8/9/2009 REPORTS: IA/NE/KS/MO/WI/IL

[Daniel Christianson]

Kind of jumbled around today with the storms in Eastern NE, just wanting to get lightning shots. Well SPC issued a MD for SE Neb, with a new Svr Watch likely. So i thought id check it out, soon as i got down to near Tecumseh NE, storms were really starting to get organized and basically they built as a strong to severe line and a warning was issued. I did hear of local reports of ping pongs somewhere west of Johnson NE. To sum it up shot east of Johnson NE then let the line hit. Id guess 55-65 mph winds rocked me for a few minutes and some small hail thank god. After things passed i was in Auburn, there were some pretty good limbs down about 7-10 inches diameter, power lines down as well. In Johnson NE smaller limbs were scattered about everywhere. Will post a few pics or a video later on. Hope all are alright from eastern IA's mess.

 

[Benjamin Rock]

WI/IL 8-9-09 REPORT

There was a large shelf that formed tonight along the stateline. It started small and grew rather quickly into this monster. Here is a link to my Facebook page where the photos are.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?a...25&saved#/album.php?aid=2016373&id=1090216225

 

[Jeremy Ludin]

Storms petered out well before they reached the QC area tonight, but I still managed some decent lightning shots. Other than 40-50 mph wind gusts, this is all there is to report.

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

First two hail images are from Modale IA this morning at 7:30. Using the $20(which I actually found in the city park there by that stone lol) best guess says it was 2 and 3/8th in diameter after some melting(well guess meaning measure in photoshop, left to right longest on hailstone and that to the $20, then measure that space on the $20 with a ruler...since I had no ruler with). Most stones were golf ball or so.

Video capture from afternoon/evening storms. This storm turned right and bowed really hard towards Auburn. From about 10 west of Auburn NE, where I was first on it and it plowing past me, to Rockport MO I did 65-70 and got through Auburn fast(easy going e-w and hitting the one light right). That whole time I gained so little on this storm. By the time I reach Rockport it's about to hit me. That's where these vid caps are from. It was like a hurricane there for a good while.

This guy coming to his senses and stopping. He started to back out and it just got worse. Then he stopped.

Powerlines arcing here.

 

[Joel Wright]

Managed to pull off a few decent lightning pics last night. This is just outside of Erie.

 

[Jim Zandonai]

Well first I was monitoring that long lived IA supercell all day that moved all the way on HWY 20..what an easy chase that would have been.. and then it weakened right as it got past DBQ IA..I should have headed into WI. but didnt. Then what didnt look like much developed into a strong line with very impressive shelf coud and high winds over the same area in S.WI...I headed north but was too late but did manage some pics..kind of a blown chase which was my fault...the night storm didnt arrive here till 11pm and although the lightning was continuous I didnt get any shots. In any event here some of the squall lines shelf ..

 

[Adam Lucio]

Left a friends summer home and detoured west towards Janesville to intercept storms. The first IA batch was nothing more than a pea hail and lightning maker by the time it reached the area. Luckily I chose to wait for the next round, which looked like crap on radar but boy was I treated to a gorgeous shelf cloud. Second best Ive seen.

Followed storm for about 15 miles east of Janesville with allot of downed limbs but nothing too extreme, I guess it saved its strongest punches for later.

Full log with lots of pics and my first attempt at a time lapse are on my site. I only wish i had my tripod with me so i didnt have to rely on the dashboard!

Not bad at all for a last minute chase on the way home from a great weekend of fishing!

 

[Ian Contreras]

First chase!

I woke up late on Sunday morning and headed over to the SPC site and here to see if anything was shaking. I saw that the SPC had put out a moderate risk for much of southern Wisconsin so being a newbie, I figured that should be a decent target. A quick check of the radar before I left home showed that the activity was just starting to hit the IA/WI border near Dubuque.

I stopped for gas at the Belvedire oasis and things were starting to look decent. The wind had picked up a bit and the skies were getting darker to the W/NW. Around this time (2:20PM CDT I believe) a severe t-storm warning went out for Stephenson Cty in NW Illinois, a bit W of me. I blew it off and kept heading N on I-90/39. I wish they would finish the contsrtuction on this stretch of road. Two close lanes for about 15 miles on a VERY heavily-trucked highway makes for a tense situation. I get out of that mess just north of the stateline and now a couple new warnings go out. Rock Cty in WI gets warned and it sounds like north of Janesville is going to be the best spot.

With this being my first chase, I'm getting jumpy and want to get off the highway and get some pictures. The storm must be entering the west side of Janesville by now and I don't know if I have time to jump off at Route 26, take that north to Milton and then head east on Route 59. I decide that going east on Highway 14/Route11 is my best option. If I want to go north later, there are plenty of options. I struggle to find a good place where the corn isn't too high and the power lines are not screwing up a good photo op. It turns out not to matter anyway because the storm was just a big wall of water, not much to see. No hail, moderate lightning, ho-hum winds and that was all she wrote. I stayed ahead of it until Delevan, WI (what a tourist trap of a town!) Nothing impressed me about this one so I turned back west to see if anything else would pop up.

I came back towards Janesville on Highway A through the heavy rain and was treated to a lightning strike about 500 yards ahead of me. Some minor flooding was seen on the way back, just a couple of overflowing drainage ditches and some ponding in farm fields. I got lost a bit in Janesville (that's what I get for having crappy maps) but come out on the west side of town headed towards Orfordville on Route 11. The sun is peaking through the clouds every once in a while so it is tough to see what's ahead of me. When the clouds finally block out the sun, I could see that a nice shelf was a couple miles ahead. I'm near Footville, WI at this time. (4:10 PM CDT) Stop for some shots east of town, then drive west a little a find a nice place to sit and wait.​

I knew this thing was moving way too fast for me to keep up with it on county highways, regardless if I wanted to go east with it, I had to go BACK through Janesville. I decided it would be best to call it a day as my sinus infection had now gone severe. I took the "senic" route back home since I heard I-90 was absolute crap near metro Chicago. A neat anvil was spotted over Chicagoland as I was headed eastbound on the Elgin-O'Hare. The rest of the pictures from 8/9/09 are on my flickr, if you care to take a look. http://www.flickr.com/photos/47783317@N00/

Well, my first official "storm chase" is in the books. I think I did ok. A lack of experience, technology (cellphone, WX scanner and WI state map) and my physical condition (I'm still trying to shake this sinus infection) didn't help, but I don't think I missed much. Gotta start somewhere, right?

 

[Tony Laubach]

Did some lightning hunting on a series of storms that formed very late in the evening and would later prompt a very rare blue box for eastern Colorado from roughly 1am-9am.

CHASE LOG CAN BE FOUND HERE...