2014-02-20 REPORTS: IL/IN/MO/AR/KY/TN/MS

[Skip Talbot]

Quick summary: First chase of the '14 season. Caught my first February tornado: a distant rope near Jacksonville, IL. Intercepted another tornado warned supercell near Decatur, IL noting a pronounced RFD notch but no tornado.

I wasn't really planning on making today my first chase of the year, but when I saw the morning vis sat and surface obs I scrambled to get my van wired up. Robust cumulus in an arc across central MO with clearing ahead of the front and dewpoints approaching 60 near the surface low sure got my attention. The morning RAP was also showing 1000 J/Kg of SBCAPE and 100 knots at 500 mb between St. Louis and Springfield, IL at 21z. Effective SRH between 300 and 500 meant any decent updraft that could maintain itself would be spinning like a top.

I headed west on 72 toward Jacksonville, IL just trying to catch Tail-End-Charlie in an arc of cells coming out of MO as it crossed the interstate. West of Jacksonville, the updraft base had already crossed the highway to my north and with a 60 mph NE storm motion, I knew I would never catch it. I turned around and started heading east to catch cells coming up out of St. Louis. To my north I had a visual on a textbook RFD cut, and then what appeared to be a cone funnel. Due to the distance and with the ground obstructions, I was unable to confirm anything at the time. LSRs quickly came in for a funnel cloud and then a rope tornado, however. I was able to snag it with the video:

I let that storm go and then proceeded east of Springfield to get ahead of a line of cells coming up out of St. Louis. West of Decatur, IL I found myself downstream of another tornado warned cell, this one quite small but with a distinct hook on the radar. I waited on an on ramp in case I needed to adjust my position as it approached, as I did not have a visual on the base and was in the path as indicated by the warning. With amazing speed the cell approached. My view went from grey skies and foggy fields to a black western sky and swirling midlevel clouds in a couple minutes. The center of rotation appeared to be immediately to my southwest so I executed a southbound escape. Two-three miles south, I stopped to watch the storm pass to my north. The view was surreal with a super dark, very low base, fog and rain bands whipping through the fields, and sepia toned light coming in from the west. There was a distinct RFD cut in the storm, but no tornado that I could see.

I made a vain attempt to get ahead of a line of cells heading toward Tuscola, IL, but they were just moving way too fast. I called the chase near Alton, IL and then headed for home. I was treated to a gorgeous sunset, lighting the back end of the line of storms in shades of red and pink with anvils and mammatus stretching overhead. The tornado wasn't very photogenic, but it sure was an amazing chase for February and for the first of the year.

 

[Dan Robinson]

I had been hesitantly planning to chase this event, for no other reason than it was in my backyard. The initial visible satellite imagery at sunrise was not encouraging, with most everywhere within a 2 hour's drive (as far as I was willing to go) socked in. However, as morning progressed, several trends were noted. One was a nice clearing nosing its way northeast from MO into IL across the Mississippi River north of St. Louis. The second was the pronounced backing of winds in this region in response to the rapidly deepening low out west. The third was the sharp warm front situated along I-72, with mid-30s and fog to the north and 50s/mid 60s to the south. It became clear to me that this was a legit 'sleeper' play that would far exceed the MDT risk area to the south and east in chase potential. I departed home (New Baden, IL) just after noon and headed up Highway 67 out of Alton, hoping to catch what appeared to be the storm with the strongest radar returns and the biggest gap between storms to its south. I had initial concerns that I would not make it in time due to slow traffic, particularly in Jerseyville. However, as I made my way north I became more confident that I'd make it.

Cellular data in this region is horrible, and I had slow or no internet. I wanted to intercept storms as they approached and crossed the warm front. All I had to locate the front were surface obs in ThreatNet, which showed it located somewhere along or north of I-72 (I could not even pull a satellite image from the internet due to the slow data). As I reached I-72, however, I could finally see visual signs of the boundary in the form of low clouds and fog to the north. I positioned just south of this boundary and just to the right of the storm's track, about halfway between Chapin and Jacksonville. As soon as I found my first viewing location, I could see a base and wall cloud already in progress. I had the camera turned on for no more than a minute before a funnel descended. A weak dust swirl was evident for about 10 seconds at the ground level:



The white line at the base of the power line poles in that image is a snow bank, unmelted from previous snowstorms! As this tornado dissipated, a second wall cloud well to the north of the first rapidly organized with a stronger RFD cut. After about 3 minutes, a second tornado was in progress, which lasted for approximately 7 minutes. This tornado became fully condensed several times, but remained a small rope for much of its life:



As tornado #2 dissipated, a large RFD gust front curled to the south with 60mph+ westerly winds as it passed. I attempted to catch up to successive storms by blasting east on I-72 toward Decatur, but I could not get ahead of the next storm's precip core due to dangerously low visibility and a severe hydroplaning hazard.

I will have additional images posted once I have time to do the final chase account web page. For now, here is the video. The first shot is of tornado #1. The last two are tornado #2:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnDNQLijgTU

 

[L Kimbrel]

I snagged my first ever picture of a tornado on this same line of storms. I was about 12 miles south of Taylorville, not even chasing, since I knew I had no chance of catching up to this fast-moving system. I'd gotten rumors of tornado damage near Nokomis and a possible tornado in Ramsey and was going to check it out. As soon as I left the house I noticed a gnarly break in the line of storms that had just passed over, looked like a RFD slot but in a very odd location, I thought. It appeared to be near enough to my daughter's place in Pana to change my plans and head me off in that direction instead. I spotted this funnel a few minutes later, and grabbed one quick shot before it disappeared into the rain. The pic is looking ENE from the Christian County line road a few miles north of Nokomis, too far away for a really decent shot -- all I had with me was the point-and-shoot I grabbed on the way out the door, and my camera phone. When I reached Pana I found obvious tornado damage just north of town and stretching for at least 6 miles to the NE. That's as far as I tracked it before it got too dark to continue. I also got a quick phone pic of the clouds Skip noted above. Not bad for a 2 hour, spur of the moment, early season, non-chase home area road trip.

 

[STexan]

Good job Kimbrel. The first is a great thing to get under your belt and it was a good capture especially considering the setup.

 

[Dan Robinson]

Here is my final chase account for the February 20 tornado event, with many images, extended video footage and a GPS log:

http://stormhighway.com/feb202014.php

 

[ryanjmy]

Saw this nice funnel cloud around 4:30 in the southeast corner of missouri, just west of Steele, Mo. A couple of time I saw fingers come down from the funnel but never more than a second or so.

Tried to catch back up with the storm but the Mississippi river made that imposible.

 

[Skip Talbot]

Edited shots from February 20 including a brief glimpse of the Jacksonville, IL rope, and a nice rainbow and mammatus display amid the snow and fog:

Watch video >

 

[Stephen Levine]

Thank you Skip for sharing the joy and beauty of your first storm chase of the year. Rather than call it "junk" sky as so many other chasers do, you honored it for its inspiration and beauty. I like that.

 

[Skip Talbot]

Detailed write up, stats, annotated map, photos and video:
http://skip.cc/chase/140220/