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5-27-06
Today started off as just another sunny saturday afternoon. I was lounging around watching the Cubs game (more than likely LOSING). We were in a
slight risk convective outlook, so obviously there is SOME hope there, but not too much. It seems like my area has been avoiding decent storms all year long.
I finally got my lazy self up and went outside for some reason and noticed a gorgeous anvil overshadowing my house. I ran back inside to look at the radar
and sure enough, firing JUST to the west of me was a nice cell starting to intensify. I grabbed my camera gear and ran out the door to try to get well east of it for some structure shots. That didn't turn out so well, but I still did get a ton of shots of the approaching microburst.
Here was the setup for the day (outlooks, anyway):
After hightailing it east
for a ways, I finally
decided I wasn't going to get any structure shots so I pulled off on a side road out in the country. You can see somewhat of a rain foot in the center of the picture here. |
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My first EVER lightning shot. It's nothing spectacular, but my first one nevertheless. |
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Cropped shot.
I didn't realize I had come close to capturing it until I got home. |
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Some scud is starting to appear
through
the rain curtains. |
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More and more scud forming
along
the front. |
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A "mini shelf" starting to
form on the
southern edge. The motion was actually quite interesting to watch as it lowered, then lifted. |
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The shelf changing shape again.
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The front starting to show
up in the
turbulent skies. Right now I am thinking of shooting east again as it is approaching pretty quickly. |
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So I do move east and got
well ahead
of the storm. I pulled off on another gravel back road in Erie and waited for the system to approach. I feel like an idiot for not getting any shots of the awesome anvil accompanying this storm. I sat here for maybe 20 minutes and waited for it to come at me. |
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Lots of scud forming along
the gust front.
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Now I'm starting to get a
little trigger happy.
Notice the grass blowing hard in the bottom left of the screen. There was some moderate inflow at this point. |
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I am now positioned on the
southernmost
edge and I'm thinking of trekking north for a bit. It looks to be clearing down south and I wanted to get slammed with something. |
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So I grab one last shot, do
a sharp u-turn,
and shot back to the main road to head further north. |
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Some VERY heavy precip now
falling
from this system. This was after heading north for approximately 4-5 miles. |
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The cell must have gained
some momentum
at some point. It was barrelling down on me at a pretty good clip now. The worse part of this storm is more to the north, however. |
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A semi-shelf forms ahead of
the storm now
as I head north at an 80mph clip. I wanted to get parallel with this thing because it was very neat looking. |
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Now entering the town of Erie,
Illinois. I'm
still trying to get parallel or north of this and I am gaining ground. |
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Now north of Erie, I have
finally caught up
to it and it was pretty awesome looking. Although it wasn't threatening, it was still sort of eerie to have this thing looming on the horizon bearing down on you. |
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Ok, now the real fun begins.
The precip shafts
intensify and become much more solid. There is scud everywhere now and I'm thinking something had to be coming with this. The breeze starts to pick up. |
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So now it is decision time.
I decide to
take one last pic and head back straight into the storm. There was really nothing else left to do and I was getting sort of tired with trying to stay ahead of it. Besides, I figured I already had enough pictures (95) to satisfy anyway. |
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The wind started picking up,
then the rain,
and then I absolutely got slammed. I slowed to about 10 mph and couldn't see a THING on either side of me. My truck even started to scoot right to left, so I figured now would be a good time to pull over and wait it out. I wish this would have been a little more clear. That is sideways rain/hail and beyond the fenceline is nothing but open cornfield, to give an idea of how heavy it really was. |
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After I let the system roll
me, I decided to head
back into the town of Erie to see if there was any damage. I came across this tree and many others. Later on I learned that the largest oak tree in the Erie cemetary had also uprooted. That is some major wind! |
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By this time I had met up
with my buddy coming
home from work. We talked a little bit and decided to go after it again, just for sheer enjoyment. I drove on a little further ahead and took this picture of the southern edge. Outflow is obvious in the tree towards the left. |
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So I drive back to my buddy's
house (Joel Wright)
and after a quick glance at the radar, we decided to head back out. As our luck would have it, the roads to the north were ALL under construction, so we had to zig-zag our way through gravel road after gravel road. We finally decided to give up on the cell that rolled me and started to head back. Now there were some new cells firing back behind it. This one we actually saw grow in intensity and eventually drove through it. |
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I really have no excuse for
this picture. I was
now the passenger in his truck and somehow couldn't manage a straight shot of this updraft tower. There were some brilliant anvil crawlers with this and I was trying to get one, but no luck. |
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We are now caught up in another
HEAVY
downpour on our trek back to town. We came across this downed tree on a back road. I'm sure the microburst winds had to have caused this. |
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Extremely heavy downpours
lasted for about
15 minutes. Since it was hitting us sideways from the driver side, I rolled down my window and grabbed this. |
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So, all in all it was a pretty exciting day. I was happy with the outcome and it was my first microburst experience to date.
Here is the SPC storm report from 5-27
