Up until today I haven’t been happy with chasing conditions here in my general territory. Cold air damming wedges, low overcast skies limiting both visibility and updraft growth, and a lack of discrete storms have all contributed to what I consider a frustrating spring chase season. Today, however, provided the antidote.

The SPC had Virginia under a Marginal Risk today, with plenty of moisture combining with a modicum of upper air support to spark convection:

I’d kept an eye on several convective allowing models (CAMs) during the prior 36 hours. The HRRR is usually reliable for general location and timing of storms, but today wasn’t one of those days. The 12Z and subsequent morning runs almost completely wiped out any hope of convection across southern Virginia. Meanwhile other CAMs showed a decent chance of something happening along the U.S. Route 58 corridor, so when radar showed returns over northwest North Carolina I drove south on U.S. Route 220 to the Martinsville vicinity.

After stopping a couple of times for situational awareness updates I went to a vantage point in eastern Henry county, where I sat to watch the sky and await radar to bloom:

I was hoping the discrete activity ahead of the precipitation blob crossing the Blue Ridge crest would amount to something. It took a while, but a couple of cells began to intensify west of Martinsville just ahead of the “blob”. I left my waiting spot, performing a couple of 180 degree turns before finally deciding to head west on Rte 58 to find a vantage point closer to the activity. This was the radar view as I sought an open view to the west:

Here was my view of an oncoming shelf cloud from the now severe-warned storm (the only warning in my chase region):

I had switched on the livestream, and the local TV station planned to use the live feed during their three o’clock show. But with the precipitation core nearing my location I had to turn tail and push east ahead of the storm. I wound up dropping south on the Axton Road and found this vantage point:

This was the radar view at the time:

From here I continued south to Sandy Level, stopping at one point to watch strong crosswinds whip up a lot of dust. Maneuvering down to U.S. Route 311 in North Carolina I turned east toward Danville. But by the time I caught back up with the action this cell had been absorbed into the overall precipitation blob, and further chasing became unrealistic. I had already seen a nice shelf cloud, several bright CGs, and was treated to strong outflow winds, so it was a satisfying late May chase.

This was the one hour low level rotation track ending at 20Z: