2026-02-19 REPORTS: IL/IN

[Dan Robinson]

I went after the second round of storms on the dryline from Sandoval to Saint Peter, IL. The best I saw was this wall cloud/clear slot just north of Salem:



After this fell apart, I jumped over to the next cell to the northwest at Saint Peter. Strong RFD, but cold inflow:





RFD ripped my driver's side door out my hands and slammed it into the stops. No damage (I hope, we'll see if it leaks the next time it rains).

No tornado, but a nice, easy chase close to home.

More detailed log here:

January-February 2026 Storm Chasing Recap

stormhighway.com

 

[sdienst]

Good chase day in Illinois for me. I jumped on the initial tornado warned storm near Wheeler to Newton IL watching some close tor attempts. Made the tough but correct call to drop south to the developing storm east of Olney and was able to catch a glimpse of a tornado WSW of Flat Rock (ground circulation confirmed by other chaser). Tried to keep up with it from the west but views and roads were blocked. Overall a good chase day especially for February and good to be on the board for 2026!

 

[Andy Wehrle]

@sdienst saw that on your live stream.

 

[Tony Laubach]

https://tonylaubach.net/chase-logs/chase-log-february-19-2026/

Not a chase I would've made from Denver, but was in Kansas City for a project, so it was an easy trip with a long haul home. Was a good dress rehearsal for the season testing new gear and setups. The chase itself was honestly pretty good for Mid-February. I didn't see any of the tornadoes, either was too brief or I was between cycles. Did get a helluva view of a cinnamon bun swirl south of Palestine, which of course happened between tornadoes on the supercell that ultimately ended up rolling through Bloomington. My chase was effectively ended by the accumulating hail that dumped out of the cell after it crossed the Wabash.

Full Chase Write-Up: https://tonylaubach.net/chase-logs/chase-log-february-19-2026/

 

[Skip Talbot]

Targeted Effingham, IL for a two round play. Thermodynamics and shear looked decent from the start, so the noon round one looked like it might be in play. I tracked some rain showers south of Effingham, but that was a dud. The snow goose and greater white-fronted goose mass migration is underway here, something I haven't really witnessed at this scale, and I found the spectacle as impressive as anything from the chase:



Doubled backed toward Vandalia for the next round, getting on a cell near Wheeler just as it became dominant, sporting a robust, broad base:



A scuddy lowering with twisting and rising motion had my attention, and very much reminded me of the start of the 3 January 2023 central IL tornado event:



For comparison, here's the start of the 3 January 2023 event, another low-topped cold air driven event where the occluded updraft was well south down the broad updraft base:


This time, however, the feature did not go on to spin-up a nice rope tornado but fizzled shortly later. The storm did go through several classic supercell cycles, however:




I drove underneath the RFD clear slot here, behind the bowing wall cloud, just as huge masses of geese started to rise from the field to the west. The "birdnado" was the highlight of the chase for me:




The cell went HP and I hung on it too long before bailing for the southern storm. Missed the EF1 tornado, and only got a glimpse of the remnant wall cloud from several miles behind the storm. Oh well, used to that by now. Going on a 20 month tornado drought.



I tried to stick it out until nightfall and followed the storm into Indiana, knowing it was probably futile, but when I hit the hail drifts shown in Tony's shot above I was like screw this and turned around. I drove right past the tornado warned after dark stuff, but blew that off too, not wanting to deal with it. I'm trying to stave off burnout before the main part of the season even begins.

On a side note, the chaser traffic was almost as thick as the mass migrating geese. For a relatively modest setup, midweek, in February, in Illinois... that has me a little worried for the rest of the season.