March 2014 - Chris Kridler | Sky Diary Productions

A tornado-warned storm’s bowing line had a deceptive appearance in east-central Florida March 29, 2014. Photo by Chris Kridler, ChrisKridler.com

It felt good to slap the dash-cam mount on the dashboard, pop in a video camera and go on a real storm chase today, in the middle of a tornado watch, no less. I ran out in such a hurry that I will have to reconfigure the dash-cam mount later, but that’s OK. There was a line of intense, tornado-warned storms rampaging across central Florida with a distinct bow on radar, and I got in the way of one of the warned circulations on S.R. 520 northwest of Cocoa and south of 528. I’ve seen plenty of gust fronts, but this one had an amazing leading edge that created a tornado-like optical illusion for a few moments. It’s too bad I was in heavy rain at the time, or I would have had more photos of it, but I got a few, and they’re in my Sky Diary storm-chasing report for March 29. There’s also a video, which I have posted here, too.

Late last March, I got to chase a great squall line event, too. These kinds of Florida storms are good warm-ups for my Tornado Alley trip, when I get to learn all over again how to juggle cameras, radar, navigation and driving while trying to capture the storms of the Great Plains. I expect to head out in May and will be posting regular updates. I’m happy to note that I’m again among several storm chasers with whom Midland is partnering to show off the capabilities of its cameras. New this year is the XTC-400 HD Wearable Video Camera. I’m looking forward to trying it out, hopefully on a mothership supercell! Wide-angle lenses do amazing things to mothership supercells.

The severe storm sure was scary looking – presenting a great faux tornado. Photo by Chris Kridler, ChrisKridler.com

A tornado watch was issued the morning of March 29, 2014, for all of central Florida, so I kept my eye on the sky.

Several storms in a bowing line prompted tornado warnings, so I went to track them down and met the line on S.R. 520 – west of the St. John’s River but south of 528.

I was quite close to one of the warned circulations, as the radar image shows, and even saw a Scary Looking Cloud that had a great tornado look about it – but was really an optical illusion as the leading edge of the bow passed by.

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