20150331: North Alabama Storms

I forgot to post this after the 3/31 storm chase. Nothing scary or super exciting. We chased for the lightning and hail mostly. No real tornado threat on the cell we chased.

20150331: Storms entered the North Alabama area heading ESE. We began chasing this cell in Athens, AL with the cell almost due west of us. We went all the way to Russellville where we finally entered the cell and were able to breach the core, down to Trinity where we breached the core a second time, over to Decatur and then finally back to Huntsville.

Our first core breach was over the Tennessee River on the SR-101 bridge in Joe Wheeler State Park:

We were able to get back in front of the storm and had a second core breach near Trinity, AL on the US-72 looking toward Nucor Steel.

I created a compilation of some of the lightning we saw that night from the start in Athens to the finish.

20140817 Storms in Meridianville, Moore’s Mill and Gurley

On Sunday, 8/17, storms rolled through the Tennessee Valley, heading generally east. I started following the storms just northwest of Meridianville and followed them to just east of Gurley. These storms were not tornadic and showed no signs of rotation. They were moderate lightning generators and produced light to moderate winds with moderate rain. Don’t forget to check out our Alabama Storm Chasers & Spotters group on Facebook!

Video of the first cell I encountered northwest of Meridianville. I was at the 9600 block of Patterson Rd.

A couple of animated GIFs from that same cell:

 

Photos of the first cell:

 

Some of the lightning shots from the day (click on the image to see the full size photo):

US-231 Southbound, intersection of Meridian Rd.

Southbound on Naugher Rd at Intersection of Winchester Rd. Strike is on Alpha Lane.

Southbound on Naugher Rd at Intersection of Winchester Rd. Strike is on Alpha Lane.

Across from the Sunoco on Naugher Rd. looking east along Winchester Rd.

Sitting at intersection of US-72 & Dug Hill Rd looking east along US-72. Strike near Gurley.

Sitting at intersection of US-72 & Dug Hill Rd looking east along US-72. Striking the radio tower northwest of Gurley.

Sitting at intersection of US-72 & Dug Hill Rd looking east along US-72. Mountain strike northwest of Gurley.

Sitting along US-72 at Brock Rd looking east. Strike northwest of Gurley.

For some reason my dashcam is doing this weird thing with lightning: