2016-05-28 REPORTS: IL

[kevin-palmer]

I chased the slight risk yesterday in Illinois. I went out with low expectations and didn't even see a severe storm, but I ended up with a picture I've always dreamed of taking. Storm season has been off to such a slow start around here this was only the 2nd day I've been chasing this month.

I targeted this cell near Lewistown. A few of the radar scans were showing some slight rotation.


Lewistown Storm Cell by Kevin Palmer, on Flickr


Advancing Outflow by Kevin Palmer, on Flickr

This particular storm ended up dying. But a squall line formed to the southwest. I stopped in Liverpool to shoot this panorama. I was in a wide open field in between the Illinois River and some bluffs. I heard a couple very loud claps of thunder, but did not see any CG strikes.


Liverpool Squall by Kevin Palmer, on Flickr

I got ahead of the storm once again as I crossed the river. By this point the outflow had surged miles ahead of the precipitation core, creating an ominous whales mouth structure.


Mouth of the Whale by Kevin Palmer, on Flickr

I was almost ready to head home, once the heavy rain started. But I couldn't ignore the warm glow emerging in the west, despite the incessant rain. I found a way to orient my car and shoot my camera out the window to minimize raindrops on the lens. This rainbow began to appear and these lightning bolts struck about 60 seconds apart, so I combined the two images. Not a bad day overall.


Struck By a Rainbow by Kevin Palmer, on Flickr

 

[Ethan Schisler]

Chased this pretty close to home today which kinda crept up on me. I was supposed to attend a family cookout around 5pm, so I went out around 1:30 and headed west towards some storms firing along the front in Southeast Iowa. Approached the first cell as it crossed the river near Keithsburg, IL. Noted a pretty good wall cloud with RFD carving in towards the back-side. Unfortunately this was the only cycle/occlusion this cell could go through before it completely went outflow dominant further east. I hopped on 150, darted back south towards Galesburg, where I sampled another cell coming out of the Abingdon area as it approached Knoxville. It was pretty high based and looked disorganized. I made my family cookout in Knoxville in time to eat and hop in the pool after the storms passed. Therefore I was able to deem this a pretty good day Storm chase by day, barbecue by night....

As with most chases this year, the photogenic quality of the storms didn't really warrant me to take the camera out of the bag, so I just chased using my phone and enjoyed the drive (which in itself probably made this one of the more enjoyable chases of 2016 for me despite the lackluster storms). Sometimes that is what its all about though, just enjoying yourself.