John Vandehei
EF2
I was watching scattered convection pop in my neck of the woods. Being stuck home watching my kids, didn't think I'd get the chance to chase. One cell moving across Lake Michigan came onshore in Allegan County. Soon after, it showed hints of rotation on radar. Being home with the kids, I didn't jump on it as soon as I usually would. However, it soon went Tornado warned. Since the cell was only moving at 15mph, I couldn't let this one go. I asked the kids if they want to see a tornado and they gave an exited "Yes". I did have to punch the core of a small storm that rapidly went severe over the City of Kalamazoo. No hail, but I did witness a car that had a very large tree fall on it while driving. Luckily, only the windshield was badly smashed; the roof didn't cave in and all the occupants appeared unhurt. I quickly emerged from this small cell and headed for the tornado warned one. I had a good approach to the storm from the east-southeast. However, as is the case in Michigan, trees and small hills obscured the base of the storm. I got within about three miles of the rotation and could see some interesting lowerings between the gaps in the trees. I wasn't able to see any rotation, although I could hear storm spotters reporting "rapid rotation" on the scanner. By the time I got somewhere clear enough to get a good view on the base area of this storm, I was losing its supercell characteristics and the weak velocity couplet on radar had vanished. All in all, not a bad little backyard chase. Whole trip was only about 35 miles.
