2008

(15 Chases)


January 1, 2008: First winter storm of 2008. I went to bed December 31 with a snow forecast of 5-8 inches, blowing snow, and just nasty conditions. Woke up and saw……………..NOTHING!!!! Just a dusting.

Apparently, the temperatures last night stayed warm enough to make it mostly rain. We did get about an inch accumulation during the night of the 1st as temperatures got colder. So the first snow-chase of 2008 was a bust.


January 3, 2008: A cold start in the morning. Wind chills ranged from 0 to –10. Pressure was hi at 30.80in.


January 7, 2008: Record hi temperatures! The hi for today was 63 degrees, breaking a 100-year old record. The warm temps also brought our first tornado watch of the year. Tornado watch #6 was issued from 2100-0400. So being at night, this was a home chase. I checked the current conditions in which dew points were in the low 50s, and slowly falling pressure indicated to me that the storms would not reach here being severe.

So I decided to go to bed and not pursue it. When I got up on the 8th, I was right. The storms died down and did not produce much of anything. So it was a bust day.


January 8, 2008: Today was another warm day. The highest temperature got up to 60. This also brought another round of storms to Ohio. A tornado watch #12 was issued for extreme southern part of NW Ohio, and a Severe thunderstorm watch #13 was issued to the east of us. Not really a chase night here since the storms was out of reach, and I did not expect much from these storms. The next day I was right again. Another bust day.

Results: No major damage


January 20-24, 2008: Cold mornings with strong winds made very low wind chills. The coldest was –23 on the 20th. Each morning had a wind chill at least of –10.


January 29, 2008: Warm temperatures today, freezing temperatures tonight. A high wind watch is issued for 7pm today to 7am Wednesday. They are predicting winds up to 60 mph. Also a winter weather advisory is issued for late tonight and early tomorrow morning for icy conditions. Should be interesting to watch.


Supplemental SPC put out a slight risk of severe for our area. Around 6 or 7 they issued a MCS for our area stating a weather watch may be likely. They did after 1900 when severe thunderstorm watch #28 was issued. When I decided to go to bed the temperature was 50 and pressure was 29.12


January 30, 2008: BRRRRRRRRR!! What a change in 8 hours. A high wind warning is in effect. The current morning temperature was 4 degrees with a –10 wind chill. That’s a 60-degree temperature drop. Daytime temps stayed in the single digits with wind chills around 5 to 10 below zero. All storm damage form the watch last night occurred south of here. So another bust chase for January.


February 1, 2008: The snowstorm held true. We received about 6 inches of snow. All area schools were closed for the second time this week. Everything was cleared out by 10am


February 4, 2008: A surprise for me. I woke up this morning to find about a ½ inch of snow on the ground. A winter weather advisory was in effect until 7am.


February 5, 2008: Last night we had our first thunderstorm, a severe one it seemed. The fog was so thick it was just lighting up the fog. Today we had a lot of advisories: Flood watch, Fog advisory, and a chance of storms again. A freezing rain advisory issued for late tonight. What a winter this is.


June 6, 2008: First storm chase of the spring season. This was a home-chase since my wife had the car. Temperatures were in the 90s and dew points in the lower 60s. The SPC had us in a slight risk for severe all day. The main treat was high winds and large hail with a 5% chance of tornadoes. At 735pm Severe thunderstorm watch #477 was issued. Around 815pm the SPC put out a discussion that these storms would produce destructive winds. A tornado warning was issued a half hour later. It was almost dusk so pictures was really out of the question. No funnel was sighted but we did have winds at least 70-80mph. Many trees and branches were down across the area. I went and did a damage survey the next morning and found a tree that had fallen on a house.


These storms also produced tornadoes in the Fostoria area were significant damage occurred.


June 7, 2008: Slight risk for storms today. Unfortunately the air was to stable for storms to develop around the area here. They all tracked south of here.


June 8, 2008: Another day for storms!! We had a slight risk put out for us late in the afternoon with a good chance of tornadoes or high winds. Temps were still in the 90s and dew points this time was in the upper 60s. Severe thunderstorm watch #487 was issued for my northern chase counties. A thunderstorm warning was issued for Monroe county, MI just before dinnertime. My daughter and I went out to chase it. We encountered 65mph winds and heavy rain. Not much lighting or anything else. This storm eventually weekend on us due to more intense storms in the Detroit area. So we called it a day with a pretty good chase.


June 9, 2008: Slight risk for storms today. Once again it was mainly for high winds. A severe thunderstorm watch #496 was issued. These storms were fast moving and well organized. Strong straight-line winds along with a very fast moving gust front happen. Thunderstorm/Tornado warnings covered the whole chase area at one time. I decided to stay home and view it from here. As I said before winds were the major damage.


This is some of the damage reports:


On Whiteford Rd. going north from Alexis, there is a tree blocking Whiteford Rd. There is also a tree that fell on a house just past the state line. Power is out in that area as well.

One tree fell on two houses on Detroit near Bancroft and Reynolds.

At Elmer and Wilford by Westgate Chapel, a line is down and covered with several fallen trees.

Witnesses say 22 cars on a freight train were blown off their tracks in Clay Township, southwest of Toledo.

At Dorr St. and Centennial, there are several trees down and "lots of damage" has been reported.

Toledo Edison is reporting 30,000 are without power. In Lenawee and Hillsdale counties, respectively, 575 and 335 folks are without power while there are 11,000 without power in Monroe.

Here are reports of more damage: On Holland-Sylvania Rd. in Sylvania a transformer was hit by lightning. On Rte. 51 in Genoa, several mobile homes have been damaged. In the Douglas-Tremainsville area, a tree is blocking the road. Power lines and tree limbs are down in Luckey, Jerry City, Bowling Green, Waterville, Putnam County. A home in Pandora was struck by lightning. In Martin, a house has been destroyed by winds. A mobile home south of BG is on fire as of 7:45 p.m. In Ottawa Hills, some are without power. Damage has been done by a fallen tree in west Toledo.

Winds up to 100 mph were reported in Lyons. Funnel clouds were reported in North Baltimore and Findlay. A tree is across the road on Rt. 8 in Arlington.

A tornado was spotted just west of Ottoville around 6:19 p.m. That's near Middle Point in Van Wert County. The tornado touched down in a field and did no damage, News 11 has learned.

The turnpike going west was down to one lane.


June 10, 2008: Early morning thunderstorms lead to some warnings. Not much was observed since it was dark outside. Not much lighting, just rain and light wind. As the morning went on, heavy rain occurred. About 2 inches of rain fell before noon, causing some minor flooding.


June 13, 2008: Another Friday, another chance for storms. SPC put out a slight risk for our area today.  We had several mesoscale discussions out today, most I've seen in a long time. This was mainly due to the high chance for severe hail and high winds.

Severe thunderstorm watch 523 was issued for northwest Ohio and 524 was issued for lower MI.

Most of the damage from these storms occurred in Ottawa county in Ohio. Trees and power lines were down. So it was basically the same as the last 2 Fridays.

June 15 2008: Chances for storms was all day. We were under a Thunderstorm watch most of the day. Watch 538 was from 8am to 3pm and watch 2pm to 9pm. Did i mentioned there was a moderate risk today??

When the storms came thru in the evening, they were dying out. But some damage occurred. Again mostly tree damage.

This seems like a pattern here..


June 21, 2008: This is the fourth weekend in a row for a chance of severe weather. Once again SPC had us in a slight risk for severe storms. Temperatures were at least nicer this week compared to the rest with highs only in the low 80s. Dew points also remained in the low 60s to upper 50s which meant no much of a chance for tornadic weather.

About 930 in the morning they already put out a MCS on the storms will be increasingly become severe late this morning and early afternoon. That’s why just before noon, Severe thunderstorm watch #589 was issued. The storms produced widespread hail in my chase area. Some of the hail reports were as large a 1 inch in diameter. Not much destructive wind with these storms compared to those of the previous weeks.


June 22, 2008: Second day in a row for severe storms. We are just in a pattern it seems like. Once again, nothing much tornadic, since temperatures barely got above 80 today. A slight risk was issued, and eventually severe thunderstorm watch # 593 was issued at 1pm and ran until 8pm. The storms came in before 6, mostly hail reports came in again, I myself did not encounter the hail, just the heavy rains like yesterday. Also no photos were taken of this weekend storms since I really couldn’t get a good angle on them.


June 23, 2008: Day 3 for severe weather. There were no watches out for these storms, actually it was basically just one storm. Severe thunderstorm warnings came up for 3 of my counties, unfortunately it happen during working hours, so all I can do is watch them go by. They was lots of lighting in the storm. A few reports of hail came in, one inch hail in Monroe, MI and quarter size hail in Elmore, OH. All I could observed was lighting and moderate rainfall.


June 25, 2008: Slight risk for severe today. They were no watches out for today's storms. They must have been to isolated. Most of NW Ohio was affected with these local storms. Severe Thunderstorm Warnings were issued. Some wind damage did occur in Mamuee, but the biggest threat was the heavy rain and lighting. A flood advisory was put out for our county due to places got about 2-3 inches of rain in just half an hour. That was issued at 1930.


June 26, 2008: Second day in a row for severe storms. Just like yesterday, no watches were issued, but they were warnings. At one time, almost the entire area of northern Ohio was under a thunderstorm warning. For me, the warnings came out just before 1600. Didn’t get much severe weather, just the norm that we have been getting. Winds gusted up to 45mph, frequent lighting. Other areas reported 60mph winds, pea size hail and heavy rains. In Oregon a row of power poles were snapped and on the east side of Toledo flooding occurred. Walbridge had a report of small hail. Northwood and Mamuee reported 1 inch hail.

Dew points were especially high today, topping out in the 70s.



July 28, 2008: Thunderstorms on the 27th never came around, although we were in a slight risk all day, the cap was never broken. The air was too stable, even with temperatures in the upper 80s and high dew points. However we did get some storms, they finally came in around 1am Saturday morning. They did not reach severe limits, however they did put on a great light show with some strikes near us. Winds were estimated about 30mph, did have frequent lighting and brief heavy rain. Nothing much happen. The storms stuck around for about ½ an hour and they were gone, decreasing in intensity as they left.

Later on the day, the slight risk was upgraded to a moderate risk along with Severe thunderstorm watch #629 was also issued. No severe weather happen in our area.




July 2, 2008: The weather was very nasty. Severe thunderstorm watch 654 was issued around 4pm. The storms came in about 8pm. Heavy rain, lighting and thunder occurred. It also had a training effect, that means it continued to rain well after the main part of the storm left. It just stopped raining here at 4am Thursday, putting almost 12 hours of rain and a few lighting strikes.

More information will be posted later as well as pics.



July 8, 2008: Had a slight risk today. Dew points remain around 69 all morning and afternoon making it a very humid day. Severe thunderstorm watch 669 went up a little after 1pm. The warnings came about an hour or so later. I wasn't able to chase them but i was able to view them. These storms were coming in fast, about 50mph. The gust front blew in with 60 to 70mph winds. That along with rain falling at least 2 inches/hr produced horizontal rain. About that time a tornado warning was issued.

No tornado was spotted. However flooding did occur in some areas. Along with some down tree branches. Other than that, not much damage reports came in.

I shall have pictures from this storm along with the July 2 storm soon. Just a little busy here.

More storms are forecast this weekend so stay tuned!!


July 10, 2008: Not much to report for this storm. No watches or warnings were issued for this. Basically just a regular old thunderstorm. We got about a half inch of rain from it. Winds were about 35mph (not severe level). And some lighting did occur.

No video or photos were taken.


July 21, 2008: National weather service put out a slight risk and severe thunderstorm watch 716 out today. Nothing happen and they canceled the watch early. About an hour after they did that, a popcorn severe thunderstorm occurred in our county. I was unfortunately tied up with dinner, so i did not go. The only report was small rotation in the storm. It died out in an hour. So mainly it was a bust day.


August 1, 2008: Dew points were hi today along with several mesoscale discussions about impending thunderstorms. Severe thunderstorm watch # 787 was issued. But nothing happen. Bust Day.


August 5, 2008: Severe thunderstorm watch # 808 was issued. But nothing happen. Bust Day.


August 7, 2008: A small cluster of pulsating thunderstorms came thru the area around 8pm. It did reach severe status prompting a thunderstorm warning. Winds gusted up to 40 mph. We had a brief rainstorm but that’s about it. No video or photos were taken at this storm. We did have a report of ¾ inch hail come in, but none was seen at my location. Also mind you that the SPC didn’t have us under a risk for severe so that was pretty cool that we got one.


August 18, 2008: A lone thunderstorm prompted a 15 minute thunderstorm warning here in Toledo. My area did not see anything severe. Winds gusted to a whopping 25mph and recivied about half inch of rain. One report of .88 inch hail did come in though. So all in all you can call it a BUST.


September 21, 2008: (Hurricane Ike) Not much of a chase here. But we did get lots of rain. Ike brought us about 3 inches of rain this weekend. High winds also plague us on Ike's passing. Very low pressure reading of 29.20 inches occurred here, which could be a record.


October 3, 2008:

CLEARING SKIES...DRY AIR AND LIGHT WINDS WILL ALLOW TEMPERATURESTO FALL INTO THE MID AND UPPER 30S ACROSS MUCH OF THE AREA

OVERNIGHT. THIS WILL ALLOW AREAS OF FROST TO DEVELOP LATE TONIGHT. A frost advisory was issued for the area. The temp did not really get that cold. Low temp was 41.


October 4, 2008:

MOSTLY CLEAR SKIES AND NEARLY CALM WINDS TONIGHT WILL ALLOW FOR TEMPERATURES TO DROP INTO THE 30S. MOST OUTLYING AREAS WILL SEE

FROST. PATCHY LIGHT FROST IS EXPECTED IN TOWN. SOME OF THE NORMALLY COLDER AREAS MAY SEE LOW TEMPERATURES AROUND FREEZING. Another frost advisory was issued. This time some frost was observed as the temp got down to 36.



October 11-13, 2008:

These days we seen unseasonable warmth. At least one record hi was broken. The high temperatures are as follows: 11th=81, 12th=85 (new record), 13th=82



October 19, 2008

: HIGH PRESSURE WILL BUILD EAST ACROSS THE AREA BRINGING DRIER
COLDER AIR TO THE REGION TONIGHT. SKIES ARE EXPECTED TO CLEAR THIS
EVENING AND WINDS ARE EXPECTED TO DIMINISH TO LIGHT. THE
COMBINATION OF THESE FACTORS WILL ALLOW TEMPERATURES TO DROP
DURING THE NIGHT TO THE MIDDLE 30S IN MOST AREAS. THE COLD
TEMPERATURES WILL LIKELY CAUSE AREAS OF FROST TO DEVELOP AFTER
MIDNIGHT.