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.
The John Amos power plant's cooling tower exhaust plume was triggering convection this evening, resulting in a continuous, stationary rain shower around the Poca/Cross Lanes area. I've documented this phenomenon previously (in July of 2002) and put together a write-up on it, but I haven't seen such a well-defined example of this since then - until today. I set up in Nitro next to I-64 and filmed a 35-minute HD timelapse of the cell at sunset. I also did a few panoramas of this impressive scene. At times the shower resembled an LP supercell, with a rounded, smooth striated base and periodic inflow tails. Unlike the July 2002 event, I didn't see lightning or a heavy precip shaft this time. Deep-layer directional shear was present, with southwesterly flow aloft, westerly/northwesterly flow at the mid-levels and south-southwesterly flow at the surface. I first noticed the cell at around 8:00PM, and it was still going when I left it at 10:00PM. Given the low-level visual structure of this cell, it would have been interesting to see what it would have done with a little more ambient instability.
Moisture, instability, lift & shear... that's all it takes. This time, some of those were provided by steam rising from the cooling towers. Don't think I'd call it a "smoking gun" (what with that term's connotation), but it is a good example of weather modification (if unintentional this time). - Posted by A Meteorologist
Dan, as usual these are great images. Very cool. You should definitely shop those around for Weatherwise or maybe a science or environmental textbook. - Posted by Bill Hark from Richmond VA
My parents are from Poca, and my grandparents lived right there across the river from the power plant in Glass Addition. All through my childhood, I always loved being there and seeing the stacks; we called them 'The Big Hots'. In more recent years I have become a serious weather junkie, and I monitor storm activity all around the country. Needless to say, this story (and this entire site) are immensely fascinating to me.
Next time any of you Kanawha Valley residents go by the Nitro exit there on 64, say 'hi' to the Big Hots for me. I'm glad I found this site, and I'll be a regular visitor in the future.
Keep up the great work. - Posted by David Rowh from Salisbury, NC
Look's like there's more on the way for you this evening - 16th June. Now how's that for a novice living in the UK :) - Posted by Mick from United Kingdom
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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.
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