Jason Foster
Chase started in Germantown, MD when I picked up Mark and Sarah, Mark's roommate. This was Sarah's first ever storm chase (not a bad way to start...huh).
We drove straight north through Gettysburg and up to Dillsburg. Started back southeast toward Lancaster, to cross the river in a better position. Near York we saw initiation, headed north toward Harrisburg, PA...got stuck in their rush-hour, but got around to the north side and B-lined it southwest along I-81 until we caught the line of storms in south-central PA.
After a number of spots skipping around we happen to be turning back north toward a better couplet after what I thought was going to be a new meso ended up being part of a feeder band. We jumped on I-81 north, and proceeded north. There isn't a lot of exits there, so we pushed right up to what I figured was the core, and exited at exit #10 (rt. 914) right there near Marion.
As I drove up the ramp, I could see just on the other side of the ramp, about 1000-2000 feet ahead a couple of fast succession power flashes (I later found that to likely have come from a nearby electrical substation). We quickly turned right (east) and headed down a few road that took us in a general ESE direction. Stopping at one point, jumped out and observed a funnel cloud. We quickly made a report, and got in the car to keep up with the circulation.
We stayed with it for a while, but it generally started to fade. We continued to see a nice couplet to the north on radar, but it was well entrained within the sheets of rain. We tip-toed north and east for a bit...finally realizing we were done for the day.
Having just witnessed a couple of emergency vehicles go past, we U-turned it and head in the general direction of where we though the "path" of the "assumed" tornado would be if there had been one. We came across a spot where the emergency vehicles had responded but we already leaving the scene (no emergency). What was in that spot was one large fallen tree over the roadway, and another large set of branches that fell on the roadway. Ellinwood took a look and discovered a car in-between...un-damaged (except maybe the mental state of that driver...can you imagine). We took photos...made a second report...and left. Before leaving a PA trooper advised that there was much more "damage" in Marion. That would be our next stop.
After some computer issues (lost the video stream, GPS, etc.), but did manage to return to Marion (redundancy NAV/Electronics...FTW). Upon our return, noted damaged trees, pushed over grasses (with some circular motion indicated...but not CLEARLY) and then found the overturned tracker trailer on I-81...just on the otherside of the ramp. It was at this time we started to put pieces together. The trailer was just the opposite side of the ramp...where I had originally saw some of the power flashes. This was "inline" with where our funnel ended up at our observation point. This is why I believe it was a small and low scale rated tornado. There was some more wide spread damage, but a small portion was more intense than others.
