April 5th storm chase in Ohio and Kentucky
On Monday, April 5th, Ryan Langen, Kyle Clem and I woke up and had no other plans except to go to class and do schoolwork. Later that morning however on the morning run, the local forecast model (WRF Found here) picked up on convective development in southern Ohio that hadn't been picked up by the global models (global models cover the entire country and are usually used for looking for severe weather in the future). Noticing this sudden change in model runs, we decided to watch it closely. Surprisingly convection fired along a warm front/weak frontal boundary early in the afternoon. Though the initial development were more pulse-like storms that blow up rapidly and dissipate just as quickly, there was something to keep an eye on for laying out boundaries for later storms.
We decided to wait until 5pm to see just wait and see where these boundaries would be laid and what resultant convection would occur. At 5pm the decision was made that it was all disorganized and becoming a convective mess, drifting northward into Ohio. With patience the storms would just come to Athens and no movement would be needed.
Like a lot of chases though, the decision got altered on a whim. At 5:30ish, a sudden increase in strength of the convection motivated a change in thought with the storms. The chasers decided to head out looking to shoot some lightning and just encounter the first real strong convection of the year. Normally, chasing at night is not recommended for chasers because it poses many more dangers and threats atop of just the usual threats. For this chase, the plan was to sit back and watch the storms from a safe distance while attempting for some good lightning shots.
The team headed south with the plan to get to Portsmouth and see what was occurring with the storms and then move from there as needed. On the way out to Portsmouth, a dying storm and orphan anvil could be seen from many miles away. The old top stretched many miles and made for a pretty sunset. Here is the orphan anvil as seen from 32 heading west:
Upon reaching Portsmouth, the team quickly decided to continue heading south to get south of the storms and into the clear skies. This would allow for a clear view looking north into the ongoing convection and providing a good opportunity for lightning snapshots. There were two storms that were fairly strong, one was still pretty far west and had been tornado warned just south of Cincinnati and the other was just east of the first, much closer to our location. The plan was to skirt south before the first storm passed and get into position somewhere in eastern KY.
We headed south on 23 and then the closest storm became severe thunderstorm warned which gave us hope that there would be abundant lightning. Right about that time the lightning from the storm became visible and it was vivid. We hurried south and decided to attempt to take a back-road to reach 64 and perhaps find a better road south. This ended up being a very, very bad idea. The back-road was as curvy as the Appalachian Mountains can provide. It was dark and raining at a good clip also. This road ended up putting us way behind the storm. We finally made it to 64 and with lightning crashing all around us, finally made it out of the rain. We started heading west with plans of getting off on one of the first few exits and cutting south fast. This is when the storm that was now just to our north/northwest decided to take on the characteristics of a supercell. It made a sharp right turn east/southeast and cut us off on the highway. It trapped us in the southwest quadrant of the storm in-between the now evident hook and the downdraft. This region of a supercell is called a “bearcage.” It gets its name because it is the location of the biggest hail, strongest winds that wrap around the storm (rear flank downdraft) and besides the tornadic portion of the storm, the most dangerous location. Instantly we found ourselves being pounded with heavy rain. Then the winds picked up drastically blowing the rain down in sheets and pushing us all over the road. Next came small little pieces of hail, pea size at most. Then it got bigger. Eventually bigger. Then, really, really big. Huge hailstones were pelting the car in very loud thumps. This was by far the biggest hail any of us have seen-even out in the Plains we hadn't seen hail this big. We just tried to push on and not lose a windshield. After what seemed like forever, probably about 10 minutes we were finally able to get off the highway and the hail ended. We quickly examined the car and found three big dents in the roof with diameters around 1.5-2” and reported it to the National Weather Service. Here is the video of the hail onslaught taken by Kyle Clem from the backseat of the car:
WARNING: IT WAS A VERY INTENSE SITUATION SO PLEASE EXCUSE THE LITTLE BIT OF FOUL LANGUAGE
After inspecting the car, we quickly got back in and headed east on 64 to get back to 23, which we had decided was the best road south, and head way south this time since the next supercell was approaching from the west already. We tore south with an amazing lightning display going on all around us. We made it to Louisa, KY and decided this would be the best place to observe the storm pass to our north. Immediately we got these two lightning shots looking north into the downdraft:
Notice the round cloud moving in from the left side of the picture. This is the updraft part of the supercell that usually shows up as a hook on radar in the southwest quadrant of the supercell. The mesosyclone as it is called when it's rotating is the typical location for tornadoes to develop. This storm had rapid rotation to have a “meso” as they are called for short, looking like it does. The next thing the storm needs is a wall cloud in order to produce a tornado. These next few images are of a lowering that is most likely just that at the base of the meso. The lightning just stopped as the meso and its associated wall cloud moved eastward and therefore it is very hard to pick out. Look closely though and you will see it.
After it passed we went northward on 23 to see if there was any damage done by the storm and if there was perhaps a tornado. We stopped for about twenty minutes because the storm to our east was absolutely beautiful with the lightning lighting up the updrafts on the back of the supercell. While these pictures were taken, there were stars out above us.
We also learned one thing while we were stopped, Kentuckians are very nice people. One trooper and then another person (whose car was barely running at that) stopped to ask if we were ok on the highway as we took these pictures.
On the way home we tried to catch one more storm that went through Jackson and Meigs County in Ohio but we weren't fast enough. Overall, what started out as a just a play with convection and lightning turned into one of the best chases yet. It is not often you see textbook supercells in this region and get treated to such fabulous structure.
Christopher Redmond
cr898005@ohio.edu
