2012-05-05 REPORTS: IL/SD/NE

[Dan Robinson]

A 5-hour chase early this morning yielded an intense barrage of close lightning near Carlyle, Illinois from a new updraft suddenly forming overhead. Easily in the top 5 of my lightning experiences of all-time.

http://stormhighway.com/blog2012/may512a.shtml

 

[Andy Jackson]

After anxiously waiting around SE South Dakota for the supercell/tornado outbreak to ensue. I watched a storm develop on radar knowing it was outside the area of strong surface cape. As the storm persisted and strengthened I noticed the models had the cape surging northward so I decided to go for it. It turns out the storms ended up dumping massive amounts of rain in some areas as well as producing some intense winds with damage. Here's a couple of shots:

Interesting note, check out the spc reports for this date 5 years ago:
outbreak 5/5/07

 

[beaudodson]

I took this photograph from Massac County, IL looking into west KY. The storm produced ping pong size hail in far western Kentucky.



Large view
http://beaudodson.smugmug.com/Nature/2012-Weather-Photographs/22818979_Vjp63Z#!i=1831003094&k=jgSbWhq&lb=1&s=X2

 

[Bill Doms]

Managed to salvage what sure looked to be a blue sky bust in NE by jumping on the trio of slightly elevated supercells which went up on the cold side of the boundary in SD near Salem. Stayed on the lead cell all the way over to northeast of Pipestone, MN. Nice when this just happens to be on the way home so each mile is one less until the driveway. Full set of images and video HERE.