CHASE ARCHIVES
Monsoon Season
2012
An excellent monsoon season. Experienced several good chases, including a landspout tornado in Perris, CA on September 9 and long-track supercell in the Mojave Desert on September 11.
July 4, 2012
Barstow/Kramer Junction, CA - First monsoon chase of the season. Classic El Mirage Convergence boundary initiation just west of Kramer Jct with amazing structure and weak rotation. Storm was severe warned. Second intercept was a severe storm just east of Barstow that procuded a brief funnel cloud.
July 14, 2012
Palm Springs, CA - Attempted an intercept of a severe MCS near Blythe but aborted at Chiriaco Summit as the MCS died while enroute. While on my way home the boundary between Lucern Valley and Newberry Springs initiated right at sunset and the first cell was visible from Palm Springs. It later became part of a strong MCS just east of Barstow but I was not able to intercept due to a prior committment that evening.
July 15, 2012
Ludlow, CA - Classic boundary initiation east of Ludlow produced a storm that went severe at sunset with amazing structure. Storm produced 2" hail during its first cycle, and developed rotation and supercell-like structure as it moved northeast into the Mojave Desert wilderness.
August 4, 2012
Boron, CA - Subsevere storms around the western Mojave Desert region. Nothing spectacular except for a close lightning strike near Boron. As I sat in my car several stepped leaders apeared around me with sharp snaps followed by explosive thunder.
August 11, 2012
Adelanto/Phelan/Corona/Lake Elsinore, CA - Initially targeted storms in Adelanto and Phelan with some flash flooding near Phelan. Repositioned later near home in Lake Elsinore as a severe thunderstorm with rotation over Perris moved southwest into Lake Elsinore.
August 12, 2012
Romoland/Perris, CA - Classic ECZ initiation. Two merging cells (Romoland and Perris) formed into a single severe thunderstorm over Perris. This storm rotated and produced two landspout tornadoes and a funnel cloud and a tornado warning was issued. I had initially staged under the Romoland initiation but moved to the west side of Perris as storm develpment appeared stronger there. When the two cells merged and went severe, I repositioned east closer to Perris near downtown, and sat in the core with heavy rain and hail. As I sat there, the tornado warning was issued but I had no visual on the tornadoes due to the heavy precip. Unfortunately, I did not have any audio of the tornado warning and did not attempt to reposition during the height of the warning for better visibility. After this day I changed my chasing strategy to refrain from coring storms and to stay on the outer fringes for better viewing opportunities. Hard lesson learned.
August 17, 2012
Lake Elsinore, CA - Another classic day of ECZ boundary initiation. Intercepted a storm that had formed over Perris and moved west into the northern district of Lake Elsinore. Storm went severe and rotation was noted visually and on radar from my vantage point at Rosetta Canyon looking north.
August 18, 2012
Ludlow, CA - Weak boundary initiation west of Ludlow. Day started out slow with capping being predominant through the day in all areas. Decided to head to this area after observing cumulus field trying to get started. The result was a cap break in a very narrow area along the boundary between Newberry Spgs and Ludlow around 7pm.
August 22, 2012
Mojave Desert, CA - Unseasonal cold core low moved se into the northwest Mojave Desert region and interacted with monsoon moisture. While a low-end severe risk was expected it turned out to be no more than general wetting rains with weak embedded convection across the entire Mojave region and northwest Arizona. The only exception was an isolated thunderstorm that formed over Apple Valley along the Lucerne Valley Convergence boundary at sunset.
August 30, 2012
Perris/Lake Elsinore, CA - ECZ initiation triggered severe thunderstorms that began in Yucaipa, Redlands, and Moreno Valley and eventually propagating southwest into Perris and Lake Elsnore. I staged in Perris as the Moreno Valley storm sent a massive outflow southwest causing a large dust storm. Moreno Valley also experienced significant flash flooding. I opted to stay put in Perris and wait for the storm to continue migrating southwest as it began exhibiting rotation, which I noticed as a shallow wall cloud/lowering and was confirmed on radar and the severe thunderstorm warning statement. This proved unfruitful as the storm was slow moving and weakened significantly before hitting Perris full force, so I relocated in Lake Elsinore as outflow induced convection triggered new storms there.
August 31, 2012
Ludlow, CA - boundary initiation between Newberry Springs and Ludlow eventually let to a severe thunderstorm north of Ludlow in open desert wilderness.
September 8, 2012
Phelan/Pearblossom, CA - Chased the area between Phelan and Pearblossom in the high desert region. Storms were subsevere. Mostly photogenic opportunities. NOTE: This was my first chase using an HD video camera.
September 9, 2012
Perris, CA - Classic Elsinore Converzence Zone (EZC) boundary action. As storms began congealing over Perris, a landspout tornado formed just west of the downtown district. My first ever monsoon landspout.
September 10, 2012
Perris, CA - Classic Elsinore Converzence Zone (EZC) boundary action. First severe thunderstorm fired in Hemet and moved west into Menefee. It was followed by a series of storms over Calimesa and Moreno Valley which caused significant flash flooding in those districts. A rotating storm over west side of Perris and other storms in Lake Elsinore.
September 11, 2012
Mojave Desert, CA - The last chase of the 2012 monsoon season. Formed over Ft Irwin around 2:30 pm and tracked south for 120 miles in 9 hrs before finally dying over Joshua Tree NP around 11:30pm. Storm towered to 60k ft, produced 3.25" hail, and had radar signatures indicating rotation and a possible tornado inside the 29 Palms military reserve about 10pm. It was truly a remarkable storm. I got sight of the storm around 5:00pm. intercepted it in Afton around 6:00pm, and chased it all the way down to 29 Palms.
