VA Supercell 4/23/99

Photo By CASI Member Steve Minghini

Summary: "A supercell thunderstorm tracked its way from Winchester, VA through Fairfax and continued into southern Maryland during the early evening hours. The storm dropped hail of up to 2.5" along its entire path." -- NBC4, Washington D.C.

CASI Member Steve Minghini, who took the above photo, which also appeared on the NBC4 report, summarizes his experience with the storm:

It happened at 3:45 to 4pm on Fri 04-23-99, through-out the City of Winchester VA (nw corner of the state. The city is 5 miles long, 3 miles wide, and everyone in tthe city recieved the hail, that i talked to. The storm formed between Uniontown & Washington PA around 12:30pm, and raced ESE at 50 to 65 mph, reaching us in about 3 hours. I was outside, so i montitered NOAA wx radio. The 1st regional warnings were issued for Mineral Co WV about 2pm, and were being issued every 10-15 minutes untill the storm passed thru Washington DC'S southern suburbs about 5pm. The storm's 1st tornado warning was issued about 3:05pm for Hampshire Co WV. The SPC had us a slight risk at 2am, gen t-storms at 8am and again a slight risk at 11am for severe t-storms during Fri. After the storm, i checked the web site, and our region had a threat for 2" hail, 80mph winds, and isolated tornados. A back door cold front sat along I-66 (roughly) Fri. It was only in the upper 50s here but about 75 just 30 miles south of here, and in the 80s over the WV mountians. The hail was clusters of smaller hailstones and came in a variery of shapes, about the size of eggs to tennis balls. Several of the city's police cars were dented ( most of them were waiting at the pd parking lot, since it was change of shift. Two roofs of comercial buildings received damage. Suprisingly, my peak gust was only 24mph, and only measured .14" rain.

• Complete Report w/ Additional Photos by NBC4 Here.
• Complete Text (LSR's, Warnings) is available on the CASI Text archive Here.
• An additional Storm Report by CASI Member Jeff Stoner isHere.

© 1999 Central Atlantic Storm Investigators