Possible storm chase today in BC (Canada)

[Roger J Smith]

Tues 3 July 07 _ 1930z

Just a note to say that an unplanned storm chase is about to begin, I am driving back to Vancouver on the coast from where I have been staying the past few days in eastern BC, and there is a line of thunderstorms forming to our west that we pretty much have to drive through in about 3-4 hours time. Have digicam and will post any interesting accounts and pictures when we get home, hopefully around midnight (07z). It is hot and this line of storms represents a weak frontal boundary between the Pacific inflow and the hot southerly flow in the interior valleys. These storms can easily become severe just through topographic enhancement, dynamics are not that intense but there is a good 50-60 knot wind above 700 mbs and we are driving at the 850 mb level for much of the way.

[Roger J Smith]

Just a quick update to say that our trip was more of a cloud scenery chase than a storm chase, the line of storms broke apart some time before we reached it but it looked quite ominous for a while, then there was a rather strange heavy shower of rain for ten minutes, that did not seem to have an obvious source in the partly cloudy sky above us, followed by a sunset of deep orange and reds. Have some pictures of most of that which I will post later, gotta get a few hours of sleep now.

[Roger J Smith]

Site seems slow today on posting pictures, have left some instructions for my wife to post the before, during and after pictures with some nifty scenery at least. I am heading for England right now, shape up or ship out.

[stormchaser1]

Roger

Have a safe journey

Nigel

Newcastle

[Roger J Smith]

Mountain skies ... Roger just phoned from the airport, about 20 minutes away from boarding. So he will be seeing the road we drove last night, south to Vancouver, but this time in the daylight, and from a long ways up! [atta

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[NL]

Fantastic scenic shots, would have been great if the storms had materialized.

[Roger J Smith]

OMG, I am in England. Didn't you people say it was freakishly warm there nowadays?

It feels exactly the same as it did the other five times I came over here.

Seriously, you're in for it now.

I may go on a storm chase here.

[Supercell]

OMG, I am in England. Didn't you people say it was freakishly warm there nowadays?

It feels exactly the same as it did the other five times I came over here.

Seriously, you're in for it now.

I may go on a storm chase here.

You could not have picked a worse time to come. It has been an awful summer to date.

[NL]

Depends on how you look at it, me, i'm happy that this summer(up to now) has'nt been wall to wall sunshine with azores high dominating...

Ooooh how i love the rain/storms...

[Roger J Smith]

Well then you should love tonight, and not only that, so should I -- same GPS

[Blackie]

Don't worry, Roger, it will warm up here. From Saturday I would predict - as that's when I'm headed out to Canada! And from my past record it is bound to rain as soon as I get there.

I'm actually headed to Calgary for the Stampede, then plan to go on to Banff and lake Louise for about 3-4 days. I might try and catch up with Rich (Canadian Coops) if he is around. I should be fairly close to Canmore, although I don't know my itinerary yet after next Wednesday when I am in the Rockies. And i just checked the Calgary forecast - and of course after lovely sunny weather and high temps over the past few days it will get cooler and cloudy over the weekend, and then rain on Monday! Unbelievable.

Went to Sri Lanka for a week in October. Had half a day of sun, then record monsoon rain for the rest of the week with terrible floods and mountain roads being washed away. The next trip was to Shanghai a few weeks later. The day I arrived was the last sunny day in a lovely spell that had apparently lasted several weeks. It then rained for the rest of my stay. Same thing happened in South Carolina when I went in February - the weather broke the day I flew in and it chucked down with rain for 3 days. And that song about it never raining in Southern California is wrong. It did, as soon as I flew there in late April. :o

Is someone up there trying to tell me something? :o

[Zenarcher]

Nice photos i like the 3rd one

[WhiteFox]

The scenery in BC is truly awesome. Vancouver has a fantastic setting. Victoria is also very pleasant; sitting in the Concierge lounge on the seventeenth floor on Wednesday morning, I had a fantastic view of the snow-capped Olympic mountains just over in Washington.