5/15/09 REPORTS: TX/OK/KS/MO/IL

[sdienst]

Awesome chase day! Chase with Kiel Ortega and Tiffany Meyer and we were on the Roberts/Gray Co. TX cell for most all of its life. Initially got a good view on HWY 60 southwest of Miami where a nice meso was cranking. Viewed a brief tornado off to the west a few miles with a high based funnel and associated ground circulation. Moved southwest and watched a rapidly rotating wall cloud produce another short lived elephant trunk type tornado somewhere just east of Hoover. Rain began wrapping around the meso and obscuring the view but another funnel/possible tornado was seen somehwere near 60 south of Hoover. I was only shooting with the video camera when the tornadoes touched down so I'll get some vid grabs up later. Here are some of the structure shots I took though.

[Brian Stertz]

Chased with Mike Peregrine today and targeted the area between Lawrence and Emporia KS. Although the supercell appeared to be in a prime convergence area, it seemed to lack the torque to get a good sustained low level circulation to organize. Pic below is looking south towards Pomona Lake (Osage Co. KS). The rotation was there but fairly slow so no tornado. Looked interesting for a while, but no cigar. Encountered some sporadic quarter to golfball sized hail west of Baldwin City. Headed back in to KC in time for supper. Sigh

http://vortex-times.com/PomonaLake2_wall.jpg

[Bill Schintler]

I targeted Spearman, TX today. Looking at data in the morning, it was becoming apparent that surface moisture was verifying less then forecast, and by late morning LCL levels were over 2km AGL in much of the TX panhandle. I decided to go for it anyway and we arrived in the area about an hour after initiation. Several brief funnels and two brief ground circulations were observed. The storm had excellent structure and I'll post some photos at an early convenience. bill

[Adam Lucio]

A very long and challenging day here in Illinois.

Got on the todnado warned storm west of Jacksonville, storm had very evil pitch black skies with the most intense lightning Ive seen this year. Got some decent strikes on video. Also encountered penny size hail.

Storm was moving ENE and a good highway road was just not to be had so I gambled with county roads and whatever I could find that went in that direction. Lets just say im glad I drive what I drive because anything less would have been ripped to shreds. I had no idea roads could get so trecherous in Illinois. My truck even bottomed while i was only going 10mph thats how bad these roads were.

Once I got into a better road network a different problem emerged. Serious flooding which greatly slowed me down as I had to constantly slow down to 10mph to crawl though the flooded roads.

The whole time I would get to within 2 mile of the storm, hit an obstacle and then fall back to about 15. The storm was tornado warned for hours and GR3 kept showing hail over 2.5" which is what kept me on pursuit. I was determined.

FINALLY caught it just west of Champaign with the largest hail being nickel size and the tornado warning being dropped. Called the chase there and here I sit in a pizza hut awaiting my meat lovers pizza.

Nothing too special...but I had to take the chance knowing the pattern ahead is a bad one.

[APritchard]

Followed the central IL HP supercell from Jacksonville to Champaign. Managed to stay ahead of it the entire time thanks to some good east-west highways and Interstate 72. Unfortunately I think this supercell stayed on the cold side of the boundary much of it's life. We had several instances of very tight rotation, but nothing seemed to be able to get surface based.

Got hit by a Stormtrack-Nado east of Riverton, as the mesocyclone passed overhead and we were slammed by rapidly shifting winds which engulfed us in dirt/small debris. Might post a short video clip of that if it turned out decent; otherwise nothing special to report from this grungy chase.

At least I only used 3/4 tank of gas, and ended the chase at home.

[Michael O'Keeffe]

I intercepted a nice supercell NW and N of Ottawa, KS. The storm quickly became a nice supercell and produced a nice fairly elongated funnel that lasted several minutes. Continued to follow the storm only to see it get pulled into the line, decided to watch the beautiful shelf come into Ottawa. After watching that and had it pass over me, I decided to head west towards the nice looking bow near Pamona, KS. I let it overtake me, just east of town and experienced some fairly strong wind gusts, at least strong enough to rock the car a bit and wobble some powerlines. I was hoping for maybe some large hail, but got nothing more than dimes at most. Went back to Ottawa for some dinner before heading home being treating to a pretty neat lightning display. I will post some video a bit later.

[Mikey Gribble]

I'm too lazy to upload any video grabs right now, but we were on the tornado warned storm that went from Hutchinson all the way down through Wichita. It really started to fall apart as it reached Wichita though.
There were a few times where it started to get organized and had a nice striated meso with a feeder band coming into, but it couldn't ever get the job done. There were also a couple lowering with decent rotation and vertical motion, but it looked awfully high based. I didn't think LCL's were supposed to be high, but the updraft base was a little higher than what you'd expect to see on a tornadic storm.
All in all not a bad chase. It was close to home and we got the only tornado warned storm in the area, so it couldn't have gotten a whole lot better.
I had a lot of equipment problems dropping my video stream to the station which was infuriating, but I'll try to get that figured out before the next time. I think it is just a problem with the air card.
Congratulations to everybody else who had a good day. Now lets start praying for a good typical spring tornado outbreak.

[Kyle Soldani]

I intercepted a nice supercell NW and N of Ottawa, KS. The storm quickly became a nice supercell and produced a nice fairly elongated funnel that lasted several minutes. Continued to follow the storm only to see it get pulled into the line, decided to watch the beautiful shelf come into Ottawa. After watching that and had it pass over me, I decided to head west towards the nice looking bow near Pamona, KS. I let it overtake me, just east of town and experienced some fairly strong wind gusts, at least strong enough to rock the car a bit and wobble some powerlines. I was hoping for maybe some large hail, but got nothing more than dimes at most. Went back to Ottawa for some dinner before heading home being treating to a pretty neat lightning display. I will post some video a bit later.

I was on the same storm. KC news chopper was flying covering the funnel cloud, ran into Jason Blum and the Discovery crew. Cell looked so promising, but squall overtook it..

[John Gnuechtel]

I played the squall line--hoping things would stay somewhat discreet for at least a little bit--and targeted just northwest of Wichita. I was not disappointed. Everything was almost instantly outflow dominant, but it was fun anyway, with plenty of hail and more of those instantaneous super-CGs than I've seen in a very long time. I managed to get shots of the first tornado-warned storm in the area.

www.amazingcheese.com/Storms/nw_of_wichita.jpg (http://www.amazingcheese.com/Storms/nw_of_wichita.jpg) (photo stitch)

I've seen supercells like this before...full of their own hail right quick. It's been a long time since I've been able to get all the way out to Kansas and chase something like this, so I was pretty happy. Hopefully the video will show some cool movement once I speed it up about 10x.

[Jim Saueressig]

10 miles NNW of Emporia I focused on a hook in the bow echo for some structure shots with my Super wide angle lens (10mm) and I wasn't disappointed. As the line rolled my way a rapidly rotating updraft because readily visible.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2283/3534163713_003b1209bd_o.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/kansashorizons/3534163713)

I shot photos of that letting it get pretty much on top of me for the wide angle shot. As it did I noticed an area of circulation on the ground below it so I kept shooting though the wind was about to knock me over.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3627/3535707635_17a410d4ee_o.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/kansashorizons/3535707635)


http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3649/3535707691_4c22075898_o.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/kansashorizons/3535707691)

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2239/3535753579_1c4b610ff1_o.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/kansashorizons/3535753579)

I bailed as the storm wall hit me and it took until South of Lebo to get out in front of the storm by more than a mile where I shot a gustnado through my window that spun up beside me. Its not the greatest shot through a dirty window.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3602/3534980798_9d9ac99b26_o.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/kansashorizons/3534980798)

EDIT: Just found out that Topeka had just drafted up a Tornado Warning for that when the circulation weakened and it was swallowed back up into the rain.

More Shots on my Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/kansashorizons)

[MikeWeingand]

Not a bad chase day for the amount of driving I had to do. Got off work at 2:30, came home (Bloomington,IL) and checked the radar and saw the long lived tornado warned cell that made its way pretty much all the way across illinois. Decided on Moroa, IL but ended up going a little more south to Forsyth and noticed some nice inflow bands upon arrival. About 10 minutes after arriving in Forsyth the sirens went off, I decided to head about a mile north of town to an open field to get the best view. Met up with some other local spotters and basically just waited for the storm to show itself. Storm showed some good rotation but never put anything down, just ended up waiting and let the meso pass overhead. Got a few decent pictures but nothing outstanding, overall a good chase for less than 70 miles and a 1/4 tank of gas!

[Jason A.C. Brock]

Was on Pampa Texas storm from Near Pampa till it got to I-40. Brief tornado touchdown Just NE of Pampa but this storm had some of the best structure ive seen this year. Amazing storm with tons of rapid rotation along the leading edge. Also had some amazing bright green colors with massive hail. Got into RFD along I-40 which blew 2 semis off the interstate & a white van pulling a trailer. Will post pics and video later. Have chased everyday this week except one I think so have tons of Video to go over. From Anadarko EF-2 to this amazing beast.
Maybe heading WAY north middle of ext week?

[Chad Cowan]

I got on the Ottawa storm before it crossed to the cool side of the outflow boundary. If only it could have deviated right and rode that boundary, probably would have been a tornado machine. Oh well, at least I got some good whales mouth shots and tower lightning after dark. There are a few more pictures at: chasethestorms.com (http://chasethestorms.com)


http://www.chasethestorms.com/photos/537438087_Dhs6m-L.jpg



http://www.chasethestorms.com/photos/537438941_PRMmj-L.jpg



http://www.chasethestorms.com/photos/537437865_dZdnh-L-2.jpg

[Chris Hovanic]

Chased the monster HP beast between Pampa and Miami...observed a brief elephant trunk tornado that was almost entirely rain-wrapped just west of Hoover, looking northward from Highway 60. Shortly after observing the tornado we unfortunately were caught in baseball sized hail just east of the 60/171 intersection and also encountered 80-90 mph RFD winds (may have been higher). Amazingly enough, we suffered no damage to our car other than some minor dents.

Incredible day with awesome structure...pictures forthcoming shortly.

[David Toner]

Seems a bunch of us were on the Ottawa Storm. Nice pics by the way Chad! We intercepted the the Ottawa supercell north of Lyndon and stayed with it until it was absorbed into the squall line north of Ottawa. Had a well defined wall clound north of Lyndon and seemed to try to form a funnel around Michigan Valley. It just never really had the energy to spawn anything more although it sure acted like it wanted to. Sort of surprised it never went tornado warned. After it was absorbed by the squall line we took the time to watch an impressive shelf cloud move through. South of Richmond, KS ran into 60+ mph straightline winds but what was more impressive was the dust it kicked up. All in all, not a bad day.

[Skip Talbot]

Intercepted the central IL HP supercell and followed it (or let it chase me) from NE of Griggsville to Champaign. It was one of my longest pursuits of a tornado warned storm as I was on it for almost four hours. Thank god for IL roads. Almost all the roads in the grid were paved so it was easy to stay ahead of the fast moving HP sup without getting munched.

At the initial intercept I was completely unconvinced about the storm and its longetivity. It was behind the boundary and it appeared be bowing out. There was almost nothing happening under the base. After following it for a few miles I dropped back down to 72 and headed east to Springfield to catch something new. A new cell formed south of 72 but the base of this storm was elevated and unorganized. However, when this storm merged with the original tornado warned storm, a real HP beast developed. I was able to get into the notch a few times noting a very dramatic base, make-you-stay-in-your-car CG, and an attempt at a wall cloud. Unfortunately, this stom was mostly bark and no bite. It seemed perpetually gusted out and on the cold side of the boundary. I finally let it core me when I got to Champaign county noting winds approaching severe level and some half inch hail.

http://www.skip.cc/chase/090515/09051505.jpg
http://www.skip.cc/chase/090515/09051506.jpg
http://www.skip.cc/chase/090515/09051507.jpghttp://www.skip.cc/chase/090515/09051509.jpg
http://www.skip.cc/chase/090515/09051510.jpg

[Jeff Duda]

Chased the same storm as many others (like Chad) and had some of the same views. We wanted that storm to ride that outflow boundary so badly, but it got sucked into the line before it could really do anything. Considered chasing the storm to the north of Topeka, as it looked like it had a hook on it for awhile, but no strong rotation and we didn't want to drive through the initial line to get there. 670 miles and nothing but some quarter-sized hail back up in Cameron, MO when we drove through the early-day MCS to get to NE KS. I call that a chase FAIL :(

[Chris Hovanic]

Pictures as promised from NE of Pampa...

[Jay McCoy]

LIke many others chased the Pamap tornadic storm and saw at least 2 seperate tornados. 1st one was NW of hwy 60 just east of Pampa and then again south of hwy 60 as it heade towards Lefors. Damage reported on the east side of Pampa and also a few trailer houses hit in Lefors along with power lines and trees down. Still about 6000 without power last I heard. Followed it down to McClean where a storm from the south merged with it and killed it in minutes or I think it was about to proiduce another tornado very close to McClean on I-40.

Hope to get some video up soon as a figure this new Sony Vegas 9 out.

[Paul Harrop]

Started out late - left OKC at 2PM. Went west on 40 then north at Clinton and moved in on the Pampa cell. Got almost to the notch and was pulled back into the state. Went to Hollis for food and fuel the back up 30 to 9 and flew east to try and meet the tip of the bow-echo. I found it... along with numerous gustnadoes. I drove through one of them (not at 115) here is the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgAfCLfhSiA

Paul

[Paul Hadfield]

My experience with the C IL storm for this day was not far off from the others except I stayed conservatively to the SW for having my nephew along and was intently focused on his safety. Our closest intercept was at Illiopolis along Mt. Pulaski blacktop which is a terrible N/S option so once we were overtaken by rain, we dropped S to the interstate and enjoyed the show from a distance. Suffice to say I feel this was an incredibly photogenic storm from no matter what view point one was able to see it. Noted a couple chasers who went by including a mini van with what appeared to be an acrylic dome on top housing some kind of equipment. I have to hand it to you Andrew, I am positively amazed by your ability to nail down such a small target long before the first CU even went up. Full report on my blog (http://pawleewurx.blogspot.com/).

http://pawleewurx.com/st/IMG_5830b.jpg

http://pawleewurx.com/st/IMG_5841b.jpg

http://pawleewurx.com/st/IMG_5872b.jpg

(and congratulations to all who were out both here and down S.) :)

[Markus Pfister]

Good chase for us. Were streaming that one from the beginning. Here are some pics we took between Miami and Pampa in Roberts & Gray county.

http://www.meteomedia.ch/usa09/20090515/jpg800/IMG_5220_k.JPG

http://www.meteomedia.ch/usa09/20090515/jpg800/IMG_5298_k.JPG

http://www.meteomedia.ch/usa09/20090515/jpg800/vid04.jpg

http://www.meteomedia.ch/usa09/20090515/jpg800/IMG_5318_k.JPG

http://www.meteomedia.ch/usa09/20090515/jpg800/IMG_5375_k.JPG

http://www.meteomedia.ch/usa09/20090515/jpg800/tor13_k.jpg

All the rest can be found here:

http://www.meteomedia.ch/usa09/20090515/20090515.html
(texts mostly in geman, but you will get it, check out the animations)

Greetings

Markus Pfister, Mark Vornhusen

[Mike Peregrine]

Brian Stertz and I were also on the Ottawa storm. We had hopes for it initially, as it formed out ahead of the line and had isolation from the OFB ... but it could never get turned far enough off the boundary and the cool air kept it from doing anything more interesting than producing a couple of wall clouds (with discernable rotation for a bit). Lightning last night was easily the best so far this year.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v143/mikeperegrine/010.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v143/mikeperegrine/008.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v143/mikeperegrine/004.jpg

[Eric Flescher]

It was my stepson's graduation at KU. So could not chase except watching the sky whilemy wife drove us to Lawrence and back to the Kansas City area for a rendezvous at a French restaurant called Tatsus later that night.

Some mini shelf cloud and more along the way, little wall cloud wanna-bees but no rotation.

It was raining and humid. It wasn't raining . At 3:19, a few yards from the entrance to the Leid building (where the graduation would take place) , the air really became much , more colder . Either a front came throug but it was very noticeable. So I knew something was about to happen.

Later I could here the thunder inside the graduation area. Coming outside after, it was pouring cats and dogs. There was a warm rain and spectacular lightning and we were soaked somewhat having run to the car (along with everyone else).

Lots of rain and water piling up the streets. I knew how to take the backroads and we skirted much of the traffic and but you could not escape the water which was piling up everywhere.

Best lightning display of the year. I did not really have a good shot with my camcorder. If I did catch anything I will post.

[Steve Miller TX]

I caught the big beast near Pampa, TX after getting there about 15 minutes after the visible tornadoes. I had hoped to leave work a little earlier. Ugh. Still, this was one helluva HP supercell that was rotating like a merry-go-round. There were all sorts of mid level bands streaking cyclonically into it. Pretty impressive!

This was about the time of the last reported tornado. I was looking north into the wrapping precip core so if it was in there, I couldn't see it. The lower cloud mass was rotating pretty good.
http://texastailchaser.com/blogger/2009/20090515/IMG_9451.jpg

Looking west as Pampa was under assault form high winds and baseball hail.
http://texastailchaser.com/blogger/2009/20090515/IMG_9452.jpg

http://texastailchaser.com/blogger/2009/20090515/IMG_9454.jpg

http://texastailchaser.com/blogger/2009/20090515/IMG_9455.jpg

Approaching Lefors, Tx.
http://texastailchaser.com/blogger/2009/20090515/IMG_9457.jpg

Just north of McLean as it tries to organize one more time...good rotation to the right of the green hail core.
http://texastailchaser.com/blogger/2009/20090515/IMG_9458.jpg

[Jason Boggs]

I also was on the HP beast near Pampa. Followed it from west of Canadian. I swear this storm moved SW at times. As it got near Pampa, I saw a brief funnel, but wasn't in position to see a tornado. I eventually went to Lefors to check on my parents. They were ok. There was a lot of tree damage along with power lines down. A trailer house got it's roof blown off, and another trailer house got turned upside down. Luckily nobody was in it at the time.

http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/2784/img2860.jpg

http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/2125/img2874.jpg

http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/9135/img2875.jpg

http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/4776/img2882.jpg

[Michael Carlson]

Chased Eastern Kans. the other day with my Dad, nothing much to write about but it was an outflow squall fest.

CHASE LOG, VIDEO AND PHOTOS. (http://michaelcarlsonphoto.blogspot.com/2009/05/videophotos-storm-chase-eastern-kansas.html)

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2086/3535244119_5c386bfa90_o.jpg

[Jane ONeill]

our primary target of Pratt, KS turned out to be pretty good. Got onto the first cell in that area - this relatively small cell erupted on the front..we watched the frontal boundary turn from a fluffy line of cumulus to bludgeoning supercells within less than an hour.

We headed south to Medicine Lodge, passed near a tornado warned cell just to our east, stopping and starting all the time to take pics...finally getting to near Alva we were close to a rotating wallcloud with raised dust. From here we continued east preceding outflow boundaries and strange bow shapes in the gust front....we surfed the gust front east all the way to Ponca City, watching multitudes of gustnadoes and brilliant arrangements along the outflow boundary. When you think things can't get better they do.....we've never seen storms so dynamic than we have seen in the last 2 weeks.

Report and more images
http://www.stormchasers.au.com/usa150509.htm

Gustnado south of Alva
http://www.stormchasers.au.com/USA2009/1505J1044t.jpg (http://www.stormchasers.au.com/USA2009/1505J1044.jpg)

Astonishing gustfront west of the I-35 (near Medford)
http://www.stormchasers.au.com/USA2009/1505J1167t.jpg (http://www.stormchasers.au.com/USA2009/1505J1167.jpg)

Complex gust front near Medford
http://www.stormchasers.au.com/USA2009/1505J1098t.jpg (http://www.stormchasers.au.com/USA2009/1505J1098.jpg)

Clyve Herbert & Jane ONeill (AUSSKY)

[Matt Gingery]

Made the decision to chase near Amarillo and it paid off. I scored my first tornado of the season. One super insane mothership meso took the prize for me. Personally I got more enjoyment out of that. Cell produced a large wedge tornado followed by a stove pipe.

Mothership Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7N27XBR7PMk

Wedge Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4m0I6nOa20

Stove Pipe:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOTenUmhJAI

H.P. Supercell: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PEC9CojKps


This large supercell became outflow dominant and at the left edge I captured a super thin spin up.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLeCBK-nGWY

This was by far my best experience this year. No more than 30 minutes after arriving in Amarillo this cell exploded. Timing was perfect. The tornado was in an isolated and unpopulated area which was also a huge plus.

http://i44.tinypic.com/33ehlk7.jpg

[Skip Talbot]

Full log, pictures, and map:
http://www.skip.cc/chase/090515

Probably the most photogenic chase I've had this year, despite it being a bust in terms of supercell structure and tornadoes.

[Dan Cook]

I was on the Missouri squall line with the COD team. Had a pretty cool shelf cloud but not much else.

qS5xW_9sQ90

[George Grant]

On the same Ottawa storm. Made it to the south side of the storm after slicing through two areas of precip. I must have just missed the funnel S/SE of Overbrook. Followed along as it weakened and stopped at US 59. Saw three seemingly identical vehicles with anemometers, etc. on their tops. Passed on this and instead walked back to the red pickup behind me. He wasn't much for talking as he only said, "We're chasing the chasers. We're with the Discovery Channel."

Pressed on east as this thing was barely showing any rotation. Stopped behind another red pickup. Kyle Soldani (it's not Chad! :)) and his brother pulled up right behind me. Chatted with them for a bit and found we were having the same problems with Spotter Network V3. His laptop is blue-screening and my GRLevel3 loses its SN icon and Streets & Trips crashes. The squall overtook our dying cell and produced a nice-looking shelf.

Punched through the squall line and was back in Omaha by 10:00pm.

Geo

[Stephen Levine]

My wife and I left Garland around 10:30 a.m. for a Southern KS target area, based upon the greater helicity and stronger upper level winds in the North.
We intercepted the tornado warned cell to the SW of Wichita, and witnessed a spectacular wall cloud, brief funnels and other fascinating cloud structures as well as powerful lightning.
We then danced with this system back south into OK where we finally let it pass over us.
The full story plus 14 photos is now posted on my site www.joyfulstormhunting.com

[Steve Worthington]

OK I`ll try this again for Andrew



http://i590.photobucket.com/albums/ss347/mtsumustang/Chase%20Day%20Hutchinson%20KS%205-15-09/IMG_7827.jpg

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http://i590.photobucket.com/albums/ss347/mtsumustang/Chase%20Day%20Hutchinson%20KS%205-15-09/IMG_7793.jpg

[Jason Blum]

David Toner and I chased the Ottawa storm until it merged into the squall line.
After watching it drop a funnel to within twenty feet or so of the ground (only a few hundred feet away from us), I had high hopes for it... but sadly it just wasn't meant to be. I should have known, because I never saw much rotation in any of it. Too bad; being so close to the the funnel was pretty impressive even without any decent rotation. If it had had any, it would have been quite a sight!

Here is the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMYWFehP-NE

[Glenn Schubert]

On Friday I gave 2 talks to my fiance's 6th grade classes in Salem, IL on tornadoes and storm chasing. When I left her school, I noticed Tornado Watches were posted in IA, MO and IL. A nice Tor Warned cell was at the MO/IL border heading east. As soon as Tracy got off work, we heading north on Rt 51 hoping to intercept this storm near Decatur, IL. It seemed to be following Interstate 72 through Jacksonville and Springfield. We did catch this storm in Macon Co IL on the west side of Decatur. We saw what appeared to be a wall cloud on the southwest side of the storm. Unfortunately, about this time the waterpump on my 2005 Jeep Grand Cherokee decided to to give out. That left us stranded just south of Decatur as the tornado sirens were blaring. We were able to get some nice photos of the storm structure before the trailing front (and some help) arrived. A local volunteer firefighter who stopped to help us said that he saw a funnel NW of Decatur, but it did not reach the ground.

[Colin Davis]

A fun, "local" chase alongside Scott Kampas for most of the day. We later met up with Andrew Pritchard (and his girlfriend Tia), Mark Sefried, Darin Kaiser, and Brad Emel near Illiopolis about halfway through the day.

Scott met me at my house in Canton around 3pm. We had chatted briefly the night before about today's prospects along the WF in Illinois (we thought that, given sufficient instability gradients, it was the place to be), but both of us had early-day commitments that kept us from sitting along the boundary for most of the day; Scott with work, me with class. I kept an eye on things, talking at various points throughout the morning with Pritchard.

As it became increasingly clear that moisture would be sufficient for the day, I began thinking of the best way to chase. Andrew shot down I-72 at around 1pm, and I sat indecisively in front of my computer screen until close to 2. At that point, I essentially said, "To hell with my last class!" and effectively pulled the fence post out of my rear, and came up with a plan. I'd head to Canton (my hometown), where I would gas up, eat, re-evaluate data, and fix my radio that had given me problems toward the end of my chase on Wednesday.

I only got through one of those before Scott arrived. He "helped" me fix my radio (I use quotation marks as he mostly did all the real work; I just got the materials), we got gas on the way out of town, and kept our eyes fixed to the radars on our phones as we did so -- neither of us having mobile data at this time. Finally, by close to 3:30, we were on our way toward Jacksonville.

But as we got closer, it became apparent that we'd need to be further east. A tail-end storm had formed near UIN, and it became more and more obvious that it would intersect the boundary where the better winds were. We rerouted to Springfield, and shot down 97. We went about 10 miles south of Petersburg, then went toward Pleasant Plains, where we got our first real view of the storm that had been tornado-warned for the better part of an hour. However, the storm impressed neither of us visually, and we bailed on it for more discrete activity to the south (closer to I-72) that was on the warm side of the front.

Soon, though, that was ingested into the main cell, which became the dominant storm -- a photogenic HP that remained outflow-dominant for most of its life. Although it retained its tornado warning for almost three more hours, it stayed on the cool side of the boundary for nearly its entire supercellular lifespan -- some four hours. Because of this, the storm never could really get its act together, though it tried numerous times to do so.

The closest it came to tornado potential was what Andrew called the "stormtrack-nado," where it engulfed all of us in dust and grit as the mesocyclone passed overhead just moments after Scott and I drove underneath to the east side. It exhibited especially tight rotation as we did so, but the area of interest remained "wispy," as Scott called it at the time, and somewhat high-based, and continued rotating in that fashion at the time of the weak ground circulation on Old 36, just east of Illiopolis.

It was at that time that we jumped in the Sefried/Kaiser-Emel-Pritchard/Ebert caravan and continued following it eastward, stopping numerous times to photograph the photogenic storm. We witnessed several small towns along the way -- with sirens blaring but without power -- and their respective citizens watching the cell from their porches, looking for "them twistin' clouds."

They found some, as did we along the way, but nothing more than tight, high-based rotation that couldn't get its act together. Had it been 20 miles south, I have little doubt we would have witnessed a tornadofest. But such is the chase season in 2009. If's and but's, but no candy. And no nuts.

We finally gave up on the storm near Champaign just before reaching I-57. By that time (and for the better part of an hour before), the storm had become a small, potent bowing segment, producing some reports of winds as high as 80mph driving golf ball-hail through car windows. We managed to avoid this.

Taking some photos before we did so, we parted ways and headed for home. Brad and Andrew/Tia had short trips home from here, but ours was longer.

Somehow, I can never manage a short jaunt home after a chase.


http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/kk32/CDIrishFan/090515009wmsm.jpg
Near Decatur, IL as it drops golf balls +



http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/kk32/CDIrishFan/090515panwmsm.jpg
Stitched panorama of the cell as we sat near I-57, shortly before calling off the chase.

[APritchard]

My not very exciting video of the Illinois HP supercell through it's transition to a bow echo.

0dYZ0NRYXF4&&fmt=18

[evan anderson]

I managed to get out of my office in the Loop just past 1p with an initial target of Beardstown/Jacksonville, IL (thanks Paul S.). However once I arrived into the Springfield area I noticed that a cell at the MO border went Tornado Warned. I continued West on 36 figuring it would fall apart -- however, it stayed together and I quickly found myself underneath it (on 104) and shortly thereafter behind it around Meredosia Lake. I navigated the back roads (much of which were flooding) finally getting on 125 eastward and then Interstate 72 where I finally passed the cell. Thankfully some overpasses along 72 provided some great observation points. By the time I got to a Monticello, IL turnoff I decided to head back North to Chicago (where I caught Skilling on WGN talking about the downstate storms).

Incredible structure for IL and green hues.

I'll post pictures if I can get past the file size limit or find somewhere to host the pics.

[Stephen Locke]

http://stephenlocke.com/photos/storm_068%20600.jpg

Gust Front and Shelf Cloud pass over Dorothy's House. Right here. (http://www.stephenlocke.com/blog)

[Dennis Oswald]

Only intercept a nice shelfcloud with whales´mouth at this day:
http://www.dennisoswald.de/Bilder/USA2009/200509-02.jpg
http://www.dennisoswald.de/Bilder/USA2009/200509-01.jpg

At the evening were some nice lightning over Enid, OK.