John Farley
Supporter
Without trying to do so, I got on (and, unfortunately, in) the best supercell I have encountered this season in the Illinois part of the St. Louis metropolitan area late this afternoon. Wasn't really chasing, but rather nearing the end of the 2-day drive from Santa Fe, NM back to Edwardsville, IL, when, entering the St. Louis metropolitan area on I-44, I noticed a nice storm going up off to the northeast. Hence, I was not surprised when the radio station I was listening to announced a SVR warning for north St. Louis County, MO and western Madison County, IL. But my wife and I were not really in chase mode; just trying to get home with a stop at the Edwardsville post office before it closed to pick up our held mail. As we turned north from I-55 onto I-255 in Collinsville, I noticed a wall cloud off to the northwest. I did not really have ready access to any of the chase gear, which was all packed away in the back of the car, and assumed incorrectly that the storms were moving to the northeast. I figured we could skirt the southeast edge of the storms, and if it looked like the core was going over Edwardsville, we could skip the post office and I could go home, drop off my wife (who like me was tired from the long drive, but I am always ready to chase, no matter how tired I am), and drop south and get back ahead of the storm.
By the time we were halfway between I-55 and I-270, though, I could see that the wall cloud had become truly impressive - about halfway to the ground with the lowest point being an inflow tail that extended northeastward toward the core of the storm. And it even began to look like an RFD was starting to cut in toward the south end of the wall cloud. But then, I could see that we were not going to make it to I-270 without getting into the core, and, as numerous CGs zapped down in front of the wall cloud,which was starting to get wrapped in rain, we hit the rain and hail near IL route 162, and the wall cloud disappeared in the precipitation and I turned my attention to driving through the deluge of rain and quarter-sized hail. I believe we crossed about a mile southeast of the wall cloud, when it was over about Mitchell, IL. This was around 4:40 p.m.
We made it home around 4:55, and although the sky was brightening and there was no hail when we got home, it did start hailing around 5 and it lasted for 5 minutes, with the largest stones here on Dunlap Lake being nickel sized. Looking at the radar now that I was home, I could see that this hail was from the westward piece of the V or flying-eagle radar echo that the supercell had now developed. Around 5:20, perhaps 40 minutes after our encounter with the wall cloud, the storm dropped the first tornado in O'Fallon, with a subsequent tornado (or perhaps a re-strengthening of the same one) in Mascoutah. Fairly widespread damage, though it looked to be mostly in the F0 to F1 range.
If I had understood the storm was moving southeast, I would not have driven where I did and would likely have avoided the hail and possibly seen the tornado. But with all the chase gear packed away and basically just trying to get home, I mis-judged the movement of the storm quite badly until it was too late. I do hope some chasers were in the O' Fallon/Mascoutah area to document the tornadoes. I did manage to get a little hail video after we got home and also some pictures of the storm from a distance later, and will post to my Web site if they are any good.
By the time we were halfway between I-55 and I-270, though, I could see that the wall cloud had become truly impressive - about halfway to the ground with the lowest point being an inflow tail that extended northeastward toward the core of the storm. And it even began to look like an RFD was starting to cut in toward the south end of the wall cloud. But then, I could see that we were not going to make it to I-270 without getting into the core, and, as numerous CGs zapped down in front of the wall cloud,which was starting to get wrapped in rain, we hit the rain and hail near IL route 162, and the wall cloud disappeared in the precipitation and I turned my attention to driving through the deluge of rain and quarter-sized hail. I believe we crossed about a mile southeast of the wall cloud, when it was over about Mitchell, IL. This was around 4:40 p.m.
We made it home around 4:55, and although the sky was brightening and there was no hail when we got home, it did start hailing around 5 and it lasted for 5 minutes, with the largest stones here on Dunlap Lake being nickel sized. Looking at the radar now that I was home, I could see that this hail was from the westward piece of the V or flying-eagle radar echo that the supercell had now developed. Around 5:20, perhaps 40 minutes after our encounter with the wall cloud, the storm dropped the first tornado in O'Fallon, with a subsequent tornado (or perhaps a re-strengthening of the same one) in Mascoutah. Fairly widespread damage, though it looked to be mostly in the F0 to F1 range.
If I had understood the storm was moving southeast, I would not have driven where I did and would likely have avoided the hail and possibly seen the tornado. But with all the chase gear packed away and basically just trying to get home, I mis-judged the movement of the storm quite badly until it was too late. I do hope some chasers were in the O' Fallon/Mascoutah area to document the tornadoes. I did manage to get a little hail video after we got home and also some pictures of the storm from a distance later, and will post to my Web site if they are any good.
