Friday, May 23, 2014

Wednesday's Severe Weather

Supercells with a history of producing damaging tennis ball sized hail over East Central Illinois developed across the mid-state Wednesday. A somewhat photogenic early cell to go up in NW Macon County quickly earned warning and would be the one I followed into Piatt County. Ava had a softball game scheduled for this evening so I wasn't out for long.

















As the cold outflow ejected from the back of the storm and traveled westward, it encountered warm, moist air coming in from the southwest. Where these contrasting air masses collided, scud clouds condensed. As they rapidly ascended, the combination of upward vertical velocity coupled with mild directional shear generated very large, brief, slender vortexes akin to steam devils. I tried to get video of this phenomena but was unsuccessful. Regardless, it was by far the coolest thing I saw all day. More on this significant hail event including pictures c/o the National Weather Service can be seen HERE.


Dying cell coming in from Logan County after the game.


and on Thursday, a weak system encountering dry air passed through the region producing a scene I thought worthy of pulling over for.

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