Video From An Actual PA Storm Chase 6/26
UPDATE: I just talked to the owner of a house across the road from where I was taking the rainbow pictures. Apparently the second lightning strike in the video below hit his deck. Pictures and account forthcoming. Map at the bottom uploaded to include location of house.
On Friday, I did something that I wouldn't normally do -- I actually chased a storm here in Centre County. It was the end of my work day, my wife was working that evening, and it was clear from the radar that State College was not going to a.) get any storms or b.) even have any places to observe the storms. So I hit I-99 and pursued the storm to my north, meeting it in Bellefonte, PA for the best part of the storm. I got a few cloud & rainbow pics, and some video of wind and hail. Here are the highlights in a video and photos (click here for the longer, raw video on the Photo Gallery).
I say "wouldn't normally do" because I have become quite guarded regarding chasing storms here in the Eastern U.S. in regards to photography and videography - I have found that if the storms are going to hit or nearly hit my home, it's best to stay there (or setup in a nearby field). When you go out chasing in the car around here you're liable to end up in the trees or in a valley where you can't see anything, saying nothing of the difficulty of monitoring radar and keeping your camera still in the car. Plus I like to get a good timelapse of the storm which requires not moving. But this time I figured conditions were right to chase, and I'm glad I did.
I've been practicing bringing a laptop with AccuWeather.com RadarPlus with me in the car lately, even if I'm only going a short distance when chasing. Its storm tracking and real-time lightning data are invaluable, especially here in the East where you don't have criss-crossing roads - one false turn and you can miss the storm. (Thanks to Verizon for the data card that allows me to get data wirelessly).
Here's a radar shot (download loop*) showing where I was during the latter part of the video and pictures. I was in a pretty good position for the worst part of the storm (that appendage resembles a hook echo but there was no rotation detected in the radar velocity fields).
2-D Shear was detected in the storm, as well as hail less than one-inch in diameter. I didn't see any tornadic rotation though I did pass through winds which were probably 40-50 mph and did see pea-sized hail for a brief moment. Here's a radar shot about the time I was seeing the rainbow... you can see two lightning strikes close to the road, which are probably the two that you hear in the video.
Below are maps showing where I was during the different photos and points in the video:
