Hello Everyone,
Well I departed Manassas at about 11:15am after making a brief stop to
tighten the scanner antenna for my car. I drove out to Winchester, Va
to pick up fellow chaser Steve Minghini. About 10 miles out of
Winchester,Cumulus Nimbus clouds were visible in the western skies.
A severe thunderstorm warning was issued for Highland County in North
western Virginia about the same time. When I got to steve's house we
debated on which of 3 tstorm cells to chase. One cell was about due
north about to enter into Fredrick County, MD. The second was out due
west of Winchester into west Virginia & the third was the Highland
county storm. Using Weathertap accuweather radars we decided to chase
the highland county storm.
We drove out of Winchester onto I-81 South. Driving south to about the
276 mile marker we observed significant Cumulus Nimbus devolvement & the
you could see the rain shaft just ahead of us. At the 274 marker on
I-81 we started getting some rain, which turned to very heavy rain &
then hail. Hail started out dime size, but in about 30 seconds grew to
golf ball size hail. (On my brand new car!!!) About the same time the
NWS issued a warning for Rockingham County, Va. (Our area)
We pulled off the road & everyone behind us followed suit. Hail poured
for about 10 minutes then lighten up so we continued toward RT 211 east
in New Market, Va. New Market, had visible storm damage & heavy
flooding to about 3 feet of standing water in places. We pulled off the
road, dialed the skywarn line & made our report then jumped right back
in so we could punch the core again. Following RT 211 east, we hit
Marble size hail 10 miles or so east of New Market.
To get across the mountains we had to follow 211 threw to RT 522 North &
ended up just about losing the storms. We debated & followed RT 522 back
northwest to Winchester.
After enjoying lunch & checking radar for redevolping storms. We decided
to stay in Winchester as storms had refired over Rockingham county &
rather quickly a line of storms formed to the west, southwest of
Winchester. We were rewarded with breathtaking Mamatus clouds & some
impressive thunderstorm anvils.
At that point I had to depart Winchester to head back to Manassas for
other commitments (The story does not end)
After taking 522 back to interstate 66 east, I entered the main cell
that was over Rockingham County earlier. Rain became heavy rain for
about 25 miles. Impressive lightning show:) When I hit Marshall, Va
traffic slowed & rain was extremely heavy. Then the hail started
falling, golf ball size mixed with heavy rain reduced visibility to
zero!!!!!! I like many pulled under a bridge.
Sat there for 20 minutes, rain was still heavy, but the hail had
stopped. Decided to move on again, rain was falling at a rate of about
3 inches an hour. As I entered Gainsville, Va I reentered the hail
shaft & then about 3 miles away I MADE MY EXIT FROM THE STORM!!!!
Entering Manassas, observed multiple large trees down, flooding & the
power appartently was out. My friends in Bristow, Va reported a 80 mph
storm gust.
Overall one of the best day's chasing in the pat year:)
Jason Breakiron
Manassas, Va
Meso Storm Chase Team
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sat Jun 03 2000 - 11:06:25 EDT