August 20
Where’s the fire?
We headed out west around 6 to check out a persistent cell that had been boiling away just south of Rocky for most of the afternoon. Not much could be seen through a thickening haze of smoke, we thought perhaps this storm had lit off a new fire out west, but it seems to have ridden in from BC with the approaching front.
By the time we got to Raven, we could see it was quite dark to the SW but the smoke made it impossible to see any structure. An inflow band started to materialize from the NE so we cut south to get a bit closer and see what was up. Before we got to see a base, we got to taste a bit of core, giant raindrops mixed with small hail got us streaking east again.
Out in the sticks between Kevisville and James River Bridge we got out of the deluge, looked back and there was a nice big wall cloud sitting there just to the SW of the core. By this time there was a long and thick tube of inflow cloud speeding directly into the wall cloud from the NE. Out of roads east, we had to head back south to 592 before the hail got there, no chances for a good shot in that terrain.
Across the Red Deer river and towards Eagle Hill the inflow continued to pick up and it looked to be on line for Sundre. From this angle we could see another inflow band entering from the south so we tried to get in behind it from someplace with a view. I bet it looked a lot better from Sundre, we lost sight of it for a good 10 minutes trying to find a view in the rolling hills.
Then the hail plane arrived.
Never have I seen a storm fall apart like that one did immediately after being bombed.
I don’t know if the storm hit a dry spot, a cold spot, or if the bombing killed it, but within 20 minutes of hearing the plane, it literally disintegrated, leaving a 40 mile long inflow band feeding a skinny barberpole mesocyclone with nothing around it. Within 1/2 hour there was nothing there at all.
The day was not over yet.
No more than an hour after we got home, another nice looking(on radar) storm fired up west of Sylvan Lake, so I headed off to meet it. After a quick radar check in Sylvan showed the storm still on its way for Bentley, I continued on, but thought I saw a flash further south now?
After cresting the big hill north of Sylvan, the red radar dot could be seen dropping some massive lighting bolts on the Medicine Hills, so I kept going for Bentley, looking for a good spot to park.
As soon as I found a spot, the rain started and it became obvious that the storm was building south quickly. Back to Sylvan!
20 minutes later I was back in Sylvan, trying to get south in a hurry just as a big bolt hit somewhere to the west and the east side of Sylvan went dark.. The worst part of the storm was now between myself and home, but I thought I’d see if I could cut in front of it. Not. That cost me a 10 minute stop at the Burnt lake trail, in tropical rain with pea hail mixed in and non stop lightning. There was a line in the dust 2 miles north of home and we didn’t get a single drop out of it.
Nice light show for Red Deer after that, got to sit and watch some crazy looking clouds light up as the storm slowly moved right over the city. The still lingering smoke in the air, when illuminated by the big cloud to ground bolts, made for extremely bright flashes, making it difficult to get a good shot, but it was pure candy for the eye.
It was still rumbling around here at 10am.
