Snow Squall Chase

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Well it was a definitely going to be an active day for squalls. Here the sun is visible looking elongated as the light passes through the remnant ice crystals of a collapsed snow squall.

Patrick and I had spoke the Sunday before and planned to head out together. He thought it was actually funny when we were checking off necessities and listing things such as salt, shovel, gravel, windshield washer and so on. I don't usually list those things when planning a chase, but then again, it is Canada. =)

The snow started just as we entered Barrie, but was still considerably wet since the temp was still in the +1 range.

The snow continued to get heavier as we drove deeper into the squall and did manage to coat the road for a short time.

Visibility and road conditions soon became better and we found ourselves exiting the squall.

Continuing north, we decided hwy 11 was the best choice for safety and action!

Pat was getting really hyped as we drove under the leading edge of the next snow squall.

It was a considerably long drive, or at least it felt that way, before we neared the first wave of snow.

Within a few seconds we were into the squall and the snow was coming down at a rapid pace. Road conditions also began to deteriorate since these bands were more powerful than the southern bands and the surface air by this time was either at or below freezing.

After some driving, we finally came to Orillia. Conditions further down the hwy looked even worse so we decided to land in the city.

The snow had accumulated to a good depth of 15cm or so on most of the roads.

We finally stopped near the downtown while on the southern edge of the squall at the same time. We figured it was the perfect spot to sit and wait for thundersnow.

Soon we became hyped when snow grains started to poor down like crazy! This was a good sign since it showed powerful mixing within the squall which meant higher graupel counts and more heating of the air due to latent heat realize.

This guy did not seem to really care what the weather. He was just... stroooooling along lol.

The car was covered in snow grains within maybe a minute or 2 of stopping. Plus many of them were melting on contact with the car since the car interior was warm.

After waiting for a while, the snow grains turned back to snow and things began to lighten up and the squall seemed to pull north of us. So we headed back to hwy 11 and went north. Just out of view on the downside of a hill on the hwy, the car in front of us spun out.

Since were directly behind him and Pat and I had come prepared for just that type of situation we decided to pull over and give him a helping hand.

Unfortunately the car had not only slid off the road but was also elevated on a mini ashfault median separating the gravel shoulder and paved section. In the vid cap above, you can see the tire nearest the camera just hanging down. After several attempts at digging him out, we had to leave him to wait for a tow truck.

We continued north and soon found ourselves looking to turn around so as not place to much distance between our homes and ourselves. We were having extreme difficulty finding a ramp which would place on 11 south bound.

We finally found a ramp and took it.

Shortly after, Pat was dying for a drink and we ended up in either the town of Cumberland Beach or Ardtrea or the northern most area of Orillia. Either way there was 20cm on the ground!

The pile of uncompressed snow on the opposite side of the road gives a good idea of depth.

We chilled in the Tim Horton's parking lot and let our Hot Chocolate cool off. You can see pat in the background snapping a pic of the cups as well. Then something funny happened. I had the camera charging through the cigarette lighter and Pat was blasting the stereo and the whole time the front lights and interior lights of the car were on. As you can imagine... WE COULD NOT START THE CAR!!! LOLOLOLOLOLOL. Fortunately EVERYONE up north has cables... or so we thought. After asking everyone in Tim's and some Cow Girls which drove up and then ran away because Pat scared them off, we finally found someone who gave us a boost.

After our little ordeal while heading back on hwy 11 it was apparent that conditions were quickly deteriorating.

This was the heaviest snow we had seen during the whole trip and the road was not visible.

While heading south the snow began to taper and we both figured the really bad stuff had passed.

I made a comment that the guys in these plows did not know what they were going to be driving into.

HAH yeah right! Turns out things were 5x worse down the road. This was the heaviest snow I had ever seen in my life, or almost. There was not much wind, just blinding amounts of snow. It was coming down so fast that the flakes without the wind reduced vis to about 1 meter. Literally nil... when people say vis was nil, this is what they mean. This vid cap does a horrible job of explaining what we were seeing... the video itself is nothing compared to what the reality of it was. We figured the rates at this time were probably close to 20cm an hour at the sfc or above. This was definitely not 10cm/hr or 15cm/h. I have seen rates of 10cm/h and 15cm/h and this was way more intense!

About 20 minutes later things tapered off and we were back in Barrie on the 400 at the north end of the city. We were actually right between 2 squalls at the time. The city lights were illuminating the squall to our south creating a very cool lightning effect.

Conditions then once again began to deteriorate quickly, but this time, there was actually wind whipping around the snow.

The snow was coming down at a good 10cm/hr but 40 - 50km/h winds some gusts probably around 60 were really reducing visibility!!!

I started getting really anxious and wanted to go out and play so I convinced Pat to exit. Wow, the exit ramp in this case had a good 4 meter drop on either side of the road and we could not even see the road! It was just the guy in the SUV in front guiding us and we have no clue how he could see anything. Chances are he was a local and knew the road well.

Yeah, it was snowing pretty good.

We passed this lady and figured she was either working the night shift or more likely, waiting on the bus.

*Note: It is a joke so please don't get offended.

We pulled onto some road, which happened to have had a warehouse with trucks turning.

Ironically however, we happed to stop right inf ront of one of the city salt depots without even realizing LOL.

Winds and snowfall rates by this time were starting to increase and we decided to step out to brave the elements. Pat looked like a turtle since he was huddling against the wind.

Walking backwards into the wind.

Suddenly things began to really get bad! The snow which was already coming down at 7cm/hour steady was whipped by winds that immediately started to gust well over 60km/h. Pat quickly took refuge behind a pole LOL.

Then all hell broke loose! I could barely hold the camera in the wind or see for that matter! Pat suddenly bolted from behind the pole and dashed towards me yelling something. After 3 or 4 shouts I realized he was yelling "PLOW".

I turned around in the blizzard and saw 2 faint lights with a blue flasher heading towards the car and myself. (wind was like 500km/h at this time).

We both dashed into the car and took off in the near 0 vis conditions. Both of us like idiots, did not realize that the plow was really a salter turning into the salt depot. We only realized that when we watched the video and realized we had parked in front of a salt depot. I filmed the place and did not even realize myself LOL.

Oh it was blizzard like alright.

We pulled down a side street where Pat measured the snow depth in a field near some pine trees. He was looking for deep drifts or something along those lines. The snow became lighter, and our tire tracks leading down the road made the depth visible. It was about 15cm or so, since it had not long started to accumulate in Barrie, plus the heavier squalls until now, had remained to the north.

Pat was really tired by this point and we had driven something like 210km/h so it was decided that we would head home. I for one was having a great time and did not realize just how strained Pat was.

On the way back, we witnessed victim number 5 or 6. This guys was really in a bad spot. He had fallen down 3 meters or so into a 50 degree gradient.

The drive home was filled with more snow and wind, but nothing worse than what we had already seen. All in all Pat and I had a GREEEEEEAT time! I can't wait until the next batch of squalls =).

The snow squall at the southern tip of Georgian Bay was the left over from what we had been playing in while in Barrie.

The red areas on radar appeared in the radar loop when we had gotten home, however the intense snow squall near Orillia we experienced heading south on hwy 11 probably would have looked similar to the above radar.

Later while back at home, the band coming off Huron organized into a large single band and stream right into the GTA giving Patrick and I a dose of snow.