7/24/09 REPORTS: IA, IL, WI, NE

[Scott Weberpal]

Started the day intercepting the initial Northeast Iowa supercell near Elkader where the rear flank gust front and HP mode yielded a few great photo ops

Unfortunately the area I was chasing was a nightmare for navigation, at least initially, which allowed a few opportunities to get caught in the core - the same core tennis ball size hail reports were coming from. Alas, the quarters came, then the golf balls, then a few tennis balls could be seen bouncing off the ground. Eventually my windshield couldn't take any more and the entire drivers side became a giant spider web. Ironically, the entire passenger half of the windshield, the half I don't have to look through, was unharmed.

After the initial supercell croaked, I stopped in Dubuque for lunch when more storm developed in NE IA and SW WI. I jumped on a supercell in far SW WI which was briefly tornado warned but it was obvious that the earlier storm had screwed up the airmass enough that any more storms were going to have significant trouble getting any sort of low-level organization. The first picture was taken crossing the Mississippi River bridge into WI from IA, and the second is just north of Galena, IL.

After giving up on this storm, I had a choice to make. Jump on a second supercell moving through SW WI, or blast back into Iowa where storms were rapidly intensifying. I opted to head back into Iowa where I met up with Brandon Sullivan and we made our best effort to stay in the "notch" of a massive HP blob which at times showed decent mid-level rotation, couldn't contain its outflow. I eventually broke off the storm at Highway 151 and headed back toward home. I stopped just SW of Dubuque and took pictures of a great double rainbow with AC rays emminating from behind, as well as a gorgeous sunset. I also took a few pictures of mammatus after sunset near Dickeyville, WI.

All in all, a fantastic chase day only a few hours from home!

 

[Winston Wells]

I began my afternoon by trying to catch the initial TOR-warned supercell as it moved southeast across northeastern Iowa. Driving east from Cedar Rapids on US 151 and Iowa 64, I watched as it croaked near Maquoketa. After refueling there, I decided to intercept the southernmost part of the cluster that was firing across extreme southwestern Wisconsin by continuing east on Iowa 64 and crossing the Mississippi River at Savanna. US 52 took me through Mount Carroll, after which I turned north on Ill 73, stopping just north of Lanark. I had a great view of the storm - which was still severe-warned - to the northwest. Although obviously lacking in intensity by this point, this cell was still a sculpted beauty! I spent the rest of the evening driving due south towards home, managing for several hours to stay just ahead of the MCS as it blasted southeast across central Illinois.

 

[Jeremy Ludin]

Joel Wright and I got on the tornado warned cell as it neared Bellvue. There was a fairly nice couplet back in the notch when these pictures were taken, but nothing close to tornadic. I thought about getting hit by some hail (as I heard baseballs were being reported with the same storm) but decided not to let the core roll us. Anyway, nothing great, but we still popped our July cherry! We also didn't have to go very far, so win win.

Later on after arriving home, I set out for lightning and waited for the winds to hit. As I sat there shooting, I kept seeing distant power flashes. As it neared, I couln't BELIEVE how frequent and bright they were getting. I ended up bailing out of my lightning spot and headed toward town where I saw a ton more. Some of them were so bright it almost looked like daylight for a few seconds. Some flashes even lasted a good 5-6 seconds. That was the best part of all! I had to get at least one, but with the heavy rains, that was difficult. I hand held this out of my drivers window, rolled up and covered with rain. Not the greatest shot, but at least I got one.

 

[Bob Hartig]

With my buddy Bill scheduled for a business meeting at 2:00 ET, he and I didn't leave our rendezvous near Holland, Michigan, until around 2:45 ET. By then, the initial, isolated supercell in northeast Iowa was going strong--frustrating to see, knowing that we were getting such a late start. But we did okay.

As we neared Davenport, we faced a choice whether to head north and intercept the two storms that were dropping south out of Wisconsin toward northwest Illinois, or head north up US 61 toward Dubuque. With the better helicity to the north and west, we opted for the latter and wound up working a storm near Manchester that was showing a decent rotational couplet. We witnessed a nice, albeit rainy, meso and what appeared to be a stubby tail cloud feeding, presumably, into a wall cloud (hard to tell from our POV).

We started heading for home as the storms congealed into a messy, linear MCS with areas of rotation forming and dissipating. From that point on, it was nonstop heavy rain and wild wind for most of the trip back to Davenport, where we finally stopped at a Golden Corral and grabbed some dinner while waiting for the line to blow over. One point of interest: a brief spin-up crossed the road directly in front of us, close enough that we nearly drove into it. The radar at the time showed rotation just to our east, but with nothing but outflow happening in our area, we concluded that it was just a gustnado.

A fun chase, worth the drive even though the storms weren't all I could have hoped for. The lightning show on the way home was spectacular. Got back at 4:30 a.m. Storms to the north, storms to the south, but no storms in Caledonia. Figures. Maybe we'll get a rumble of thunder today.

 

[John Wetter]

A nice chase after work for me. I never caught right up next to the storms in Iowa but instead held back and got some nice pictures of the cells as the anvil's built up and collapsed and eventually congealed into the linear MCS.

The full gallery

 

[Bill Doms]

2nd round from north of West Union, IA down to Westgate. Outflow hailers was about it. Weirdest things were while taking some night photos over by Williams, IA, had a fork horn whitetail buck stand about 20 feet away and do the snort and stomp routine in the dark. The other was following some dude pulling an RV on I35 with a message to meet a woman on the back of the spare tire cover. Real classy.

Complete chase account HERE (with pics of the above mentioned RV unit)

 

[Jim Zandonai]

After arriving home early from work at 445pm I noticed Strong storms in SW WI moving SSE.. .

Looking at Radar I knew the storms were going to skim our area so I powered up the rocket and headed west on HWY 20 and making a quick pitstop for gas !

I figured the storm heading SE on 20 to the west of Freeport would be there before me so I hit 26 south to try and gain some perspective and angle..I did catch up with it SW of Freeport and got some terrific pics of its shelf cloud and structure..and then was hit with dime size hail as it was weakening..Earlier this thing had golf ball to Tennis ball size hail in SW WI and Stockton IL.. Probably a good thing I didn't intercept it there or MY windshield would have been smashed too !

I saw on radar 2 more cells of interest heading into Jo Daviess co moving SSE so I headed west..

Well I ended up on an unknown and very curvy and hilly road probably in Southern part of that county then I lost my internet connection, the Terrain was awful as I expected and trees everywhere..

Then a deer ran in front of me !

However, due to my excellent peripheral vision and incredibly fast reflexes I hit the breaks skidding on wet pavement and I was able to avoid hitting it by 10- 15 feet !! Whew !


I turned around even as the line of storms was heading into my area (over the hills) and headed home..wild lightning was bouncing all around too.

When back in RFD the area of storms moving SE strong winds developed in the wake of it and 60-65mph winds were reported at WREX TV and Loves park regions..

This was a semi successful chase..due to timing on my part (I missed the huge hail ) but mywindshield is intact and then almost hitting a deer..BUT I was able to get some decent pics that I will add to my site soon..
For up here This July this was great !