11/05/05 REPORTS: MO/IL

[Skip Talbot]

Fabian and I met up with Stan Olson, Nick Grillo, Kurt Hulst, Mark Sefried, Scott Kampas and Darin Kaiser in Jacksonville, IL. After two hours of waiting for the cap to break we finally headed west toward Hannibal to get closer to the front. Cells fired in Missouri and we opted out of crossing the river due to the lack of roads, bridges, and daylight, but were treated to a nice lightning show: prolific CGs and anvil crawlers. We didn't get our daylight supercell but it was still a nice run for November.

It'll be at least a few days before I get a full log up, but here are the stills and video:
http://www.drugrecognition.com/skip/chase/051105/

 

[John Farley]

I headed west on I-70 from Edwardsville around 3:00, hoping something might fire before sunset around or just west of Warrenton, MO. It didn't - initiation occurred farther west, just west of COU, and not until around sunset. Whatever show occurs with this is happening after dark, and I am not a night chaser - especially in hilly, often wooded terrain, with the storm evolving in the direction of becoming a squall line. I didn't even get any lightning, but hopefully will when the line moves through the STL area later this evening.

EDIT - Sunday, Nov. 6

Despite T-storm warnings (and some trigger-happy person activating the Edwardsville sirens), there was no severe wx when the storms came through Edwardsville - just some small hail and about a half inch of rain. I did get a couple nice lightning pics looking across Dunlap Lake as the storm moved in:

Lightning illuminates updrafts of the approaching storm.

CG and CC lightning, as the gust front approaches.

 

[Chris Foltz]

Talk about a backyard chase... Sat around watching Mizzou getting spanked by CU with one eye on the radar. Cell fired quickly just south of Boonville, MO which is about 20 miles west of COU. Cell was severe warned within 15 minutes of initiation and started to take on a hook echo on radar. Grabbed the camera and headed out the door with my wife. Took this shot of the back edge of the tower to the west from my back yard but light was getting low already.

The storm produced a really nice lowering on the north edge of Columbia but by that time, darkness had almost set in completely so I wasn't able to get a photo of it. The storm was really moving which made it impossible to keep up. All-in-all, a pretty decent storm for central MO in November.

 

[Gary Stofer]

Just got back from a very nasty runin with hail east of Trafalgar, Indiana. We were heading down to try and intercept a tornado warned cell rapidly moving northeast. This cell appeared to be rotating until it left Brown county and merged with a new line that formed west of it and ended up rolling right over us on SR 252. Before the torrent of hail and heavy ran there was an obvious lowering that could have been remnants of a wall. We had an initial hail dump of pea and dime size that lasted 2-3 minutes, then a 5-7 minute run of nickel and maybe even some quarter sized hail. It almost started accumluating on the ground. I captured it all on slow framed video, and called into the IND office. The report showed up on the SPC Reports page, but no warning was issued for Johnson County. May not be the place to ask this question but would anyone know why a warning wouldn't be issued for a severe weather report?

 

[rdale]

Storm may have already been leaving the county by the time the report came in, and/or they thought it was weakening, and/or they were more concerned about the TOR cells.

 

[nickgrillo]

Chased the ec MO/wc IL storms since initiation... As they formed into a line, I let them blow over me - and as we neared Jacksonville, the storms were raging full force. Winds gusted to around 70MPH for a few minuites... With sustained winds of 40-50MPH... Overall, was it worth the trip? Not really... But it's NOV and I chased in IL.

Page with video will be up later...

<img src=http://midwestchase.com/poop_in_illinois020copy.jpg>
<img src=http://midwestchase.com/poop_in_illinois013copy.jpg>

 

[Dan Robinson]

I spent the day in central Ohio waiting for the squall line that should have arrived after dark. However, at 7PM EST nothing was showing on the WxWorx display. Using the metar pressure readings on ThreatNet, I saw that the low was still centered over Missouri. About that time I watched initiation occur in central MO and knew that it would be too long of a wait before anything arrived in Ohio. I returned home at 10PM. In retrospect I should have went with my gut feeling and stuck around until early morning, but at the time my concern was that the chances of everything fizzling out and coming through after dawn were too great. Did see the big meteor fireball on the way home though.

 

[Kurt Hulst]

Yeah Nick pretty much said it all as we met up with Skip, Mark, Darin, Scott, Stan, and Bob Hartig. I guess the best part about yesterday was watching the storms with 6 other chasers and ooohing and awweeing the great lightning strikes. During which time we were shined by some farmer with the brightest lights ever. I have no idea if he thought we were deer but atleast we were not shot at. Nick and I headed to springfield and we stopped off on a off ramp. WE decided to let the storm over take us and I turned the car around to face the wind . So we were faced the wrong way on the off ramp which was so desolate. As the strom's strongest part comes through this guy drives the wrong way down the off ramp and says we were faced the wrong way on the ramp. WE were like yeah we know were storm spotting. I guess he may have thought we were in trouble. As we drove back to MI last night we were treated to some nice CG's all the way up into Chicago. Over all it wasnt a bad chase it was nice to see some cumulonimbus and an anvil or two with some good lightning. I see there were a few tornadoes further south into IN. My thoughts and prayers go to those who have lost loved ones.

Ill post picks later after i get them developed.

 

[Carla Bisby]

I was on the tornado warned cell in Lincoln County, MO. I was en-route at the time the warning was first issued so I can't say whether the warning was from radar indicated rotation or whether someone had a visual. I do know that during the time I was on that storm there were no lowerings. SPC has no touchdown reports. I was on the south side of the storm and with almost continuous lightning on the north side and nothing obstructing my view I had an amazing view of the base, it was absolutely beautiful. Usually it's so hazy around this area that you don't get views like that. After getting beat by a core I headed east and sat in my car watching the most amazing light show for about 90 minutes. Very nice mix of CGs, CCs, tower lightning and some awesome anvil crawlers. I wish I had a vid cam with me as this was definitely a storm to video and not just photograph. The downside of it getting dark so early was missing structure shots which based on what I could see from lightning and city light was amazing. The upside was seeing the sky full of mammatus on the back anvil lit by lightning. Never seen that before and it was beautiful. I'll try to post some lightning shots in a couple days. I headed back home around midnight very satisfied with such a beautiful and wicked storm. Great way to end the 2005 season which has been less-than-pleasant.

 

[nickgrillo]

Page now up with all the photos and a video clip of the 70-80MPH winds --> http://midwestchase.com/11-5-05.html

 

[Kurt Hulst]

This is my FAV. It shows a nice tail cloud With multiple strikes occuring at once.

Edit: I thought I would add one more.
P.S. Skip I saw this Vid cool stuff. You snuck me in there again.

I have a few more that i will put up on my site in a few days. Just thought i would share these for now.[/img][/b]

 

[Bob Hartig]

Great pics, Kurt. As for me, I wound up driving through the storms along I-80/94 by Chicago. They were enough to sustain my interest on a November night, a bit of pleasant entertainment, but that's about it. That changed, however, when the line caught up with me again in Michigan. I had stopped at a truck stop for a bowl of chili, and when I headed back out to the car, I could see that the storms were moving in. And either they picked up some steam in a short time or I missed something on my drive through Chicago. I seldom see that kind of show in Michigan. I pulled off the road for a few minutes, long enough to let the worst of the wind, rain, and hail pass. I don't like night-time severe storms in this highly forested state. You can't see what's headed your way.