08/19/09 REPORTS: IL/MN/OK/KS

[John Farley]

I have now posted a full chase report with details on the tornado I observed near Roodhouse and Manchester, IL at:

http://www.johnefarley.com/chase81909.htm

I've added more pictures, both of the tornado itself and the damage it caused, as well as radar images, LSRs, and a damage survey from the St. Louis NWS office. I will update the report when the damage survey from the Lincoln, IL office becomes available.

 

[David Schuttler]

Of course I have to add this picture first


The following lightning pictures are from N. Tulsa around 3am on, after many failed lightning intercepts earlier in the night.







lightning shots are crops from using a 10mm lens with settings of: iso 100, f/7.1 ,13sec

Oh and I hate power lines....

 

[Steve Worthington]

We started our chaser off in north/western Okla along the KS Okla state line.
We parked at the Hwy 8 and 11 intersection east of Burlington Okla.
We watched a line of towers building and getting cut off for about an hour till the cell near Nash took off. We chased that cell till it`s dieing death along the Billings area. Not much to report (single cell) as it just didn't have it in it do much other then sprinkle a little shower here and there.
After reaching I-35 we also headed north to Sedan KS catching up with the storms just outside the city.
We did see a few funnels but nothing that would last long. We called off the chase around 12:am or so and headed north catching up with the northern storms that were developing. Made for a long chase day/night and after all was said and done we did enjoy it even if it was a night chase and in, not so chaser friendly Eastern Kansas.

 

[evan anderson]

Reports IL

Left the City late (again) heading West on I-88 to Dekalb and then proceeded South down I-39. Encountered torrential rains on I-39 before identifying a few promising cells so headed East on 24 - multiple cells later went tornado warned. Best intercept was what I believe might have been a rotating wall cloud just outside Strawn (1/2 mile West). Followed it along ENE and then gave up when it got east of I-57 -- and headed back up to Chicago. Though was curious how Adam Lucio did with it going into Indiana.

 

[Bill Doms]

Nothing too special on the torn warned cells in Brown and Blue Earth counties in MN. The earlier Minneapolis tornado passed just to my east but never saw it in the rain from the 5th floor of my office.

Here is the chase log and pics from the later cells in south central MN.

 

[Ian Contreras]

Since school starts on Monday (8-24) I figured why not make the drive down to central Illinois on a whim? Most cells were moving NE so I found a couple of good roads a little ways NE of Decatur, IL. I was now looking at a black horizon from my NW to my SW. The amount of moisture in the air made visibilty horrible, it was hard to see much of anything. Between DeLand, IL and Lodge, IL I noticed an absolute waterfall of rain heading a lot more N than NE. I stopped for a quick picture and soon realized there was no way I was going to beat this storm.

I'm a newbie when it comes to storm observation, so I don't think my observations mean much, but I have never seen rain come down like that before. The rest of the afternoon was spent looking at some mamatus, rainbows and lightning. Not a great day, but not a bad day. I don't know what to expect anyway since I barely know what I'm doing lol.

 

[L Kimbrel]

Ramsey storm

I also got a late start, but decided to try to intercept the tail end of the storm system after getting a look at the sky to my southwest on the drive home. Caught up with it just south of Ramsey, Il., on HWY 51, and nearly missed an impressive show trying to dodge the massive hail shaft that preceded it. (Hey, my car is still fairly nice.) To say nothing of trying to find a decent viewing area in the forested, hilly terrain.

Watched this tornado-warned rotating supercell drift across the road about a mile in front of me. It had some pretty amazing structure -- for Illinois, anyway -- and eventually developed a well-defined RFD notch. It produced a couple of funnel clouds and I was watching rain shafts twist into a potential tornado when the storm went massively HP on me, leaving me unable to verify anything. Might have been the same storm Al Pritchard was watching form the other direction near Vandalia. I was using my husband's camera and didn't notice that the date wasn't set.