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6-21-10
Tornadic supercells looked like a high probability today given the parameters. Although SPC kept the highest risk at the extreme western edge of the outlook, our interest was along the MO/IA border, primarily SE IA. An old outflow boundary was laid out across this area. The upper wave was moving eastward into Illinois. Strong deep layer shear combined with a very unstable air mass and low to mid 70 dewpoints along the boundary was extremely favorable for supercells. The main threat, however, was large hail and high winds.
I met Joel in Colona, IL near Interstate 80 around 4:30 and we booked south to intercept an already tornado warned supercell that fired along the boundary. Skipping ahead quite a bit, we finally caught up with it west of Macomb. This thing was an absolute beast on radar. It had a very strong couplet and extremely nice structure.
Staring into the hook echo region of the storm. We were standing outside shooting film and taking pictures here. Probably not a good idea. Of all the chases I've been on, never in my life was I as scared to be standing under the anvil as I have with this storm. CG's were so frequent and so random/sporadic that I was literally fearing for my life about this time. A couple of VERY close bolts in the field to our north finally chased us back to the truck. The storm was gaining on us anyway, so we had to get south. This storm was now moving south of due east.
This is actually a velocity scan while it was still in SE IA, around the time the last tornado was reported. Very notable couplet.
And a grab shortly before we stopped for the first time west of Macomb.
Velocity scan around the time the pic above this was taken. VERY nice couplet still accompanying. After dropping south for a bit, we pulled off temporarily and watched this thing barrell eastward. Some interesting rotation going on back in there, but this storm just didn't have the motivation to produce for us. That's probably a good thing though considering this thing was just about on top of us here. This shot is at 17mm, which is a pretty wide angle. This storm is a bit closer than it appears.
Had to move again. Now we were getting a little frustrated. This environment needed a little stronger surface flow to produce today. Every time it showed signs of going outflow dominant, it would sort of reorganize and give us new (false) hope.
New lowering starting to show some moderate rotation with a very strong RFD now kicking in. We were actually blasted pretty good while sitting here a bit after this pic. This was really our last hope to see a tube.
A little bit later after the above pic with the RFD racing in. Very noticable in this pic. I really wish I would have taken a pic about this time to see the long, vertical slot straight up in front of the RFD. It was very cool looking with stark contrast.
Still trying to stay ahead of it now, but hope was diminishing very quickly. It actually showed some very nice rotation here with the inflow band rapidly feeding off to the left of this shot. Would have been a nice timelapse. There were some interesting features behind that treeline there, but we weren't too worried at this point.
Vertical shot from the same location. Nice wedding cake structure!
We started to get hailed on shortly after this shot, and it happened to be my last pic of the day. About this time we had given up. The most interesting part was yet to come though. Trying to escape the oncoming core, we needed an option south, then west to let it pass so we could head north back home. Well, some dinky little town, which name now escapes me, decided it wasn't going to give us any south or east options. Coming up to a stop sign, both options were dead ends. So my only choice was to go north through "town" a bit, which almost put us straight into the core. Finally cut east again, which was a relief, only to find it led NOWHERE. So, from here the only south option just happened to be the WORST ROAD I HAVE EVER DRIVEN ON. No kidding, pot holes at least a foot deep every 15-20 feet while driving 30-40 mph is NEVER a good experience. The proverbial "bear's cage" was rapidly approaching from the passenger side while I was trying my hardest to not hit these enormous craters on that land mine they called a road. Soon after, we were directly under the bears cage with the core about to impale us. Very heavy winds and driving rain hit us and I thought we were screwed. I kept punching through this nightmare and FINALLY came out of the core on the south side which eventually led to 67 north. So I suppose that is one drawback to chasing the boonies of Illinois.
The lightning on the way back was also very noteworthy. If Joel and I didn't have to get back, we probably would have pulled off the best lightning shots of our lives. It was quite an incredible display.