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June 16 severe storms/hail
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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. |
I finally deviated from my 'stay in the Charleston area' chase strategy that has been working so well lately, and probably should have stuck to it tonight. I was drawn away from town by a persistent supercell in the southern coalfields that displayed a long-lived velocity couplet and hook on radar (and eventually was tornado-warned for much of its later life in southern WV). When I finally caught it on I-77 near Ingleside, it was done producing even lightning, much less anything else. It was very high-based when I finally got a look at the southern end of it, and no tornado reports showed up in the LSRs. I slowly made my way back north, sampling the cores of various cells that popped up around Beckley, Oak Hill, Fayetteville, Gauley Bridge and Belva. The largest hail I encountered was a 45-second long burst of quarter-sized stones on Route 16 near Fayetteville.
HD EXPEDITION VIDEO: Hail on Route 16 near Fayetteville
As I made my way back toward home at sunset, radar indicated that I was probably missing quite a show back in Charleston as several isolated thunderstorms developed and passed just north of town at dusk. With the fading daylight, frequent lightning and strong updrafts surrounded by clear skies, I can only imagine what the scene from Fort Hill to the north must have looked like. I caught a glimpse of it near Montgomery as the low cloud deck cleared, revealing a white cumulonimbus tower nearly overhead against the deep blue twilight sky, with lightning bolts flickering outside of the cloud. It was spectacular, and of course I stopped to try for a few shots. But the low level cloud deck had other ideas, quickly reenveoping the scene and hiding it from my view. Had I stayed home, I probably would have filled a memory card with that display.
I guess 2008 continues to be the year of the stay-at-home storms. I've been doing best so far by resisting the urge to go for something far away (and saving quite a bit of gas money), but it's hard to stick to that plan when hook echos start showing up within striking distance.
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