An Early Storm Chase in Central PA

Local storm chaser Ron "R-Factor" Shawley got lucky with a severe thunderstorm (see warnings) that dropped a batch of lightning just to his Northwest (at his normal chase spot Chickoree Mountain, PA) just after 10 AM. Here are a couple of his photos; check out his slow-motion lightning video too.

I was surprised to see the storms today in Pennsylvania, and especially impressed that they held together as well as they did through Ron's area, but they had mostly dissipated by the time they reached State College, Pennsylvania, home of AccuWeather HQ [Google Map]. I took the pics below from Accuweather HQ. However, the good news is that today marks the first official "chase day" of the Severe Weather 2009 season, which has started much later than last year... by this time last year, Ron had already bagged a storm 10 days earlier and I had a major severe thunderstorm roll through by late April.