Periodical Cicadas vs. Greenwood Cemetery

Having heard there were higher concentrations of cicadas on the S side of the Decatur/Macon county area, I spent some time in historic Greenwood Cemetery this morning as it seemed a fitting backdrop for documenting these unusual creatures.

The Hunt For Cicadas / ISS Endeavor Double Flyby

The past few days have been exceptionally busy. Beginning with Sunday morning, I headed out to document the Great Southern Brood of periodical cicadas that are emerging across all of down state Illinois. Not that it is a big deal but for obvious reasons when it comes to my list of things to shoot close up, 13 or 17 year cicadas aren't the easiest subject to come by. The last time I saw them was in Pennsylvania during the late 80's. The infestation across South Central PA was akin to a biblical plague. With this in mind and upon hearing reports of heavy concentrations around South Central IL, it would figure that the location I chose to look for them had none (or so I thought). Satisfied with obtaining several keeper shots unrelated to the mission, a lone cicada literally dropped on the ground in front of me as I was leaving out. I still intend to find some of the higher concentrations before the hatch peaks in the next few days.



Northern Water Snake (adult)


Northern Water Snake (juvenile)






Black Rat Snake (juvenile)


Docile in nature, this one had no problem with me being all up in its face.


Success!


Per the second part of this post, early Monday morning I received an email notification courtesy of Spaceweather.com that a double flyby of the International Space Station and Space Shuttle Endeavor was imminent. I had already planned on shooting for the ISS as the shuttle had been docked to it and weather conditions were ideal. The intent was to shoot many exposures to capture star trails along with having these two entities eventually glide through. Double flyby opportunities when parting vehicles can be seen in tandem are rare so I gambled on trying for a shot that I was almost positive I would screw up. With star trails, once you begin shooting you cannot stop or reposition or the sequence will be ruined. Right on cue at 3:48AM CDT both spacecraft drifted across the sky brighter than any star and were easy to discern. They were also traveling exceptionally fast, canvassing the horizon in about two minutes. My fear was that the trail would cut off either entering or exiting frame and have huge a gap because of the slow buffer on my 300D between clicks. Fortunately, the one shot that needed to work stayed in frame so I was more than relieved. The first image is one I prepared for the web and then decided to pass along to Greg Trumbold at WAND TV who was able to include it in his morning broadcast. I figured people just waking up might appreciate seeing a bit of history to occur while they were asleep. This was Endeavor's final flight and the second to last shuttle mission before the program comes to an end later this year.



The following image is a 29.5 minute stack with the lens barrel effect removed so to straighten the lines. I'll definitely be doing some prints of this one minus the inset.


Screenshot, didn't think it would be on TV let alone that I would happen to catch it.


And finally from this morning, 14 minute stack with another pass. Not as bright due to lower angle placing them at greater distance but still visible. Just a few more orbits left as the shuttle is expected to land Wednesday. Not an ideal shot due to light pollution and power lines but the fireflies were a nice touch.

Central Illinois High Risk Event

Although conditions on Wednesday were favorable for the development of thunderstorms capable of producing violent tornadoes, fortunately those that did form were on the low end of the scale. Seven tornadoes have been confirmed around the region at the time of this post.

Learn more about the individual tornadoes HERE.

Of all the events listed in the report, none are more frustrating than the morning incident as I happened to see it in its infancy and dismissed it as junk. Shortly before getting Ava ready for school, I stepped outside and saw to my W what appeared to be a funnel hanging beneath a shelf. On radar it looked like nothing more than a non severe squall line which is why I simply popped my head out to have a quick look. Upon seeing her off I went inside but then quickly learned that the lowering I witnessed was in fact under an embedded mesocyclone that became warned and ultimately produced just NE of Decatur. I can handle blowing an afternoon event but morning tornadoes are rare and this opportunity slipped right through my fingers.

Prior to this there was an initial wave of storms to lift through around 4AM. Awoken by the thunder and lightning, I decided to stick a video camera on the porch and record, not for the visuals but for the audio. Extracting this sound into an MP3 file that turned out remarkably well, you can rip it HERE (soundcloud.com). I took off upon passage in the hope of getting predawn lightning shots but didn't have much luck. Image below is facing N as the storm is passing over Clinton IL.



As for the afternoon situation, I left out once storms entered the state. In spite of blanket warnings, many cells were already congealed into somewhat of a squall line. My goal was to look for something discreet out ahead of the main cluster. At Taylorville one cell did just that so at Stonington I merely headed W for an easy intercept. Though tornado warned for doppler indicated rotation, it never came close to producing but had a nice base.



After the above storm moved on, I continued a short drive NW towards Mt. Auburn for another intercept only this one despite the menacing appearance was in the process of dying. When I decided it was time to move on from this storm, I had the choice of an ongoing tornado warned cell to the SE at nearby Assumption or new development on the line further SW. I rolled the dice on new development which ended up being ingested by the line. Rather than try to outrun the rain, I simply called it a day and headed home. Very relieved that Central Illinois was largely spared unlike folks in other areas of the Midwest who sustained significant loss from the same slow moving system to plague us for several days. Video from both of these storms can be seen HERE.

Sangamon County Severe Thunderstorms

Spent some time yesterday just NE of Springfield IL on a pair of severe warned cells. The first at Cornland which is just N of Buffalo was the more photogenic of the two from which I was able to assemble three panoramas. Although ominous in appearance, the lowering didn't amount to much nor could I really classify it as anything more than an SLC (scary looking cloud). Extreme turbulence made for interesting cloud texture and can be seen in motion via the video found HERE.







The second cell encountered a short distance away at Dawson offered up it's own visuals. Other than small hail and some gusty winds, both storms were marginally severe at best or at least for where I was anyways.

Give Blood

Forgot to apply insect repellant during this morning's walk. Instead of suffer, I turned the experience into a macro opportunity.







Others from the session

Spring Time in Paris

Saturday May 7 found me bouncing out the door on a surprise slight risk for EC IL. With a 5% tornado risk I have to once again give respect to Dan Robinson for the heads up to "keep your eyes peeled N". Shortly after his message a lone supercell developed near Bloomington IL that would drop SE and be the first significant storm of the day. E IL chases can be tough for often times the storms are moving away as you are trying to catch up. The road network and terrain as you get into EC IL is nice so making good time isn't always difficult as was the fortunate case for today. Instead of target the main cell that by the time I would intercept would have likely been spent, I paid attention to cells to it's W that had potential for growing into something more. This is exactly what happened for the old cell (SE of Danville) was done while new development (Sidell) went up on cue. the trip would take me to just outside of Paris IL in Edgar County hence the title :)



Main cell in back, newer development in the foreground with rain free base and slight RFD cut. I thought the tire tracks might make for an interesting composition.



Storms seemed "cold" and outflowish but near Longview this interaction made for ominous structure. Many others were on this storm but I never saw anyone.



Sticking with the cell to just outside of Newman and although tornado warned, it didn't look healthy. The amber light of late afternoon still made for a beautiful sight.







Letting it go at Paris, a new cell I had been watching from behind the previous had matured so I spent some time with it. This would be the storm of the day for me and although never warned, it had good motion on the leading edge as well as very gusty winds upon passage. An unusual thing would happen in that an inconclusive spin up/gustnado would develop just to my E from underneath an area of strong upper rotation. It was among several bizarre things witnessed this day for in the fields under developing updrafts I saw numerous spin up's as well as smooth, slender horseshoe funnels appearing literally out of thin air. I shot video on this last cell but have yet to put it together as I am having audio issues on my computer in that the sound card is going out.

Edit 05/10: Video added, click HERE.













Heading home, I stopped at the intersection of US 36 and CR 32 near Laplace for what I saw as an interesting nocturnal opportunity.

Girard Posts / Audio

Just wanted to say that I condensed all the Girard Tornado material into a single post (Part 1) as well as eliminated some of my deeper dialogue. This unfortunately wiped out the comments on posts 2 and 3 but it needed to be done (sorry). Two and a half weeks later and I am still sorting out the experience which I assume is one of those things that will just take time. My schedule has been insanely busy and for this I have been unable to return to Girard nor contact Glen Murphy as the phone number was no good. If by chance someone seeing this knows him, I have a set of prints ready to give him. It takes about $25 in fuel to make the trip so it's not feasible to just head down on a whim in the hope that he'll be on site.

As previously mentioned, the audio sample that I unintentionally recorded while on the ground during the video is one that simply needed to be heard. Extracting this audio, I cleaned up two split second imperfections, added some amplification and saved it as an MP3 file complete with its own thumbnail. I don't know if this has ever been done but you can grab the file below.

GIRARD ILLINOIS TORNADO (soundcloud.com)

Shelf Cloud, Gust Front

Typical Illinois weather though much further N a sizable gustnado would emerge from the line. No pics of it but you can see dirt being lifted by outflow winds in the second shot.