2011-04-19 REPORTS: IL/MO/OK/TX/AR

[Paul Hadfield]

Got the Girard tornado from literally 1/4 mile away and was nearly under it per Skip's video still. Stuck around to assist the owner in trying to round up his cattle that survived. Property is a total loss. Full report whenever, need some time after this one.

 

[Aaron Shaffer]

Headed south today with Aaron Gerhardt & Chuck Koch (from Madison). We targeted the warm front & triple point, and headed south to Louisiana, MO. Eventually, after Louisiana we headed southwest to Mexico (we love Missouri town names, by the way), and then waited as several cells merged together. As we were approaching Curryville we saw a funnel form and partially descend, before lifting. Then it did it again, and we got it this time. Touched down and formed what I can only describe as a narrow elephant/thick rope just before we could catch it on tape or still cams. Unfortunately my SLR's battery randomly died at this moment, but I caught it on video. I'll post the video once my station airs it tomorrow - but here is a still shot I just captured:

After it lifted we followed just west for a while and eventually were to the north as we re-entered Louisiana and crossed the bridge into IL. We saw it trying to descend to the ground near Nebo but we backed off due to uncertain roads. Then we followed the storm east but were too far west as the I-55 stuff started going up to catch it. Too much ponding on the road, and we had to take a ferry at one point to cross a river.

 

[Jenn Brindley]

Caught the cell north of the one most everyone else was on. I accompanied Skip Talbot.

Here is the full chase report / blog post complete with tons of photos and a few animated GIF's. ~

http://jenniferbrindleyphotography.com/blog/girard-il-tornado-storm-chase-log-4192011


~Jenn

 

[Adam Lucio]

As Danny mentioned we were in great position to watch the tornado north of Litchfield cross I-55 less than a half mile infront of us. This was an amazingly gorgeous tornado. It was dark grey with a brown debris cloud and a mean green HP core behind it. We got on the storm shorlty after birth and watched rapid rotation try and try and try for awhile to get it done, fearing it wouldnt be able to before it got gobbled up by the line, we pretty much played cat-n-mouse with this rotation by staying just ahead/under it and then finally this tornado touched down so fast it was incredible to watch. More later! I love IL warm fronts!

 

[Allan Detrich]

Here is a link to some of my stills from just outside Girard, Il yesterday, was with Dave Marshall, we were within 150 yards of the monster and I shot all of the photos with a 16-35mm Canon zoom. - http://www.flickr.com/photos/detrichpix_movingpictures/sets/72157626412205245/show/

 

[Jerry Funfsinn]

My son and I intercepted the Litchfield tornado near Barnett, Illinois. We caught the first storm that tracked
across from MO at White Hall but quickly dropped south before getting munched since it was hauling arse. I knew that was our only chance at that storm so when we were driving east from Carlinville the warning came out for the southern cell. We thought we saw a funnel develop and a brief touchtown but could not verify. As we continued driving a tornado dropped just SE of Barnett and we followed it east and lost it after it crossed Interstate 55. We stopped the chase to phone in the damage we encountered near Honey Bend.

Watch video >

 

[Adam Lucio]

Full log is now available here: http://www.chicagoillinoisstormchas...Litchfield-Illinois-Tornado-Crossing-I-55.php

Again, it was an amazing day with a tricky forecast that heavily relied on keeping an eye on mesoscale details during the day.

 

[Scott Sims]

Great catches to those that bagged one on this difficult chase. To those that didn't, I've been there before and I bet we trade places again in the future. Here is a view from northwest of Litchfield about 2 miles looking Northeast. The tornado is about 3-4 miles away.
Watch video >

 

[Andy Jackson]

After miscalculating storm speeds I back tracked to the tornado warned beast near Palmyra there did seem to be an area of interest so I got back ahead of it. I stopped to get some structure stills, then noticed a nice lowering. I moved up a little and saw this:

then this:

I tried driving south to catch up to the southern storms, saw the house destroyed, drove back and gave the FD a heads up on the damage and ended up going on a country side tour of Illinois with flooding, lots of lightning. I like that all the roads are paved except they forgot about maintaining them so there were potholes a plenty. Powerful storm system.

Here's a shot from Litchfield had to stay there after I-55N was closed:

 

[Jenn Brindley]

Here are some new, re-worked images of the Girard tornado.

~Jenn

 

[Allan Detrich]

Watch video >
Here is a video from the Girard, Illinois tornado, also a link to my stills on Flickr - http://www.flickr.com/photos/detrichpix_movingpictures/sets/72157626412205245/show/
Had a great day with chase partner Dave Marshall, a good day for the first chase of the year...

 

[John Farley]

My full chase report is now on my Website at:

http://www.johnefarley.com/chase41911.htm

Something less exciting to look at if you get tired of looking at pictures and videos of the spectacular tornadoes I messed up and missed today. Seriously, congrats to all who bagged! I did include a few radar images and some video mostly of hail but also a couple short structure clips for anyone interested.

 

[Aaron Shaffer]

As promised with my earlier post, here is the video from yesterday. Put together a little mini-storybook-style piece showing the stuff leading up to the tornado near Curryville & west of Bowling Green. We could have stayed with it all the way to the I-55 deal, except we had to take a ferry across the river... oh well! We still almost caught it again after a 20 minute delay but ponding in the road and awkward traffic proved to be our downfall.

Watch video >

 

[Danny Neal]

Final chase log is up.... added a video of the whole chase experience as well as keeping just the tornado as it developed and crossed I 55...

http://nrnilstormchaser.blogspot.com/2011/04/april-19th-2011-central-illinois.html

 

[Dan Robinson]

Full log with video posted:

http://stormhighway.com/april192011.shtml