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July
4th Storm Chase |
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Mark Robinson |
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Mark
Robinson |
Well, the day started off less than perfect (for
chasing). My ex was having her kitchen redone so I was looking after
our daughter. Kayleigh (my little one) was kind of cranky
because she had a bit of cold, and it didn't help that Daddy was moaning
that severe storms were passing right overhead. The grandparents (my dad
and he wife) had just experienced the dreaded car break down, so I was
left to stare out at the wall of water landing in Mississauga.
Unfortunately, 1 year-olds just aren't that interested in weather so I
couldn't even convince her to come outside and enjoy the rain. She been
on the planet for less time than I've been chasing and she already
understands that her father is completely off his rocker. *sigh* I'm
going to get stuck in old age home (for the crazy) by her, I can
just feel it.
Well, finally Grandma and Grandpa came home and informed me that I was
take my dad downtown to pick up some papers for his business. I was
horrified! Downtown TO on a chase day!? Nooooooo!
As it turned out, I raced downtown (I'm not allowed to drive my dad
anywhere now) and back out to Mississauga in record time. This was
despite the fact that a truck had flipped over on the QEW and blocked
all the lanes. Damn, I'm good!
Now began the chase day. I roared out of Mississauga and raced
along the 401 towards Guelph, determined to pick up my chase partner.
Halfway there I get a call from Dave Patrick informing me that I'm
going the wrong way. North of Toronto was looking very good. In
fact, ten minutes after I got off the phone there was a tornado warning
for York-Durham. I stared grimly out the front windshield, willing the
people in the slow cars to get the *&%$ out of the way. The Enraged
Mosquito was coming through!
I raced in Guelph while listening to tornado reports all around
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Ron
VA3TVS |
me. Dave Patrick had just caught the Ayr tornado and Ron
VA3TVS the Waterloo CANWARN Net Controller was calling me telling me how
I had to be south of Guelph RIGHT NOW! Auuuagggggg!
I tore around the University looking for my friend, but she was nowhere
to be seen. I finally had to give up and headed south. Turns out
it was bad communication between the two of us and she had to go with
her boyfriend to London.
I was completely flustered and annoyed at this point, but I heard the
reports of a severe cell down to the south from Ron. Ok, had to go
south, very fast, get out the way, chaser coming through!
I raced down Highway 6 towards Hamilton as I heard the reports of
tornado on the ground near St. George. I just knew I wasn't going to
make it! I had busted on a day of three tornadoes! I had
failed, cut down in my prime, fallen from grace... Ok, a little
melodramatic, but ask George Kourounis VA3GTK how I sounded when I
called him for a radar update.
Dejected, I headed for Ron, VA3TVS's for a burger and a drink, but as I
neared Guelph on the 401, I got a call from Dave Patrick. (Whom I owe
many pints of the sweet barley nectar for putting me on this storm).
He told me that the cell over Guelph had definition and I couldn't
bust any worse. I eagerly leaped at the chance and as I got
northwest of Guelph of I called Ron and asked him if he could see
rotation in the cell. I was somewhat unsure, but I thought that things
looked a little impressive. Oh boy, I was right, Ron informed me. The
area of rotation was on the southwest side, a classic supercell trick.
Ron told me to get on it as things might get interesting.
Moving through Guelph at a rapid clip, the cell began to display a
beautiful wall cloud, strong updrafts and good definition. On the
southeast side of Guelph I stopped for a minute to get my bearings and
check the motion of the storm. Unbeknownst to me, the wall cloud had
moved faster than I expected and was just behind a wall of trees.
I didn't know it, but it had begun to do something very, very
interesting....
I continued along the road, trying to get a better view of the entire
cell when I caught a glimpse of a inverted cone hanging from the sky.
My stomach attempted to exit my body at the point as I began thinking:
"Oh my God, is that, is that....?" More trees obscured my view
and I popped up over a hill only to see a number of cars sitting on the
road, with people pointing and gesturing at the sky.
I had a minor heart attack as I passed the first car and looked to the
right. Tornado on the ground! And going like stink! I
screamed to halt and fumbled for the phone, video camera and emergency
brake all at the same time. (My video shows this nicely) I
immediately called Ron, screaming "Tornado on the ground!
Nornato on the gorund!" Ron took this all in stride and
calmly asked asked me where I was and which way it was moving.
"Southeast! And I'm right.... umm, I have no idea where I am."
Ron was very good and talked me through the whole thing, so I must say:
Thank you Ron for your patience!
I jumped out of the
car after logging the report with Ron and video taped the tube for a
whole ten seconds. I then promptly violated the cardinal chasing rule. I
had a perfect view and I drove to get a better one. Ooops! However, at
the time, it seemed like a good idea and as it turns out, it was. I
raced down south towards Campbellville, crossing the 401 on a narrow
bridge and screaming to Dave Patrick that there were no bloody east
roads!
By this point, the tornado was heading towards a collision course with a
barn, Guelph Line road and someone's shed. I found an east road and
skipped over to Guelph Line, headed south and nearly ran over Jack
Kertzie. We quickly hooked up and shot a bunch of video as the tornado
lost strength and faded as it topped the Niagara Escarpment.
Jack and whooped and hollered, overjoyed that we had caught a beautiful
tornado on the ground! We then followed the wall cloud for a bit,
watching to see if it would drop another tornado, but this was not to
be.
On our way to Ron's for a burger and cold drink, we stopped an surveyed
the damage, I got interviewed by CITY and we talked to some of the
people who had been affected. Very interesting and I'll put up a
complete interview on my website when I redo it.
Thanks to Dave Patrick, I did an interview
with the Sun and I gave video to CITY and TWN. I will bring
the tapes to the BBQ at the end of the season so that everyone can see
my 15 min of fame. *grin*
Thanks to Ron Gravelle, Dave Patrick and George for radar updates,
encouragement and burgers! I could not have caught that cell without
their help.
Mark Robinson
Click the following link for the
Waterloo Region CANWARN Net Story