indications of damage in the vicinity of the circulation's crossing of Route 17.
Darkness quickly fell, and I headed north of Charleston on I-77 for one more try for lightning shots near Kenna. Lightning was spectacular, burning vivid afterimages into my eyes - but alas, the rain hit before I could stop to set up the cameras.
We started out with a target on I-64 between Lexington and Ashland, Kentucky. But, when semi-discrete storms began firing in our immediate area (west and southwest of Charleston), we decided to stay close to home and see what we could get.
Rising motion was observed around this 'clear slot lookalike' in this updraft base over Nitro, West Virginia (10 miles west of Charleston). View is looking southeast from inside precip.
After this cell raced off to the ENE, we dropped south of Charleston on Route 119 to intercept a very nice-looking (on radar) cell crossing into Mingo County, WV from Kentucky. As we approached, the storm developed meso markers on WxWorx (which persisted at 80 to 92mph shear values for nearly two hours) and was subsequently tornado-warned in Mingo, Logan and Boone counties. We did not beat the storm across 119 at Chapmanville however, and had to turn down winding, curvy Route 17 south near Madison into the mountains to catch the indicated circulation. WxWorx showed peak shear values at 103mph as we approached. The steep, forested mountains made observations difficult, but we were able to get this view south of Madison as the indicated meso passed over the road.
Moderate rising motion was observed in this feature, but I saw no clear rotation nor rapid motion anywhere in the base. It may have been there somewhere, as we had a lot of mountain blocking our view. There were no indications of damage in the vicinity of the circulation's crossing of Route 17.
Darkness quickly fell, and I headed north of Charleston on I-77 for one more try for lightning shots near Kenna. Lightning was spectacular, burning vivid afterimages into my eyes - but alas, the rain hit before I could stop to set up the cameras.
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