07/21/04 REPORTS: Central Plains and Great Lakes

[Larry J. Kosch]

Starting a REPORTS thread for 07/21/04 as the SPC Storm Reports had no confirmed tornadoes yesterday. But there were 30 reports of hail mostly in NE and SD. There were 97 wind damage reports mostly in the Great Lakes region around Lake Michigan. One significant wind report of 75 mph was reported at a Michigan City lighthouse in Michigan. Place your storm chase and storm reports here. Thanks.

(No smilies, by request)

 

[nickgrillo]

The line that devoloped over Lake Michigan travelled east towards Lansing... weakening slightly yet still a potent look.

I got on I-696/I-96 and just after I got into the Ingham county border I see a nice large wall cloud... with very weak motion. This part of the line moved out of my postition... so I went back east and got to see the pretty shelf cloud. Looked severe... yet it didn't have any warnings on it at the time.

Got some 45-55 mph wind gusts thou and quite a bit of pix. Fun and easy day!

The chase is now on my site: http://midwestchase.larrynormansite.com/072104.html

A couple pix:

[Broken External Image]:http://www.larrynormansite.com/72104-5
This wall cloud is trying to form a little tail!

[Broken External Image]:http://www.larrynormansite.com/72104-15

..Nick..

 

[rdale]

Headed to central Ionia Co based on AWS sites in GRR gusting > 50mph -- and saw winds 30-40 max with heavy rain and some lightning. Got back out front of the action near Lansing's airport and more of the same, so headed home.

Got home and the TOR flew for Cass Co so I shot south on I-69. Doppler indicated weak rotation with cell mergers near Marshall so I pulled off and lightning picked up dramatically but no features visible. Continued south through Branch Co and it looked like a bow was forming as the line approached Coldwater but nothing more than 40mph winds again.

Followed it along US12 into Hillsdale before giving up. Return trip highlights include some ROCKING anvil lightning, other than that the day was a waste.

- Rob

 

[Gary Stofer]

Our trek started westbound I74 from Indianapolis. I tried to head towards the southermost tip of the line so we didn't have a repeat of the 13th bow echo onslought. Once we got west of the Crawfordsville area it showed up very quickly, and it was the most amazing shelf cloud I've seen. It looked like something out of a movie. The lightning was constant and very deadly, with two bolts coming down at the same time on several occasions. No significant hail to speak of but the wind was at least 45 at times. Most counties we moved through were issued severe warnings. We had to go into the line but managed to get back in front of it. As it was moving ENE we moved ESE along I74 and continued to get some awesome pics, but because it was darker many turned out blurry.

[Broken External Image]:http://www.wrathofnature.com/images/july211.jpg
[Broken External Image]:http://www.wrathofnature.com/images/july212.jpg
[Broken External Image]:http://www.wrathofnature.com/images/july213.jpg

 

[Bob Hartig]

The gust front arrived only shortly after I got out of work (just a mile south of the Kent County Airport) at five o'clock. It was moving fast, but I had my camcorder ready to go, so I parked on little side road, got out of the car, and started recording. I won't hazard a guess at the wind speed; I'll just say I wouldn't have wanted to be near any trees. I filmed what could have been a gustnado, could have been just blowing dust--won't know till I view the footage this evening. But the most impressive thing was the lightning: close, intense, and non-stop, some of the most earnest I've seen in quite a while. I moved back inside my car after the first couple of close encounters.

After the gust front had passed, I headed for home, where I changed into some shorts and paused long enough to pull up doppler on my computer and consult the target discussions. Then I hopped back into my car and headed east down I-96. I passed through the storm near Lansing and positioned myself on an overpass east of the city, but at that point the storm samed pretty docile, just your garden-variety Michigan squall line, with nothing like the wind or lightning I witnessed earlier.

 

[Jordan Manderfield]

Developing storm near Madison, MN.....drove towards it around 6 or 7 on highway 14 pulled off the road near New
Ulm and waited for it to get to us this storm had very strong winds once it was going over us the CORN WAS A FLYING it flattened the corn half way across the field and lots of trees snapped.....there was also a non-rotating wall cloud on the southern side of the storm.........I don't own a digital camera so no pictures :roll:

Overall Chase score out of 10- 6/10