01/07/2008 REPORTS: WI, OK, MO, IL

[Laura Hedien]

I'm in Twin Lakes now after heading out on this storm from home. Since it is getting late, there isn't much footage or pics to share.
Typical damage path- EF2/3 (??) but it stretches for more than a few miles or it picked up and dropped down again.
Doesn't look like any fatalities at this time.
Laura

 

[Andrew Pritchard]

Well for the sake of using the same thread I'll post here, but request that we add Illinois, Missouri, and potentially Kansas and Oklahoma as well.

I chased the supercell that tracked across eastern Missouri into western Illinois to south of Peoria this afternoon.

Pretty good structure and actually looked very close to producing a tornado near Havana. However it quickly became obscured by rain as new convection went up around it, and I pronounced the storm dead and allowed it to overtake me so I could reposition. It then went on to produce the tornado that caused damage on the other side of Havana, about 5 miles from my location.

I didn't see the tornado, but was blasted with straight line winds of around 50 mph for 5 minutes or so with some pea sized hail. Certainly beats the 4F temps and sideways snow we had a week ago today.

There was no catching back up with it with storm motions and the Illinois River so I let it go and met with Colin Davis for some dinner.

Heard a disturbing comment on the radio as the DJ said "I hear from someone we could have a tornado. I don't think that's 'for real' though so don't take that too seriously." I called him to let him know there was a tornado watch, and a tornado already reported in the area and to try being up to date on his current weather information before he tells people to ignore such severe warnings. He was obviously an idiot since before that he said we "had some global warming for a couple days, but it will be back to regular winter soon"

Wonder if maybe that was just the first chase of the day/night?

EDIT: Added a quick video of the supercell with the wall cloud and rfd notch near Havana.

 

[Richard Radbil]

Had been watching radar for an hour. Saw the supercell becoming more intense, thought I saw a hook so....

At 4:00 travelled 94 toward Racine/Kenosha. Intense rain south of MKE, north of Racine. Extremely dark around Racine/Kenosha border, west winds buffeting car, debris floating 20 feet above. Pulled off, 5 cars parked under bridge. Went east, saw lots of suspicious little wispy type funnels, but no tornado. Hadn't been in a t warned storm for a long time. Amazing for 1/7 in WI.

 

[cdcollura]

Good day all,

Storms rolled through Chicagoland area as well ... Severe storm warning valid for southern Cook County until 6:30 PM CST.

Most interested in lightning, so got some shots (video frame grabs) of Sears tower being hit ;-)

A normal (negative) lightning strike.

A much more compelling (positive?) strike ... Interesting!

Street flooding (Lansing, IL).

 

[Laura Hedien]

Looking at the radar and GPS time stamps, I was short of the SPC 2215Z New Munster tornado report. This is the 2213Z radar capture I saved. I'm the white dot in the circle-

I've got my GPS tracks so I will look at that closer.
I was in the ballpark for the Sturtevant/Kenosha tor reports but there was just too much "crud". I saw some wall clouds and hangy downy things between Kenosha and Racine west of and around I94 but wouldn't swear to any tornadoes. With the radar gradient what it was, I really hoped for better structure.
Went to Twin Lakes area after the main storm pushed out over the Lake to help out but it was just up for grabs; just crazy. Saw lots of damage, filled the fuel tanks ($138) and headed home.
No footage or photos to speak of. Lighting was crappy, but for January 7, it was better than a kick in the pants.
Glad I went out. Guess I'll be more prepared in the winter time. It was a mad scramble for gear when I decided to pull the trigger and go out.
Laura

 

[Brandon Lawson]

30 seconds is all it takes

I think I might get the bonehead award for the day. I had been watching the radar all afternoon in Joplin, MO when I finally decided to hit I-44 and try and get ahead of the first tornadic storm to go through Pineville, MO. It was a little after 4PM. I somehow convinced my mom to go with me. We went east on I-44 and then took highway 37 south. When we got to Pierce City the tornado sirens were blaring and then again they were blaring when we headed south through Monett.

Upon finally getting through Monett, the buildings cleared, the topography leveled out, and a clear view of a nice cone shaped tornado on the ground could be seen to our west. Unfortunately, I did not have my head on straight and somehow I thought we were heading west, even though we were actually heading south on 37. The road had curved a bit and I was not thinking clearly. This had me thinking the tornado was to our northwest and that we were in a safe position.

We watched the tornado for only a few seconds (I'm still driving at this time; I hadn't even tried to pull over) before I realized that the tornado was closing in rapidly on our position, which did not make any sense to me at the time. In reality, we were driving south, directly into the path of an eastward moving tornado. I could have pulled over and waited for the tornado to pass, but I wasn't sure if the tornado would plow right through us. So instead, I stepped on the gas in an attempt to get south of the tornado before it crossed highway 37. This all occurred in less than a minute of time.

I kept trying to tell my mom that we had plenty of time to get ahead of the tornado despite the fact that I wasn't entirely convinced of that myself. Miraculously, we passed the path of the tornado with it only being 50-100 yards to our west. Debris was being picked up by the tornado as it appeared to hit a barn and the winds became quite furious, but we made it into the clear unscathed. At this point in time, I still think it was the best option. At the angle the tornado was moving, it could have crossed 37 anywhere. So stopping was not an option, and turning around may have taken too long. (Just to be absolutely sure that everyone understands... this experience is not something I'm proud of, but I don't see why I should have to be afraid to share the experience, if for nothing else, but to remind people to always be aware of what is going on around them)

Afterwards, we pulled over to turn around and could see the tornado continue east as it leveled a trailer home park (which I had no idea was happening from my view because of a hill in the way). It was a harrowing experience that I do not wish to experience again. Thankfully, the news stations here are saying that the park was empty due to it being condemned.

Emergency crews were amazing. It could not have even been a few minutes before police cars, firetrucks, and ambulances were at the scene blocking the road due to downed power lines and structural damage. There was also a car farther behind us that got blown off the road. I hope and pray that the people that were in the car are okay. At this point, more storms were on the way and it was getting dark. So my mom and I decided we had had enough excitement for one day. We headed back home.

I have no pictures of the tornado due to the short amount of time I had to react to our circumstance. I do have a little video of the tornado (after we had driven out of the path) as it moved off into the distance. The contrast is not great, but I may try and pull some stills off it later and post them.

I want to make sure people know that this was not a case of me wanting to get as close as I could to a tornado. This was the result of unlucky timing and me becoming disoriented as I went south out of Monett. I have been forced by this experience to remember that even when you know what you are doing, it's still very dangerous.

Later I asked my mom if she would ever go chasing with me again. She sort of laughed and said, "I don't know." (it was her first experience, ever, storm chasing) Here is a link to some pictures of the tornado I saw: http://ozarksfirst.com/content/fulltext/?sid=38bbee0929835be46a2de7c38a6d928a&cid=15990

 

[Joel Wright]

Was debating on even posting these, but since it's January in Illinois, what the hell.

Went on a real short chase right up the road to near Albany IL near the Mississippi river across from Clinton IA earlier this afternoon. A quick moving non-severe storm looked real interesting on radar as it was moving through the QC (even dropped 1/2" hail at the DVN office), so I quickly headed northwest out of Erie up towards Albany in an attempt to flank the storm from the southeast. Caught the storm and took some pics but it didn't look all that impressive. The damn thing was moving very fast and was still not warned on so I just let it go on. It eventually went on to drop a few tornadoes in far northern IL and into southeast WI. I was hoping more would fire to it's south, and a few very small cells did, but didn't do anything. Since home was only 20 miles away I just headed back there and waited for something else to fire up. It never did.

I'm kind of mad at myself now for not attempting to stay with that cell, but I highly doubt I could have kept up with it considering the crappy road options and it's speed at which it was moving.

Even though it was a very short/local chase, it was still very nice to get out in JANUARY!

 

[Brian Emfinger]

Well I am definitely surprised at the number of tornado warnings and I especially didn't think they would be so numerous as far north as they were.

As for me....I saw a few storms during the day but nothing severe. I got to a severe warned cell at sunset that had a tvs in LeFlore County, OK but it died shortly thereafter. I then hurried back north to I-40 and then to Muskogee and intercepted several tornado warned storms around there. Didn't get too much with the camera. I saw several really nice storms but I didnt stop as I tried to get closer and by the time I was close there wasnt much to see. Oh well. I am back home now waiting on the line to catch back up.

Looking North into Tornado Warned storms near Fort Gibson, OK

A few more pics here

 

[Paul Stofer]

I observed high based cells at initiation in NE Oklahoma today along with a great nocturnal lightning show and pea sized hail. Nothing to write home about, but it was acceptable for January. I didn't quite feel like following the storms into the jungles of Arkansas and Missouri.

 

[Chris Wilburn]

Bart Comstock and I caught the tornado that touched down just south of Monett, Missouri in SW MO. It was on the ground for approx. 10 minutes for sure, but more than likely longer as we lost track of it as it moved east and became wrapped in rain. There was damage from this tornado with powerlines down and uprooted trees. I heard there was one fatality with this storm and a few more injuries. After it became wrapped in rain we called of the chase of this storm due to no road options as our main option was blocked with debris. We noticed this storm intensifying as it was in NE OK and finally caught up with it just south of Monett about 20 minutes before dark. I will post pictures and video tomorrow whenever I have time.

I just checked the SPC Storm Reports and apparently it was the storm was close to Springfield that had the fatality and injuries. It was not the tornado we caught just south of Monett.

Here is a picture of the tornado just south of Monett. I will add a short video clip later as soon as I get it up on youtube.

 

[Buddy W Bradley]

BRANDON MASHBURN AND I GOT OUT CHASED THE LOCAL AREA AND SAW A COUPLE FUNNELS AND WALL CLOUDS. NO GOOD PICS ALTHOUGH MIGHT HAVE ONE OR TWO TO POST IN A COUPLE DAYS. WE DID HAVE A PERIOD OF GOLFBALL TO BASEBALL SIZED HAIL AROUND 6:30 IN NORTH SPRINGFIELD.

AS FAR AS THE LOCAL (SGF) WX OFFICE GOES.... TORNADO WARNINGS WERE IN EFFECT FROM THE 5 O'CLOCK PM HOUR TRHOUGH THE MIDNIGHT HOUR CONTINUOUSLY. AND AGAIN FROM THE 1:00 AM HOUR THROUGH THE 4:AM HOUR. UNFORTUNATELY THERE WERE TWO CONFIRMED FATALITIES AND SEVERAL INJURIES. THERE ARE SEVERAL PICTURES ON KY3.COM AND KOLR10.COM AND KTTS.COM.

I HAVE TO SAY..... THIS STORM SYSTEM WAS A HISTORIC EVENT AND WAS MORE ACTIVE THAN ANY WEATHER SYSTEM I HAVE EVER EXPERIENCED HERE IN SW MISSOURI.

 

[Charles Allison]

Wagoner Co. Oklahoma

 

[Bob Hartig]

Chase partners: Bill Oosterbaan, Tom Oosterbaan, Derek Mohr.
Chase area: Columbia, Missouri.
We intercepted the first big storms of the day as they trained to the northeast toward Columbia, and caught two supercells. The second of of these was a long-lived tail-end Charlie that produced several tornado reports and funnel cloud sightings. We watched this storm roll in across the river valley by Hartsburg, southwest of Columbia. It had an impressive wall cloud with a large, bowl-shaped lowering, but what with trees on the horizon and rain wrapping into the circulation, I couldn't tell what was happening at ground level.

We actually wound up doing a loop-de-loop through Columbia, intercepting the first storm (which also had a nice, very active wall cloud) southwest of town along Belle Femme Church Road and tracking it back into Columbia, then dropping south again to catch the second supercell.

With those storms rocketing east, we headed west of town to catch another cell to the southwest that seemed to show some promise. It didn't possess the vigor of the first line, and we gave up on it initially. But as we headed back east down I-70 with the storm behind us, it developed a bit of a hook on the radar, so we stopped to look at it. Sure enough, it had evolved into a classic supercell with a nice wall cloud--weak, but still nice to see on January 7.

 

[Tyler_Costantini]

Joey Ketcham and I where heading south along some road i think mo 215 west of Straford, MO,, more or less driving south into the path of a fast moving tornado.. we missed the tornado by only a few min at most.. We got south of tornado and decided to move back north to see if we could see the tornado, i bet we only went 2 - 3 miles back north and we ran into the dammage path Peach pit road and farm road 112? the dammage path was quite wide from the little we could see.... we then had to head south due to the next tornado warned cell moving ne into our location.. even with internet / wxworx and monitoring spotter reports this was by far the cloest call i have ever had chasing, the system was just a monster.. 15hours of tornado warnings.. I will post pics and details as soon as i recover..

 

[Chris Wilburn]

Here is the short video clip I shot of the tornado just south of Monett, MO.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWYci_CNhdI