Winston Wells
EF1
After agonizing over which side of the Mississippi River to target, I managed to catch the Hanover, IL tornado on this high-risk day.
I was at my initial target of Clinton, IA by early afternoon, which was attractive in part because it had two good river crossings. But - and this has been my downfall before, as on 6/5/10 - I was drawn west into Iowa by the appearance of tops on KDVN's radar along the warm front to the west of Waterloo, IA. I gradually made my way north and west through Maquoketa, IA, and by 3:30 p.m. I was in Monticello, IA. Unfortunately, the cells in east-central Iowa were beginning to merge, while several more discrete and much stronger cells got started back east in Illinois, running roughly N-S between Rockford, IL and Rock Falls, IL just west of the I-39 corridor. The southernmost of these cells quickly became both SVR and TOR-warned, and looked early on to be the storm of the day. As usual, I found myself stuck between both areas of convection and many, many miles from either.
I then made a half-hearted run at a small cell that had fired north of Maquoketa, following it across the river at Savanna, IL. But it soon dissipated. So, I decided to move north along the Mississippi River on IL 84 and wait at the intersection with US 20 for a line of storms over extreme southwestern Wisconsin to move southeast into northwestern Illinois. Although SVR-warned, this storm looked junky and elongated on radar, but I held out hope that it might get its act together as it moved closer to the warm front and into a better environment with backed winds.
It did. I watched from a scenic overlook on US 20 just north of Elizabeth, IL as the storm, now TOR-warned, moved southeast over Dubuque, IA and then Galena, IL. Just as it approached the overlook, it managed to tighten up nicely, both visually and on radar. I took this structure shot from IL 84 a few miles north of Hanover as the storm was nearly due west of me:
I then bolted south along IL 84 through Hanover and across the Jo Daviess/Carroll county line. The storm put down a tornado just east of the road which condensed and then roped out quickly. The three shots below capture this sequence. All look back north along IL 84:
A bit further south on IL 84 I stopped again and took the following video of the next tornado as it skirted the treeline just to my east. I didn't have time to tripod, so it's hand-held and shaky. Since I was looking due east, the contrast is pretty bad as well:
This was not the best territory to chase in - lots of jungles and road options in all directions severely limited by the river and surrounding bluffs.
I was at my initial target of Clinton, IA by early afternoon, which was attractive in part because it had two good river crossings. But - and this has been my downfall before, as on 6/5/10 - I was drawn west into Iowa by the appearance of tops on KDVN's radar along the warm front to the west of Waterloo, IA. I gradually made my way north and west through Maquoketa, IA, and by 3:30 p.m. I was in Monticello, IA. Unfortunately, the cells in east-central Iowa were beginning to merge, while several more discrete and much stronger cells got started back east in Illinois, running roughly N-S between Rockford, IL and Rock Falls, IL just west of the I-39 corridor. The southernmost of these cells quickly became both SVR and TOR-warned, and looked early on to be the storm of the day. As usual, I found myself stuck between both areas of convection and many, many miles from either.
I then made a half-hearted run at a small cell that had fired north of Maquoketa, following it across the river at Savanna, IL. But it soon dissipated. So, I decided to move north along the Mississippi River on IL 84 and wait at the intersection with US 20 for a line of storms over extreme southwestern Wisconsin to move southeast into northwestern Illinois. Although SVR-warned, this storm looked junky and elongated on radar, but I held out hope that it might get its act together as it moved closer to the warm front and into a better environment with backed winds.
It did. I watched from a scenic overlook on US 20 just north of Elizabeth, IL as the storm, now TOR-warned, moved southeast over Dubuque, IA and then Galena, IL. Just as it approached the overlook, it managed to tighten up nicely, both visually and on radar. I took this structure shot from IL 84 a few miles north of Hanover as the storm was nearly due west of me:
I then bolted south along IL 84 through Hanover and across the Jo Daviess/Carroll county line. The storm put down a tornado just east of the road which condensed and then roped out quickly. The three shots below capture this sequence. All look back north along IL 84:
A bit further south on IL 84 I stopped again and took the following video of the next tornado as it skirted the treeline just to my east. I didn't have time to tripod, so it's hand-held and shaky. Since I was looking due east, the contrast is pretty bad as well:
This was not the best territory to chase in - lots of jungles and road options in all directions severely limited by the river and surrounding bluffs.
