Muskoka

	Well summer is great but it is even better to get away. My dad got a week off work and decided the family should head north so we decided to head about 40min north of the Muskoka area. We had left Sunday around 12PM and the temp was a nice 32C with blue sky. The gentle rolling hills and flora were beautiful all along hwy 11.
	The Canadian shield provided the idealistic rolling hill environment. It was not like the Appalachian mountains nor rockies in the sense that it was not overwhelming and at times difficult to drive.
	Now onto the storms! Tuesday was the first day of active wx. The very first TCU in the area went up around 12PM while I was out waterboarding. (I have to thank my friend Joe for this great pic.)
	Later around 1:30 the first air mass storms went up and only produced a slight whisper of thunder. From the picture (sorry about the trees in the way) you can see it is a weak single cell pulse storm but that was far from all that was going to happen this day.
	The next round of activity started at about 4:00 PM when I noticed some thunder and then saw this complex developing.
	The storms were actually nearby developing and organizing directly above my head so I knew that the risk for severe wx was low. I actually did not think any rain would fall.
	The complex seen 2 images above now has an anvil.
	Well the storm organized in time and the rain came down in one huge torrent with some cg's striking some nearby trees. One resident told me a tree had been struck and fallen across the only road into the area. I never did see it but it's very likely.
	After the storms had passed, based on the fact they developed anvils it is a good indicator they organized very quickly.
	This was a second line of storms to the north trying to develop along outflow.
	This is the same line about 20 minutes later with a clearly defined storm although weak in nature.
	Well eventually night came and it was time to bear witness to a great meteor shower (about 40 perminute). Unfortunately my exposure setting was a little brief and I did not catch anything visible enough on the camera but I did see some frogs while fishing :)
	Ok so anyway on Wednesday I was heading out on the Lake Muskoka cruise out of Huntsville. It was cloudy and overcast but MCTV news had called for storms the night before so I was patient and hopeful something would come out of this gloomy but hot day.
	While heading down the river at about 1:40PM some really fast rising scud action was taking place directly over the boat but there was no thunderstorm activity per say. Every so often the boat would drift into light rain but that was it.
	Eventually I saw a rising cumulus through the low stratus deck. I did not think much of it but decided I should grab a picture.
	Even though the cruise was scenic and everyone was ooing and awing at all the mansions along millionaires row I was busy looking for a storm.
	Finally at about 2:30 I heard a massive blast of thunder and ran to the upperdeck of the ship to see this rain shaft. Clearly this rain shaft was being produced by something more powerful than a weak TCU. If you look towards the bottom of the rain shaft you can see a foot signifying good outflow.
	Well at around 2:40 the stratus began to clear and the developing storm became visible.
	This picture is fairly interesting. Taken at a odd angle it shows you the updraft of the storm feeding up vertically while also showing the anvil starting to develop towards the top of the picture and billow out.
	This picture was taken looking directly upwards to the sky at a 90 deg angle and shows the developing anvil curling out towards the boat.
	I was hoping that the boat was going to go through the storm but as the rain shaft got farther and farther I realized that the boat was pursuing the storm north east however the boats pace of between 10km/h and 15km/h was not enough to catch up to the storm which was moving at a good 30km/h. So I decided to take advantage of this and get some structure shots. As it turns out I am actually glad the boat never punched the storm because I am sure I saw more to do with structure than there was to see within the storm itself.
	You can see 2 new TCU starting to develop in front of the mature dominating storm cell.
	This picture shows the main storm cell with the updraft feeding into the anvil. The anvil is looks really soft and mushy here signifying a weak updraft but on the flip side this was the very first cell to break the cap in the developing linear cluster and it was the ouflow from this cell which allowed a 3rd rotating cell to develop as seen later.
	In this picture you can see the second and third storm cell rising along outflow in front of the mature parent cell.
	Not very visible here striations were beginning to develop signifying the start of rotation.
	This picture shows some striations along the second storm cell to develop.
	Eventually it was the third cell which began to develop into a true full supercell with clearly defined striations as seen in this picture. You can also notice it has a crown showing a strong updraft.
	The storm finally matured into a supercell and went on to produce wind damage in the Muskoka lake's area and Huntsville.
	What a nice storm.
	Later back at port I saw another massive cloud seem to boil up.
	Then another at the supermarket in Huntsville.
	Well all in all after such an active day all you can really do is sit back, relax
	and enjoy the view....