2019-05-16 REPORTS: IL/IN

[Andrew Pritchard]

A morning MCS dropped from Wisconsin into northern Illinois, prompting several tornado warnings to be issued. Later in the afternoon, the western flank of this MCS grew downscale into an isolated, HP supercell which again prompted tornado warnings. I was able to maintain a position within the notch of the HP supercell for a couple of hours as it dropped southeast, and then due south along the Illinois and Indiana border. I'm not aware of any actual tornado reports, but this thing was a prolific hail producer for much of its life.

 

[kevin-palmer]

I wasn't really chasing this day as much as I was positioning for the next day. But I got some nice views of distant storms in the scenic Nebraska panhandle anyway. I chose to camp near Bridgeport just in case there was a chance to shoot lightning over Chimney Rock.


Jail Rock and Storm Cloud by Kevin Palmer, on Flickr


Sunset Behind the Anvil by Kevin Palmer, on Flickr


Behind the Chimney by Kevin Palmer, on Flickr


Lightning at Chimney Rock by Kevin Palmer, on Flickr

 

[Joe Pudlik]

Ended up heading out for a local chase this day... Decided to make a play on an OFB area turned triple point across NW/NC. IL, with a cold front sliding southeast. The environment in this area was nice...With high CAPE, pooling of moisture with ~70F DP's and good shear. A stronger surface wind flow was lacking, however. I sat in Rochelle for a while with CU bubbling along the OFB/triple point just to the west. A storm quickly went up and tried to beat the cap, going severe and up to around ~55k tops within 15 minutes or so. I quickly headed WSW to make a play on it and reached it just west of Amboy, but it quickly died shortly after. Ended up calling it a chase at that point, with activity further west near the IL/IA border having little to no tor threat, and also struggling against the cap.