KEYSVILLE, FL — After 5 weeks of nothing but dry weather across South Florida after I got back from Oklahoma, the 2011 Summer Storm Chasing Season finally got underway this afternoon. After careful analysis of the models this morning, I honed in on a target of northeast Manatee County and southeast Hillsborough County. I left the house just before 4 PM, as storms were starting to initiate in eastern Manatee County. My target storm went Severe Thunderstorm Warned as I came off the Skyway, and then the chase was on.
My original plan was to head east on SR-62, just like the Duette chase last year, but quickly changed plans when I got to Parrish and the cell had progressed further north than I thought it was going to, so I headed north on US-301 instead to SR-674. From there, the cell was constantly changing speed, shape, size, and strength, so I did quite a lot of zig-zagging across eastern Hillsborough County to stay on the leading edge of the storm where I could best document it. At the end of the day, I had made all the right decisions, managed to stay ahead of the storm and out of the rain core, and got some great pictures to boot.