Kevin Myatt
EF2
You Plains folks haven't lived until you've chased a severe storm on the Blue Ridge Parkway! The parkway is a mixed blessing for storm chasing, providing lots of curves and trees but also some ready-made, elevated storm-viewing spots at the overlooks. With a weak disturbance providing moderate shear today (30-35 knots SPC says ... I had nothing but NOAA weather radio and eyeballs on the chase today, so I wasn't sure at the time) I headed north along the Parkway as the cumes started building with moisture convergence and differential heating on the ridgelines. I picked up on one storm that looked better than the rest just west of the Parkway (the mountain/rain shaft shot) and then actually caught up into the edge of the wind and rain just north of the Peaks of Otter as it crossed the Blue Ridge. Retreating south and then east from there off the Parkway on Virginia 43, I heard the weather service in Blacksburg fire a severe warning on the storm as it emerged east of the Blue Ridge. I think it tried its darndest to spin something, as the sorta-wall-cloudish lowering attests to. But the major thing it did in the end was unleash one heck of a wet microburst on northern Bedford County, Virginia, which I got into the edge of (45ish gusts where I was at). Just north of me, where the wind was stronger, this tree was blown across the highway, and I retreated down on Virginia 122 back to Bedford.
I watched other storms go up here and there but never really caught another one.
Oh well, nice to get in a decent chase of an actual severe storm as the long months till another May in the Plains tick down.
More on this and other storm chases on my Weather Journal blog.
Last edited by a moderator:
