eyewall

1 hour ago, olafminesaw said:

This is somehow way cooler than a full eclipse

When it comes to lunar eclipses I agree! 

Final edits:

37 minutes ago, NorthHillsWx said:

Last chance of rain likely for the month today and I’m sitting about 3” below normal (just 1.52”). If we don’t get a flood today (unlikely) then that will be 11 of last 12 months BN precipitation here. Only saving grace is we received about 4 months worth of rain in July! 

We got missed entirely the last two days. 

As you probably guessed I was certainly going to try and view the lunar eclipse two nights ago. The forecast looked bleak but I tracked satellite trends and made my west to an area just north and west of Siler City, NC (near Liberty, NC). I was able to break out of the clouds to mostly clear skies and got this at the peak:

This summer has been cruel and it looks like that will continue. Just shoot me now.

14 hours ago, olafminesaw said:

Nice!  I got a quick glimpse, it was mostly obscured by trees from my vantage point 

Yeah this was one was timed absolutely perfectly and in the photos the sky looks lighter than it actually was of course. It was super bright with high contrast. 

18 hours ago, olafminesaw said:

@eyewall

It was the brightest one I have seen so far! 

It felt great outside this morning! 

The heat is awful! I was hoping we would be done with it but that was naive of me to even think that would be the case. 

Just for the novelty I took this shot with my scope in Eure, NC of the August 12th solar eclipse. Here it was 1.13% obscuration at the peak. Obviously there was nothing on the ground anyone could notice but fun to see just how far from totality the partial phases extend.



Composite image:

4 minutes ago, NorthHillsWx said:

High of 94, but heat index got to 105. Pretty miserable day. 0.00” 

Just missed to the west today. 

The Raleigh weather dome is back! 

It was a far cry from 7/28 but still there were some fun scenes last evening in Johnston County NC with convection nearby:

Start just before 5pm EDT: Rather than clog the other threads I wanted to post my full storm chase recap in a separate thread. It all began on the afternoon of July 28th near Sandy Ridge, NC (northeastern Stokes County near the VA line. A supercell organized south of Floyd, VA and began moving southeastward in northwesterly flow. This means the business end of the storm was on the northwest side of it as opposed to the usual southwest. None the less it had a classic structure when we first intercepted it. If it was more LP and there were less low-level clouds a barber pole with bell shaped base would have likely been fully visible. You can infer it was there from the shot below along with a well developed wall cloud:




We were able to stay with this storm for over three hours with good southeasterly routes available.  It was at this first location in Sandy Ridge where I was nearly hit by an intense CG strike (definitely within yards). The next shot shows the wall cloud with a strike to the right of it (video cap):



The next stop occurred some 20 minutes later in Ayersville, NC but we could not stay long to keep up. At this stage the storm entered a re-organizing phase. After that was Madison, NC where we got a good look at the meso:



After that the next stop was around 1 hour into the adventure southwest of Reidsville. I got video of the meso but have yet to post it. In terms of stills I got the wall cloud here:


This is when we made a wrong turn and ended up taking the brunt of the RFD which rained down tons of tree debris. Whole trees came down as well. We got back on the storm in Alamance County near Sedalia and Graham. This is where the storm structure really ramped up again with a clear slot due to the RFD wrapping in and meeting up with a strong inflow tail. The rising motion into the storm was violent and very Plains like and there were renewed lightning barrages. At this point the storm was tornado warned. Here are a series of images I got from over a Waffle House parking lot just south of I-40 off 87 in what is technically Graham. 









The next stop was between Graham and Saxapahaw at the intersection of Swepsonville-Saxapahaw Rd and Crawford Rd. This is where I caught a funnel cloud for the first time on this storm. This was confirmed by video evidence from another chaser as I was focused on stills. It also matches up to where the meso is and the overall storm structure. At this point we are 2.5 hours in just after 7:30pm. Images from that stop here:






After this I was thinking of breaking off and headed home until the rotation strengthened again between Saxapahaw and Carrboro (Oaks to White Cross) as the 3 hour point approached on this storm (an rare feat in NC!). The storm did not disappoint and made an attempt at producing once more. I cannot draw any conclusion if it touched the ground or if it was condensation of the trees rising up but none the less for now I will call it a funnel cloud seen here along with the overall storm structure:









I tried to keep up with it a bit more into Carrboro and did so but another violent lightning barrage occurred there and the storm was being overtaken by upscale growth which merged everything into a big rain-filled cluster. It was also getting dark so I headed back to Raleigh. All in all this was one of the most incredible chase experiences I have had and I will not forget it. Bonus shots below:

3 hours ago, SouthboundYank said:

These are INCREDIBLE pics, TY for sharing!!!!

thank you! 

1 hour ago, NorthHillsWx said:

Incredible structure. Clear environment around it too, rare for central NC

So true and the fact I was able to stay with this storm for 3+ hours.

A few more structure shots:

Captured a funnel cloud south of Swepsonville:

Just a few from what was an insane chase. This was from Graham, NC on a tornado warned supercell. I chased this from the VA line to Carrboro so more pics to come.

Well I definitely blew that one but in a good way. I ended up chasing that first supercell from the VA line to Carrboro. It has some pretty awesome structure at times and definitely incredible rising motion with the updraft, intense lightning, and visible circulation. 

6 minutes ago, olafminesaw said:

The HRRR/hires NAM have basically no convection after the MCS rolls through outside of far Eastern NC. It's not looking good TBH

Yeah I am seeing that too. We may be cooked here.

The main issue I am seeing right now is fairly extensive cloud cover coming out of VA. I am not sure how much we will destabilize given that factor. Shear will not be the problem here. The clouds will be. That has me concerned. 

NWS Raleigh mentions the possibility of it being a reduced threat to the west. I plan on chasing today if necessary from Raleigh northeastward.

I will be chasing this tomorrow. 

2 hours ago, NorthHillsWx said:

At some point overnight we picked up 0.48” which brings my MTD to 13.47”. RDU picked up over 1” 

That storm had some intense ground strikes. It woke me up for sure. I did not pop up the drone as it was already pouring too much. 

Another downpour this morning. We are really eating into that drought now. Thanks El Nino!