MODS: Could FL and perhaps GA be added to the title of this thread?
I've got a lot of catching up to do on my reports.
I wasn't planning on chasing this day. In fact, I've been under the weather a bit (NPI) and was asleep, when my sister texted me a message about storm structure with rotation. My reaction was "there are storms, really?" I quickly checked radar and sure enough, a couple of cells were lumbering across my county toward the east with very broad and weak rotational signatures on SRV. So I figured I'd go check them out. I didn't have high hopes, being located on the extreme outside edge of a slight risk area, but what's to lose in your own backyard? By the time I had everything ready and was in pursuit, the better of the two cells was getting away from me. By this time, I had made it to Palatka and figured I'd just head back home. But in the wake of the first cluster, a lone cell appeared and would be easy for me to check out en route. At Interlachen, I took CR315 north, a road I had never traveled before and quickly discovered was almost completely tree-lined. That's not unusual, but this road was narrow and had trees overhead. I was just about to give up on seeing anything when about 1.5 miles south of Grandin, miracle of miracles, a field on the west side of the road appeared. My first view of this unimpressive storm radar-wise made my jaw drop. Never in over 20 years in the state of Florida have I seen such a classic, dynamic
wall cloud. (The first 15 seconds of the video are real time; the rest is time-compressed for brevity and clarity of motion.) The rotation wasn't extreme, but the form and clarity made it plains-worthy, and the vertical motion was stunning. I was shocked! I had never seen structure like this in FL and rarely anywhere in the southeast. And the field put me in perfect position to watch as it slowly passed overhead. The cell itself wasn't severe, nor was it warned. It just had an amazing visible updraft. I pursued and chased a few other cells, but nothing else so interesting for the rest of the day. I found it fascinating as the better instability and forcing was further north along the front. SBCAPE was barely 1000 J/kg and MLCAPE less than 500 J/kg according to SPC mesoanalysis. This is quite modest for FL as capping usually prevents development without more juice or forcing. 1km and 3km helicity values were quite modest in the area, and shear was primarily speed shear, very unidirectional wind fields. The cell exhibited some low-top LP characteristices with its small precip core sheared well downwind of the updraft. But this moisture-starved cell never achieved even low-end severe criteria that I'm aware of. I just happened to catch it during a narrow window of organizational opportunity. Maybe my favorite backyard chase to date.
