Tropical Storm Cristobal: Photos from Myrtle Beach
Posted Jul19, 2008 at 11:53 PM
Senior editor Dwayne Yancey is the one who has interviewed me by phone during each of the last two May storm chase trips, meticulously putting together photos into slideshow packages this past May. Despite numerous other duties, he put a lot of time and energy into making our storm chase packages what they are. Well, this weekend, we have reversed roles. Dwayne and his family are the storm chasers of sorts, catching up to some of the outer bands of Tropical Storm Cristobal on a Myrtle Beach vacation, while I am back in Roanoke posting the images his teen-aged kids have taken along the coast.
Cristobal's feeder bands over harbor. Courtesy of Keith Yancey The inset photo above was taken by Dwayne's daughter Rain Yancey (that's a Weather Journal-worthy name for sure) and shows a rainbow over North Myrtle Beach, S.C. (Click here for a closer look.) And while we're at it, click here for another photo from Rain, showing looming storm clouds over the shore as one of Cristobal's feeder band moves overhead. (I tracked this on radar after Dwayne called me). At left is a photo by Rain's younger brother Keith Yancey, showing dark clouds over a harbor in North Myrtle Beach ... click here for a bigger look.
You can see many more photos of Cristobal on the coast from the Yanceys via the Botetourt View blog.
As you can see from these photos, there's not much of a panic going on related to Cristobal. It's just spun out a few gusty showers along the coast. The Carolinas could really use more rain than this storm is likely to produce.
Cristobal will move close to North Carolina's Outer banks today as it continues moving northeastward. It may slowly increase in intensity, but it remains unlikely that it will become a hurricane. You can follow the latest on the National Hurricane Center Web site.
A few photos of our surprise snow
Posted Dec21, 2007 at 06:00 PM
Melting snow clings to a pine branch on, appropriately enough, Southern Pines Road in south Roanoke County First off, I want to thank everyone who has dropped a comment reporting on their winter weather the past 24 hours. Your reports are very helpful to me and to all those who come here to check in on the weather. I hope all of you ... and many others ... will post comments anytime you have interesting weather, and you can also e-mail me. Below are the links to some photos I shot this morning in south Roanoke County. If you have interesting weather photos, always feel free to email them to me.
Snow on pines and pine cones along Southern Pines Road
The wet snow clung to every branch of many trees
A little leftover slush along South Mountain Road. Some streets became slushy early this morning.
Seth Gitner's video of the Broderick Family of southwest Roanoke County. The family recently moved to Roanoke from Alabama, and the children have only experienced snow once before. Taking advantage of a day off from school, they spent their day playing in the snow.
The "s-word" is back in some forecasts
Posted Nov05, 2007 at 10:18 PM
It was mid-April the last time there were snowflakes in the air over Southwest Virginia. Snow returns to some forecasts for areas west of Roanoke, including parts of the New River Valley, for Tuesday night as a cold front's frigid northwest winds will sweep moisture up the western slopes of the Appalachians, triggering those squally snow showers that become commonplace as we get deeper into winter. I wouldn't be surprised if a few flakes fluttered into the Roanoke Valley on northwest winds, but the best chance of seeing snow will be to the west of I-81. Some higher elevation areas of West Virginia and far western Virginia might even see some white on the ground. Click here for latest local forecasts by counties.
Spectacular sunset storm cloud
Posted Aug09, 2007 at 09:40 PM
Photo taken by Karena Clinton looking east from Southeast Roanoke. Keith and Karena Clinton were enraptured by the same scene I was as the sun neared the horizon after this ridiculously hot summer day. A huge cumulonimbus cloud, standing all to itself, filled the eastern sky, lit in beautiful shades of red and orange by the setting sun. We were looking on the back end of a storm near Smith Mountain Lake. The day's heat created extreme updrafts that, at least in this spot and a few others, were able to blast through the cap of warm air aloft keeping most rising clouds from becoming storms. Karena Clinton shot many photos of this storm. For a little change of pace from the obsession with the heat, I've linked several below for you viewing pleasure.You will notice by the cloud shape that each photo labeled as No. 1 was shot at nearly the same time (these are not in chronological order and mine are shot from a variety of locations from downtown toward South Roanoke.)
Clinton photo 1
Clinton photo 2
My photo 1
My photo 2
My photo 3
One more thing: During all this focus on our local heat, I haven't had much chance to consider a rare event: A significant tornado that caused major damage in the New York City burough of Brooklyn. Here's a link to a local report on that event.
A beautiful sunset leading to a beautiful weekend
Posted Jul21, 2007 at 09:35 PM
David Gravell of Shawsville captured the orange-red glow of Friday's sunset against some mid and high-level cloudiness. ( Click here for bigger version of inset photo) This gorgeous skyscape has kicked off a July weekend of rare beauty and comfort, with cool nights, warm but not hot days, bright sunshine and white puffy clouds filling blue skies. Enjoy it again on Sunday. A better chance of thunderstorms moves in Monday, as modest surface heating will be enough to bubble some storms in the unseasonably cold air aloft. It still looks we're in for several days of below-normal temperatures through at least mid-week, when a steady climb of hotter weather may eventually lead to a heat wave, which will set in for the northern tier of the U.S. during the next few days.
Picture it: Typical summer weather
Posted May30, 2007 at 12:41 PM
For a few days we're in what could be called a typical summer weather pattern, even though it's not really summer yet (though many of you count Memorial Day as the start of summer). Heat, haze and humidity will be the rule the next few days, with a slight chance of afternoon thunderstorms here and there. I got this photo of a cumulonimbus, or thunderstorm cloud, scraping the sky west of Roanoke late Tuesday. Somewhere under this, there was probably a quick hit of heavy rain, lightning and maybe some gusty wind and hail, not unlike what a localized area of downtown Roanoke experienced on Monday. But from where I was, it was only a pretty cloud rising up in front of the late evening sunlight.
The summerlike weather pattern may change over the weekend as a new front moves in, giving us a better chance of more organized thunderstorms, and eventually, some cooler temperatures.
Easter weekend snow photos
Posted Apr07, 2007 at 04:32 PM
OK, the words "April 7" didn't just appear in a skiff of snow on a board ... a certain weather geek put them there. But I thought I'd just mark the date for posterity. This photo, linked here, that I took of flowers in the snow near my South Roanoke County apartment about 8 a.m. marks the season pretty well, too. Snow accumulation was streaky and spotty: Some folks got enough to turn the ground white this morning, some did not. Some parts of the Roanoke Valley had white grass and car tops this morning, but other parts of the Roanoke Valley only had flurries. Accumulation was more widespread in the New River Valley, where my storm chasing friend Dave Carroll got this photo of a heavy snow squall late Saturday morning in Blacksburg.
Mackerel skies, but nothing fishy is up
Posted Dec02, 2006 at 05:42 PM
Altocumulus clouds create a "mackerel sky" A crisp afternoon with sharp visibility yielded some gorgeous skyscapes over the Roanoke Valley this afternoon and early evening. Mid-level altocumulus and altostratus clouds streamed rapidly over the valley on fast winds aloft, a signal of disturbed air and some moisture high above the ground. This may be related to the upper-level disturbance that will move through and ultimately spawn the coastal storm that will pass far east of us late Sunday into Monday. Also visible for a while today was a "sun dog," or a phenomenon of refracted light on high-altitude ice-crystal clouds. This "sun dog" was visible to the right of the sun and even displayed some rainbow-like colors, much like a prism.
Links to the photos are below:
Sun dog
Altocumulus clouds create a "mackerel sky" shrouding the late evening sun (bigger version of inset photo)
Altocumulus clouds form rows in the sky over downtown Roanoke
Stunning scene over Roanoke
Posted Nov21, 2006 at 05:22 PM
This is a neat skyscape I just caught over downtown Roanoke, as taken from the roof of The Roanoke Times building. This is actually the back edge of that big coastal low I've been writing about. Mid-level clouds are streaming back to the west, with some precipitation trying to fall out of them, but drying on the way to the surface. The late evening sun was reflecting orange and pink off those clouds. An absolutely stunning scene! Click here for a larger version of the photo.
UPDATE 11/22, 5 P.M>Click here for a similar shot taken by David Gravell on Tuesday evening near Shawsville
Snow photos from Monday
Posted Nov21, 2006 at 02:39 PM
I took off south on the Blue Ridge Parkway about mid-morning Monday, and started hitting snow showers near the Roanoke-Franklin County line. It snowed on me off and on through the rest of the morning and into the early afternoon, never very hard, but more than a flurry. There was a bit of scattered accumulation at Rocky Knob, a higher-elevation recreation area (about 3,600 feet) on the Parkway in Floyd County. Here are a few photos are linked below:
Snow on the trees (bigger version of inset photo)
Snow on the rocks
Snowflakes in the air, reflected by sunlight, with my dog Cindy at a parkway overlook
Waterspouts
Posted Aug17, 2006 at 04:45 PM
Click here to see some waterspout photos in the Tidewater area taken last Friday. A couple of these waterspouts touched down on land to officially be recorded as tornadoes.
Lightning photos
Posted Aug12, 2006 at 10:10 PM
With a hiatus in the active weather, as we enjoy a cool snap, let's take a look at some weather photographs that Daniel Burton, a third-year student at Virginia Tech, took this summer in North Carolina. Daniel is a political science major who volunteers for the Southwest Virginia Mountain Rescue, a search and rescue group, and serves on the student advisory committee to Virginia Tech Student Programs. These photos, linked below, were shot at various times this summer near Lake Norman in Mecklenburg County, N.C., just north of Charlotte. Daniel said by e-mail: "I have always been interested in weather to some extent" and that he is "currently on a crusade to learn as much as I can about thunderstorms "
Lightning (bigger version of photo above)
Second lightning shot
Developing cumulonimbus, or "thunderhead"
Remember that if you take any interesting or pretty weather photos, email them to me and I may showcase your work on this blog.
Parkway thunderstorm
Posted Jun07, 2006 at 07:22 PM
This is a photo of a small thunderstorm along the Blue Ridge Parkway south of Waynesboro on Sunday. My wife Erica and I were traveling the parkway to the north, when this storm developed to our west, with some lightning and nice rain streaks below the clouds.
Just a reminder that we do have picturesque storms in Virginia, too.
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