Total Miles: 1,132
Tornados Witnessed: 0
Hail Size: Quarter
Wind Speed: 61 MPH max gust (Davis Anemometer - I did not report this via Spotter Net)
My chase day began early (0800Z) on 4-10 with a quick check of the RAP model on the Twister Data site and a look at soundings on Earl Barker's Skew-T page. I also looked at the RAP Real-Time Weather site to review the regional surface observations in my target area I'd identified the night before (Effingham, IL). I was, at least at that point, planning on sitting a little south of expected warm front, and then picking off cell after cell as I figured they ride the exit region of the 500mb jet. In my haste, I failed to look at the SPC Outlook (0600Z) from overnight to very my forecast and/or target location (more on that in a minute).
After loading some last minute, but important gear (chase laptop, DSLR) into the Jeep, I pulled out of the driveway at my house in Gaines and headed toward Illinois. Storms started to fire late morning north of what had then become a cold front back in Iowa and Missouri. After stopping for lunch in Rantoul, IL, I finally saw the earlier updates from SPC, and had a brief conversation with chaser Bill Oosterbaan. With the better environment being forecasted to now be well south back into northeastern Arkansas (where, Bill and Bob Hartig were heading) and knowing I was chasing alone and had to be to work the following morning, I decided to stick to my forecast and play in the warm sector in south central IL. The SBCAPE values were around 2000-2500 j/kg as low level moisture began to pool in my target area. The STP showed a 3 for the area as well. Storms were now firing in the warm sector and I chased my first severe warned cell NE of Effingham near Shelbyville. The storm looked great with a nice lowering as I approached from the east on route 16 and appeared to have a nice hook as indicated on GR3, but as quickly as the precip core started to wrap up, it completely fell apart over the town. Then I ended up getting trapped in the town of Shelbyville by a stop light, and when I tried to keep up with the cell as it traveled north, I got trapped by the lake north of town. I couldn’t win… I finally made my way back to the I-57 at Neoga and after a brief stop to top of the fuel continued towards Effingham.
With a Low now pronged over and near the St. Louis area, around mid afternoon (1930Z) storms had started to pop up along and just ahead of the cold front and had nosed its way across the Mississippi River. Two cells developed, the southern of which looked to become dominant and began moving NE driven by the upper level jet. I got word from chaser Kurt Hulst back in Michigan that Tom Stolze’s stream was looking amazing on chasertv.com as the storms moved NE. They merged into one and became severe warned. Other local chasers were in the area as I began streaming video as the storm moved into southern Washington County near the town of Ashley. It was here that I saw the beautiful updraft tower that was slowly rotating, its flanking line, and lowering wall cloud.
I wasn’t in the perfect position, but I wasn’t getting pounded with the hail falling to the storms northeast. I hung a left at Ashley onto US 51 and headed south. I only had to drive a mile when I found myself under the updraft core of the storms wall cloud (I know, not the best place to be). It was this point the cell went tornado warned. At this point I’m not if it was Doppler indicated or because of a LSR. The wall cloud went from rotating and being a few thousand feet off the ground to more non-rotating and high based. Three or four LSRs suddenly popped up on my radar, and I decided to move east to get out of harm’s way, but honestly I’m sure what the locals were looking at. Perhaps it was the skud being pulled into the updraft, or something else, but at no time was there ever a funnel descending from the storm or a tornado on the ground.
I continued to give chase as the storm moved NE through Radom and on up to Richview with a few locals following me. There was now more than one LSR for funnel clouds and a tornado that had popped up on my radar and I noticed several local Skywarn types and HAM operators at the intersection of route 14 and SR-15. Who knows. With as slow as I was getting radar updates and as quick as the storm was moving, maybe there was a brief tornado. I haven’t seen pictures or video on social media or anything else, so I guess not. From here the storm took a right turn and a more easterly route and went over the I-64/I-57 interchange where Peter Ciro was live streaming, and then continued NE of Mt. Vernon. I traveled through Mt. Vernon and then headed north to try and intercept the storm again along route 3, but ended up breaking of the chase as the cell fell apart as it neared Stratton.
I stopped at the intersection of route 3 and 161 and waited on the next radar update, but the service dwindled down to nothing and instead of waiting, I traveled back east to pick up I-57 and head north for home.
