I can describe today in two words: very disappointing.
I had been watching the western-most storm as the line moved into PA. I was trying to get an idea of how close the storms would get to State College (herein; SCE). It would be very close I concluded (this turned out to be true). However, as the afternoon progressed, one part of the mesoscale convective system (that span basically the width of PA) bowed farther out (this would produce an outflow boundary, more on this character ahead) leaving the western-most part of the line/storm behind. I became concerned as I figured the western-most storm would die out because of being in the cold pool and it indeed seemed to look that was what was happening to the storm on radar as well.
However, around 4PM the western-most thunderstorm became tornado warned, having developed a nice hook (early on in the warning) and even a radar indicated meso in Elk County (herein; Elk storm) . There were reports from law enforcement that numerous trees were down in an updated tornado warning statement (most of the storms had been primarily warned for damaging, straight line winds). While this was all going on, an outflow boundary pushed SW through SCE that caused thunderstorms to develop NE of SCE. It also caused the
temperature to drop ~10 degrees and
dewpoint ~5 degrees (graphs are updated daily, so look for 8/9). I thought this to be promising as the this boundary might keep things cooking as the Elk storm headed toward SCE.
Around 4:45, I decided I would see if one of our interns, Nikolai, would be interested in heading a little bit outside of SCE to watch the Elk storm come through. While we were chatting, the tornado warning was extended into Clearfield County (borders Centre county to the west) and the hook had reappeared and look "decent" by PA standards.
So, I headed down to the Walker Building to pick up Nikolai and a tripod. We headed out to my usual spot southwest of town. However, the last time I was there in late June the corn wasn't nearly as high. So, bailed on that spot and came back into town. While the skies were darker to the N and E, the NW (which would have been the direction the Elk storm would be coming from) was still bright. I wasn't overly concerned as trying to get a sense of direction is difficult in the trees, corn, and maize of winding roads.
We headed back out of town and went past the PSU instrument farm, then proceeding up Tussey Mountain to Jo Hays Vista, which overlooks SCE. It was an alright view, but was quite hazy. We heard intracloud lightning, but never saw any cloud-to-ground lightning. As we began to head back down the mountain, we were able to see the Elk storm finally with cirrus blowing off. Essentially, we were on the "tail-end charlie" of the day, except it was the western-most storm instead of southern-most.
We stopped just outside of Pine Grove Mills, which had a better viewing location of the hazy sunshine to the west, Elk storm heading for us and darker skies to the east. Nikolai and I sat there for a bit before calling Todd, my supervisor, to find out what was going on as it wasn't looking impressive from our viewpoint.
This is where the story becomes sad. The outflow killed the Elk storm. The storm was still under a severe thunderstorm warning; however, it had shrunk in size and would likely die altogether. So, decision time on what to do. Nikolai wanted to see why it was so dark in the eastern sky (clouds + precipitation + sun = dark clouds). We headed toward Mount Nittany and ran through sprinkles, but by the time we got to Mount Nittany, the sky was basically clear to the west and overhead there was what I thought was the cirrus anvil from the leftovers of the convection that formed to the NE of SCE.
On an odd note, I make animal noises and I have a pretty good cow impression. This was the other reason I headed to Mount Nittany as I knew this place had cows and wanted to show Nikolai I could call them. Utter failure again. No luck, although a few cows did look at me.
Back on topic, we called it a day there and headed back to the Walker Building. Once we got back, we saw the collapse of the Elk storm. The sprinkles we went through on the way to Mount Nittany and what I thought was the cirrus anvil from the leftover convection was the remnants of the Elk storm.
I had figured we would at least see something a little more impressive than that. Yet again, the
State College Bubble Effect. But it was still a good time even though it was very disappointing from a storm chasing perspective.
NWS CTP Storm Reports (notice how only a severe thunderstorm warned sliced extreme eastern part of Centre County)
Pictures and a radar loop, showing the collapse of the Elk storm, will come later.
