September storm chasePosted Sep25, 2006 at 02:32 PM
Ominous shelf cloud races out from a severe thunderstorm in Granville County, N.C. All last week, I kept an eye on the strong cold front advancing across the nation as it triggered severe weather in the central U.S. My particular interest was whether this front would be able to trigger strong storms in our region on Sunday, and whether I would have a rare opportunity for a fall storm chase. The conditions lined up less perfectly than they appeared they would a day or two earlier, but after an early church service Sunday, I decided to head toward south-central Virginia to see if I could catch a severe thunderstorm.  Towering cumulus clouds billow near South Hill, Va. But as I turned back, my storm-chasing friend, teacher Dave Carroll, manning the radar back at his Blacksburg home, pointed out a storm southwest of Clarksville, Va., near the Virginia-North Carolina line that was pulsing in intensity. It was also moving a little to the right of the other storms, more due east than east-northeast, which meant it might gain a little more rotation with its slightly different angle of movement in the prevailing wind flow (called a "right mover" in storm chaser lingo).  A storm base lowers over Lake Kerr. Not a bad little afternoon of storm chasing for the mid-Atlantic in September. Now, let's see if we can get back to some more typical fall weather. Click here for bigger versions of the top photo, middle photo and bottom photo.
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About this blog
Kevin Myatt works on the copy desk for The Roanoke Times and is its principal weather geek, writing a weekly weather column and advising the newsroom on weather topics. He helps guide students on a storm chasing trip to the central U.S. each May and was an editor for "Hurricanes and the Middle Atlantic States." .....Advertisement.....
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