2017-11-05 REPORTS: IL/IN/OH/MI

[Dan Robinson]

Full chase log page with more images:
http://stormhighway.com/blog2017/nov617a.php

Today turned out much better than expected given my low expectations going in. I was on the supercell that tracked from St. Louis as it moved due east right down Highway 50 in Illinois. A great CG barrage and a likely tornado at Carlyle made this a nice little fall Midwest chase day.

The storm was badly undercut in the low levels until just east of Trenton, when inflow began a battle for a corridor into the meso. It seemed to accomplish this just west of Carlyle as a rapidly rotating wall cloud managed to spin up with attendant rain curtains racing around it:


This feature wrapped in rain quickly, but I saw pieces of sheet metal high in the air just before I bailed to the east. I got comfortably ahead of the storm again east of town, and pulled over just in time to witness this rope appear in the rain just north of the highway:


Lightning and fall colors earlier in the chase at Collinsville:


Video:

 

[Alex Elmore]

Started the day off with waiting for storms to get organized near Troy, IL. The first cell took its good sweet time pulling itself together, but finally did so right over the heart of the metro. My wife and I waited for it to come to us, and then went a little south to give it some room. We stopped a couple times in the area north of the small town of Summerfield, IL to watch it pass by:

At this point, it didn't look as impressive on radar anymore. Additionally, there was now a cell further south that looked better, so we decided to bail on our current storm and move south (apparently a bit too soon after seeing Dan's experience). Unfortunately, by the time we caught up with storm #2 near St. Libory, IL it had become outflow dominant:


There was a third cell crossing the Mississippi River into IL to our south that was still well organized and had just dumped 3 inch hail around Festus, MO, so we went south yet again to try to intercept it. We met it near Sparta, where it too became outflow dominant and lacked good structure; both on radar and visibly:


Seeing as most of the convection was weakening and congealing into a messy line, we called it a day. I too didn't have very high expectations for this day, but was happy with how things turned out. I was simply hoping to see a supercell in November, and that's what I got.

 

[Billy Faletti]

Chased southern Illinois with an initial target of Mattoon. Became clear that we were going to have to go south from there for any tornadic potential. Drove west from Sandoval, IL to near Huey/Carlyle, where we intercepted a supercell that appeared to be weakening slightly. RFD began to surge and we were about to reposition before noticing a rotating wall cloud churning away. Underneath it came a needle funnel that extended over halfway down, and I think it's safe to assume it was a tornado.

Supercell structure right before brief tornado. RFD cut is extremely evident:


Video of rotating wall cloud/tornado: