01-17-2012: Chase #01

No watches were issued today. A small line of thunderstorms came thru the state along with a strong cold front. Temperatures ahead of the front were in the 40/50s, behind the front 20/30s. As the storms passed Cleveland, they reached severe limits. The main threat was strong winds. About 6 counties in NE Ohio was issued severe thunderstorm warnings. Damage reports did come  in. Our observations here in the Toledo area was wind gusts of 45MPH.
This is the reports of damage:

-Non thunderstorm wind damage reported in SE Lorian county. Tree into a building. Power lines and trees are downed.

-Thunderstorm wind damage reported in the city of Chargin Falls in Eastern Cuyahoga county. Train spotter reports a tree on a house.

-Thunderstorm wind damage reported in the city of South Euclid in NE Cuyahoga county. Train spotters reports trees down

-Thunderstorm wind gust of 65mph reported in the city of Conneaut in Ashtabula county.


01-23-2012: Chase #02

Severe thunderstorm watch #9 was issued for SW Ohio in the early morning hours. This was part of the line that produced many tornadoes down south. As the st2-orms reach the state, they dimished in intensity rather quickly. No warnings was issued. The watch was cancelled early. However, during the afternoon, one cell did pop up in Harrison, Jefferson counties in East Central Ohio. One report of a tree down near Cadiz in Harrison county came in. For us, just heavy rain and wind. Still not really a bust day.

02-23-2012: Chase #03

We were in southern Ohio where a slight risk of severe was up (5% for tornadoes, 30% for hail 15% for strong winds). Storms really never got their act together. Most of the day dew points barely got above 40. We intercepted a rogue thunderstorm, below severe limits. We saw a few good cloud to ground lighting strikes. It was a good test of our equipment, which worked suburb. 


03-02-2012: Chase #04

We attended the Ohio Severe Weather Symposium in Columbus, Ohio. We were also under a moderate risk for severe (15% for tornadoes, 45% for damaging winds, 30% hail). This storm system was talked about days in advance. The bigger treat was to the further south, where the risk was higher. Later in the day our area went under a PDS tornado watch. Large, long track tornadoes were possible. The threat never really panned out where we were at. We intercepted some cloud to ground lighting. The Symposium was great. Unfortunally, the storms were intense down south. Many people lost their lives. Please keep them in your prayers.


03-12-2012: Chase #05

There was no slight risk for severe today, just a general risk. We had a few severe storms pop up with the heating of the day. We observed some pea size hail at our location. But it quickly melted before we could get a pic. A nice home chase.


03-15-2012: Chase #06

Our chase vehicle was down for repairs. So we had no choice but hope the storms would come to us. Also, none of the equipment had a proper charge from the previous chase, making recording time difficult. The SPC had us in a slight risk for severe. A thunderstorm watch was issued for the counties just to the north. Storms started to fire up right along the Ohio/Michigan border (where we were at). This storm produced some intense thunder, hail, rain, and later a mesocyclone. 

This storm stated to rotate right above our heads, right where we lived. This storm slowly moved to the north, across into Michigan, where it went tornado warned and dropped a tornado near Ida, Michigan.

These storms continued to form and drop heavy rain/hail over the same area for about 5 hours. We recorded what we could. The video footage is on youtube. Pretty impressive since we put no miles on the car


03-30-2012: Chase #7: 

A slight risk of severe storms was up for most of the state today.  Severe thunderstorm watch #118 and #120 was issued for most of the state. We did not get much storms up here however our chase partner and son Ryan did observed some great cloud to ground lighting as well as some hail. A good chase for our team. This was the 4th chase for March, breaking the record for chases this month.


04-26-2012: Chase #8

Had several thunderstorm warnings come up for SW Ohio this morning. Our chaser-in-training, Amy observed these storms and got to see several great lighting strikes. It was a successful chase for our southern team.


04-30-2012: Chase # 9

Severe thunderstorm watch # 211 was issued for southeast Ohio, including the county we was in, Wood county. We went on a small chase. No warnings was issued on this storm, but we observed heavy rain and lighting. Good stuff


05-01-2012: Case# 10

Tornado watch #218 was issued for SW Ohio. Our southern team encountered severe hail along with flash flooding. Largest hail observed was 1.5 inch hail reported by our chaser in training, Ryan


05-02-2012: Chase # 11

Slight risk for severe today. We took a chance and staged in southern Michigan. We watched towers go up but not high enough to initiate thunderstorms. The worst we got was a slight shower. Cap was to strong resulting in a blue sky bust.


05-04-2012: Chase # 12

There was no warnings up for the storm. We chased these storms from Piqua to Cincinnati. We encounter many rounds of heavy rain, lighting, and strong winds. These were all below severe limits. But it was a good storm to encounter.


05-09-12: Chase #13

Nothing much happen on the severe side today. We encountered heavy rain, lighting, and small hail in various rounds of storms throughtout the day here in Toledo. The hail was about pea size or smaller. We got a few photos which will be posted later. Including a shot of a rainbow.


06-17-12: Chase #14

We went  on a short non-severe storm chase. We encountered heavy rain, winds of 50mph. 

We got stills of a possible funnel cloud while we were on the highway. As we passed it, we were hit by 50mph winds and heavy rain. Visibility was near zero and we were drastically slowed down to 10mph on the highway. This lasted for about five minutes. 

We then staged in Perrysburg, for lunch, and watch the storms roll thru. These were just heavy rain and little wind. Toledo airport got 1.50 inches of rain while my station got 0.60


06-18-12: Chase #15

Both myself and my wife observed the storm come in Lucas County, Ohio; which was thunderstorm warned. I was unable to take photos due to being at work, while Teresa was able to get a few. A decent gust front came thru from the North followed by 45mph winds and heavy rain. The storms then started to track East. Those storms had some damage reported in the Sandusky County area.


06-21-12: Chase #16

We chased some non-severe storms up in Monore county, MI. We observed winds max out @ 48mph (measured), some heavy rain. We also took pics of a beaver tail along Bacon and Rauch Road. 

We decided to abandoned this storm and head to to Henry county in Ohio as the storm to the east of there went warned. As we approached the area the cell that we was targeting had weaken considerably and was no longer severe.

We decided to stage at the McDonalds in Waterville and watch the storm come in. There was no visible gust front, sporadic cloud to ground lighting and moderate rain.

The Michigan storm was much more impressive than the Ohio storm. It was just barely enough to fix the SDS for a few days.


06-30-12: Chase #17:

BIg storm day.....DERECHO!!!! Our southren storm team got some great pics. Winds gusted up to 70MPH!! Lots of damage...Lots of power outages. Some power will not be up for almost a week. Pics will follow. Check them out on our pics link


07-01-12: Chase # 18:

Fulton county was our chase target. We recorded heavy rain, nickel hail, winds gusts up to 50mph!! It was a great chase


07-03-12: Chase #19

We tracked the storms on radar that were in the Dayton area.  Many thunderstorm warnings was issued. Some of our team members in the Dayton aerea reported high winds and rain. 


07-04-12: Chase #20

We stayed at home for these storms as well since we could not intercept them in time. Many thunderstorm warnings was issued and eventually a watch was issued for the southern half of Ohio. Some of our team members in the Dayton area reported high winds and rain. 


07-05-12: Chase #21

The was a slight risk out for severe storms today. We watch this cell come down from Michigan. It did go thunderstorm warned for Lucas and Wood county. What it did next was incredible. The storm collapsed, causing a microburst west of Toledo in Sylvania. Measured wind gust up to 90mph. Trees, power lines, and some roofs were blown off. Many photo was taken by our friend Tim McConoughey of the damage. We also got a few photos of some down power poles in Wood county. Many people were without power. This storm was no where compared to the dercho last Friday, put impressive on the small scale.


07-07-12: Chase #22 

We started out the day with an excessive heat warning and a chance of severe weather in the late afternoon into the late evening. Well, the showers were desperately trying to form behind the cold front but then they headed up north instead. That didn't stop us from traveling over to Sylvania hand having a terrific photo session on what turned out to be a non-severe thunderstorm. The photos we got are amazing. This just goes to show you that you really don't need lighting and high winds to be truly amazed but the beauty of nature


07-18-12: Chase #23

On our way to Cincinnati, we came across an amazing non-severe storm in Hancock County. We pulled over to grab a few photos/video. 


07-19-12: Chase #24

While vacationing in Gatlinburg, TN; We had a severe storm come near us. Since we was over 1,000ft up on a mountain, A storm chase wasn't feasible. So we decided to take photos/video of the storm. A good chase. 


07-20-12: Chase #25

Another night of storm chasing on the mountains of Tennessee. This was a night storm so photos and video was unavailable. We encountered a gust front of 40mph. Pretty amazing because we were so high up. It was like the clouds went right thru us. While watching all the lighting, I witness a CG strike about 20ft in front of me. It almost knocked me off my feet. A great chase!!


07-21-12: Chase #26

Rather a observance than a chase. It was our sis/team member Amy's wedding. During the ceremony, moderate rain fell along with some CG. A storm on a stormchasers wedding day is always a bonus.


07-26-12: Chase #27

Storm watches were up for SW Ohio. Team member Ryan chased the storm. He observed a wall cloud. Great chase for Ryan and the team :)


07-27-12: Chase #28

Severe thunderstorm watch was up for most of western Ohio. We decided to head out to our favorite location, Fulton county in hopes of an intercept. We recorded and shot stills of a impressive shelf cloud over the area. This storm later strengthen and went severe later on. We observed some good CG, winds gusted up to 40mph. No hail was recorded. A great chase.


08-04-12: Storm Chase #29

An impressive squall line just cleared thru Chicago producing winds up to 70mph. We decided to hear out west around 1800 along State Route 20 and meet up with the storm along the Ohio/Indiana border.

At 1950 SPC put out a Severe thunderstorm watch #561 for most of NW Ohio. We finally staged along SR 127 and CR H in Defiance county around sundown to record and document the storm coming in.

We observed several great cloud to groud lighting shots as a ragged shelf cloud came thru the area. As the storm passed, measured wind gusts of 50mph and rains in excess of 2in/hr was observed. We noticed that the storm was also loosing its strength a bit , so we decided to head up north a little bit and shoot some lighting on video after the storm passed. 

We observed and recorded some good anvil crawlers. It was a really good chase.


09-21-12: Storm Chase #30

We encountered a severe storm just outside Berkshire, Ohio while we was on vacation. I always bring the chase gear, just in case. It was a nighttime storm with winds gusting up to 50-60mph. Heavy horizontal rain, some lighting, occurred. I was able to go out on the entrance cover at the hotel and get a few minutes of video. It was a cold intercept.


10-29-12: Storm Chase #31 (Superstorm Sandy)

We decided to head out to Mamuee Bay State Park and record the winds and waves of Lake Erie from the effects of hurricane Sandy during our short free time. We had about 30mins of daylight left. Teresa recorded waves up to a few feet and I recorded wind speed and took pics. Winds max out that night 60mph.