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August 2nd, 2015 - NE. Illinois Chase

8/5/2015

This day had shown potential to be a nice summer-like severe weather day several days out. I never had any thought of chasing, as it looked like the main threats would be wind and hail from an MCS and line segments.

I was at Six Flags in Gurnee, IL during the late afternoon and evening with my girlfriend. After going on some rides and having some funnel cake we decided to leave and head over the Baskin Robbins down the street for some ice cream. While leaving and heading over there a storm had quickly developed to our east, and became severe as it approached.

The storm started to hit while we were at Baskin Robbins, so we grabbed our ice cream and headed outside to watch it. It wasn't that interesting at first, and I threw out a comment that it could be better. It did get better, and quickly... Things picked up and we encountered hail up to penny size and winds gusts up to around 40mph. The wind, rain and hail combo put us on the mad dash to my car. Just after getting to in the car a tornado warning was issued for the storm, and looking at radar it was very likely a tornado was on the ground a few miles to our southwest. I decided to stay put and not move our position given the area of rotation was set to pass within our view looking south and southwest, and the road options in the immediate area were not great. Within a few minutes, a lowering came into view to our southwest. I was blocked by a building, so we could not tell if anything was on the ground, even though radar suggested it was likely. The area of interest continued to push into better view, where we saw it was indeed a tornado on the ground. It continued east into better view, as it started to weaken and lift.

Some pictures from this chase can be viewed below. Additional pictures can be found in the 2015 photography section.

Chase Statistics:
Tornadoes: 1
Wind: 40-50MPH
Hail: 0.75" (Penny Size)

SPC Severe Weather Reports:

1 Comment

June 22nd, 2015 - N. Illinois Chase

6/27/2015

1 Comment

This day showed potential several days out. Leading up to the event there was several concerns including how early day convection would evolve, how much destabilization would occur in the wake of this activity, and potential cap (warm air aloft) issues.

As we moved into the day of the event it was evident the cap was no longer likely to be a major concern, but instead a derecho that formed the previous night in South Dakota and moved across the Plains and into Wisconsin and Illinois during the morning would be an issue. The derecho quickly weakened mid-morning, but left behind widespread convective debris, in the form of widespread cloud cover along with scattered showers and storms. Even into the afternoon hours these issues persisted, with a cluster of severe storms in the Illinois/Iowa border area. Even with these issues, the environment was able to recover rapidly and significantly mid-late afternoon, and scattered storms developed mid-afternoon in Iowa. These storms pushed ESE, two of which moved into NW. Illinois. The dominant storm was located west of Sterling, IL and was moving ESE along a remnant outflow boundary from the early day activity.

Before the storm was mature and was just showing signs of weak rotation, especially aloft, I was pondering whether or not to head out. It would be about a 1 hour and 45 minute drive from where I was at the time. I decided not to, but kept a watch on it. Eventually it was tornado warned, and I decided to pull the trigger and go out after it. At the time I was leaving the storm was still west of Sterling, IL and was turning into an HP supercell. After a quick stop home to get my gear I raced WSW to catch up to it. Along the way there were several tornado reports, and based on radar and reports, they were generally rain-wrapped.

Diving southwest I made it to the far north side Ottawa, IL in time to find a spot to watch the storm move in. Constant lightning illuminated a nicely structured HP storm. Rotation became stronger with a better couplet showing up on radar just as the storm moved from my NNW to ENE. To my north there was a power flash, and at the time I thought I might have gotten a quick glimpse of a rain-wrapped tornado, but I was unsure.

I ended up following the storm east on Route 6, with the main rotation being just a few miles to my north the whole time. I made it to Seneca, IL where I had to stop as the storm had pulled ahead of me a bit, and rotation had once again increase and was crossing the road a few miles ahead of me. At my location there was torrential rain and strong winds. I decided to call it a chase at this point, as I had gotten behind the storm, and a line of storms behind the supercell had also started to move through.

According to the NWS Chicago surveys there was indeed a confirmed an EF-1 tornado just north of where I was sitting in Ottawa, and would have been where I saw the power flash and thought I had a glimpse of the tornado. In addition to that, I captured the power flash on video, and it seems the power flash illuminates an object in the rain shield. Now whether that was the actually a tornado, scud, or heavier rain/hail, I'll never know for sure. Some pictures of this is below. Also, NWS Chicago confirmed and EF-1 tornado where the area of rotation crossed Route 6 a few miles ahead of me while sitting in Seneca.

Some video from this chase can be viewed below.

Chase Statistics:
Tornadoes: 1
Wind: 50-60MPH
Hail: None

SPC Severe Weather Reports:

1 Comment

April 9th, 2015 - N. Illinois Chase

4/13/2015

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This day showed potential several days out. There was several concerns including how early day convection would evolve, how much destabilization would occur in the wake of this activity, and direction of lower level winds. All of these potential issues did not have any mitigating effects in the end.

Like usual on local chases I was slow/pessimistic to leave, and didn't get out to door until about 1:45. I had my brother tag along, and we had an initial target of Dixon, given the warm front was in the area and there was and OFB just to the north. We made it to Dixon as an initial storm was moving in. It featured a nice base/lowering for a time, but weakened as it pushed northeast. After it passed we waited in Dixon for quite a while to see how things would play out. New storms developed to our southwest and started to look interesting. We ended up heading through Dixon to make a play on one of the storms, which was now just to our west. This storm went on to be the Rockford tornadic storm. We got a view on it and a nice base/lowering while on the northwest side of Dixon. We continued to follow it north towards White Pines State Park, and then east through Oregon. As we made it east of Oregon we witnessed two brief touchdowns to our north, as the storm was near RFD airport and New Milford at the time. We continued to stair-step northeast with the storm, before finally dropping off of it as we sat south of I-90 and it continued northeast through Boone and McHenry counties.

At this time we headed back south to make a play on the what would become the Rochelle storm. After heading south for just a few miles on Irene Rd we got view of the tornado to our southwest. We pulled off to the side just north of Route 72, as we were in perfect position. We had a good view of the tornado for a decent amount of time, and were within about a 1/2 mile at the nearest point. This tornado probably featured the second best motion I've seen, only behind the Moore '13 and ahead of the Wayne 13' tornadoes. It featured multiple vortices, suction vortices, a horizontal vortex aloft and a satellite tornado that ended up touching down in the field next to us about 1/4 mile away. We continued to jog north/east and stayed with the storm and witnessed what appeared to be two other brief tornadoes to our north (Would have been southwest of Garden Prairie) while on Glidden Rd. NWS Chicago has since confirmed these two brief touchdowns were actually the end of one single tornado that had developed further to the southwest while we were driving.

Unfortunately, this fool left his camcorder on all day so the battery was dead by the time tors started happening, so I didn't get any quality video.

Some pictures and video from this chase can be viewed below. Additional pictures can be found in the 2015 photography section.

Chase Statistics:
Tornadoes: 5
Wind: 40-50MPH
Hail: 1.00" (Quarter Size)

SPC Severe Weather Reports:

0 Comments

June 3rd, 2014 - C/E. Nebraska Chase

6/17/2014

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This day was one that looked interesting from several days out. As time went on and the day approached it looked good enough to give it a go and chase. As with every other chase though this season, there were several potential issues including an early day MCS, outflow boundary issues, among other things.

Adam Lucio and myself left the Chicago area shortly after 3AM early Tuesday morning. We made it into Nebraska and picked an initial target of St. Paul, NE by early afternoon. Sitting in St. Paul for a while, fellow chaser/photographer Matthew Cumberland met up with us. While sitting at this location a severe warned supercell, which eventually further developed into a line, moved northwest-southeast off to our northeast. These storms sent out and OFB, which started to push southward across a good portions of northern Nebraska. After sitting around for a few hours, there were signs of initiation trying to occur just to our west. We made the quick decision to head northwest to get on any potential developing storm. While heading west out of St. Paul this initial attempt at development failed, but a storm that had developed along the OFB to the northwest had quickly become a supercell and was tornado warned. This storm was moving slowly east, thus we headed north to make a play on the storm.

We made it to and got a good visual on the tornado warned storm as we entered the Greenly, NE area. Visually the storm didn't look that great, and appeared to be outflow dominant. Heading north and the east towards Spalding, NE we entered the "bears cage" of the storm. At this point the storm had started to dive southeast, and we started to stair-step southeast with it, eventually making it to near Archer, NE. During the time we were stair-stepping southeast we encountered strong winds, several periods of severe sized hail, and some interesting motions. After making it to Archer we headed east on route 92 where we got out ahead of the storm and was able to stop a few times for pictures. During this time we also witnessed a long lived and large gustnado. After continuing east for a while ahead of the storm it was clear the storm had pass east of a westward moving outflow boundary, ending any good tornado threat, thus we decided to drop south out of Wahoo, NE to make one last play on the storm and get into the hail core. The storm hit once again while we sat in Ceresco, once again producing several hail, but the largest hail of 2.00"+ ended up passing a few miles to our north. After the storm started to pass we decided to call it a chase and head towards Omaha for dinner. After dinner we decided to just grab a hotel instead of driving back overnight on no sleep through an MCS which covered most of Iowa.

Some pictures and video from this chase can be viewed below. Additional pictures can be found in the 2014 photography section.

Chase Statistics:
Tornadoes: 0
Wind: 55-65MPH
Hail: 2.00" (Hen Egg Size)

SPC Severe Weather Reports:

0 Comments

May 11th, 2014 - SE. Nebraska Chase

5/15/2014

1 Comment

This day had shown potential for several days leading up to it, and as with the past several events, model guidance ended up coming around the the slower solution shown by the ECMWF model. The best potential for tornadoes looked to be from the triple point in S-C. Nebraska on eastward along the warm front into SE. Nebraska and Iowa. The question across this area is how would morning convection affect the main afternoon/evening potential. Severe storms looked likely farther south in Kansas along the dryline as well, but high LCL's due to the larger temperature/dew point spread would likely limit the overall tornado threat down that way.

Adam Lucio and myself left the Chicago area just before 7AM. Making fairly good time, we made it the the general target area in SE. Nebraska just before 3PM. Driving south out of Lincoln, NE on Route 77 a storm started to develop well to the west near Hastings, just north of the warm front. Seeing that there was nothing developing near us and the CU field was not looking that great, we decided to head west on Route 41 towards this storm.

While heading west the storm rapidly developed into a supercell, but it was still just north of the warm front. Shortly after this time a tornado was reported near Glenvil. As we came up on the storm it looked like a mess, with little in the way of structure to it. The radar presentation showed a nice looking supercell, with the hook and updraft located right near the warm front. At the same point we came up to it another tornado was reported near Clay Center, off to our west. While jumping around on a few roads during the first interaction with the storm we encountered a few gustnadoes, and an interesting feature that was sucking scud and dirt from the ground directly upward to the cloud base, but it wasn't rotating. We dubbed this feature the vacuum-nado. Also during this time while heading north on a side road, we witness the left edge/portion of what was the Clay Center/Sutton tornado.

Making it north to Grafton, we made the short jump east on Route 6 to Fairmont, then started heading north on Route 81, which is where we entered the bears cage. Just a few miles north of Fairmont to our west we witnessed another tornado, which was first seen by it's left edge, but then emerged out of the rain. Racing north this tornado passed to our south as we were blasted by inflow winds. We made it to McCool Junction where we headed east on Denton Rd. This is where we once again caught a glimpse of the tornado which had passed south of us while on Route 81. Continuing east on Denton Rd that tornado weakened to our south, but the occluding circulation was crossing the road several miles to our west. At this time we pulled off to the side just in time to see a rope tornado cross the road from southwest to northeast a few miles to our west. The rope quickly dissipated, but gave way to a brief cone-ish tornado which moved in the opposite direction of the previous rope tornado, from north to south, and in the same area. This occluded/weakening circulation then pushed southeast towards towards us, reaching the field in front of us just as we decided to head east. At the same time this was occurring, another tornado was developing just to our south-southwest near Cordova. This tornado quickly grew and passed the road just behind us as we headed east. We were once again blasted by inflow winds once again, which were likely 70-80MPH and snapped power poles along the road as we passed.

We continued east on Denton Rd until we reached Route 6, and then stair-stepped northeast ahead of the storm on Route 15 to Seward and then Route 34 and 79 up to Raymond. Being well ahead of the storm now we pulled off to take a few shots of the storm, which had decent structure now. Continuing southeast back towards Route 6 the supercell started to interact with other storms and the tornado thread started to trend downward. At this point we decided to call it a chase, head to Omaha for some dinner, then start the drive home. While in Omaha/Council Bluffs having dinner, what was now a line of severe storms hit bringing winds of around 60mph.

Some pictures and video from this chase can be seen below. Additional pictures can be found in the 2014 photography section.

Chase Statistics:
Tornadoes: 6
Wind: 70-80MPH
Hail: 1.00" (Quarter Size)

SPC Severe Weather Reports:

1 Comment

April 28th, 2014 - SE. Iowa/W. Illinois Chase

4/30/2014

0 Comments

Day three of the multi-day chase...We started off the day in Avoca, IA. This day looked to have the same potential as NE/KS did the previous day. We headed east with an initial target in W. IL.

While on I-80 between Des Moines and Iowa City, storm development started to occur in scattered fashion from NW. Iowa down into E-C. Missouri. With this occurring we decided to maneuver southeast to get into position, which lead us first into Mt. Pleasant, IA. After a brief stop, we continued southeast into Fort Madison, IA. By this time a messy arc of storms was ongoing just to our southeast, extending from NW. Iowa into NW. Missouri and down to near St. Louis.

We ended up heading heading east out of Fort Madison, crossing the Mississippi River into Illinois, to get into position for the incoming storms. Pulling off on a side road near Adrian, IL the storms approached. We ended up with some interesting structure as they passed, but nothing really noteworthy. By this time it was clear the potential today wasn't going to work out, thus we decided to head to Peoria for dinner then back home. While making the drive from near La Harpe to Peoria, encountered several more storms within a disorganized line, several of which produced some small hail.

While all of this was going on a tornado outbreak was occurring to the south across Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee. Looking back on things, given the high potential and how Dixie Alley events generally pan out as shown, it might have been worthwhile to have made the trip down. Making it back to Chicago early Monday night there was talk of potentially going down south to chase what was expected to be another day with high potential across Mississippi/Alabama on Tuesday (29th). Danny couldn't go and I decided to pass up the opportunity, which I regretted at first. Adam and Alec did however decided to make the trek down.

Some pictures from this chase can be viewed below. Additional pictures can be seen in the 2014 photography section.

Chase Statistics:
Tornadoes: 0
Wind: 30-40MPH
Hail: 0.50" (Marble Size)

SPC Severe Weather Reports:

0 Comments

April 27th, 2014 - N. Kansas/S. Nebraska Chase

4/30/2014

0 Comments

Day two of the multi-day chase...We woke up in Wichita to a very messing picture, with areas of storms ongoing from Texas up into Nebraska. We decided to grab breakfast and look over data, to decided on an exact target. We decided to pass on the higher potential in the Arkansas area and instead chase across the NE/KS/MO area. We left Wichita with an initial target area in the Salina/Topeka area.

While heading northeast and pushing into El Dorado, KS a cumulus field quickly started to develop to our northwest along the dryline, which was just west of Salina at this time. We started to maneuver our way northwest towards what was now a developing area of showers/storms. After being on this area of activity for a while it started to weaken, and we decided to head farther northwest, with more storms starting to develop across C. Nebraska. While heading northwest towards the KS/NE border there were a dew attempts at storm development near us, but nothing ever held.

Eventually sustained storms develop across Nebraska and became severe and tornado warned. A severe storm also developed well to our east. Crossing the KS/NE border a quick decision was made to pass on the storm to the east and instead catch the developing storms across S-C. Nebraska. We made a play on several storms and received small hail from some, but the storms never amounted to much and weakened. At this point we had made it up to Hastings, NE and decided to head east towards the storm we decided to pass on now, which was a nice supercell and was severe warned.

Heading northeast we ended up catching the storm near Clarks, NE. We headed east, passing through the north side of the storm, before pulling off just west of Osceola, NE to watch the storm. As it passed we encountered a bit of hail and some interesting structure. There was also an interesting feature on the backside of the rain shaft. At first it appeared to be scud, but as it backed further out the rain shaft it became clear that it was a tornado. The tornado lasted several minutes before weakening. After the storm passed we headed to Columbus, NE for dinner with several other chaser, including Brad Goddard and Lorraine Mahoney, before heading to Avoca, IA for the night.

Some pictures and video from this chase can be viewed below. Additional pictures can be found in the 2014 photography section.

Chase Statistics:
Tornadoes: 1
Wind: 30-40MPH
Hail: 0.75" (Penny Size)

SPC Severe Weather Reports:

0 Comments

April 26th, 2014 - S. Kansas Chase

4/30/2014

0 Comments

The period of April 26-29th had shown potential to be chase worthy for several days on model guidance. As the time approached it became clear this indeed would be the case, and that there would be a few days of potentially significant potential for some areas

I left Chicago with Adam Lucio, Danny Neal and Alec Scholten around Friday evening, with a target area for Saturday (26th) being in the KS/OK area. We made it down to Wichita, KS early in the morning where we stopped to have breakfast and look over data. Today's threat looked good, but only if storms would develop. Initiation hinged on moisture return and timing for forcing. Our exact target for the day also hinged on where we would chase the following day as well. In the end we decided to head west towards Kingman, KS.

We sat in Kingman for several hours, passing time by throwing around a football and frisbee. During the early afternoon fellow chasers Jonathan Williamson and Bill Manos met up with us. As the hours passed it became clear storm development would not occur, thus we decided to grab dinner then head to Wichita for the night.

Storm development did end up occurring near sunset in Texas, but didn't end up being too noteworthy.

Chase Statistics:
Tornadoes: 0
Wind: None
Hail: None

SPC Severe Weather Reports:

0 Comments

April 3rd, 2014 - SW. Missouri Chase

4/5/2014

0 Comments

The third and final day of the three day chase trip. As with the previous two days, this day also had some potential issues including; forcing, timing and potential early day convection.

We woke up in Wellington, KS Wednesday morning with temps around 50 degrees and well behind the cold front. We left Wellington, KS during the morning with an initial target of Joplin, MO. While heading east and seeing how things were evolving, we ended up heading a bit east-northeast instead to Pittsburg, KS. While sitting for a brief time in Pittsburg a storm started to develop to our northwest. We decided to follow it to the northeast as it slowly strengthened. The storm maintained strength for a while and looked somewhat interesting for a time, but it started to weaken as we approached El Dorado Springs, MO. With new discrete storms moving east from Kansas and into Missouri, we decided to drop off the current storm and headed back southwest towards those storms.

Heading south on I-49 we encountered the first storm. It wasn't severe, but it did have somewhat interesting structure for a time as it passed near Lamar, MO. Continuing south we made it to Jasper, MO in time for the second and third storms to pass. Neither looked good, and the third storm quickly weakened as it passed. At this point Alec Scholten met up with us and we decided to head southeast and grab dinner in Springfield, MO. While in Springfield new storms developed to our southwest and eventually moved in, one of which produced pea size hail. Heading home east on I-44 we drove through what was now a line of storms pushing eastward.

Some pictures from this chase can be viewed below. Additional pictures can be found in the 2014 photography section.

Chase Statistics:
Tornadoes: 0
Wind: 40-50MPH
Hail: None

SPC Severe Weather Reports:

0 Comments

April 2nd, 2014 - N. Oklahoma/S. Kansas Chase

4/4/2014

0 Comments

Day two of the three day chase, and one which also had potential issues with forcing and the cap. Model guidance showed the potential for a big day, but only if the cap would break. Waking up Wednesday morning and looking over data, one of the bigger things that stood out was the loaded-gun sounding from 12z at OUN. That backed up the though that if the cap broke it would be a big day.

After gathering everyone from the hotel and Stephens apartment, and grabbing some breakfast we set out for the Perry to Enid, OK area, which was to be just east of the triple point. We made it to Enid, OK early in the afternoon, and ended up sitting in a few different locations off to the northwest of town for a while. There was a lot of TCU, but nothing was really developing as forcing was still back to the southwest. As time went on and better forcing started to approach a storm developed off to our northeast. We decided to head off after it as it was the only thing going on at this point. While following it, it started to show signs of weakening as it pushed off to the north of the warm front, thus we decided to drop off of it while southwest of Medford, OK. By this point a few other storms started to pop up off to our northwest and west, and we headed that way. We ended up following a developing storm just north of Nash, OK, but it to started to weaken as it pushed off to the north of the warm front.

While sitting near Sand Creek, OK watching the Nash storm fade away as it pushed to our north and northeast, a second storm quickly developed to our west near Cherokee. We continued to hold our position, watching the storm develop and hoping it would root to the warm front and become surface based. As time passed it was clear that wouldn't happen, but this was the best looking storm of the day so we decided to pursue it. Heading off to the northwest into far southern Kansas at first and then east-northeast with the storm, we witnessed photogentic structure as it developed into an elevated supercell storm. In addition to the structure there was decent RFD winds that kicked up a wall of dirt/dust, and we encountered some hail up to nickel size while in Harper, KS. Shortly after this time the storm started to weaken a bit and no other decent activity had developed, so we decided to head east for the night. While driving east the storm started to re-develop and we pulled off near Mayfield, KS to watch it. As it pushed east towards us it started to interact with the warm front that had pushed north into the area. The sun had set at this point, but you could see the storm was trying to become surface based...but it never fully got there. After following it east for a bit we dropped off it and headed to Wellington, KS for the night.

Some pictures from this chase can be viewed below. Additional pictures can be found in the 2014 photography section.

Chase Statistics:
Tornadoes: 0
Wind: None
Hail: None

SPC Severe Weather Reports:

0 Comments

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