2019-03-24 REPORTS: IL/MO/TX

[Dan Robinson]

I had low expectations for this day thanks to the non-existent surface flow, but it otherwise looked like a solid supercell day with the ample deep-layer shear and very cold midlevel temps moving overhead. I started with a developing supercell storm just south of I-64 in the STL metro, but this was quickly squashed by a large area of precip breaking out ahead of it.

By now a potent supercell had been ongoing for some time over in Missouri, but essentially out of play in bad terrain and roads southwest of STL. I dropped south to Chester to await the storm crossing into better chase territory in Illinois. When it moved into view, the updraft structure was half decent with periodic RFD clear slots cutting in on the right side and some very low and ominous-looking wall clouds. Rotation on radar was rather weak at this time, however.





I broke off of this storm to get back to STL before a secondary line of storms moved through. These beat me there by about 20 minutes, with some decent lightning on the front side.

 

[James Langford]

I had been watching Sunday as a possible chase day around North TX but wasn't too excited given the downward trending I was seeing in the models leading up. The cap was definitely a concern. Early in the day I started to see a lot of activity developing that indicated to me that the cap was being broken much earlier. A tail end storm blew up West of Denton and I started watching it's trajectory as I finished up my Sunday activities. It took a while to get organized but once it did it took a hard right and headed towards my house in Allen. Strangely enough we had a storm take almost this exact path last March. I hate chasing in the metro due to traffic but headed to a spot I knew of that had a good westward view. As the supercell came into view it had an impressive classic shape and a nicely striated updraft.



I also was running some timelapse:

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10155748910141626

 

[Skip Talbot]

Cold air aloft, ample 0-3km CAPE, and initiation on the low got my attention on this one. That and it was a couple hours from home. Targeted southeast of St. Louis on the Illinois side of the river expecting a low topped supercell to cross in the evening. I didn't want to screw around with the terrain and roads on the Missouri side, and then get left behind with no crossing. I set up camp near Prairie Du Rocher, IL and waited for a tornado warned supercell to approach. Waited and waited some more. It held together, I think due to the ample low level instability and that the storm was able to hold itself ahead of the main line.

The terrain down there on the river is really neat. You've got a nice wide flat floodplain to the west for visibility of your approaching storm. To the east there are big sandstone cliffs that have been quarried. There are giant holes cut into them that look like big caves. Ramshackle wood slat houses perched up on any rise and stone pilings to get above the flood waters. Vultures circled over an abandoned silo. The scenery just added to the overall eerie ambiance of the chase.

The storm finally arrived as a beastly HP, and I tried to get right in the notch for a view north of Chester, IL. Not much tornado wise to see in there:

Road options aren't great in southern Illinois and my one paved road went northeast into the FFD. I ducked south and came in behind a back lit wall cloud. Pointy scud fingers looked super ominous, especially with streaky rain bands. Motion did not appear to be tornadic, however.

The feature got wrapped in precip and then my chase devolved into a hail encounter that became progressively more freaky and surreal as the night dragged on. Low freezing level and super cold air aloft made for copious amounts of hail. It wasn't huge hail, but it was super hardened and covered the ground, and started to drift like you'd see in Colorado. Hail fog started to stream along the ground, carried by gusts in the downdrafts. At times the rain let up and there was just hail pinging off the car and blowing hail fog. Super super creepy looking. At one point the hail fog got so thick I lost all visibility of the road entirely. I had to just stop where I was and wait for it to clear. Shortly afterwards, the air reeked of cut pine. I've only ever smelled that after a big tornado went through a forest, but I'm pretty sure it was the hail shredding the trees.

I emerged in Steeleville, IL where the ground was blanketed white and the roads were starting to flood. Mini "hailbergs" were floating in the ponding water, and that's about when I decided to call the chase.