Still i the wake of horrible news (see last post), I set forth to cheer up by chasing some medium strength storms around NC. Usually around this part of the U.S. storms tend to have an abundant amount of moisture, usually restricting visibility of the storm structure. However, I was in for a pleasant surprise! A slow moving but semi powerful line of storms started moving through the area and I jumped on the opportunity to see them. I ended up getting to see one of my favorite storm structures, a shelf cloud. In the picture, the storm is heading toward me, and you can actually see the approaching heavy rain. (taken 6-3-13)
After being fortunate enough to see such a view, I made my way over toward Randleman lake to catch the sunset and the last of the storms. With my forecaster with me, we identified a storm in the horizon with a rather unusual look. In this image, notice the storm to the far left, and the rising motion of the storm being blown off at the top, all the way across the sky. This “shearing effect” was being caused by our jet stream meeting the top of the storm. This made for some amazing luminous clouds.
Exploring NC 