• After witnessing the continued decrease of involvement in the SpotterNetwork staff in serving SN members with troubleshooting issues recently, I have unilaterally decided to terminate the relationship between SpotterNetwork's support and Stormtrack. I have witnessed multiple users unable to receive support weeks after initiating help threads on the forum. I find this lack of response from SpotterNetwork officials disappointing and a failure to hold up their end of the agreement that was made years ago, before I took over management of this site. In my opinion, having Stormtrack users sit and wait for so long to receive help on SpotterNetwork issues on the Stormtrack forums reflects poorly not only on SpotterNetwork, but on Stormtrack and (by association) me as well. Since the issue has not been satisfactorily addressed, I no longer wish for the Stormtrack forum to be associated with SpotterNetwork.

    I apologize to those who continue to have issues with the service and continue to see their issues left unaddressed. Please understand that the connection between ST and SN was put in place long before I had any say over it. But now that I am the "captain of this ship," it is within my right (nay, duty) to make adjustments as I see necessary. Ending this relationship is such an adjustment.

    For those who continue to need help, I recommend navigating a web browswer to SpotterNetwork's About page, and seeking the individuals listed on that page for all further inquiries about SpotterNetwork.

    From this moment forward, the SpotterNetwork sub-forum has been hidden/deleted and there will be no assurance that any SpotterNetwork issues brought up in any of Stormtrack's other sub-forums will be addressed. Do not rely on Stormtrack for help with SpotterNetwork issues.

    Sincerely, Jeff D.

2016-09-16 REPORTS: MO/IL

Joined
Jan 14, 2011
Messages
3,415
Location
St. Louis
Like many Midwest chase days, this one was a "sleeper" in which the potential does not become evident until the last minute. Models had been showing "squall line" and I was not expecting to chase at all this day, aside from possible lightning photography at home after dark. By mid-afternoon, I realized that new storms north of Cape Girardeau, MO were staying discrete, and surface obs showed backed surface winds across southern IL. The radar had the 'look' of I-better-get-down-there, so I rushed out the door heading south.

I only had about 40 miles to get to the first storm, which I caught near Baldwin, Illinois (west of Sparta). Radar showed a strong couplet, but I could not get a visual on the base for quite some time due to the heavy forests along the Kaskaskia River basin. As the storm approached, I finally got a good visual on a nice HP notch and several suspicious lowerings back in the rain. Winds, however, were flowing westward out of the storm, and no apparent surface inflow was making its way into the notch. Another supercell was beginning to develop to the southwest, with its forward flank precip enveloping the inflow region of the Baldwin storm. Right about the time the I-55 tornado report came in from Missouri, I decided to drop south 15 miles to the new storm.

The new storm cycled several times with pronounced RFD cuts, but as with the first storm, it was all undercut with outflow from the north and northwest. Eventually, a third meso began taking shape down near Chester, so I again dropped south to check it out. Even before I got a visual of the area of interest, I could see a giant whale's mouth formation way out ahead of everything as well as strong northwesterly winds, indicating the tornado-warned part of the storm likely had no chance.

Nonetheless, I stayed ahead of the gust front for another 20 minutes just to give it a chance for some inflow to carve back in. Not surprisingly, this didn't happen.. However, a short-lived updraft ahead of the outflow managed to spin up a nice funnel near Campbell Hill, which lasted for about 5 minutes before being obliterated by the gust front.

 
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