2013-03-06 Reports: CA

[R R Smith]

My meeting was canceled so I decided to head into the Sacramento Valley for a rare California chase opportunity. The sun was already shining in the vicinity around Redding and Red Bluff so I was cautiously optimistic that I was going to see something not entirely uninteresting. I missed what likely was the storm of the day as I rolled into Redding around noon. The storm had just crossed Interstate 5 dumping heavy rain and marble sized hail while leaving a few minor vehicle accidents in its wake. Californians don't always know to slow down while driving through a heavy downpour.

I met up with David Plank and we decided to play the northern part of the valley where there was an area of convergence as 20-25 knot SE winds along the east side were intersecting southwesterlies blowing up the west side. Cells popped throughout the afternoon along this line (David B. - you didn't miss anything while Beale radar was down). I finally settled along the southeast side of the line out near Battle Creek and watch a couple of the stronger cells roll through. Unlike most California storms, these exhibited a rain free base and may have been weakly rotating. Other than a few scuddy lowerings and some thunder - that was about it. Dewpoints around 35 didn't and as David B.'s analysis stated in the forecast thread, there didn't appear to be much CAPE in spite of the sunbreaks. Still a fun chase and hopefully there will be a few more setups like this before May. Bob

 

[David Biggar]

How far south did you end up driving?

 

[R R Smith]

We drifted a few miles south of Red Bluff and a little west of Flores Road where we hung out for awhile before blasting north towards the area of convergence where the storms were bubbling. The activity to the southeast along the Sierra foothills near Paradise didn't ever really entice me - the road network sucks down that way and the environment seemed better where we were positioned.