3/10/09 REPORTS: IL/MO/IN

[Jerry Funfsinn]

Nothing spectacular but I did to watch a mini-line blow through Springfield,IL. Really nice shelf cloud and I think a lone bolt of lightning. I then drove through the white squall on I-55 with some white knuckle driving.
I managed to avoid people stopped in the road but I did come across a semi vs car who ran into his rear.This Illinois chasing is a nice change from the marathon ventures I'm used to taking.

 

[Randall Cooper]

I went chasing today in Illinois. I chased with Mike Brady and Jesse Risley, and we gave up late in the day and started back to Jesse's house. We saw a nice cell building just South of Springfield, IL, and decided we should chase. We chased it and got some pictures and video of a very nice supercell, with a wall cloud. Here are the pictures and I will have the video later.

 

[Andrew Pritchard]

I was on the above cell and have heard a couple chasers reporting "wall clouds" and "possible tornadoes" and have to whole heartedly disagree. If someone can show me good video with indisputable rotation I will eat my words for the rest of the week. It was a pretty looking cell with nice striations along the top of the shelf cloud, and had some low hanging areas under the shelf, but it was 100% outflow dominant. The cell did trip a TVS for a couple scans on radar, but that was simply because of the high velocity boundary because the cell was literally RIGHT on the cold front. There was a tight boundary stretching along the front end of this cell all the way up to the cell Jerry intercepted which was all cold front/outflow related, not mesocyclone related.

I didn't plan on writing up a report for this chase because it was more or less a bust in my opinion. I did intercept the severe cell, but like I said only saw a nice looking shelf cloud and then was hit by about 40 mph non-severe winds.

Jesse, Brady and Randy actually passed me on that country backroad directly off of I-55 (Divernon exit, I believe) so I know we were looking at the same thing. It was convincing at times I guess, but there was nothing even close to tornadic about this cell, radar wise or visually that I saw.

 

[Adam Lucio]

Danny Neal and I saved what would have been a boring rainy bust by making a successful intercept on the only severe warned storm in IL near Decatur.

Spent much of the day driving through rain and sitting in Litchfield where we met up with Andrew Pritchard for a bit. Around 6 we decided to head back north on I-55 towards home and drive through any cells that would cross our path. After we got north of Springfield we watched with sour eyes as convection to the south and east began to intensify greatly on radar.

Not fully convinced the day was over just yet I pulled us over in Elkhart to examine things closer. There was a cell with a TVS marker and a severe hail icon, it seemed a bit more isolated than everything else. We decided that if we blasted east to Mt Pulaski and got on rt 121 [which heads in a generous SE direction] we would have a chance.

Good call because we were able to get into a core punch intercept as the storm went severe warned in Decatur. Got some CG activity with some blinding rains and what I think was a few seconds of pea size hail. Not much but it certainly made the 510 mile trip a little more worth it. We noticed some street flooding around town but no wind damage. Good run on intercept planning to help keep the skills sharp. Ill take it.

Full log with more pics and possibly video will be up in a couple days.

Shelf like structure on I-55.

 

[Brian Emfinger]

I did a little chase down in AR. I decided to park it about halfway between Fayetteville and Fort Smith and wait on things to develop (while catching up on much needed sleep). The storms were slow to develop and when they did start to develop around Fayetteville they immediately gusted out. I headed down the line and saw a few decent towers on the southern end and then a really nice shelf cloud near Ozark.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfY28bBHI-I

 

[Ryan Wichman]

Yesterday was almost a complete bust. We waited in Carlinville for ANYTHING to happen and when we decided nothing was going to pop we headed for Springfield (mainly for dinner). On the way I started taking pictures of a ragged shelf cloud (near compro), which quickly became organized. My group stopped just south of chatham to take some pics and saw a spin up on the south end of the storm. No funnel, but there was plenty of dirt from a field being thrown around. Most likely a weak gustnado or just a spin-up from the boundary interactions. The storm ran us over, but we got back infront of it where most of you apparently caught up with it near Edinburg. Took some nice pictures of the shelf cloud and some meso structure, but never saw anything drop out of the sky or rotate from my vantage point. Overall, I am happy considering at 4:00pm I was ready to pack it in for the day.

The first picture is about 1 mile south of Edinburg on 29. The second is the spin up just south of chatham.

 

[Bob Hartig]

I enjoyed the storms while driving back to Grand Rapids through Illinois from Joplin. Bill Oosterbaan and I tracked east with the clearer air and higher instability, then headed north up I-55. Several of the cells seemed to display somewhat supercellular shapes on radar, but none of them showed any rotation on SRV. Big rainers, though.

The storms behaved about as expected, but I have to say, I was surprised to see the surface winds back from SW to S rather than veer as the low lifted. I'm assuming this was due to the low intensifying. Got to keep that in mind for the future.

 

[Danny Neal]

http://northernilstormchaser.com/March-10th---Southwest-to-Central-Illinois.php ---- Was going to post this earlier, but my computer had other plans. I didn't take a single pic yesterday but I did get 2 videos of 2 intercepts outside of Decatur, Illinois. It was nice to see CG again

 

[Adam Lucio]

Full log is up now...well actually it was yesterday but I cant seem to edit my first post. Website is in the signature.