Chase LogI was somewhat drooling over the late November moderate risk setup over southern Indiana through Kentucky. Unfortunately, I was scheduled to work a half day which would ruin any chasing plans. What made matters worse was the expectation of 1-3 inches of snow here in the afternoon and evening. I grudgingly went into work at 8:00am and glanced at the weather setup just wishing I could chase. There was a nice dry punch of air coming in that was clearing things out very quickly to make way for sunshine in the target area.

Around 9:00am CST, one of my co-workers showed up who I thought would be taking the day off. I thought to myself (and eventually out loud), why do we need 3 techs here the day before Thanksgiving? I spoke with my boss who quickly agreed and told me to go home. (yay!) I left at 9:30am CST and boogied home to gather the chase gear. I knew winter weather was quickly moving in, but I figured why waste the opportunity to chase one more time this year.

I departed Champaign at 10:00am CST and headed east on I-74. I encountered moderate rain showers all the way into Indiana. At 11:30am CST, I received a text message alerting me of a tornado watch covering parts of southeastern IL, southwestern IN, western KY, and western TN. (woo hoo!) I reached Indianapolis around 12:00pm CST and decided to head south on I-65. As I made my way further south into southern Indiana, I received another alert of a new tornado watch covering southern IN, central KY, and southwestern OH. (double woo hoo!)

As I approached Louisville, I noticed that I was getting low on fuel. (thanks to the indicator light on the dash that said ‘low fuel’) Unfortunately, someone had blown a tire or something which caused traffic on the bridge crossing the Ohio River to come to a halt. We finally got moving again and I quickly made my way to the first exit to fill up. 9.5 gallons later, I was back on the highway in search of storms. I noticed it was much warmer at this point and the sun was peaking through.

I continued my way on I-65 and was getting quite hungry. I pulled off at a McD’s in Lebanon Junction, KY to grab a bite and check some data. Radar wasn’t looking very good as all I saw was a line of junk heading my way. I did notice a tornado warned cell up in south central Indiana, but there was nothing close to me at this point. I did get a nice downpour for a few minutes while I was sitting there, but didn’t see anything even close to severe. After the shower passed, I noticed a nice double rainbow out the window. I snapped a few still shots of it with the 35mm, but didn’t bother shooting any video.

From what I had gathered from the data, things were not looking very good at this point. I decided to call it a chase at this point and make my way home. Conditions at home had unfortunately deteriorated since I was last there. I was getting reports of very slick conditions due to rain changing over to snow which obviously had me quite concerned. I headed back up I-65 through Louisville and then on to Indianapolis. I ran through some patches of rain on the way north, but did not see any winter weather. However, I did notice it getting much colder outside as the windows were starting to fog up.

Once I started heading west out of Indy, things started to get interesting. I hit some patches of rain that quickly changed over to snow. I decreased my speed as to not take any chances with spinning out of control. At one point I saw the guy in front of me swerve just a tad. Just after I saw that, I realized that he had hit an icy spot in the road. Luckily I slowed down even further so when I hit the icy spot, I had no problems at all. I made a stop at Crawsfordsville in hope of filling up the gas tank, but as I approached the stations they were all without power. I continued my journey westward on I-74 back into Illinois. I stopped in Danville, IL and filled up the gas tank and about froze my tail off. (would someone remind me again why I took my gloves out of the car??)

I proceeded slowly towards Champaign and noticed numerous vehicles in the ditch and median. (most seemed deserted) I finally made it home around 9:00pm CST and quickly got inside to warm up.

Chase Summary:
My first chase to Kentucky didn’t go so well, but it was fun to get one more chase in this year. November chases have not gone well for me, but had I not gone there would have been a major outbreak. While this chase didn’t turn out the way I wanted, I definitely have alot to be thankful for this year in the way of my chasing adventures. Hopefully I will get even more chances in 2005.

Chase LogA moderate risk in July here in Illinois?? That’s what I awoke to on Tuesday morning. The models were showing some decent wind shear across parts of Illinois today, not to mention the insane amount of instability and moisture in the air. I was thinking it would be a good day for severe weather mainly because my weather server at home took a crap on me and decided it didn’t want to operate today, so that meant no weather updates to my cell phone. When I got to work, I loaded up all my weather applications and monitored the situation closely. I noticed one lone supercell firing up in northwest Illinois late Tuesday morning that made me wonder if things were going up too soon. Several tornado warnings were going out shortly after 12:30pm, this thing was churning! At this rate I would never have a chance to chase. I normally get off at 4:30, but I pulled a few strings and managed to get off at 1:30. I went home and loaded up the gear, then headed out to chase this thing.

I headed west on I-74 just after 2:00pm, hoping to get to Bloomington and then go north from there. As I got closer to Bloomington, I was hearing reports on the scanner of tornadoes in Woodford county. I got off at the Carlock exit and as I made it to the top of the off ramp, I saw something to my north that caught my eye. There appeared to be a tornado about 10 miles to my north, but the contrast was so low that at the time I could not confirm that it was indeed a tornado. (video analysis confirmed a tornado) I headed west and then north of Carlock, trying to get closer without driving into anything I would later regret. As I headed north, I had to check the map several times to make sure I wasn’t in Missouri. Most of central Illinois is fairly decent for chasing, but I managed to find one of the most tree covered, hilly parts of the area. (not to mention the freaking corn fields!) Anywho, I made way to US 24 and headed east to El Paso (IL, not TX) and then headed south on SR 251.

I continued south till I reached Kappa, IL and then headed west on CR 600N. At 3:40pm, I started receiving some small hail about 2.5 miles west of Kappa. As in previous hail encounters, I thought it’d be wise to get off the road and wait out the storm. I found a farmer’s driveway and parked next to a tree. (which provided no hail protection since I was on the wrong side of the tree) As I sat there, the hail continued getting bigger which had me worried a bit. Once it was over, I jumped out and grabbed a few of the bigger chunks. The pieces I measure were 1.75″, but they had melted a bit by the time I got to them. (back in Kappa, there was 2.75″ baseball hail reported!) The guy whose driveway I was in came out after the storm and talked with me for a few minutes. He said that the hail took out one of his north windows of his house. He also mentioned that he saw the tornado earlier from his house, which made me very jealous.

After talking with him for a little while longer, I decided to follow the storm back home. I never could quite catch up with it as I made my way back to the southeast. I did see some nice mammatus on the way back as well as two semis that had been blown over on I-74 near Mansfield. I got home around 5:00pm and enjoyed the mammatus directly over Champaign.

Final thoughts:
Never thought I’d be seeing a decent chase here in Illinois during July, but today was definitely one of those days. It was very frustrating to have the stuff firing up so early in the day, but at least I was able to get off work early and go chase. NWS damage surveys revealed F4 damage near Roanoke, IL, which was just north of where I was. Luckily no one was killed from this event, so kudos to all the spotters/chasers out there for keeping an eye on the sky.

Chase LogI wasn’t expecting to chase today as the main area seemed to be further west into Missouri. (we’ve been there enough this year!) As the day went on though, the SPC sent out updates saying there was a small tornadic risk in western Illinois. (nifty 5% area!) I decided to take my normal lunch hour rather than work through it and leave early, really not expecting to get out and chase. I started to change my mind when a tornado watch was issued at 4:00pm for western Illinois. I left work at 4:30pm and went home to load up the gear. I departed Champaign at 5:00pm and headed west on I-72. Despite there being a tornado warning out for Kankakee county and seeing the storm from Champaign, I decided that the best stuff should be further west. (I would have never caught up to it anyway) As I got west of Springfield, I noticed ‘something’ to my southwest but I wasn’t seeing anything on radar/satellite. When I got to Jacksonville I almost decided to go south to attempt an intercept of whatever was down there, but decided against it.

I kept going west on I-72 until I started seeing stuff firing up to my northwest. I got off at exit 46 and headed north on SR 100. I took it north and then jogged onto US 67 which would take me more in a northwesterly direction. As I entered McDonough county around 8:00pm, I checked radar which showed a line of storms just to my northwest. (yay!) Once I got to Macomb, I headed west on US 136 mainly due to the slow people in front of me who must have thought it was still Sunday instead of Monday. Once I got into Tennessee (yes, I’m still in northwest IL..) I headed north on CR 11 towards the cell that was starting to come into view. I started seeing a very nifty shelf cloud with a possible wall cloud behind it. (about time!) As I got closer, there appeared to be some funnel looking thingies (yes that’s the official term for them) coming out of this possible wall cloud, but I don’t put any merit into them at all. (no rotation from what I could see)

Around 8:45pm I pulled off on N 2000 road just northeast of Bladinsville to watch what was left of this thing. I saw a few more funnel wannabees, but nothing more than scud. While I was sitting there, I heard this strange rushing sound coming from my north. I shut the car off and listened more carefully. It sounded like a hail storm, but I quickly discovered it nothing more than rain hitting the crops. (which eventually hit me) Around 9:00pm I finally gave up on this thing and decided to make my way back home. I headed east on RT 9 and then back to US 136 where I stopped in Havana for a much needed fuel stop. On the way back I was hearing numerous tornado warnings, but nothing confirmed on the ground. The lightning from these storms provided quite the post-4th of July fireworks on the journey home. I continued east on US 136 and then hopped on I-74 for the rest of the trip home.

Final thoughts:
It wasn’t too bad of a chase for early July, definitely some interesting stuff. The shelf cloud I saw ranks right up there with the one back in March up near Kankakee. I do remember now why I don’t like chasing in July, CORN! This is Illinois though, so that’s just something we have to live with.

Chase LogA rare three day weekend presented itself to me and I wasn’t about to pass it up. There was a slight risk for southeast Oklahoma on the SPC Day 2, and the models were indicating some wind shear. (decent enough for July anyway!) Normally I’d never drive all the way out to Oklahoma for a slight risk, but I wanted a road trip and the storm possibilities were just a bonus. I made my way through work on Thursday just waiting for the day to be over with so I could begin my journey. I went home at 4:30pm and packed up the gear along with a few odds and ends to get me through the extended weekend. I loaded up the car and headed out of Champaign around 5:30pm on Thursday afternoon (7/1). I took I-72 west to I-55 south to St. Louis, then I hopped on I-44 west. I made a stop in Rolla, MO around 10:30pm to get a much needed food and gas pitstop.

I continued my journey west on I-44 in search of a hotel, but each one I passed looked pretty packed to me. I pressed on westward and before I knew it I was in Oklahoma. (sweet home ala..err..oklahoma!) The state greeted me the way I left it back in June 2001. As soon as I got on the Will Rogers Turnpike around 3:30am, all hell broke loose. The sky lit up with lots of lightning and the wind was driving the rain so bad that I had to pull off for a few minutes. (SE of Quapaw, OK) As far as I know, there wasn’t any severe warnings out but it was pretty impressive. It let up and I continued my way southwest on I-44 towards Tulsa. I was starting to get a little low on gas, so I got off I-44 near Big Cabin in search of a gas station. The one I saw seemed to be diesel only, so I continued south on US 69 in search of some petrol. As I was driving along, my low fuel light came on letting me know I’d better hurry up with the pitstop. Up ahead I spotted a small gas station with my kind of gas, but at 4:30am it was closed! I continued south and ended up in Pryor, OK where there was a nice 24 hour Phillips 66 to greet me. (whew!)

I proceeded south to Chouteau and then headed west on US 412 towards Tulsa. I got to Tulsa around 5:30am and it was pretty neat to be able to drive downtown without any traffic around. I kinda just drove all around Tulsa just killing some time before deciding where to go from there. I got on I-244 and then just got onto US 64 when I started getting small hail! Just as I got off the highway, the power in the area went out. (oh boy, here we go!) Actually it was probably just the light from the lightning tricking the sensors in the street lights, but it provided some early morning excitement. I drove around Tulsa a little longer and finally decided to head south towards the target area of Ada. I took US 75 south from Tulsa and then headed southwest on SR 1 towards Ada. I arrived in Ada around 9:30am and was ready for a driving break, as well as gas/food. There wasn’t much open food wise at that time, so I drove around town for awhile.

I found an old empty parking lot next to the road and decided to pull off and check some weather data. The slight risk on the Day 1 had expanded to include almost the entire state of Oklahoma, with a 5% tornado threat in the southeast part of the state. Satellite imagery showed the skies west of me starting to clear out so that was somewhat reassuring. I was getting low on gas again, so I stopped at a Shell gas station to fuel up. I paid at the pump, but the darn receipt machine was broken so I had to go inside to get one. The first thing the two ladies at the counter ask me was what I had all the antennas on my car for. I told her I was a storm chaser and then they asked me if any bad weather was coming their way. Now since I didn’t stay at a Holiday Express last night, I told them there probably wouldn’t be anything severe in the area. After making a bathroom stop, I was on my way again looking for food.

I spent most of the morning and early afternoon in Ada just waiting for something to happen. I finally got tired of sitting there and departed around 3:00pm. I headed south on 377 and then headed west on 177 which turned into 199. I stopped in Ardmore to fill up on gas and take a bathroom break. When I came out of the gas station, my weather radio was going off signaling a severe thunderstorm watch for SW Oklahoma and NW Texas. (about time!) This was a bit away from my target area, but since there was still numerous hours of daylight I decided to go for it. After dealing with the insane amount of stoplights, I continued west on US 70. I wanted to drive into Texas just to say I’d been there, but I came up about 1/2 mile short of that goal. Anywho, I was getting rather water logged, but there was no gas stations/rest stops on this road. I turned off on a country road and found a rather large tree to shade (pun intended) me from any traffic. (or so I thought!)

I look around and upon seeing no one, I do my business. Of course, out of nowhere comes a guy in a pickup from the south who honks while he drives by my location. (at least it wasn’t a cop!) Embarrassed, I get back in my car and proceed back to the highway. I continued west on US 70 and stopped just west of Grandfield, OK to survey the sky. There wasn’t much out there and I was painfully considering calling it a bust. I decided to head back east of US 70 and then north on US 277/281. Around 6:35pm I saw what appeared to be a developing tower to the northeast, so I decided to continue in that direction to check it out. Data coverage was very spotty here, but I did notice something just south of Purcell, OK. I called my buddy Mike Cox to have him check it out, but at the time I spoke to him it didn’t look very impressive on radar. (this would soon change!)

I continued heading east and then north trying to get closer to it. Around 7:00pm I noticed what appeared to be an overshooting top on this cell, a very promising indication that this thing was gathering strength. As I passed through Duncan, OK, the cell was really taking shape now and looked spectacular. (I wanted to pull over and take some stills, but I had to get closer before it got dark.) Around 8:20pm just east of Joy, OK I noticed a base, but nothing dangling below it. At 8:41pm, I pulled off next to a cemetary just south of Statford, OK to take some pictures. The storm was now due southeast of my location and appeared to be dying out. I was treated to a nifty array of colors as the sun set on the storm.

After watching the storm die, I proceeded north on US 177. I called some chaser friends of mine in Stillwater and suprised them by telling them I was just south of town. I made it to their house around 11:30pm and we watched some chase video for awhile. I had not had any sleep since I left Illinois, so I was really in need of rest. I left their house around 1:00am to search for a hotel. I drove around for quite awhile looking for one of the cheaper places, but could not find one. I finally settled for the Best Western in Stillwater for a whopping $75.00 for the cheapest room they had. (at least it had air conditioning) Being 2:00am, I wasn’t in the mood to argue or go searching another town for a cheaper place. I brought the gear in, took a shower, and took a much needed nap.

After a nice long rest, I got up and checked the latest Day 1 outlook. Ironically southern Illinois was in a slight risk of severe weather, but I was kind of looking forward to just going home. (I was already looking at a long freaking drive back) I left the hotel around 11:30am and headed north on US 177 to the Cimarron Turnpike. Then I took I-44 all the way to St. Louis, then I-70 east to I-57 north to Champaign. I think I finally rolled in around 10:30pm on Saturday evening. *yawn!*

Final thoughts:
What a nice way to spend the holiday weekend! Nothing like an almost 2000 mile drive to get away from everything. I don’t think it was too shabby given the lack of data I had out there. It was nice to be able to chase visually which is normally impossible here in IL with all the haze. Post-chase analysis showed that my cell actually split into 2 cells and the right split was the one I was on. Overall it was a fun chase and at least I didn’t get stuck in a ditch this time. I can’t wait to visit Oklahoma again, always seem to have good luck there.

Chase LogI had been waiting for this weekend all year as it was the only time during prime chase season that I’d have 3 days off work. After last weekend’s outbreak in the plains, I didn’t think this weekend could be as good. After sifting through all the models, forecast discussions, and the good ole gut feeling, I picked a target area of Salina, KS. (which I found out later that quite a number of other folks did as well!) Due to the fact that it was Memorial Day weekend, the SPC, NWS and the media were really stressing the severe weather possibilities. It appeared the plains were in the bullseye on Saturday and then the midwest on Sunday. My goal was to chase in Kansas on Saturday, then race back home early Sunday morning and chase in Illinois. I’ll save you the time of asking the question and just tell you that I am indeed insane.

After loading up all the gear, I departed Champaign around 7:30am on Saturday morning. We had blue skies here with a very comfortable, almost chilly conditions. I knew that where I was going, it would be alot more warm and humid. I took I-57 south to I-70 and made my journey to the west. During the drive, I periodically checked weather data to see what was going on. There appeared to be a decent cloud cover over Kansas which had me worried at first, but with later satellite updates I noticed those quickly dissipated throughout the morning. I also noticed the SPC had issued a high risk for a big portion of NE/KS/OK. I made a stop in Columbia, MO for some gas and lunch at McD’s and wondered why both were cheaper out there than it is here in IL. Anyway, I got back on I-70 and continued west to my target area. I passed through Kansas City around 2:30pm and was alerted of a PDS tornado watch for Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. (whew!)

I tried to gather as much data as I could as I went through Topeka as there is no Verizon coverage past there. Shortly after leaving Topeka, my chase pal Mike Cox text messaged me letting me know storms were starting to fire up NW of my target area. (wait for me!) Around 5:00pm I stopped in Salina, KS to fill up with gas. As I got out of the car, the insane 40-50mph winds grabbed my beloved Cubs hat and took it for a ride. I ran after it and recovered it, must have been anti-Cubs winds or something. I pulled off the side of the parking lot to call Mike and see what was going on with the weather. (he was chasing in Iowa/Missouri) There weren’t any tornado warnings out yet for my cells, but he said they were increasing in size.

While we were talking, I noticed my Wi-Fi card had connected to a wireless network. I thought it was someone’s personal network or something, but when I loaded up a browser it took me to a signup page for TruckStop.net. They were charging like $29.95 / month or something like that, but all I needed was an hour or day’s worth. I went through the signup procedure and discovered a day’s worth was only $5.95, cheap enough even for me! Once I put my info in there, I was on the internet. (yay, data!) I started looking at radar/satellite loops to see what was going on. We had several storms to my north and then had some firing up further south of me. Both areas were prime for big stuff, so I wasn’t sure which way to go. I finally decided to go north, that way I could follow the storms back home. I headed north on US 81 and heard a tornado warning for Cloud county, which was 2 counties north of Salina. As I got closer, I was hearing lots of reports on the scanner of large hail and tornadoes. (here we go!)

I entered Concordia, KS around 6:00pm and the weather radio went off for a tornado warning in Republic county which was due north of me. I headed a bit west on CR 350 and as I came down a hill, I could see a nice cell/wall cloud to my west. As I continue west, I start seeing a mothership-shaped cell that looked amazing. (I definitely knew I wasn’t in Illinois!) I attempted to get closer to it, but unfortunately the road network went to hell and started curving back to the north. I quickly turned around and headed back east. As I went around a curve heading south, I noticed the striations in the clouds to the west of me. At the same time, I heard law enforcement on the scanner reporting a tornado on the ground just north of Jamestown. Sure enough, I took a gander and saw a brief glimpse of the tornado (more of a funnel cloud from my viewpoint). I made my way back to US 81 and headed south towards Concordia again. I headed west on CR 360 and located another wall cloud to my WNW.

I turned north on CR 775 and went about 1/4 mile up the road and pulled off to watch the storm. At 6:27pm, a tornado was reported on the ground 3 miles west of Courtland, KS which was about 17 miles from my location. I observed a wall cloud for about 10 minutes, but it never did drop anything. I headed north on CR 775 and then west on SR 28 towards Jamestown. I zigzagged north and west a few miles and eventually ended up on CR 769 about 3 miles northeast of Jamestown. I was now witnessing damage that this tornado had caused including a nice lovely tree blocking my path to the north. I headed back south, then west, then north again and encountered more trees scattered across the road. I turned around again and attempted to find a better path around the damage. It was now 7:00pm and it was slowly starting to get darker, but still plenty of daylight.

I called Mike back and was giving him a few updates from my end. I said “between the damage scattered around and these darn muddy roads, it’s hard to get around.” He jokingly told me to not get stuck out in the middle of nowhere, which at the time I didn’t really think about too much. (if only I knew then what I know now!) Anyway, I headed back east on CR 352 and then south and the east again to SR 28. I made my way back into Concordia (I seem to be attracted to that town alot on this chase!) and then head back north on US 81. As I headed north, I encountered a horde of chaser convergence. Tour groups, caravans, antenna farms, you name it and I saw it. (most of them were all well off the road as to not cause any traffic problems) I got just south of Belleville and decided to head west on CR Q. I heard the scanner mentioning strong rotation west of Scandia which was just about 7 miles to my west. I could see a nice wall cloud but from my viewpoint I couldn’t see underneathe it.

Around 7:40pm, I made my way to the intersection of CR 15 and CR R (4 mi SW of Belleville) to stop and shoot some video. There was a wall cloud visible to my NW which I focused on most of the time. Being smart this time, I got out the tripod and shot some video of the wall cloud. The rotation was pretty darn impressive and I kept seeing funnels trying to drop down during the event. As the wall cloud became rain-wrapped, I focused my attention on the usually boring scud junk that was in front of me. It was getting sucked up into the clouds and literally going in all directions. I continued watching the storm as it moved to the east towards Belleville. I could hear the tornado sirens from Belleville going off, so I was hoping everyone there was taking shelter. At 8:00pm I decided to get back in the car and attempt to follow it. These country roads were getting really mushy at this point, but seeing how I was just one lousy mile away from the highway I figured I’d have no problems.

I headed east on CR R and was doing fine till about half a mile down the road. I was going very slow and not turning much, but the road had a mind of its own. I started sliding to the right side of the road and almost hit a wire fence. Luckily where I was there was some grass, so I amazingly turned the wheels just right to get me out of that scary situation. At this point I attempted to back my way up the road. That was going pretty good until I got to the hill, then I lost traction again. This time I slid to the left side of the road and there was no chance of recovering this time. My luck had run out as no matter what I did, I wasn’t going anywhere. I got out of the car and instantly sunk several inches into the mud. (great, there goes that pair of shoes!) I walked around to the front of the car and the wheels were not even making contact with the ground. (this is the one time I really wish I’d gotten a gas guzzling vehicle with 4 wheel drive!)

I now faded back to the conversation I’d had with Mike just over an hour ago about not getting stuck. I decided to call him and confirm the news that I indeed had gotten myself in quite the predicament. He gave me a couple numbers to try on my cell phone for assistance, but none of them worked. Given the amount of severe weather still in the area, I made the decision to call 911. It’s amazing I even got through to them given the amount of stuff that was going on. I told the dispatcher my location and requested a tow truck. She said they were very busy but would send someone out as soon as possible. (this was at 8:30pm) I waited an hour just listening to the scanner and weather radio, but never heard anyone dispatched. I called again at 9:30pm and 10:30pm, but no one ever showed up. Another line of severe storms had formed and was moving through at this point, so I was getting rather concerned about my safety. I had no access to weather data at this point, so I couldn’t tell how severe the storms were.

I decided to call 911 one more time at 11:30pm and they finally decided to send an officer out to my location. Due to the now soupy road conditions, the officer could not make it to my location. Had I not been listening on the scanner, I would have never made contact with him. I heard him call the dispatcher and tell her that he was not going to drive his vehicle down the road. Despite calling 4 times, the dispatcher did not have my cell phone number. I could see the guy’s lights flashing way up on the hill, so I decided to make the muddy rainy slip-n-slide walk up the road to meet with the officer. He was smoking a cigar and asked me what in the world I was doing out here. I shuttered to say ‘chasing storms’, but he didn’t really respond negatively to that. I asked him if he could get a tow truck out here, but he told me they were swamped and wouldn’t be able to get their big rig down this muddy road.

He considered using his 4×4 to pull me out, but said he’d never make it down there. He ran my license and then offered to take me into town (yes, the one just hit by a tornado which I’m assuming had no power) to spend the night. I declined and said I’d just sleep in my car as there was no way I was going to leave all my gear in my car. He wished me well and told me to avoid the mosquitos if I could. I thanked the officer and made my way back to the car.

I called Mike on the trek back and told him I’d be out here awhile. While I was on the phone, I noticed I couldn’t see my car lights on anymore. That’s all I needed now was the battery to be dead. A big sigh of relief came upon me when I noticed it was just a small hill (this road was full of them) blocking my view. After scraping as much mud off as possible, I climbed back in the car and let it run for awhile to charge the battery. The storms seemed to die down and move out of the area, so I felt rather relieved yet still very frustrated at the situation. I decided just to try and get some sleep then worry about a tow truck in the morning. I think I dozed off for a few hours, but woke up around 4:30am. I started the car again and tried backing out of the ditch, but still no go. At this point all I kept thinking about was missing out on the high risk back in Illinois.

I had to come up with something, so I decided to call the roadside assistance number that had been included with my new car purchase last year. I didn’t think anyone would even answer the phone, but sure enough they did. I gave the representative my location and all the details and she told me they’d have a tow truck to me in 60 minutes. I laughed on the inside as I knew there was no way in hell they’d get someone out there that quickly. 15 minutes later, the tow truck operator calls me to verify my location. Soon after that, I saw headlights coming down the road. I was hoping he wouldn’t get stuck as the road was still pretty muddy. He hooked me up to the truck and pulled me out of the ditch. I really didn’t realize how deep I was stuck in there, I must have sunk in quite a bit.

Anyway, he got me back on the road and asked me if I thought I could make it back to the highway. I was very skeptical that I could, but told him I’d try. I put the car in drive and proceeded towards the highway. I could feel the car wanting to dive back into the ditch, but I managed to keep it out and make it back to the pavement. I waited for him to meet me up there and I thanked him several times for getting me out of there. I was so happy to be mobile again and still having a chance to chase back in Illinois.

I headed south on US 81 around 6:00am and made my way back to Concordia. On the way, the car felt very loose in the steering. I was very concerned I’d damaged something under the car, so I decided to take a closer look. I pulled off at a car wash and gave the poor car a much needed bath. I’m not sure how many quarters I used, but it was quite a few! As I was washing, I noticed there was so much mud caked around the wheels and struts that it was causing the car to be loose. I diligently cleaned out as much mud as I could and then continued heading south on US 81.

Chase Log*This chase refers to May 24th, but my chase didn’t begin until the early morning hours of May 25th.*

Today wasn’t really looking too good for a chase around east central Illinois. The main show was back in northern Missouri and southern Iowa where the SPC had a high risk out. I watched in frustration at work as all these cells fired up and went tornadic, all the while hoping no one was getting injured or killed over there. As the day went on, the SPC seemed to keep shifting the high/moderate risks further to the east. Would the storms really hold together that far east, only time would tell.

As the late evening progressed, I noticed the storms were still sticking together as they made their way into Illinois. At 10:45pm (5/24), the SPC issued a tornado watch for central Illinois. (no sleepy for me!) The storms were starting to form into bow echoes as they made their way towards my area. I kept flipping back between WCIA-3 and WAND-17 as each of them broke in with live radar updates at such a late hour. I figured I wasn’t going to get any sleep with all the storms, so why not go out and see what these storms were packing.

I quickly packed up the gear and headed to the car around midnight. My plan was to head to the SW part of the county and intercept the line of storms. I made my way to CR 700E and 1000N and sat there for a few minutes. The weather radio went off at this time (1:20am) with a severe thunderstorm warning for Champaign county. It mentioned a severe thunderstorm over Sadorus, which I was just 4 miles from. It had quite a bit of lightning and rain, but not too much wind. I was quite surprised not to hear any spotter nets going at this time, so I chatted with my dad and a few other hams on the local ARES repeater. (if there was something out there, I’d let them know!) I headed west on 1000N and attempted to pull off the road to measure some wind speeds. I didn’t care for the incline of the road, so I attempted to pull back on the road but the car didn’t want to cooperate with me. The tires were spinning, but I wasn’t going anywhere.

At this point, I decided to just pull off the road even further into the grass and see if I could get any traction that way. (ah, my first offroad experience in the ZX2!) So after going a ways in the grass, I decided it was time to get back on the road. I floored it and made it up the hill back onto the road. (whew!) I then headed south on 300E and found a much more stable spot to pull off the road at. I stuck the anemometer on the roof and measured a peak gust of 43.7mph. I checked radar shortly after this and noticed things were dying out very quickly, which was fine by me given the late hour that it was. As I made my way back east on 1000N, I noticed some decent tree damage just south of the airport. I took a few pictures and continued on my journey back into town. I took the scenic route and noticed a few limbs down around Hessel Park in Champaign, but nothing blocking traffic. I continued north to Randolph and Healey where I noticed a tree that was completely blocking Healey.

Being the helpful chaser that I am, I decided I’d better call this in so the road crews could get it cleaned up before morning. So just around 2:20am, I called the non-emergency police number and reported the damage. A few minutes later, I heard my report go across the scanner as crews were dispatched to the scene. (I’m being a tad overdramatic, but this was pretty much the pinnacle of the chase!) I made it home around 2:30am where I quickly found my way to sleepyland to dream of future chases.

Final thoughts:
Well it wasn’t too bad of a chase for only going 40 miles in the wee hours of the morning! It was nice to see several TV stations breaking in throughout the night to stress the risk from these storms. (the radar was nice to look at too!) There were a few tornadoes embedded further south, so it was definitely worthy of a tornado watch.

Chase LogAfter Saturday’s bustola in northern Illinois, I wasn’t sure if I was going to chase or not. I had considered finding a hotel in northern Illinois for a possible Sunday chase, but decided I’d just save the money and head home. Looking at the morning SPC Day 1 outlook revealed yet another moderate risk plastered over northern Illinois, Indiana, and southern Michigan. I was being rather lazy on Sunday morning, just glancing at the weather data when my buddy Darin called wanting to know if I was going to chase. Since he moved to southern Illinois, we haven’t had a chance to chase so I figured today would be a fine day to break that streak. He was at a friend’s in Decatur, so I decided to meet him in Bloomington and we’d go from there.

I departed Champaign around 10:30am and received word of a tornado watch for southern Illinois. (what in the world is going on here!) I didn’t think much of it and continued on my way. There was also a tornado watch out for northern Indiana and parts east of there, which also didn’t look the greatest. I met up with Darin at a McD’s in Bloomington and we gathered data on my slow cell phone connection. At the time, everything was still pointing to somewhere in northern Illinois. We were originally going to target somewhere south of I-80 between the Quad Cities and Peru. Around 12:30pm, I received word of a mesoscale discussion for NE MO/E.IA/W.IL regarding a potential tornado watch. They mentioned significant tornadoes and very large hail, so that quickly got our attention. Decision time… Do we keep to the north, or do we head towards western Illinois? We both agreed on the western Illinois area and picked our favorite hotspot of Macomb to target.

We headed south on US 51 and then headed west on RT 136. We were pretty much in grunge city the whole way over, but once we hit Macomb the skies cleared which gave us some hope of a good chase day. We pulled into a Walmart parking lot in Macomb around 2:30pm and sat there waiting for initiation. We sat there for quite awhile watching stuff go up and then die a quick death, evidence that the bloody cap was winning the battle. Around 3:30pm, I got a call on the ham rig from Mark Sefried and Scott Kampas saying they were coming into town. (they had just made the long journey back from Nebraska!) We all sat there watching the cap trying to break, but it seemed like it was never going to do so. Then we started noticing some decent stuff going up to our southwest. Radar confirmed this as stuff was firing up right along the IL/MO border and looked to be what we were waiting for. Just after 5:00pm, a tornado warning was issued for Scott county which was about 3 counties to our south.

Mark and Scott decided to take off for this cell as Darin and I continued to watch and wait. As we were waiting, I was wondering why my radio wasn’t talking and why the laptop was running off its own battery power instead of the inverter. I tried starting the car, but she was dead to the world. (well isn’t this just peachy…) Luckily, Darin had some jumper cables and we were able to get it going within a few minutes. After waiting a little longer, we decided that this was probably the main show so we should try to go after it. We departed Macomb around 5:30pm and headed south on US 67. I saw the one big storm in front of us and then noticed something further to the east trying to go up. We headed east-southeast on SR 125 and then south on SR 78 towards Jacksonville. We stopped for a few minutes just south of Virginia to shoot some stills and video of this decent looking supercell to our south.

As we were admiring this nifty cell, I got word of a tornado warning for Sangamon county which was the county to our east-southeast. (time to intercept this puppy!) We hopped on I-72 and headed east towards Springfield. We noticed a few lowerings/possible wall clouds to our south, but the contrast was too crappy to tell for sure. We were getting low on fuel, so we pulled off at exit 93 to get some gas. I checked radar real quick and noticed we were definitely getting closer to this cell, but wanted to head south a bit. I suggested to Darin that we hop on I-55 south and see if we couldn’t get a little closer to this thing. He agreed, so we hopped back on I-72 and then went south on I-55. I noticed a nifty rainbow under some mammatus clouds to my east and then saw the much darker skies to our south. (I really wasn’t trying to punch the core, honest!)

The rain was starting to pick up a bit at this point, so time to prepare for possible hail. While I was doing so, I noticed a massive string of vehicles on both sides of the road trying to take cover under an overpass. Some of the people were actually double parked extending onto the highway, which brought traffic to a halt. (I took some video of these misinformed citizens to share with NWS offices) Anywho, we continued south and started getting into some small hail, so I blinked my lights at Darin to take the next exit. We got off at the Auburn/Pawnee exit and headed for the Mobil station. We noticed a firetruck sitting there as well as a cop, so we weren’t sure what was going on. A firefighter came over to us and told us that a tornado was on the ground and to head south. Darin had gotten out of his car to get a closer look and the firefighter tried to get him to take cover in the Mobil station.

By this time I had already pulled out of the gas station and was waiting for Darin. After a few moments, he managed to get away from there and continue the chase. (maybe Darin needs more antennas on his car?) We headed a mile north and sat there while the rain pounded us with occasional bouts of very small hail. After about 5 minutes of that, we headed back south on I-55 to Farmersville. We stopped at a gas station and noticed a possible wall cloud to our west. There wasn’t much if any rotation to it, but it was still worthy of watching. We went just up the road to get a better view of this and sat there and watched it for a good 45 minutes. As it passed just to our north, we noted numerous temp/dewpoint shifts which reminded us of April 30, 2003. At 8:45pm I heard the weather radio going off in the car, so I walked back to listen to the warning. It was a tornado warning for Christian county, which was the county to our east. (our cell, woo hoo!)

We followed it east into Christian county near Morrisonville, but it was quickly dying out as nighttime fell upon us. It was getting late, so we called it a chase and decided to seek out a place of food stuff. We got on SR 48 and headed northeast towards Taylorville. Darin got a phone call from Mark saying they were at some pizza joint in Taylorville, so that’s where we headed. Upon arrival to Angelos Pizza, we encountered quite a chaser convergence. We met up with Mark Sefried, Scott Kampas, Colin Davis, Andrew Pritchard, Dave (Andrew’s driver), and someone else who I can’t remember their name. (sorry!) We enjoyed some very good pizza and I took the leftovers home to enjoy another day. It was getting late as some of us had to work on Monday while others were planning their next chase target. I made my way to I-72 and headed back to Champaign, arriving around midnight.

Final thoughts:
Well it didn’t quite pan out as the outbreak the SPC was expecting, but it was a decent chase nonetheless for Illinois. It was nice to chase with Darin again, hopefully we can get a few more in this year before the snow falls. (did I just say that?!) Thanks to the all the chasers at Angelos in Taylorville, nice to meet the ones I hadn’t met before!

Chase LogI had predicted this day to be a big outbreak since February, yet everyone laughed at me. What would cause me to make such a bold precise statement like this so far in advance? Cubs/Cards tickets of course! Yes, being a lifelong Cubs fan and never had a chance to visit Wrigley was just too much for me to take. A friend of mine had somehow secured some tickets the day they went on sale in February. I made a prediction that on May 22, 2004 there would be a super outbreak in the midwest. So wouldn’t you know it, 2 months later and there’s an outbreak setup in the making. The morning Day 1 outlook had parts of NE/IA in a moderate risk. (later upgraded to a high risk) Some would call it irony, others would blame it on the many curses of the Cubs. I have a few choice words for it myself, but will refrain from using them at this time.

To make matters worse, the forecast for the game was not looking good. Radar was showing 2 bands of showers and thunderstorms heading right for Chicago. Due to the realistic chance that it might get rained out, I decided to drive my vehicle up just in case a chase presented itself to me. We loaded up and headed north to Chicago on I-57. My friends thought it was funny that some people were slowing down behind me because they thought I was a cop due to all the antennas on my car. (it’s kinda funny and annoying at the same time!) Anywho, as we got up to Chicago, the sun was out and the skies were partly cloudy. While we were wasting time, I got a text message on my phone regarding a severe thunderstorm watch that just happened to include Champaign. (it never fails!) Anywho, not wanting to drive all of our vehicles into the heart of Chicago, we dropped them off at one of their relative’s houses in Forest View, IL.

We managed to find a parking lot just a few blocks from Wrigley Field which was pretty amazing given the time and amount of people in the area already. As soon as we got out of the vehicle, it started raining. (oh boy, here we go) It was a very light rain and didn’t last too long. We made our way to our seats and my jaw dropped as I experienced Wrigley Field’s awesome environment for the first time. I really wish I would have brought my camera in with me, but I was worried that it would get dropped or some idiot would spill beer on it. It rained for a little bit during the middle of the game, but it was very light and provided a slight breeze to the area. Throughout the game, I continued getting text messages regarding severe and tornado watches going up in Iowa, Nebraska, Michigan, Kansas, and a few other states. (Illinois not included of course!)

After the Cubs finished the game with a 7-1 whopping of the Cardinals, we slowly made our way back to the vehicle. We were rather surprised to see that no one had blocked us in so we were able to get out very quickly. Unfortunately we got confused at how to get back to Forest View as the map we had was the worst thing I’d ever seen. (didn’t even have mile markers on it!) Why I didn’t bring my laptop/GPS setup along is beyond me, but live and learn right? We finally made it back to Forest View around 5:30PM and shot the breeze for a little bit. I was ready to head back and they decided to stay up there and have dinner. So as I’m driving down the street ready to get back on the highway, my phone alerts me of a tornado watch for northern Illinois. (holy mother of something, can this be for real?!) I go to get some data and yet again I’m in a no-data area. I call up Mike Cox and see if he can give me an update as well as see if he’s out chasing the PDS tornado watch.

At this point, he was having alot better luck than me. I told him I was going to head west and see if I could get out of the city and see something. My plan was to head west on US 34 and then jump on I-88. Once I got on US 34 though, the speed limit was a horrid 30mph. (who makes a speed limit that low on a highway??) It didn’t take me long to get fed up with that crap, so I hopped on the I-294 tollway and headed north to I-88. As I made my way out of the city life, I noticed my phone saying it was able to get data again. I checked out radar and saw a couple cells firing up to my west, so I continued west on I-88. As I approached Dixon, IL., I noticed some towers through the grunge. They looked like crap on radar, but it was all I had in the area. I stopped at Dixon to fuel up and then headed south on SR 26 to attempt an intercept of the storm. I jogged east on SR 24 and then south through Amboy on US 52. I gave up on the storms and decided to start heading back home.

As I continued south, I got a call from Mike Cox again stating he’d just bagged five tornadoes in Iowa! I was happy as hell for him but very frustrated that I wasn’t there. (can’t win them all!) I stopped in Mendota, IL for food and then made my journey back home. I arrived around midnight and tried to get some sleep for the next day’s possible chase.

Final thoughts:
A very exciting day Cubs wise, but frustrating on the storm front. (pun intended) I almost had the best of both worlds, but mother nature didn’t cooperate on the second go around. No worries, more chasing is in the forecast!

Chase LogThere’s just something about the 20th of the month this year that draws me to a chase. Today marked the third month in a row where I was considering a chase on the 20th of the month. (makes ya wonder doesn’t it?) Anywho, the main action looked to be in Iowa which obviously was way too far for me to go on a work day. The SPC day 1 outlook had most of Illinois in a slight risk, so while not a great chance it was a start. I was dying to chase even if the setup wasn’t the greatest, so I worked through lunch and left a little early from work.

I departed Champaign around 4:15PM and hopped on I-72 to head towards Bloomington. During the journey, I was socked in with clouds which didn’t make me too optimistic about severe weather occuring. Once I reached Bloomington, I headed north on I-39. As I traveled further north, the lovely sun began popping through which gave me a bit more confidence in our chances. Once I reached Peru, IL. around 6:00PM, I decided to hop on I-80 and head west. I made a pitstop in Spring Valley to grab a snack and to check data. The snack part worked out great, but data wasn’t as good. I tried to get online, but I was in a no-data zone. (drats!) I called up my pal Mike Cox to see if he could provide a little data to me. To my surprise, he was actually out chasing storms over in Iowa. As he was waiting on his storms to do stuff, he informed me that the storms I was interested in were still west of the Quad Cities.

I wasn’t going to give up on the chase just yet, especially since I had driven so far already. I got back on I-80 and continued west hoping to find a storm to intercept. Unfortunately no one told me about the lovely road construction near Atkinson, IL, so that slowed me down a bit. Having about enough of the construction and getting low on fuel, I decided to hop off at Geneso, IL. to fuel up and get my bearings. I finally was able to get a data connection and noticed cells just entering into IL. I decided to head north to avoid having to travel on the road construction plagued I-80. Soon after I hopped on SR 82, the weather radio goes off for a severe thunderstorm warning in the Whiteside county to my north. (yay!) Unfortunately, as I entered the county, I was informed that the storm had weakend and was no longer severe. (I guess I scared it away!)

I took a couple pictures of the sunset and then checked data again. I noticed a couple stronger cells with radar indicating large hail to my south, so I decided to head back towards the Quad Cities and attempt to intercept them. I headed southwest on I-88 and then south on I-80 which finally turned into I-74. The flood gates opened up at this point as did the lightning extravaganza. I literally had lightning hitting on both sides of the highway, it was insane. (not to mention a tad freaky!) I had about enough of the blinding rain, so I decided to get off the interstate and just let this thing pass over me. I parked just off the interstate about 2 miles west of Andover. (no, we’re not in Kansas anymore despite the name!) The winds really started picking up and of course I didn’t have the anemometer on the roof. (too much lightning!) As I was waiting out the storm, I got pelted by a couple rounds of hail. Most of it was pea sized, though there were a few in there that were probably a tad larger.

After sitting there for about 12 minutes, I decided to make my journey back east on I-74. The remaining cells stayed together for awhile, but I had to work the next morning so I decided to call it a chase and head home.

Final thoughts:
I’ve seen quite a few gulley washers in my time, but this one definitely tops the list. The lightning was also the most intense I’d ever seen, so these storms really must have had some juice to work with. Not too bad of a chase for being after work. Maybe next time I can remember to put the anemometer on the roof before the action begins!

Chase LogToday was not an anticipated chase day at all. (seems to be a growing theme this year) I didn’t even look at any sort of weather data when I got up. My focus on this chilly morning was to visit a local amateur radio hamfest in Decatur, IL. I got up around 7:15am and got everything in order to make the hour drive to Decatur. My initial thoughts were to just take the laptop and HT, but some strange voice inside me told me to grab the camcorder and gear bag. (thanks strange voice!) I loaded up the car and headed out around 8:00am. I made a quick stop at the ATM to get some cash, but my debit card decided to expire without letting me know so I was unable to get any bling bling. (the stupid thing ate my card too!) Despite this minor setback, I decided to push forward and continue on my journey. I arrived at the hamfest a little after 9:00am and started roaming around to see if there were any goodies. I met up with my ham/chase friend George (N9IPO) and we made the rounds inside and out.

While we were walking around, my cell phone started buzzing. I figured it was just a weather watch for some place on the east coast or something. A few minutes later, it buzzed again. I checked it out and there was a severe thunderstorm warning as well as a mesoscale discussion for Illinois. (what the heck!?!?) Cell phone coverage wasn’t too good in the building, but I managed to find a spot where I could download the full text of the discussion. The lovely cold air aloft was triggering some decent hail, hence the warnings. I continued browsing the hamfest not thinking much more about the weather situation. George and I made one more pass of the outdoor vendors before heading on our separate ways. One radio had caught my eye earlier and I was surprised to see it still there when I returned. I really wanted it, but all I had was my checkbook and the guy said ‘cash only’. (blah!) Luckily, another ham friend of mine knew the guy and was able to convince him that I was a trustworthy person. (yay for me!)

I thanked all parties involved and then headed back to the car to tinker with the radio. While I was setting it up, I decided to get online and check the radar just for kicks. To my surprise, there was a decent looking cell up in Fulton county that apparently was dropping a decent amount of hail. About that time, I got the notice of a severe thunderstorm warning for that same cell. It’s not very often I get a chance to chase during the daylight, so I figured I might as well go after this thing while I had the chance. I ran into town for a quick bite to eat and to gather weather data at the local McD’s. The cell seemed to be maintaining its strength which was pretty nifty given the conditions. I decided to go west on I-72 to Springfield and then head north from there. I arrived in Springfield around 12:30pm and radar was still looking pretty good to my north. I found my way to SR 29 and headed north of town.

At 12:40pm, I encountered some hail approximately 0.5″-0.75″ 2 miles south of Cantrall, IL in Sangamon county. At 12:48pm, I encountered a thin layer of hail covering the ground just north of Athens, IL in Menard county. (maybe I need to invest in some snow tires?) As I continued north, I ran through various pockets of small hail and heavy rain. I proceeded north into Mason county and then noticed a wannabe wall cloud looking thingamabob to my northeast. (yes, that’s the technical term for it) I turned off SR 29 onto CR 800N just south of Mason City and went east to follow this interesting lowering. I decided to roll down the window to get a better view and when I did, what I thought was rain turned out to be pea sized hail flying into the car. (this is what happens when I complain about being hail-deprived!) Luckily I was wearing a sweater so the hail just stuck to it until it melted. I followed this thing just over the border into Logan county and finally decided it wasn’t going to do anything.

I made my way south on CR 100E and zig-zagged my way back into Sangamon county. I was getting low on fuel, so I decided to fill up in Spaulding, IL. I took another glance at the weather data and everything looked to be dying out, so I decided to call it a chase. I found my way back to I-72 and made the journey home to Champaign.

Final thoughts:
Wow, yet another unexpected chase close to home. It was nice to finally chase in central Illinois for a change. The terrain here is a piece of cake to chase in compared to the junk in Missouri that I dealt with last weekend. While the hail I saw today wasn’t very big, I was impressed at how long it lasted. I send my props out to the cold pool aloft, you rock!

Chase LogAfter having a very successful chase on 4/20, I was ready to get back out there and see what else I could intercept. The setup for Saturday looked fairly decent: nice moisture, instability, CAPE was up there, and some decent wind shear. I wasn’t sure if I was going to chase or not, but figured if I did that I would target the very popular oasis of Sikeston, MO. A friend of mine from the St. Louis area called me up and asked if I could take a look at their computer. (darn viruses!) I decided that I could go down there Friday after work, fix the computer, crash at their place, and then chase Saturday if something materialized. Not too shabby if you ask me!

As I awoke Saturday morning, we were socked in with cloudy skies. I flipped on the weather channel and it confirmed my visual observations. (this wasn’t looking good) After saying our goodbyes, I departed Alton, IL around 11:00am in search of weather data and food. I drove around these small little towns north of the area, but couldn’t seem to find any food joints that I was interested in. I had the craving for some Hardee’s bacon-egg-cheese biscuits, so that was my new goal of the morning. I finally stumbled into Staunton, IL and found a Hardees. Unfortunately they had stopped serving breakfast, so my choices were limited to the Angus burgers or a safer/healthier choice of the ham and swiss sandwich. As I was eating my ham and swiss sandwich, I hopped online to get the latest weather information. Everything in IL was socked in with thick cloud cover, but further south the sun was popping through.

As I was sitting there debating what to do, I got an alert on my phone saying a tornado watch had just been issued for Arkansas and Missouri. (holy crap!) I called up my buddy Mike Cox and asked him what was going on. He told me the watch mainly covered Arkansas, with just a sliver of SE Missouri. (Sikeston baby here we come!) I was still about 3+ hours north of Sikeston, but figured I had plenty of time to get there. I made my way out of Staunton to I-55, where I headed south. As I neared Bloomsdale, MO., the floodgates opened which prompted me to stop at a rest area to wait it out. I had cell coverage, but could not connect to data since I was roaming. I called up Mike again to check on things and he reported that there were some tornado warnings in Arkansas, but nothing too impressive at the moment. I made a quick beverage/bathroom run at the rest area (yes it was still pouring), and then got back on I-55 and continued south.

I made another quick stop in St. Genevieve, MO to fill up on gas, then continued south on I-55. As I went further south, the sun started breaking through the clouds which definitely gave me hope. As I approached Sikeston, I decided to continue heading south rather than stopping. Around 4:00pm I made it to New Madrid, MO. and decided to find a spot that wasn’t plastered with trees to watch the sky. I saw several towers try to go up, but they all kind of fizzled out. The dewpoint around this time was in the upper 60s, so it made for a very hazy and muggy environment. Around 5:45pm, I headed west of town to see if I could find a decent gas station to fill up the tank. While I was out running around, I started hearing several warnings coming out to my west. I took a quick glance at radar and it looked like the heart of the storms were going to be to my NW. Having not found a gas station to my liking, I made my way back to New Madrid and then hopped back on I-55 to head north.

Around 6:30pm I made it to the Sikeston area and made the mistake of getting off the interstate. As I battled my way through traffic, I heard more warnings go out to my NW so I knew something was brewing. I finally made my way north of town on US 61. I started tuning around on the scanner and came across a weak but audible county frequency. They were talking about tornado damage in Wayne County, MO, which was 2 counties to my west. I continued north on US 61 and then jumped back on I-55. Visibility was getting pretty bad now between the haze, trees, and hills. Around 7:15pm, I finally got off the interstate near Oak Ridge, MO and headed west on SR E. As I came over the first hill on this lovely road, I suddenly felt like I was riding a roller coaster. I’d never seen a hill drop off so quickly before, I thought for sure the car was going to flip over! I cautiously made my way to the northwest, zig-zagging through this god-forsaken place that some like to call Missouri. (I have a few other names that I could suggest)

I made my way into NE Bollinger county where things got a bit interesting. As I came over yet another hill, I saw what appeared to be a lowering of some sort. I want to call it a wall cloud, but due to the insane amount of foilage and crappy terrain I just can’t be certain. I tried to find a road option to get me closer to this thing, but all of a sudden the flood gates opened and I had to pull off the road. After the rain subsided, I headed north into southern Perry county. I stopped at a church in Biele, MO in hopes I would see some hail or high winds, but I only ended up with some gusty rainy winds and some lightning strikes. I was getting really low on fuel now, so I decided I’d better fill up on gas now while I had the gas station in sight. Despite the pumps being underneathe a cover, the winds still managed to soak me while I was pumping gas. (a few lightning strikes added to the excitement) I took another look at radar and noticed everything was starting to form into a line and head off to my east.

It was dark by this time, so I decided to call it a chase and make my way back home. I headed north on I-55 to St. Louis, then headed east on I-70. I was really starting to get tired and while I probably could have made it all the way home, I decided to find a cheap hotel and make the rest of the trip home in the morning. While I was tempted to stay at a Holiday Inn Express, my wallet had other ideas. I found a Knights Inn in Altamont, IL and spent the night there. Being a cheaper hotel, it didn’t have A/C so it was quite humid which didn’t help the whole sleep process. I left the hotel around 8:30am on Sunday morning and made it back to Champaign around 10:00am.

Final thoughts:
Unlike the previous two trips to the bootheel of Missouri, at least there were watches and warnings to go along with this trip. I probably would have been more successful if those darn trees and hills hadn’t been there, but this is Missouri we’re talking about. Note to self: Please buy chainsaw and road grader for future chasing in Missouri.

Chase LogI had no intentions or reasons to chase today, everything looked to be out in KS/OK. Anything that did come our way appeared to be overnight stuff that isn’t much fun to chase. I briefly looked at the models and it showed very decent shear but no cape to work with. As I went to work in the morning, the whole state was covered with showers and thunderstorms. (nothing severe) As worked progressed, I noticed a watch box go up out west for KS/OK/AR/MO. Not having much to do, I loaded up a few weather programs and kept an eye on it just for kicks.

While I was sitting there, I saw a tornado warning pop up on the screen. At first I didn’t think anything of it, but then noticed it was from our local NWS office in Lincoln. I thought maybe they were testing or someone hit the wrong button, but as I looked closer it not only was real but it was for Champaign county! (what the ….!) I about fell out of my chair when this happened and shared the news with several co-workers. The radar didn’t really show much of anything which made me think this was just a farse. Not too long after I received several damage reports around the county that did indeed confirm the tornado. Even with this very local event, I still didn’t think much of it.

At this time, I was back to wondering what to do for lunch. I didn’t feel like going anywhere and several others in the office felt the same way, so we decided to order some subs from our local establishment. We got some special deal that’s meant for 4 people but it was just the 3 of us, so we each got 2 of something. One got 2 drinks, another got 2 bags of chips, while I ended up with the 2 small sub sandwiches. (not a bad deal, or so I thought) I usually leave work at 6 pm on Tuesday’s, but since I worked through lunch I could leave at 5 pm. As it got closer to this time, the great deal on the subs didn’t feel so great anymore. My stomach kept doing flips and all kinds of special events fit for the olympics. Of course around this time, more storms started firing up in IL which were going tornadic. Despite this wonderful news, I didn’t really feel up to chasing.

I got home and took some good ol’ Pepto and continued looking at the radar. There were various tornadic supercells scattered across central and north central IL/IN which prompted the SPC to issue a tornado watch. Amazingly, I started feeling much better and started gathering up my chase gear. Everything was moving in a NE direction, so I decided I would head north and try to intercept one of these puppies.

After loading up the gear and filling up the gas tank, I headed north on I-57. I attempted to get some radar updates on the way up, but shortly after leaving Champaign county I discovered the no-data zone in cell phone coverage. I continued getting warnings via text messages as well as hearing several warnings on the weather radio. I heard one tornado warning come out for Ford/Livingson/Iroquois counties which is where I was, but there was alot of grunge that prohibited me from seeing anything useful. I got just south of Kankakee around 7:15pm and stopped to check the radar. I appeared to be smack dab between two tornadic cells, one to my west and the other to my east. I decided to go after the one to my west because it was closer and had confirmed sightings of a tornado. So I headed south of town on RT.45 and then headed west to try to intercept this thing.

I saw numerous low hanging features, but there was only one that really caught my eye. As I turned east on HWY 115 from S.4000W Rd, I saw a definite funnel cloud but a grove of trees were blocking my view of the ground below it. As soon as I got past the trees, I saw the debris cloud confirming a tornado. This thing kept going up and down but was really stirring up the dirt. I pulled off on S.3000W Rd. and filmed the tornado crossing HWY 115 about a mile down the road from me. (7:35pm CDT – 5m SW Kankakee / 4m NNW Chebanse) About a minute after it crossed the road, it started getting rain wrapped. Since this thing was moving in a NE direction, I decided to cautiously follow it.

I headed north about a mile and then east on W 3500S RD about half a mile where it became visible again. (7:40pm CDT – 4.5m N Chebanse / 4.5m SW Kankakee) I could definitely tell it was increasing in strength as it was getting more of a cone shape to it as well as kicking up more dirt. I got out of the car and kept filming as it encountered a populated area. I wanted to get some better video, so I quickly grabbed the tripod out of the car and set it up. As I was fumbling with mounting the camera on the tripod, I saw a green power flash that lit up the whole tornado. Several seconds later, I saw 2 more green power flashes. As I got the camera mounted on the tripod, the rain decided to block the view of the tornado yet again. I attempted to catch up with it again, but I ended up getting stuck in traffic and that was the end of the chase.

As I was making my way through Kankakee, I saw several emergency vehicles racing to the south which gave me an uneasy feeling. It was pretty much dark at this point, so any further chasing would be silly. I made my way back to I-57 and headed back to Champaign.

Final thoughts:
I’m still in that stage of shock and awe at this point. What started out as a non-severe day turned in to a very successful chase. It just goes to show you that anything can happen in April and you always have to be prepared for it. I just hope the people who incurred property damage and injuries can make a full recovery.

Chase LogApril…Warmer temperatures, green grass, birds chirping, and of course the beloved severe thunderstorms. Since there hasn’t been many chasing opportunities this year, I was very anxious to get out there on a so-called ‘real’ chase. I can honestly say there has not been a chase yet that I’ve looked at so many forecast models and weather data as this one. From the Day 10 GFS to the morning ETA/RUC models, I think I scoured everything I could dig up on this trying to find some answers. The best area to me looked to be somewhere in northwest-west central Iowa. The models were throwing up some crazy values that were almost too good to be true. CAPE values over 2500, LI’s -8 to -10, dewpoints in the mid 60s, and wind shear wasn’t too shabby either. All the talk around the chasing community was regarding the overstatement of the moisture return from the gulf by the models. The other issue was the beloved cap was expected to rear its ugly head over the target area. Blah!

Being a weekend chase opportunity, I decided to disregard these ‘minor’ details and give it a go and see what happened. If I expected to go that far, I figured I’d better get my transportation in optimal operating condition. On Friday, I took my car in for its very first oil change. (yummy synthetic too!) I figured it would help maintain the engine as well as yield better gas mileage. Anywho, after taking care of that I took one more glance at the models late Friday night. I decided to pick the Des Moines area to initally stop and get data, then go from there. I conveyed my thoughts to my EMT chaser pal Mike Cox who said he would meet me and go from there. So after fueling/bathing my car and grabbing a quick bite to eat, I departed Champaign around 8:30 AM on Saturday morning. I headed west on I-74 and made my journey across Illinois, anxiously awaiting my first chase to the state of Iowa. Around Davenport, I hopped on I-80 to make my trek to the west.

As I got closer to Des Moines, Mike called informing me where to meet him. I was only about 10-15 miles away at this point, so I switched over to the ham rig and made contact with him there. I met up with him at 1:30 PM and after checking data we decided to head north towards Fort Dodge. (this must be where my old van went to after I sold it!) As we approached Fort Dodge, Mike decided we’d head a bit further west which sounded good to me. We finally ended up in the little town of Rockwell City, about 25 miles west of Fort Dodge. We were getting fairly hungry, so we stopped at a Subway for some grub. After topping off the gas tanks, we drove down the street to the local park to check on weather data. Satellite was showing some scattered cumulous clouds trying to form over the area, but the cap was having its way with them. As we were sitting there, the SPC issued a mesoscale discussion for northern Iowa and southern Missouri regarding severe weather potential. (about time!)

While awaiting convective initiation, Mike and I got online and started instant messaging each other which we found quite amusing. Since we were sitting in a park, we really couldn’t see much due to the foilage around us so we decided to head outside of town to get a better view. We could see the full effects of the cap, nothing could get fired up. While we were sitting there, I decided to try out my new anemometer. The winds were averaging around 15-20mph, with one gust of 27.5mph. We made a return trip back into town for a bathroom break then went back to the area where we just were to continue observing. To our north I noticed a tower starting to go up way out there. Radar was also starting to show some initiation, but it was way up by the IA/MN border. At 7:45 PM, the first severe thunderstorm warning was issued for Kossuth and Winnebago counties. Not too long after that the SPC issued the severe thunderstorm watch which did not include our location. Argh!

While we were pulling our hair out on what to do, a local cop decided to pay us a visit. He had seen us in town earlier and was curious what we were doing. The first thing he said asked was “are you guys storm spotters?” He was super friendly and we even showed him radar of the lovely cells to our north. Shortly after he left, some locals showed up asking us if we were chasers. Then they asked us if we’d ‘been’ in any tornadoes. While part of me wanted to pull out the Twister DVD, I just rambled on about my 2 intercepts in 2003. They finally left and we were back to enjoying the lovely cap. We contemplated whether or not to leave the current position and head north, but we both kept repeating to each other ‘never leave the target area!!!’ We sat there watching these cells grow on radar and could visually see part of them as well, but nothing was firing any closer to us. We watched the nice sunset and wondered if that would be the end of it.

I remembered my chase to the plains in 2001 that had a similar initiation after sunset, so I hadn’t given up on this chase just yet. Just after 9:00 PM, we assumed nothing was going to happen here so we were going to go after the stuff way up north. Just as we got on the highway, I swear I saw a lightning flash right behind us. I got on the radio with Mike and asked him about it, but of course he didn’t see it. (darn Iowa mirages) We pulled onto a country road to take another look at this thing and wallah, there was the lightning again! You can imagine how excited we were just at the fact that something fired up in our target area!

We busted out the tripods and starting shooting video of the lightning. It was really starting to crank up and it provided us with a nifty cloud-cloud show. We watched it on radar and it was getting stronger, eventually getting a severe thunderstorm warning issued on it. We headed east and then north trying to intercept it, all the while enjoy one heck of a lightning show. In hindsight, we should have just stopped and taken some pictures/video of this thing because it was the best lightning I’ve ever seen. However, in our quest to intercept it, it fizzled out and left us with nothing. In a last ditch effort to save the chase, we headed north to the main action. We heard several tornado warnings, but we just couldn’t get up there in time. We finally did make it to Mason City around midnight, but everything had died out or moved into Wisconsin when we got there. Since Mike had to be at work several hours later in Des Moines, we decided to end the chase and go our separate ways.

I sat there looking at data wondering what to do next. Should I spend the night and chase the moderate risk in Minnesota or should I just make my way home? I figured most of the action would be late afternoon/evening and that would make it impossible for me to get to work on Monday. My only other question now was do I get a hotel and drive back on Sunday afternoon, or do I make the half awake journey home right now. Not wanting to spend too much money, I decided to forego the hotel and head back to Champaign. I headed east on I-18 and then I-380 south. I kept thinking to myself that I must be insane to drive all the way back with no sleep, yet I continued my return home. I almost caved in once I got to Waterloo, but having to spend like $50 for a couple of hours of sleep just wasn’t worth it to me. I stopped at a couple of rest areas on the way back to refuel on caffeine and snacks.

Once I got into Illinois, I was really feeling fatigued and didn’t feel safe driving. I pulled off in some little town and rested my eyes for a bit, then continued on my way. This helped alot even if it was just for a few minutes. As I continued, I noticed the very nifty sunrise and just couldn’t resist taking any pictures. I pulled off at Galva, IL and finished out the roll of film and video tape. I made one more pitstop in Downs, IL. to get gas and the winds were really howling. (darn isobars) I finally strolled into Champaign at 9:00 AM and wondered why in the heck I drove all the way back. After cleaning up and getting some food, I took a much needed afternoon nap and felt much better afterwards.

Final thoughts:
Whew, what a long chase! While the results of the chase weren’t what we expected, it was still a good chase. It was nice to finally meet Mike Cox and chase on his turf. For my first Iowa chase, I was pretty impressed with the terrain as it looked much like central IL. I’m still trying to determine why the storms developed so far north, hopefully to improve target areas on future chases. I’m really looking forward to more local chasing during the rest of the season.

Chase LogThanks to my dedication to watch my beloved Illini team lose in the sweet 16 to Duke, I passed up an opportunity to chase on Saturday in the plains. It would have been a good run to W. Oklahoma, but there’s always next time right? Anyway, the same system that dropped 7 tornadoes in the Kansas/Oklahoma was heading my way on Sunday and that meant there was a slight chance we’d get something to chase here. Granted the system was weakening, but there was still a chance. The early morning SPC Day 1 outlook showed northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin in a slight risk for severe weather with the main threat damaging winds. (a whopping 2% tornado risk too!) I mulled over the forecast models and initially wanted to target somewhere between Peru and Bloomington Illinois. Unfortunately there was alot of cloud cover from the leftover storms that was hindering our storm chances. (share the wealth people!)

I continued to monitor the situation throughout the day and there wasn’t much happening. I didn’t want to leave too early and go on some wild goose chase, yet I didn’t want to wait too long and miss something either. I decided to wait for the 2:00pm (20z) Day 1 outlook to see what the SPC was thinking. They ended up shifting the severe threat to eastern Illinois which kind of surprised me a bit. At this time, I started seeing some very small storms go up north of Bloomington and wondered if this was the beginning of the storms. I was ready to leave but not sure where to head. My initial target was too far west and a southern target didn’t have much instability and energy to work with. The best ingredients were along the NE IL/NW IN border, so I decided to head north to my popular destination of Kankakee. (must be a new theme to chase in the same area as many times as possible this year!)

After loading up the gear and topping off the gas tank, I headed north around 2:30pm. It was mostly cloudy on the way up there though I could see numerous breaks in the clouds. I attempted to download some weather data on the way, but the area I was in didn’t support data connections so I was going totally visual. (old school chasing again!) I decided to go north of Kankakee and get off at Manteno to get a better view of whatever was coming my way. I stopped about 9 miles west of Manteno in NW Kankakee county to watch the sky. I saw a couple of turkey towers, but nothing that looked like it was going to do anything. I finally got online and discovered there were no watches, warnings, or any decent looking storms anywhere in the area. Blah! (what’s that 4 letter word for crappy chase that rhymes with dust?)

While I was weighing my options of whether to go back home or not, I started seeing a shelf cloud off in the distance. I had about 15 minutes of video left on one of my video tapes, so I decided to shoot some of this nifty thing. As it approached, I noticed alot of motion in the clouds but nothing organized. During the time, I didn’t see any lightning so I continued to stay outside and watch this thing. About the time it got a few miles from me, the temperature and humidity took quite a nosedive in a very short amount of time. It started to rain, so I packed up the tripod/camera and hopped back in the car. I sat there for a little while longer while I got pounded with heavy rain, but never did see or hear any hail.

I took one more peek at the radar and there definitely wasn’t anything to continue chasing after, so I decided to call it a chase and head back home. I was pretty much slammed with heavy rainfall the whole trip back which made the travel a little slower than normal. I arrived back home a little after 7:00pm and it was noticably cooler than when I had left.

Final thoughts:
Techinically the chase was a bust, but at least I got to see a pretty nifty shelf cloud. Hopefully April will bring some better chases to the area.

Chase LogIt seems like this year we’ve had trouble getting our atmospheric ingredients all together. On the Jan 3rd chase, we had decent winds, moisture, but no freaking CAPE or much instability. Today’s setup was the opposite. We had some decent CAPE (1000-1500), instability (LI’s -2 to -6), and moisture (tD’s in the 60s), but very crappy winds aloft. Despite this lack of combined ingredients, I still liked the chances of chasing. My original thought for a target area was Jonesboro, AR., but I would adjust that slightly with data updates throughout the chase. SDS is still kinda bugging me, so I figured what else was there to do other than chase? (well there’s the whole NCAA tourney, but my beloved Illini didn’t play till Sunday)

I got up around 6:00am and got ready to roll. My plan was to leave around 7:00am and head south to my target area of Jonesboro. However, hooking up all the new gear (aka the Chase Live stuff) took a tad longer than I thought, so I didn’t depart until 7:30am. (blasted technology!) I did check some data as I was setting stuff up in the car and noticed ongoing thunderstorms in southern Illinois. (several warnings were issued too) After filling up the gas tank, I headed south on I-57. It seems everytime I get around Effingham, I encounter some sort of accident/traffic stopage on the interstate. There was a semi on the shoulder that I didn’t see anything wrong with, yet traffic was completely stopped in both lanes on the highway! Several Illinois State Police units were on scene and I heard them talking on the radio. After a few minutes, traffic started picking back up and I was on my way.

I made my first pit-data stop at my favorite rest area just outside of Salem, IL. A mesoscale discussion had just been issued, but it was for W.KY/W.TN/S.IN/S.IL which was further east than I was thinking it would be. I just assumed at that time that it was for the current storms and not for afternoon stuff, which in hindsight was probably a bad thing. (once again, I failed to stay at the Holiday Inn Express last night!) Despite this SPC outlook, I decided to continue SSW to my new hotspot of Sikeston, MO. As I was approaching town, I got a text message of a severe thunderstorm watch for AR/MO/TN. I was quite excited at the time since I was in Missouri, but didn’t realize how little of the state it actually covered until I saw the watch box graphic. All the storms were south and east of me, and nothing was forming behind the main line. *yet* Part of me wanted to go after the severe stuff in TN, but the other part wanted to head closer to my target area in AR. I figured whichever way I went I would have to head south, so I hopped on I-55 and went south.

On my journey south, I encountered very heavy rainfall and some occasional lightning. I kept hearing warnings for W.KY/W.TN and saw a nice line going over there, but was still not wanting to drive all over timbuktu to hunt them down. Around 2:15pm, I stopped at a rest area just a few miles north of the Arkansas border to get a weather update. I noticed a line of storms now forming behind the main line to my north in which several warnings had been issued. While I was sitting there, I saw a few mammatus clouds overhead which were kinda nifty! Tired of playing hide and go seek with the main line, I decided to head back north and try to intercept the 2nd line of storms.

Having not eaten anything but a bag of potato skins, I decided I’d better make a brief pitstop for food and data. I made a stop in Portageville, MO at the local McD’s and checked some data. The food was fine until I encountered a few fries that tasted/smelled like garbage. Had I not been chasing, I probably would have gone back in there to yell at someone. Anywho, while I was checking data, I heard the weather radio go off. I figured it was just another warning for the first line of storms, but then realized it was for Stoddard county, which was the county north of me! I got on I-55 again and headed north to Sikeston, MO yet again.

As I was passing through town, I smelled a slightly burning odor, heard something pop, and then noticed I lost power to everything plugged in to the accessory outlet. This obviously was a terrible time for this to happen, but since I was right where the action was it was time to go visual. (old school chasing!) I went northwest of town and then the flood gates opened up. Apparently Missouri has no budget for road signs because they really could of used some that stated “Flood Area Ahead”. I followed the storm into New Madrid county to the town of Morehouse. Visibility was almost nothing because of the heavy rains and I encountered several heavily ponded roadways. I pulled into an empty parking lot across from a school and waited out the storm. The lightning was getting pretty intense at this point, so I unplugged a few antennas just in case.

As the storm passed, I noticed my cell phone and laptop batteries getting really low. I decided to investigate the whole loss of power thing to see if I could fix it. I went to check the fuse on the power splitter and when I pulled it out, the top half remained lodged inside the outlet. (oh joy!) I managed to get that out finally and plugged in the power inverter for the laptop, but no go. I figured at this point it had to be a fuse in the car itself. I found which fuse it was supposed to be and sure enough, she was blown. I stuck the reserve fuse in there and wallah, we were back in business. Whew!

At this point everything was well south of me and nothing else was forming to my north, so it was time to call it a chase. I headed back to Sikeston and then got back on I-57 to head home. I made a stop in Mt. Vernon to visit some friends of mine and watch some of the NCAA tournament. I left there around 11:00pm and finally got home around 2:15am, yawn!

Final thoughts:
Whew, what a long chase. It was a crap shoot from the start, but it wasn’t a complete bust. The ingredients just weren’t there for a decent severe weather event, but for March it did the trick. This was also the first chase that ‘Chase Live’ was implemented, so there’s still some qwirks to work out with it. Not a bad way to start off the first day of spring! Hopefully next time we’ll get all the ingredients together instead of some of them.

Chase LogFinally, a slight risk somewhere in Illinois! I had been watching this day on the models for the past week. While it would have been nice for this to happen on Sunday, I figured I’d do my best to get a chase in anyway. The Day 1 outlook had northern and central IL in a slight risk with the main threat being large hail and damaging winds. (better than 4-8″ of snow right?!) Unlike my Jan 3rd bust to Missouri, we actually had some CAPE forecasted! (about freaking time!) There wasn’t the nice pool of mid-60 degree dewpoints to work with, but with the strong low pressure I figured it might still fire something. Unfortunately I couldn’t allocate the entire day to chasing as I had to work, so I had to do what I could with the time after work. Luckily I was able to work through lunch and leave an hour early.

As soon as the clock struck 3:00pm, I bolted out the door and headed home to get the gear. As I was setting up the laptop/GPS, I plugged in the wifi card to get a last minute weather update before heading out. There wasn’t too much on radar other than stuff way up in northern IL and southern WI, which was a tad out of my range for this chase day. I continued to focus on my target area of Kankakee and see what would happen. I finally departed Champaign at 3:30pm and made the trek north on I-57. On the way up, I noticed lots of junk trying to go up but nothing that made me want to stop. As I approached the Kankakee area, I finally encountered some decent amounts of rainfall. For about 5 seconds, I had some small hail pelting the car that got me all excited again. I headed north of Kankakee to get out into the country and observed a really spiffy sunlit cloud structure which begged to have its picture taken!

I finally found a flat area of land outside of town and began shooting numerous stills and a few minutes of video. (N 3000E/ E 6000N roads – they have really weird country road identification!) While I was waiting, I got online and checked radar to see what else was going on in the region. The cell I was on wasn’t too shabby, but the best cells close to me were NE of me into NW Indiana. About this time, the weather radio went off with a severe thunderstorm warning for Porter and Lake County in Indiana. (exactly what I was seeing on radar) I studied Street Atlas to find a route to get me in that direction, then made my way east. As I proceeded, I noticed the cell directly to my northeast was really starting to fire up with cloud-to-ground lightning. I finally zigzagged on RT 17 south and then east on RT 114 / RT 10 into Indiana.

I continued east for quite awhile until I reached Roselawn, IN., where I made another data stop. I noticed the cell just to my WNW was a whopping 61-62dbz on the radar, yet no warning was ever issued for the little fella. At this point it was pretty much dark and I didn’t see any reason to continue trying to chase given the conditions. I plotted the course back home and concluded the chase. I arrived back home in Champaign around 8:30pm and proceeded to intercept some food.

Final thoughts:
Well it could have been better, but at least I saw some convection this time! Decent cloud structure, rain-obscured rainbow, lightning, and a few seconds of hail made this chase pretty nifty! This was a nice little test run to work out any equipment issues for future chases. Spring is right around the corner!

Chase LogNo this isn’t a typo, I really did chase in January! After looking at the models for days regarding this day, I really wanted to chase. Some ingredients were in place, but like the last chase of 2003 we were missing the beloved CAPE. (must be those darn budget cuts!) Anyway, dewpoints looked to push into the 60s and temps were pushing mid-upper 60s. (mmm, moisture return!) Luckily this is the weekend I wasn’t scheduled to work, so I was free to chase. The SPC was also watching this area, but wouldn’t go as far as issuing a slight risk. However, they did put a small area of southern Missouri and northern Arkansas in a 2% tornado threat. It doesn’t sound like much, but when SDS is in full bloom you’ll take any positive news you can get! After mulling over the weather data, I decided to initially target the little town of Sikeston in southeast Missouri. I was anxious to see what exactly Missouri would ‘show-me’.

Normally I would never consider a chase like this mainly due to my vehicle issues. However, thanks to the off-season acquisition of a brand new vehicle (courtesy of my chase pal/car salesman Darin Kaiser!), I was able to easily consider chasing today. I got up around 6:00 AM to check data and things still looked promising. (however the SPC still didn’t give me my slight risk!) I loaded up the chase gear and headed out around 7:30 AM. I headed south on I-57 for quite awhile until I hit the rest area south of Salem, IL. After a quick break, I decided to try out my cell phone data connection. I checked radar and satellite and I was still seeing clearing skies in southern Missouri, so that was very good news. I left the rest area and continued my journey on I-57, noting the constant overcast skies with a hint of clearing to my south. I arrived in Sikeston, MO a little after 12:00 PM and decided to stay there for a bit. I grabbed a bite to eat at McD’s (not to be confused with the non-existant mesoscale discussion!) and then utilized my unlimited weekend minutes via my data connection to assess the situation.

The latest satellite map was showing some clearing and what appeared to be destablization in the southern half of Missouri. However, radar maps from both Springfield and St. Louis weren’t showing anything as of yet. I checked surface conditions throughout Missouri and you could definitely tell where the front was. In Sikeston it was a balmy 67 degrees with a 62 degree dewpoint at 1:00 PM, while just up the road in Columbia it was 41 degrees with a dewpoint of 31. After reviewing all the data, I decided that I may be a bit too far south and east. I headed north on US 61 and as soon as I left Sikeston the sun came out. (yipeeee!) As I was putting along, I noticed I was getting kinda low on gas. I entered the small town of Kelso and found their gas station. After filling up at a $1.56/gal, I continued north on 61 and then hopped on I-55 for a bit.

My new target area was Marble Hill, MO which was proving to be harder to get to by the minute. Route 74 turned into Route 25 which turned into ‘don’t drive on this road if you get car sick’ Route 51. I headed north of Marble Hill and found a spot to pull off on the side of the road. I checked the latest Day 1 outlook and it still had no slight risk. It also mentioned that the atmosphere was capped (in January?!) which wasn’t much of a positive to me. As I was sitting there for awhile getting data, this older guy in a big pickup pulls up and asks me if I’m looking for him. I tell him no and he proceeds to pull his truck onto the passenger side of my car and gets out of his truck. It really wasn’t much of a conversation, I just listened to him ramble on and on about pointless things. He finally told me that he owned all this land, but didn’t seem to care if I was sitting there or not. I guess he wanted to make sure I wasn’t having car problems or anything like that. He finally went on his merry way and soon after that, I decided I’d find a different spot to visit.

I proceed north on Route 51 and quickly remember why I’m not fond of chasing in this part of Missouri. Trees, hills, curves, it never seemed to end. As soon as I thought I saw daylight at the end of the tunnel, there were more surprises waiting for me. I decided at this point to call the chase off and make my way back to Illinois. I finally made it to I-55 where I headed north to St. Louis. I got to St. Louis around 8:00 PM and was amazed at all the lights of the city. I wanted to snap some pictures, but never found a spot to shoot from so I abandoned that idea. I headed east on I-64 towards Mt. Vernon in hopes of hooking up with some friends of mine, but I was unable to get ahold of them. Once I got to Mt. Vernon, I hopped on I-57 and made the journey back home. Once again I was getting low on fuel, so I decided to stop in Edgewood, IL. Unfortunately they only had the cheap gas and there was no pay at the pump option (yes I’m lazy!), so I continued north on I-57. As I exited the interstate at Effingham, my low fuel light came on. I found a BP Amoco and filled her up with premium. (mmm, 93 octane!)

As I got closer to home, I encountered some copius amounts of rain. At one point I had to slow down because water was starting to really pond on the highway. It was interesting because it was the most excitement I’d had all day! I finally arrived home at 10:30 PM and boy was I tired. (and cold, BRRR!)

Final thoughts:
Well despite the lack of storms, it was great to get out there and chase so early in the year. I can’t wait for the heart of storm season so I can really get out there and intercept some good ones. The car gets alot better gas mileage than my old minivan used to get, so that will help on those longer chase trips. Bring on spring!