2014-08-27 REPORTS: MO/IL

[Dan Robinson]

After watching a frontal boundary steadily creep south from Chicago on Monday, firing large lightning-crazy MCSs in Illinois each day/night as it went, I awoke Wednesday morning to see the boundary settling in over St. Louis -farther south than I'd expected. The problem was I was in Charleston, WV on a business trip. Thanks to a pre-arranged deal within my contract, I was able to take the day off and drive the 500 miles back home to STL, arriving in downtown 10 minutes before this happened:



That is a frame from 1080p video. Every minute/second truly counts in storm chasing and lightning photography. A few more images and a link to the video clip are at my blog:

http://stormhighway.com/blog2014/aug2714a.php

I have been trying to capture an Arch lightning strike since I moved here (in January 2010). It's only happened two other times during those years, one I missed due to being out of town (in 2011), the other I missed in 2013 by 30 seconds as a direct result of babysitting a live stream (hence the reason I loathe streaming and vow to never do it again).

I'm still after a good nighttime still image of an Arch strike, but based on my observations on the frequency of this happening, it may be a while before the next one. It only happens once or twice a year on average (I know this because I'm there for 95% of STL storms).

 

[John Farley]

Like Dan, I also arrived in the STL area just in time for this day's storms, after flying in from ABQ for a family visit. The storms cooperatively waited for our plane to arrive, then in the next hour or so flared up over several spots around the STL area. Here are a couple pictures of a SVR-warned storm that was over Glen Carbon, IL around 5:00 p.m. looking west from Troy, IL:

This storm had a radar indication of 1-inch hail and 60 mph winds around Glen Carbon, but I have not seen any ground confirmation of that. Still a pretty storm for 10 minutes or so, though. This was the next storm east of the one where Dan photographed the lightning striking the arch - something I have never managed to get. Dan's storm (I think it was that one) produced a swath of fairly substantial wind damage from Ferguson south through parts of University City, Forest Park Community College, and the Dogtown neighborhood in St. Louis, with a number of large trees down and some windows blown in.