Today was the
first day of our Storm Chasing Summer Class. The class not only had me excited
for the prospect of seeing some nicely developed storms, but also because it
involved traveling to parts of the country I have never seen before and a road
trip significantly longer and farther west than I have ever been before. I
arrived at the ENR building at about 9am to cloudy skies and temperatures only
in the low 60s (and dropping) so it was a chilly start to the day after
reaching 92F in my backyard in Staten Island yesterday thanks to a late spring
backdoor cold front. Fortunately heading
west meant leaving that chilly marine air behind, by lunchtime we would be
looking at perfect weather with patchy clouds and a temperature near 80
degrees.
A little after 13:00z
(9:30am EDT) we were making our way to 287 north and heading to our
destination.
At 14z (10am EDT)
we crossed the Delaware River and entered Pennsylvania as was made clear by the
big signs for firework stores as soon as we crossed state borders. Not long
after we made our first rest stop for a refill in gas and a short restroom
break. The gas station restroom was much cleaner than my expectations, but it
was not too surprising since the lady running the store clearly was running a
tight ship. I say that since I took a picture of an interesting bag of potato
chips and she immediately (and sternly) asked me if anything was wrong. I told
her I would have no problem deleting the picture if she wanted to but she
didn’t respond. I was already sticking out like a sore thumb and I was only a
few miles from New Jersey’s border.
We head north
towards I-80 and then west on there. Along the way we watched the transition
from a low cloud ceiling and misty/ cool temperatures to a typical summertime
sky with a mix of beautiful cumulous clouds and some upper level cirrocumulus
clouds. When we first started heading
into the hillier terrain around the NJ/PA border, the clouds covered the tops
of the hills. As we headed west though the clouds slowly broke up and revealed
a sky filled with clouds at so many different layers. The
cirrostratus/cirrocumulus mix of clouds allowed for a faint 25-degree sun halo
to form. It took me a while to actually spot it since I never realized how wide
they actually are when the form since I don’t think I have ever seen one in
real life. It was very cool to observe
some interesting weather right outside of New Brunswick. Unfortunately we did
miss some nice storms in southern New Jersey and PA, but that was probably
fortunate since that would have slowed us down a bit and we have plenty of time
to see thunderstorms on the trip!
After traveling
for about 2 hours without stopping, we take a lunch break at, a Cracker Barrel.
I was pretty excited for this trip knowing that we would see some cracker
barrels along the way so getting to eat their at our very first spot was pretty
nice. I actually was still very full from breakfast earlier this morning and
did not eat anything there other than the biscuits and corn bread, but they
both were very good. I also had 3 glasses of water, which I knew I would regret
(and did). The weather at this point was really beautiful and we definitely
were no longer under the influence of that backdoor cold front.
There
was interesting weather not too far away in Illinois with a spotter confirmed
tornado warning issued near Peoria, IL. We later saw a pretty high quality
picture of the tornado and saw that the reason why we couldn’t find it on the
radar because of it was a landspot (it was basically just a swirling column of
air, not something very strong or long lasting) but still very interesting
since we were not very far from it.
A little after 21z
(5pm EDT) we finally enter Ohio. Shortly after crossing the border I realized
my seat had armrests. It probably should not have taken me 8 hours to figure
that out!
We began to see
Lake Erie influence our weather a bit as the overcast skies returned and
temperatures dripped to the 70s (and eventually 60s) with a very humid feel to
the air.
At about 21:40z (5:40pm
EDT) I saw the 3rd Cracker Barrel of the trip (and in my life). I soon
realized that what I thought was a rare treat was actually pretty common. This
did not take a way from the fact that the Cracker Barrel we went to for lunch
was the “Nicest Cracker Barrel I have ever seen”.
At 22:05z (6:05pm
EDT) I note that a lot of drivers on these roads are on their cell phones while
driving. It was the second person I saw using there phone as clear as can be. They
were easy to pick out because they were going 50mph on the left lane. I guess
that law is much more strictly enforced in my tri state area than the open
roads of the Midwest (or maybe western Northeast Region to be more accurate).
At 22:19z (6:19pm
EDT) after seeing 4 dead deer (and one dead raccoon) on the side of the road, I
can finally check the deer off my bingo sheet. Honorable mention goes to the 4
(or maybe 5 since I lost count) tire blowouts we saw on the highway. I did not
expect so see that at all.
At 22:54z (6:54pm
EDT) I saw a fellow New Jersey license plate on I-80 near Cleveland as I
attempted to take my eyes off of the scenery and look at some of our reading
material. I ended up falling asleep for about a half hour and woke up when we
stopped at a rest stop for dinner at 7:20. I was completely out of it since
this was the longest stretch of the trip without stopping and I was tired from
an already full day. After stumbling out of the car, I begin to wake up. I
ordered a kids menu from burger king, which includes a complicated story
involving the cashier girl having a hard time with her boss. She told me that
she will give me my order cheaper because she says that she will be fired if
she voids an order because of her new boss. I wish her luck with that since it
sounded like she and her co-workers were under a lot of stress and ate my
dinner. I received an odd Tom and Jerry toy that I named “Dubois” after an
earlier conversation we had in the Scarlet van. I am actually sitting here now
in my room still trying to figure out what it’s supposed to do.
We arrive at our
hotel at the Comfort Inn in Fremont, Indiana for the night. The hotel has been
very nice (no bed bugs to be seen thankfully!). The water pressure is a little
weak, but definitely a perfect place to get a good night sleep and get ready
for tomorrow.
So far the trip
has been great and I am really looking forward to hearing the first forecast
discussion tomorrow morning and possibly heading towards South Dakota for
tomorrow night.
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