Kaskaskia / Storms

Spent some time at the Kaskaskia River State Fish and Wildlife Management Area located SE of Sullivan IL last week. Much of the river flood plain was still inundated and thereby inaccessible. You'd never know that we were in severe drought at this time last year. Was more inclined to walk instead of take pics although a hidden fishing hole was a fitting representation for the last day of spring.









A decaying MCS and associated gust front dropped into the area Friday afternoon. There wasn't much to see with the line of storms but gusty winds out ahead kicked up a gustnado in the vicinity of I-72 and US 51 as well as brief landspout type of funnel cloud that I was able to catch the end of.





On Saturday, a large complex of mature storms training over the Champaign area belched out a strong outflow boundary that shot westward along the I-72 corridor. Often, as these cold pools of air from previous storms race across the land and encounter warm, moist, unstable air, they help generate new thunderstorm development which is exactly what happened over here in Macon County. A sub-severe cell bearing quasi-supercell characteristics shot up from outside of Warrensburg and exhibited impressive NW facing base structure as well as frequent lightning before collapsing into a massive rain core that prompted flash flood warnings in SE Logan County. I awoke in time to notice this activity so with coffee in hand from up the street, this is how my day began.