4/3/11 REPORTS: KS,IA,IL,MO

[Joe Pudlik]

I ended up making to Muscatine, IA by mid afternoon, where I sat for a while. Storms developed to my west across East/Central Iowa during the late afternoon. I ended up heading northwest to make a play on what was the northern supercell at the time. I ended up sitting on the north side of Tipton, IA watching the cell as it pushed eastward. It had interesting structure at times, but didn't have enough to produce. All of the pictures below are from this storm.

After this I decided to head southeast into W. Illinois to position myself ahead of the southern cells/line. I ended up sitting in Geneseo, IL along I-80 as the storm moved it. The storm featured winds of 40-50mph and hail up to penny size. I then jumped back on I-80 headed east where I encountered hail up to nickel size for most of the 50 mile drive from Geneseo to Ladd, IL. Blinding rainfall made it impossible to see any farther than the front end of your car over most of that drive too.

Watch video >

 

[Marcus Diaz]

While everyone else was on the storms in IA and NE KS, Brady Kendrick, Zach Allan, and I chased storms that fired off the cold front further SW. We got some great structure and 2.25" hail in Lost Springs, KS, and an amazing lightning show in El Dorado, KS.

Here's the Lawrence, KS cell from about 50 miles to the south, taken near Florence, KS

And the anvil of the storm we were on in Lost Springs

And one of my lightning shots from El Dorado

Here's a full chase report, including the full photo album from this day
http://weathernoize.webs.com/apps/blog/entries/show/6622543-april-3-2011-chase-summary

 

[Joel Wright]

Full chase account with pics.... http://www.qcweather.net/4-3-2011.php

 

[Jesse Risley]

I chased the same cell in EC IA that many ended up on. While the storm exploded and had some great structure, it never produced anything tornadic from my vantage point. This was likely owed the veering winds as the banana low moved eastward, larger spreads between surface temps in the mid-80s and dewpoints that only reached the lower 60s, along with somewhat higher LCLs. The storm essentially became rain wrapped and less impressive looking after it merged with another cell, at which point the system started to take on more of a linear organization, as was expected with shear vectors this day. I posted a comprehensive chase account here, including a review of the synoptic environment throughout the day: http://convectiveaddiction.com/2011/04/06/chase-report-ia-040311/

 

[Flo Cornett]

I wound up having the left-mover (northern most IA cell) land right in my lap literally. I had planned to leave earlier down U.S. 61 towards Dubuque, but I was delayed to the point that I thought I had lost my angle. Alex Haberlie helped with now-casting to a couplet in the northern edge of the northern most cell. Unfortunately light was fading, and I was scrambling to mental align the left-mover. I did manage one bad photo of the funnel (likely anticyclonic) cloud associated with the couplet. ARX opted not to warn based on the impending crossing of the warm front approximately 15 miles or less to the NE. Alex and I hope to write this event up as soon as we have the time.

The intercept location was Union (Grant Co.), WI

 

[Skip Talbot]

I went after some cells north of I-80 figuring the stuff closer to the warmfront/secondary low would have a better shot at producing. Storms wound up congealing into solid lines before they could really organize so I started dropping down the line. I was trying to make my way down the discrete storm Adam, Danny, and many others were on but I couldn't pass up this nice looking wall cloud I spotted near Iowa City.

I pursued it but it quickly became heavily rain wrapped and the whole line pretty much congealed after that. Lightning was terrific on these storms and we picked up a barrage of borderline severe hail near Muscatine. Fun chase considering I got to take my sweet time getting out to the Target Area for once after having a leisurely brunch and hike through Starved Rock State Park that morning.