Home
Back to Photos By Year
6-7-07
Hahahahahhahahhahahaha.......
High risk? Moderate risk? SLIGHT risk? I don't think today/tonight fell under any of these categories. We are baffled as to why nothing ever happened. All the parameters seemed to be set in place for some severe events. Mother nature didn't agree. Since I can't get a good night's sleep anymore for some reason, I figured I'd stay up til 1:00 for the new convective outlook to be issued by SPC. We figured it'd eventually be upgraded to a high risk since everything looked pretty decent. The only problem was backing winds and vertical sheer seemed to be lacking. So after another night with very little sleep I head to work the next day. The next outlook, to my surprise actually had US included in the high risk!! Man, things were looking up! About this time my tiredness all of a sudden disappeared. Strange. I can't figure that one out either.
9:00 rolls around and I see storms already firing near Kansas City (where they would continue to fire ALLLL day/night). I thought "geez, that's a little early". As expected, they did look to be going linear fairly quickly. About an hour goes by and I notice the the cells were actually staying pretty isolated, but they were firing in a line along the cold front. Tornado watches were issued for central Iowa and actually for our area too. All of them had PDS's issued with them also. Winds were really picking up as the afternoon went by and it got very hot and muggy. Skipping ahead, 5:00 comes and it's time to head for home. Storms were looking like GARBAGE. There was literally nothing on radar. I figured "nah, it can't keep this up. Something will happen." I take the long way home, shoot a little video of the winds and take a few pictures. I figured I should have some leading up to the potentially major events later on. HA!
That picture doesn't show anything, but I need to fill in this page somehow. I run home and check things out really quick. Right about this time is when a few swear words came out, I believe on impulse. That was followed by laughter in disbelief. The very few cells that were making their way northeast completely diminished on radar. I mean NOTHING. I had already planned on heading out to Joel's in Erie anyway, so I discouraginly walked out the door. When I got to Joel's, there still wasn't ANYTHING. So, we both crack a beer, sit on the patio, and just laugh. High risk in the Quad Cities!!!!!!!!!!! Should have known better.
So, a little time rolls by and FINALLY something shows up on radar. It was actually severe warned (I think....) as KWQC showed live video from the Quad. So we head out and wait for that cell in hopes of maybe grabbing a few bolts of lightning. I would have settled for one dinky little thing at this point. We make it out to the backroad and we see that this thing was VERY electric. I get out, set up, get my settings right.....and it starts to rain. Par for the course. I was getting pretty annoyed. I pick up and go sit back in the truck as I watch all of these awesome cg's around. I couldn't stand to just sit there and do nothing so I rested the camera on the steering wheel, still attached to the tripod (crippled) and tried to keep it as still as I could. I suppose it's better than absolutely nothing.
The rain finally lets up and I hurriedly set back up in that field you see in the pictures above. Wouldn't you know it, the cg's STOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was all pretty much intercloud now. Wow. On top of all this, my cable release also decided it wanted to quit working. What a day, what a day. Well, I was able to grab one bolt and some cool structure. That was it. High risk? How about high "see text". At this point I wasn't even sure it should even warrant that.
Notice that train and how clear it is (the streak of light coming in from the left). I was actually at 22 mm here too, so it was even further away than that. More on this later.
Most of the horizons on the pictures are tilted, but again, I just really don't feel the need to put in the extra effort. The storm nears and the thick rain shafts are now clearly visible. During this time we also see some power flashes in the distance. I'm not sure if it was the wind or lightning which caused them. Later on I actually hear that winds were topping 70 mph back in the cities, but we didn't experience any of that wind.
Storm gets closer. Lightning is now starting to light up the clouds right above us.
It actually did look pretty interesting under the base, but obviously it was nothing. There was ZERO inflow and there was no organization.
Closer.......
FINALLY! Man, I have never tried so hard for a good lightning shot. It shouldn't be this hard.
Now the storm is basically straight overhead. This would be the last shot of the night. As I was taking this shot (I believe it was a 20s exposure) I could hear the wind/rain just roaring at us coming across the field. Also, as I was talking about above, there was another train coming in from the very left hand side of this picture. You can see just the tiny point of light. As I packed up and moved back into the truck, we watched it come in and completely swallow the light. We couldn't see that bright light the slightest. I'd say we got hit up by some 40 mph winds and sideways rain. If Davenport had 70-80 mph winds (or so I hear), then it was either weakening at this point or we weren't at the brunt of it. Looking at the radar when we got back we did notice it hit us broadside. So, I don't know if I believe that D-port had those winds.
Later on it actually got VERY interesting. Around 10:30, on radar, a small, tiny NE/SW line came flying in. It really didn't look like much at all. This little thing actually almost made the entire setup worth the anticipation...but not quite. Well, not for me anyway. But MAN it was fun to watch. We watched out of the front door and saw some trees near the road almost bend in half! The winds, at our best guess, were around 55-60 mph and the rain was just torrential. That one small, narrow line did all of that. It knocked down some power lines in town also.
So, the 2nd high risk in the QC in my recent memory turned out to be worthy of just a low-end slight risk. The only reason I say that is for the wind event at the end of the night. The '07 tornado season is now coming to a quick and sobering close. Oh well, we tried! I am a Cubs fan, so I'm very used to saying....MAYBE NEXT YEAR!