In September of 2025, my work is generating the most income it ever has in my career. Yet, I'm being forced to shut down my successul operation, against my will, due to one cause alone: 95% of that revenue is being stolen by piracy and copyright infringement. I've lost more than $1 million to copyright infringement in the last 15 years, and it's finally brought an end to my professional storm chasing operation. Do not be misled by the lies of infringers, anti-copyright activists and organized piracy cartels. This page is a detailed, evidenced account of my battle I had to undertake to just barely stay in business, and eventually could not overcome. It's a problem faced by all of my colleagues and most other creators in the field.
A strong cold frontal passage is the start to our new year's weather, turning winds northwesterly with subfreezing temperatures and abundant low-level moisture - prime ingredients for a strong upslope snow event for the central Appalachians. The following graphic from the HPC outlines the probabilities for at least four inches of snow across our region:
Most areas in the mountains will likely exceed the four inch mark, with some locations in the northeastern WV higher terrain getting a shot at a foot or more of accumulation.
Widespread icy bridge event on December 31
The freezing fog/freezing drizzle that created the surprise icy bridge accident episode across the Kanawha Valley yesterday morning (including at the Oakwood/Fort Hill Bridge) was part of a widespread outbreak of similar conditions across the midwest and northeast. Ice on bridges and overpasses created havoc in Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia and Maryland at the same time as in West Virginia - including in Cincinnati, OH, Lexington, KY and Allentown, PA. Numerous news articles from yesterday morning describe some of the incidents.
Since I totally missed this event (as did the NWS, local meteorologists and the Department of Highways), out of curiosity, I pulled some archived images from the StormCam, which has been focused on the deck of my back porch to monitor precipitation. The edges of the decking will usually accumulate ice and snow at roughly the same rate as bridges and overpasses in the area, so I figured that the deck would have shown some of the icing. The time-lapse video from the WCHS towercam shows the fog was a valley-fog type setup, with most of it initially concentrated over the river. But just before daybreak, the fog expanded to cover more of the valley. It appears that the fog did not reach my camera location until right at sunrise, as no ice is apparent on the deck at the start of the day. However, patches of ice can be seen forming on the deck just after sunrise.
I took the archived images from yesterday and compiled a 24-hour timelapse that shows the ice on the deck beginning to form.
Web Site Design and Internet Marketing by CIS Internet
From Dan: Please Read
To my regular readers, I offer my apologies for this heavy-handed notice. Unfortunately it has become necessary, so please bear with me!
Please don't copy/upload this site's content to social media or other web sites. Those copies have been a critical problem for me, seriously harming this site and my photography/storm chasing operation by diverting traffic, viewers, engagement and income. "Credit" and "exposure" does not benefit this site or my operation, rather they threaten my ability to cover my operating expenses. Please read my full explanation for this notice here.
Before continuing, check each box to agree to and acknowledge these two statements:
Click this button to finalize this acknowledgement:
