THUNDERSTORMS IN NORTH CAROLINA

July 13, 2006

Big thunderstorms moved through Virginia and into North Carolina. The storms were pretty intense in the western portions of the Hampton Roads cities like Suffolk and Portsmouth. Power was out to portions of the area and heavy rain and windy conditions were the norm for the area. As the storms moved southeast into Chesapeake were I was at the time, I started to move south down Rt. 168 into North Carolina trying to get ahead of the storms as they had started to gust out a bit. I wanted to be in front so I could get some that structure on video and of course shoot digital photos. Things did not go as planed as the storms seemed to slow and dissipate before reaching me. I scouted out a few areas to shoot from as another line was moving in my direction. I found two great places of Rt. 158 in North Carolina near Coinjock. These storms gusted out as well but this time they did so as they approached.  As they passed, I watched the radar and saw the line reform to the west and it looked like Nags Head was going to see some good night time lightning opportunities. Friend and fellow chaser Bill Coyle called me and said he was on his way. We met up and continued to drive to Nags Head. Once there the storms were weak and disorganized with no real lightning visible. We did notice however some nice crawlers as we started to leave so we pulled over quickly to shoot some. Of course as we did so, the lightning pretty much came to an end or was embedded in the clouds.

STORM VIDEO CLIP: See storm clouds and lightning from northeast North Carolina including Nags Head.

Looking south along Rt. 158 in North Carolina, the large gust front had pushed overhead and the wind had jumped up a good bit.

Here is a shot looking east over the Currituck Sound of the gust front moving south.

An Osprey on its nest called out each time the thunder rumbled from the lightning to our east.

This photo and the others below are video frame grabs from a marina looking east across the Currituck Sound.

Back a bit north near Coinjock Marina, I waited for the next line of storms to pass to my north from the northwest.

After waiting for about fifteen minutes or so, the next line gusted out as they moved in. Looking northwest over the marina.

A shot of the Ford Explorer near the edge of the water as the gust front moved in.

Looking west, I saw these cloud formations which looked like a tornado dropping from the cloud. However, it was just low scud clouds rising beneath the leading edge of the storm.

Looking back north as the gust front started to cross the water.

The two photos above are after the gust front moved through and I drove a bit east to catch some lightning on video.

Once we pulled over in Nags Head, this was the only digital photo I was able to catch of a small crawler on the backside of the storm as it moved out into the Atlantic.

The last two are video frame grabs from Nags Head as the storms moved out into the Atlantic.

All Images Copyright Jesse V. Bass III and VaStormphoto.com