Thunderstorms...

Well, it looks like winter is finally coming to an end. Well, at least in some parts of the country. I say that because of the building cumulonimbus that we're trying to out climb enroute to Dulles from Nashville. Unfortunately our underpowered CRJ-200 struggles to reach 34,000', barely at the tops of the storms, so we encounter continuous 'light chop' with some moderate turbulence much of the way.

Luckily, the line of severe thunderstorms had already moved east of Nashville when we got there, but hadn't moved east enough to affect our approach and landing in Dulles. But we did see some lightning as we approached Dulles from the east.

The lightning flashes were becoming more frequent and appearing to move closer, so we hurried to got the people on board and off the gate. 5 Minutes before push, it started to rain, getting heavier as the storm got closer. We hoped to get off the ground before the cell reached the airport, but didn't quite make it. As we taxied out a huge wall of blowing rain enveloped the airport, with lightning strikes in all directions. We missed getting off the ground by a couple of minutes. Ground control had us park in a 'run up block', which is just a huge, open piece of concrete off of the taxiway at the end of the runway, next to a couple of other planes.

It's hard to see, but thats a view of 6-8 'heavy' aircraft that were departing for international destinations, parked on a taxiway as they were too large to fit in the run up block with the rest of us small and medium sized jets. All in all, we waited an hour with the engines shut down, along with about 20 other planes before we were allowed to depart.

Today is day two of a three day trip, with flying between only Dulles, Nashville, and Charleston, SC. Unfortunately, a good chance of severe weather is predicted for this afternoon and evening in Charleston, where we hope to end up again tonight.