Very cool. Congrats on getting your wings wet.
I flew a similar frontal system 2 fronts ago (Friday) going from my home base near RDU to CLT
Flight Track
I don't know how Flight Aware captures the radar situation so accurately but as you can see I waited for most of the front to pass through before taking off. We took off in a shower but could see a spot of blue sky to the west. Flew the edge of the storm with a beautiful array of grey rain clouds on one side and blue off our right. Only occasional IMC.
The end of this flight gave me a chance to replay a situation from a week before that I screwed up. Flying IFR at the end of a long day, I was guided into KHPN in night time VMC conditions. Traffic was heavy and I was sent around the airport before being cleared for the visual into 29. I was getting a bit brain dead and very much knew it. When asked how fast I could go, I said 160 without thinking thru exactly what was implied by the fast talking controller. He said follow the Citation at your 1:00. I was on downwind, the Citation on Base. I decided to follow the Citation by slowing and turning by keeping my nose behind him. That was not what was expected. On final as I watched the Citation touch down, the tower said, "we have traffic at 90 knots on final so Challenger XYZ, line up and wait and we'll get you off before he gets here". I had also dropped below the altitude for the ILS I wasn't cleared for. But even my wife knew that the idea was to keep up the speed, join the localizer behind the Citation and fly the ILS down. I knew it when the controller pointed out I was low and slow.
Very common to adhere to ILS min altitudes and fly the approach even when cleared for the visual at large busy airports.
At CLT, I was ready. When asked how fast I could fly the approach I said 150 and was told the follow Airbus. I was never cleared for the ILS but I was vectored to intercept the localizer, told to maintain 4k until over XYZ (just before GS intercept) then call the tower. There were still plenty of clouds and 3 parallel runways so a bit of precision was needed. We slid down at 150 knots until short final and made a normal landing with everything kept in sequence and moving. Sweet! Redemption from the other night. I felt better.