Home Photos By Year Severe Weather Data Information Winter Weather Links Contact About Aurora Joel's Forecast Page American Bald Eagle Info
4-4-10
Today was just supposed to be a little chase to shake off the rust. Seeing as how dewpoints were only in their mid to upper 40's, we ruled any chance of a tornado out. We were basically just out for structure today. I'm not going to spend too much time on this one or the next for that matter. Our main focus was the next following days. Today was actually kind of an impromptu chase.
Tornado watch issued shortly after departure.
That southern storm at the end of the line is the storm we intercepted.
After following the storm for a while with its mile high base, we were kind of joking around about our chances of seeing a tornado. I think my answer was 0.00007% or something like that. Shortly after, we notice a slight lowering out ahead of the RFD. Again I joked around saying it was going to go crazy in a bit. I was actually sort of right. This thing went from being extremely elevated to a nearly ground hugging wall cloud. Things changed in a big hurry.
We are now in the town of Keokuk. I think we have figured out a trick to chasing. If we ever want a storm to go nuts or close to dropping a tornado, we just have to find a town with a 20 mph speed limit FULL of traffic with no other road options. It's almost surefire.
Same shot, just panned to the left a bit more with some lightning.
After tyring to battle Keokuk traffic with this storm barrelling down on us, we finally escaped it. The RFD was behind us for a good portion of this trip. It would not let us escape. It actually had some pretty decent winds with it. I wish there was more time to take pics, but that proves to be tough while I am driving.
Finally ahead of it enough to pull off and take some pics. Structure was decent enough to take pics at least.
The storm actually showed some interesting striations, but it didn't last too long. It actually looked like it was becoming outflow dominant, but apparently it went tornado warned shortly before dark in central IL.
A line of storms came in as we neared home providing a pretty decent lightning show. They were mainly staccato bolts which are actually my favorite. The tricky party is exposing them correctly when they are close since they are extremely quick and extremely bright. When they are far away like this, it's a little easier.
Two staccato flashes in the same frame. I wish I wasn't next to the highway though, but I didn't have much choice. I like the taillights heading away, but those headlights are brutal.
So, in conclusion, this was a pretty decent first chase. For not expecting anything close to tornadic, we were treated to a nice surprise by this decent little storm. Nice early April structure. Now, time for slower storm speeds!
Also, check out Joel Wright's account here: http://qcweather.net/4-4-2010.php