Dan Robinson
EF5
This was shaping up to be a decent northwest flow supercell event with some tornado potential. Models hinted at storms possibly developing as far west as St. Louis, so I didn't want to go all the way to Effingham where the best overall environment looked to be. I took I-70 to Vandalia and waited, watching some tilted updrafts go up behind the town's miniature version of the Arch.
Storms finally began to take root just south of Springfield, so I went north toward Pana to intercept the initial dominant cell. This became tornado-warned, but the two storms to its south were also beginning to rapidly intensify. Instead of going all the way to the first, I diverted west to Fillmore to intercept the southernmost storm that looked like it was taking over as the main show. When I arrived on its base west of town, everything was rapidly pushing south at the surface - the storm was completely undercut by outflow. Here, the setting sun peeks underneath the wall cloud - again, everything was northerly outflow here and thus tornado potential was very low:
A new supercell was taking shape along I-55 headed right for home, so I blasted west to get in front of it, intercepting it at Highland as it became tornado warned after sunset. Like the Fillmore storm, this one was also outflow-dominant. I watched the wall cloud move over the east side of town, again with near-zero tornado potential thanks to the cold northerly outflow undercutting it.
Yet another supercell developed northwest of this one, so I went north of Marine to watch it approach. Another chaser reported a rope tornado just to the north near Alhambra, but I did not see it. This storm also displayed strong outflow, but this time more easterly from the forward flank core shifting to northerly as the meso passed overhead. Still more development was unzipping to the northwest, but now all behind the outflow from the earlier storms. It looked like the tornado portion of the event and chase was finally done.
I had originally planned to try for bolts-from-the-blue from these storms once the tornado potential looked to be over. However, it appeared that low stratus would make visibility of the cumulonimbus towers from a distance difficult. So, I went over to Highway 4 south of I-70 to attempt some lightning shots closer to the storms. At this point, most of the bolts were in the cores and not very photogenic. I stayed with the storms, moving southeast with them toward home. By the time I reached Summerfield, not much had happened lightning-wise and I was ready to call it a day (I'd been awake since 4AM). But just before I reached Highway 50, yet another supercell developed at the western edge of the ongoing cluster of storms near Edwardsville. Unlike the others, this one was producing an intense barrage of highly visible cloud-to-ground lightning both in the storm's forward flank and ahead of the updraft in the form of bolts-from-the-blue. I dropped south to I-64 at O'Fallon to get ahead of it, but once I was stopped and set up, the bolts just stopped completely!
I moved south down Green Mount Road and set up again. The storm still would not produce another one of the big clear-air bolts-from-the-blue. As the precip arrived, I moved south again - at which time the storm started producing the clear-air bolts again. Some real spectacular ones, too. But the bolts weren't even being cooperative with my dashcams either.
As the barrage continued, I made it to a spot at Highway 158 and got set up again. Another close bolt-from-the-blue landed to the south, out of my camera's frame. Other than that, the storm just stopped producing bolts again. The rain caught me once more, so I had to move south on Route 15. I stopped several more times from Freeburg to Fayetteville, but the storm just refused to give me one of the great vivid clear-air bolts.
I made it to a new spot just north of Marissa and set up on this storm for the seventh time. Finally, it began producing a new barrage of bolts. The best ones landed outside of my camera's frame, but I got one of the bolts-from-the-blue way out ahead of the updraft. This was a rare-in-intensity barrage, so much so that I left the DSLR outside (with the cable release locked down) and got back inside the car to shoot with the high speed camera. I captured five good 6,000fps high speed shots of these negative CG bolts and several nice stills, a couple of them on both cameras.
It takes a long time to save captures on the high speed camera, which means during a barrage like this there is no way to catch all of them. 5 or 6 bolts were happening while I was going through each save-to-disk operation. That means that I'll wait for a really good one before I save. In this case, I was waiting for a bolt to hit the Prairie State power plant smokestack - so I chose to not save several good ones that happened in that general direction in case the stack strike happened (it did not).
After the precip caught me again, I moved down to south of Coulterville, but the storm began what appeared to be a permanent weakening trend both visually and on radar. The terrain and visibility this far south also gets more difficult, and by the time I found another good view, the storm wasn't producing the nice bolts any longer. Exhausted from the long day that started before sunrise, I turned around and made it back home after 2AM.
Storms finally began to take root just south of Springfield, so I went north toward Pana to intercept the initial dominant cell. This became tornado-warned, but the two storms to its south were also beginning to rapidly intensify. Instead of going all the way to the first, I diverted west to Fillmore to intercept the southernmost storm that looked like it was taking over as the main show. When I arrived on its base west of town, everything was rapidly pushing south at the surface - the storm was completely undercut by outflow. Here, the setting sun peeks underneath the wall cloud - again, everything was northerly outflow here and thus tornado potential was very low:
A new supercell was taking shape along I-55 headed right for home, so I blasted west to get in front of it, intercepting it at Highland as it became tornado warned after sunset. Like the Fillmore storm, this one was also outflow-dominant. I watched the wall cloud move over the east side of town, again with near-zero tornado potential thanks to the cold northerly outflow undercutting it.
Yet another supercell developed northwest of this one, so I went north of Marine to watch it approach. Another chaser reported a rope tornado just to the north near Alhambra, but I did not see it. This storm also displayed strong outflow, but this time more easterly from the forward flank core shifting to northerly as the meso passed overhead. Still more development was unzipping to the northwest, but now all behind the outflow from the earlier storms. It looked like the tornado portion of the event and chase was finally done.
I had originally planned to try for bolts-from-the-blue from these storms once the tornado potential looked to be over. However, it appeared that low stratus would make visibility of the cumulonimbus towers from a distance difficult. So, I went over to Highway 4 south of I-70 to attempt some lightning shots closer to the storms. At this point, most of the bolts were in the cores and not very photogenic. I stayed with the storms, moving southeast with them toward home. By the time I reached Summerfield, not much had happened lightning-wise and I was ready to call it a day (I'd been awake since 4AM). But just before I reached Highway 50, yet another supercell developed at the western edge of the ongoing cluster of storms near Edwardsville. Unlike the others, this one was producing an intense barrage of highly visible cloud-to-ground lightning both in the storm's forward flank and ahead of the updraft in the form of bolts-from-the-blue. I dropped south to I-64 at O'Fallon to get ahead of it, but once I was stopped and set up, the bolts just stopped completely!
I moved south down Green Mount Road and set up again. The storm still would not produce another one of the big clear-air bolts-from-the-blue. As the precip arrived, I moved south again - at which time the storm started producing the clear-air bolts again. Some real spectacular ones, too. But the bolts weren't even being cooperative with my dashcams either.
As the barrage continued, I made it to a spot at Highway 158 and got set up again. Another close bolt-from-the-blue landed to the south, out of my camera's frame. Other than that, the storm just stopped producing bolts again. The rain caught me once more, so I had to move south on Route 15. I stopped several more times from Freeburg to Fayetteville, but the storm just refused to give me one of the great vivid clear-air bolts.
I made it to a new spot just north of Marissa and set up on this storm for the seventh time. Finally, it began producing a new barrage of bolts. The best ones landed outside of my camera's frame, but I got one of the bolts-from-the-blue way out ahead of the updraft. This was a rare-in-intensity barrage, so much so that I left the DSLR outside (with the cable release locked down) and got back inside the car to shoot with the high speed camera. I captured five good 6,000fps high speed shots of these negative CG bolts and several nice stills, a couple of them on both cameras.
It takes a long time to save captures on the high speed camera, which means during a barrage like this there is no way to catch all of them. 5 or 6 bolts were happening while I was going through each save-to-disk operation. That means that I'll wait for a really good one before I save. In this case, I was waiting for a bolt to hit the Prairie State power plant smokestack - so I chose to not save several good ones that happened in that general direction in case the stack strike happened (it did not).
After the precip caught me again, I moved down to south of Coulterville, but the storm began what appeared to be a permanent weakening trend both visually and on radar. The terrain and visibility this far south also gets more difficult, and by the time I found another good view, the storm wasn't producing the nice bolts any longer. Exhausted from the long day that started before sunrise, I turned around and made it back home after 2AM.
