2026-04-02 REPORTS: IA/IL/WI/IN/MI

[Luke Penney]

Andy and I targeted an isolated supercell that formed in the dry slot in south-central Iowa and traveled northeast to until it passed Iowa City, where it got absorbed into a line of storms as they caught up with it. This was very likely the storm of the day, being a supercell that remained isolated longer than any other, and certainly had the most reports that I saw in Spotter Network and mPING.

While there was a dramatic RFD front, visibility was often tricky, due to rain and low contrast. (And, uh, getting into the hail core. Whoops.)

Between West Branch and West Liberty, the storm produced a funnel cloud - or quite possibly my first tornado! The SPC has a report of a "rope tornado on the ground" at 4:44 PM, and one of my first photos of the "funnel cloud" was at 4:45 PM.


The consolation prize for not knowing for sure if this was a tornado is lot of impressive storm views. (Neither my phone camera nor my DSLR camera really did justice to them, but here's a selection of photos anyway, some of which I was admittedly a little lazy about editing.)

 

[Pravin Gupta]

I also chased the dry slot in south central Iowa. An isolated cell formed ahead of the line of storms south of Ottumwa. Had a nice wall cloud and couplet at times. Intercepted a tornado forming near Richland, chased it to Washington, but the storms were moving 40-50 miles per hour, eventually the linear mess overtook, and I called it a day. Total chase time was four hours, the meso passed over Hills, Iowa about ten miles south of Iowa City. Overall successful early spring chase.

 

[Dan Robinson]

I couldn't muster the motivation to blast north. It looks like subsidence limited all areas of this event. The main wave came in early and was slow to depart, as was its precip and cloud deck. I pinned my hopes on the evening cells down here in the western STL metro. CAMs were insistent on a 2-3 hour period of supercells. We did have the CAPE and low-level shear to support that. In the end, convection just couldn't sustain down here. Updrafts were skinny, anemic and high-based despite their reflectivity looking hopeful. This example in Troy, MO at around 5:30PM was typical.

 

[Mikey Williams]

Full chase log here: Mesoscale Mikey Meteorology - April 2

Wowza! April 2, 2026 - Quite an interesting day in eastern Iowa. I had to sacrafice and shift some things around with my schedule and do quite a bit of coordinating the day before this chase, stressing myself emmensly, even almost to tears at one point, but man was it worth it. My chase partners Adler, Aidan and I set off from Ames, IA around 1, expecting to arrive in the warm sect as storms mature to the southwest. We knew we wanted to give them enough room.

After the first cell went linear, it was obvious that the one firing in front of it would be the storm of the day. We positioned on it and waited upstream just east of Keota. Had nice anvil and FFD structure and we could tell there was a wall cloud with scuddy stuff under it. The wall cloud exploded as the cell approached, so we decided to leave Keota and head east with the goal of getting to Kalona then eastward. At the intersection of 1 and 22 in Kalona around 4:06 pm, we very carefully made sure we were clear to turn east, as you just could tell both chasers and locals were starting to get frantic.

As we traveled east from Kalona, dodging some hail for a moment, we see the funnel trying to poke down, and then after we stop a see a small but obvious TVS on velocity and start filming the funel and quickly notice a ground circulation with debris. We then move east, and a few minutes later I notice a white rope being us and to the right, likely the decaying Kalona/Riverside tornado. While moving east, you could see the Illinois supercells exploding in hieght and begining to anvil out. We stair step the storm east and also document the Downey and West Liberty tornadoes, with the WL rope even being transparent at one point! The RFD clips us and we find a spot to stop and let it go, and we watch rotations above us criuse off to the northeast and then enjoy the squall line. Made it back to Ames for dinner on campus!

 

[Andy Wehrle]

@Mikey Williams Your last picture looks like it was taken about the same time as @Luke Penney's, although we were too far away (just coming into the south edge of West Liberty) to see the very thin portion of the funnel extending toward the ground.

Upon further review, the first tornado south/southwest of Kalona may have occurred shortly after we arrived at our observation point at 150th St. & Larch Ave., however ground contact was too brief and behind a tree line from our vantage point for us to note in real time.

As Luke noted, we lingered a bit too long and got clipped by the core while making the move back up IA-1 to IA-22 east to follow the storm. My Highlander has quite a few new pockmarks, mostly on the driver's side and hood. Fortunately no damage to the glass.

Going into the day I noticed it had some similarities to a less-potent version of 3/31/23 (specifically in regards to the placement of the surface features over Iowa) and that storm took almost the same track, with very similar timing as well, as the Ottumwa-Keota monster producer. Like the 2023 storm it was also riding just ahead of a QLCS that eventually absorbed it (although, ironically, it produced its longest-lived and likely strongest tornado *after* that took place, the Welton-Preston EF1).

 

[Mikey Williams]

@Mikey Williams Your last picture looks like it was taken about the same time as @Luke Penney's, although we were too far away (just coming into the south edge of West Liberty) to see the very thin portion of the funnel extending toward the ground.

Upon further review, the first tornado south/southwest of Kalona may have occurred shortly after we arrived at our observation point at 150th St. & Larch Ave., however ground contact was too brief and behind a tree line from our vantage point for us to note in real time.

As Luke noted, we lingered a bit too long and got clipped by the core while making the move back up IA-1 to IA-22 east to follow the storm. My Highlander has quite a few new pockmarks, mostly on the driver's side and hood. Fortunately no damage to the glass.

Going into the day I noticed it had some similarities to a less-potent version of 3/31/23 (specifically in regards to the placement of the surface features over Iowa) and that storm took almost the same track, with very similar timing as well, as the Ottumwa-Keota monster producer. Like the 2023 storm it was also riding just ahead of a QLCS that eventually absorbed it (although, ironically, it produced its longest-lived and likely strongest tornado *after* that took place, the Welton-Preston EF1).

Adler and I thought the exact same thing. When I saw satellite at around noon, I was thinking, I know this day. I even called it a "knock-off March 31st"