Jeremy Gilchrist
It has been an awful year thunderstorm wise here as we have had hardly any compared to what we normally experience. Finally the atmosphere came alive yesterday as 2 rounds of storms impacted central North Carolina.
Initially I chased the 1st cell in the Ft. Bragg reservation which offers high visibility over the military drop zones (Holland Drop Zone in my case). I also figured since it was a discrete storm east of a squall line it would have the most to offer (especially with 35-45 knots of shear available to work with and enough helicity to make things interesting). This was a correct assumption as the storm did yield a wall cloud and some vivid lightning. It also produced straight line wind damage in Raeford, NC. My goal was to capture some lightning on film at 210 frames per second which was successful as a close and quick CG was caught on camera.
Following this storm I chased NW to catch the squall line but the cells along it were moving to quickly and I was just minutes too late from seeing the worst of the weather. Where I was in central Moore County NC I experienced 40-50mph wind gusts just before 1:30pm, but they were probably stronger up the road as there was some wind damage including a larger tree down which I called in to NWS. Obviously this isn't the plains so it is not nearly as exciting as out there but I chase what we are given and every now and on occasion NC can yield something special. Ok now for video and pics:
Initially I chased the 1st cell in the Ft. Bragg reservation which offers high visibility over the military drop zones (Holland Drop Zone in my case). I also figured since it was a discrete storm east of a squall line it would have the most to offer (especially with 35-45 knots of shear available to work with and enough helicity to make things interesting). This was a correct assumption as the storm did yield a wall cloud and some vivid lightning. It also produced straight line wind damage in Raeford, NC. My goal was to capture some lightning on film at 210 frames per second which was successful as a close and quick CG was caught on camera.
Following this storm I chased NW to catch the squall line but the cells along it were moving to quickly and I was just minutes too late from seeing the worst of the weather. Where I was in central Moore County NC I experienced 40-50mph wind gusts just before 1:30pm, but they were probably stronger up the road as there was some wind damage including a larger tree down which I called in to NWS. Obviously this isn't the plains so it is not nearly as exciting as out there but I chase what we are given and every now and on occasion NC can yield something special. Ok now for video and pics:
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