Chase Logs - 1997

This is the first log I kept.  I had many other chases before this but I never kept accurate records of my sightings and situations. I have included a few pages of memorable photos from this year.

Saturday September 6, 2024
Time: 6:15-8:40pm
Chase Distance: 55kms

This is a somewhat long chase log but I hope it is an in-depth as possible.

After looking at the Doppler radar at 5:58pm (I get DSS so it's U.S based weather channel) and downloading last current Nexrad from intellicast, which I am still trying to find out how much EC's real-time service will cost, I decided that the ESE storm line (just two strong thunderstorms at the time) was going to pass north of me (live just south of Fergus.). I got in the car and drove NW up Hwy #6. At about 7:00pm, I noticed that two thunderstorms were too my north east. (about 5 km southeast of Arthur) The first must have been the storm front and the second was the storm tracking from Milverton. The storm to my NE was much better developed with good outflow and solid rain core. The Milverton storm   was just starting to get characteristics) and I made a decision to head northeast through Arthur.

This decision was made on storm development and Environment Canada's radio issuances that this storm was heading east and if I waited here, the visibility would be bad as I would be in the rain-core and this is not the place I prefer (not a core-puncher type person). I traveled through Arthur and noticed that the storm had matured (signs of cloud lowering) and was not going east but south-east now so at Petherton, I turned west to try to get around to the back side of the storm. At this time, it was about 7:25 PM. I traveled about 4 kms and was experiencing strong wind (my estimate about 75-90 kph as the rain was blowing horizontally in my Cherokee window), somewhat strong rain (visibility was still good) and intense cloud-to-ground and cloud-to-cloud lightening.

I parked and looked WSW and saw the storm had gone really dark, lots of signs of cloud lowering but never a wall cloud. I figured the two storms joined and intensified.  I made a phone call home to a friend on the road at about 7:32 and was telling him about it and to watch out for it when the sky went kind of green. Now, I thought my eyes were going funny from concentrating too much (had not seen this since I was about 8) and told him so. Looking around, my west to north to east, I did not notice any funnels or the tornado. Mine you, if it touched down near Drayton, my line-of-sight was blocked by the rain-core. The time of the touch-down coincides with the time the sky went green but I didn't identify it. I decided the storm was moving SE and went back to #6 and turn SE. Time 7:40-7:45.

By now the police were screaming pass me so I decided that they new something I didn't. Didn't turn my scanner to police bands so my own fault. Went back through Arthur and traveled 5-7 km SE and parked. By now the sky was getting dark and I encountered a strong rain band. At this time, EC issued a tornado warning for this area. Time 8pm.

Now with these storms supposedly moving 50 km per hour ESE, this was the cell that produced it. I kept looking but this storm cell seemed to weaken a little. Lightening strikes reduced a little and winds not as strong so I headed towards Fergus. At this point it seemed the storm split right around Fergus (north of it, I think the cell that supposedly produced the tornado and, south of it, the rest of the storm line). Time 8:25

At this time I felt the storm was losing it's severe characteristics as the heating of the day effect was diminishing and headed home for the night to look over the current Nexrad and Doppler. I was close.

An aside, the next day I and my chase partner went up to Harriston, where the news reported it to have touched down and stopped in Taviotdale. The gas station attendant there said that it touched down near the Minto-Arthur county lines so we traveled to Harriston and say nothing. Traveled towards Mount Forrest along #89 and then south along old Hwy#6 and saw some wind damage (trees down, etc.) but no evidence so keep going to Drayton and saw nothing there either.  

Check out the three frames below from Intellicast.  You can paste them in a GIF animator to view the loop

Drayton Frame  1 (40)
Drayton Frame 2 (41)
Drayton Frame 3 (43)