2015-05-30 REPORTS: IL

[kevin-palmer]

Today there was just enough cape and wind shear in Eastern Illinois to make things interesting. I've gone out and seen nothing on a lot of days like today. But the fact that there were no more storms in the forecast for the area after today pushed me out the door. Plus Eastern Illinois is a perfect area to chase in. It's extremely flat with very few trees and a decent road network. I targeted the area where the strongest bulk shear (35 knots) and the warmest surface temps overlapped.

Leaving at 11AM, I drove past the metro area of Champaign and made it to St. Joseph. This was exactly where I needed to be see the forming supercell coming up from the southwest. After driving north a few miles I waited for it to get closer. Every radar return looked different, sometimes showing strong rotation and sometimes showing hardly any at all. Just after I setup to shoot a time lapse around 2PM I noticed a funnel forming underneath the base. There was no obvious wall cloud at this time. The funnel was very small and high based at first. Then it became long and skinny and reached at least 2/3 of the way to the ground as bands of rain rotated beneath. After that the funnel became wider at the top before diseappearing into the rain altogether lasting about 5 minutes. It danced right across the frame in my time lapse. I tried to follow the storm a bit further but I lost it. I shot a few more storms afterwards but the funnel was the highlight. I've never seen one this clear and defined before.


Ogden Supercell by Kevin Palmer, on Flickr


Off to Oz by Kevin Palmer, on Flickr


Pencil Thin Funnel by Kevin Palmer, on Flickr


Rotating Rain Bands by Kevin Palmer, on Flickr

 

[Dan Robinson]

I targeted the center of the MCV, which crossed into Illinois near Red Bud and tracked north-northeast to near Decatur. A storm persisted at the MCV center for much of the day, which had its strongest radar-indicated circulation near Marissa. A new precip core developed directly in front of this feature, completely obscuring it from my view as it approached, so I could not see if anything occurred within it. The MCV convection slowly weakened as the afternoon wore on, but numerous small updrafts remained at/near the center. I stayed with this area to Carlyle. During this time, there were multiple areas of updraft/rapid rising motion that would occasionally tighten into a spin. Two of these produced brief funnels, one of which I captured near Bartelso (north of I-64).



There were also areas of fog being pulled from the ground up into these updrafts, producing many tornado look-alikes. Like July 1-2 2013, the potentially tornadic areas were distinguishable from the 'fognadoes' by their motion (or lack thereof).

 

[kevin-palmer]

I put together the time lapse which can be seen here

I actually didn't notice the funnel until right after I started the time lapse sequence. But my camera happened to already be pointing in the perfect direction to capture it dancing across the frame. Having a backup camera was very handy here so I could get some closer shots while my main camera continued the time lapse. I only wish there was a way to keep rain drops off the lens.