Severe Thunderstorm SW of Taylorville IL

A series of strong storms developed along I-70 in S IL Thursday evening. The cells I was most interested in were from near Vandalia to Effingham. Unfortunately there was no way I could get down there before they would either dissipate or move towards IN however, a strong storm drifting NE from near St. Louis caught my attention. It would be the only one to earn a warning so I took off towards Assumption and then over to somewhere S of Taylorville. I anticipated that it would die or be near to doing so by the time I arrived which ended up verifying. Just a few minutes after the first snaps, the warning was canceled and all that was left was some brief heavy rain.









Heading back, I noticed the setting sun peeking through so I decided to spend some time on a country road to see what would happen. The last light of day ended up generating colorful opportunity as evident in the rain bands. The distant line is the actual cold front that had been drifting along ever so slowly.


After the above, I was facing E for awhile trying to get distant lightning on storms now over by Charleston/Mattoon which proved unsuccessful. With the showers from above having pressed on, mammatus from under the anvil appeared and was catching the last bit of light.


The only lightning capture way off at lower right. Those crawlers which I missed would fill the lower half of the scene. No complaints as it was just nice to be outside.