5/11/08 REPORTS: GA/SC/NC/VA

[Erik Perozo]

Started the day off in Columbia, SC. Woke up this morning and forecasted to head towards Bennettsville, SC. It seemed that would be the best location due to the somewhat apparent warm front location. Arrived at Bennettesville around 3:30 and did a quick analysis. The RUC was showing around 2000 CAPE from Dillon, SC to Conway, SC. Given the current shear in place I didn't hesitate to head down hwy 9 when noticing some towering Cu going up just to my southwest towards Darlington,SC. I knew once the Cu hit the more unstable atmosphere things would really get going.
Intercepted the storm near Lake View, SC. Now is the point things start to get a little aggrevating. After jogging everywhere I finally found a east/west road Hwy 76. Thankfully the storm was just north of the hwy moving east, but it was moving really fast around 50+mph....arggggggg. I finally caught up with the storm at Whiteville, NC. This is when the storm really started going. I will say this, I felt like I was in the Plains with the storm structure I was viewing minus the 50+mph movement....lol. I continued to stay on the storm when it rolled through Wilmington, NC. Once I arrived at Wilmington I pulled over on the side of the road and watched the storm for a QUICK sec. Then I noticed another mesonet chaser screaming past me. Thats when I really felt like I was in the Plains.....LOL. Well finally catch up with the storm just north of Wilmington, at this point the storm was tornado warned and the wall cloud was rotating pretty good. Didn't get to see the tornado that hit ogden but I was just seconds behind it only because my mapping software was dated and I went the long way to get back to the storm...ARGGGGGG. I finally called it quits after the storms moved off shore. Guess after that I really had no other option.

Left Wilmington and attempted to head back home. On the way to the house I noticed some really nice looking Storms off to my North. I pulled over in Whiteville, NC to snatch some wifi to get a radar update bc I don't have the cell card for my laptop, I know right. Radar showed a nice storm of about 60dbz just to my NW moving fast at 42kts. I figured this might be perfect for some sunset shots so I took off north to intercept. Set up and took a few sunset shots.

All in all it was a pretty good chase. The structure on the storms were something you would see in the Plains. I just hate the storms were moving so fast. I guess thats what happens with 100mph mid level flow.

Towering Cu towards my SW over Darlington, SC

Storm really getting its act together near Lake View, SC

Looking East ~15 miles west of Whiteville, NC

Wall Cloud just North of Wilmington, NC

Sunset shost of the storm N of Whiteville, NC

 

[Mark Sudduth]

That's funny, in pic #4, there's me! I was on this same storm when it just got going near Riegelwood along with nickel sized hail. I rolled out there after seeing this pop up on radar rather quickly from my home office. Figured I would give it a shot since we don't get too many supercells around here. I just beat the storm to the area about 3 miles north of Riegelwood on Hwy 87, had some decent hail for around here and then went back south down 87 to the ever-aggravating US Hwy 74/76 east.

The storm stayed to my north and I could really see the structure quite well considering all of the pine trees in the way. Speed limit on the hwy is 60 in most places and even that, plus about 10 extra was not enough to really out run this thing back to ILM.

I must have passed Erik just after branching off 74/76 on to 421 turning north where he took that shot in his pic #4. I'll have to go back and look at the dash cam video. What color vehicle were you in? Did you turn across the bridge at the intersection ahead (a right turn) or keep going north on 421? I did the latter and that's where I blew it! I ended up riding right in to the precip area and the wall cloud/eventual tornado was now to my south and east. Crap. It went right over my good friend's house just to the north of the ILM airport- he saw the strong rotation above his head. Said it looked like something computer generated.

Wilmington is tough to "chase" through. You talk about a quagmire of traffic, lights and people who basically barely know how to drive, much less deal with severe weather. Oh well, fun afternoon and during quite a rare event for us here in SE NC.

 

[Tyler Yarnell]

I started the day not really planning on chasing after the moderate risk was dropped, ended up randomly watching TV when they broke into coverage for a tornado warning around Linconton, NC. Checked the velocities and saw a pronounced couplet. Ended up making good time to Huntersville, NC in about 30 minutes from the south side of Charlotte, where I was at the time.

First place wasn't the best position...

Decided to reposition back from where we came near a field, which in hindsight wasn't the best idea, but worked out pretty well.

Wall cloud ended up getting rain wrapped and we continued chasing toward Concord, NC before eventually calling it off somewhere to the east. All in all not too bad considering the circumstances.

 

[Gerard Jebaily]

I started out in Florence then decided to make my way north to position myself east of charlotte. I ended up on this same supercell that tracked through Concord. I was able to witness numerous funnel clouds and Golf Ball size hail covering the ground east of concord. many of the funnel clouds I saw were off the occluding mesocyclone or anticyclonic. The storm itself exhibited plenty of rotation, but none rapid enough where immanent tornado formation seemed likely. I am in the process of uploading pictures. I will have them posted soon.

Wall cloud looking West from Concord, NC.

Golf ball size hail, covering ground.

one of many anticyclonic funnels

Note on the side: It looks like Erik, Tyler and I need to stary up SCSCS (the South Carolina Storm Chasers Society). Its nice to know im not the only one out here..

 

[Tyler Yarnell]

Note on the side: It looks like Erik, Tyler and I need to stary up SCSCS (the South Carolina Storm Chasers Society). Its nice to know im not the only one out here..

I kept hearing the reports of lime sized hail, but we made the mistake of taking I-77 to 85 instead of trying to cross 77 towards Concord. We could never really recover from that...but I'm doing my part trying to get people interested, they're all about it in theory, but try and get them out during severe weather and they run away with their tails between their legs.

 

[Gerard Jebaily]

I kept hearing the reports of lime sized hail, but we made the mistake of taking I-77 to 85 instead of trying to cross 77 towards Concord. We could never really recover from that...but I'm doing my part trying to get people interested, they're all about it in theory, but try and get them out during severe weather and they run away with their tails between their legs.

perhaps it was a typo or something and it was supposed to be Dime sized hail. While the report makes sense it doesnt seem like a normal comparison. IIRC in between golf ball and baseball they call it Hen Egg size hail, ive heard plum used before as well.