May 3 Weather

It's been a busy week hence the late entry but one I hope you find worthy nonetheless. After work on Monday, I noticed a blob of shallow convection towards the NW so I decided to have a look. Dismissing at first as simply being fair weather cumulus, I was amazed upon getting out into the country to see an unusual multi-cell entity that I cannot really describe other than being it's own "mini storm". What sold me on this being something more than just cloud was the developing arcus on the SW flank indicative of outflow. Could a cloud this small be capable of generating significant outflow resulting in the formation of an elevated arcus cloud? Apparently it can so I set up the cameras and the rest of the story can be seen in the video following the stills.




VIDEO LINK



In spite of knowing that more significant storms were forecast for later in the day, I went to sleep for having been awake the night before. Setting an alarm for early afternoon when I thought initiation would take place proved useless for I was awoken by the sound of thunder around 12:30PM. The first storm of the day was overhead and to my surprise, had a .50" hail marker coming at us. Moments later, the hail indicator verified and the *ping pang ping* sound snapped me to reality. Upon passage, Ava wanted to go out and pick some up so we did.


Seeing as there was more activity developing to the SW, I geared up and headed E on I-72. Next cell in line was another hailer to go over Decatur and this time more over the S portion on into Mt. Zion. Image below was simply an interesting base on developing convection to the NE as seen from the Argenta exit.


Near Oakley, second Decatur cell to my SW.




Pausing at US36, I allowed the storm to pass overhead an intentionally get "cored". It was here I observed 1.00" hail that can be appreciated in the montage video found below. After the passage, I followed the storm briefly before abandoning for another cell back building down towards Moweaqua.




Heading down into SW Moultrie county, I intercepted the SW flank of this next cell which had some interesting structure.




Allowing the above cell to drift off to the NE, yet another one formed in its place. A small wall cloud could be seen on a separate cell to the SW.


As this third and final cell of the line drifted NE, it too developed an impressive core yet none of the storms ever really met severe criteria. You are looking NE over the town of Sullivan.


Heading back, I paused for a few final opportunities. Much later, a well organized storm developed from near St. Louis and traversed S IL. I did not attempt to go after this storm but Dan Robinson along with several others did. His report can be found HERE.




VIDEO LINK

St. Louis Supercell

I was almost going to sit this past Saturday out. The best area forecast for anything significant to occur around here was in extreme S IL. I decided at the last minute that I was tired of sitting around so I called Richard Lewis to see if he wanted to get outside. He said yes so we met up and headed S into the great unknown. Seeing as there was nothing on radar, we took our good old time down US 51. Arriving at Ramsey, we decided to tour Ramsey Lake State Park. It was a journey that once started you must finish because of the one way road which encompasses the park. It was a very surreal experience as we traveled down this narrow way with limited shoulder and lush foliage on all sides. Some food for thought, mushroom hunting is legal here but only after 1PM. Guess you have to give them time to wake up lol :)



Continuing S, we ended up at Vandalia. Stopping for fuel we noticed a tornado warned storm on radar approaching the St. Louis metro. Surprising as this was, we were also equally surprised to see Tony Laubach on Spotter Network near this storm. For those who don't know, he is a professional chaser from CO who has also appeared on Discovery Channel's "Storm Chasers". Since we were this far S as well as close, we decided to head W towards the storm. Traveling down I-70, we exited at Greenville and continued W along 140. Shot below is the Vandalia water tower vs. some interesting clouds as seen on 70.



Watching radar we noticed that Mr. Laubach was heading E on 140. Curious if we would see him, sure enough he went by us at Alhambra in his mobile mesonet which was cool to see. We ended up getting off of 140 and zig zagging our way to the N along unfamiliar country roads. This would end producing opportunity as well as disappointment for in exercising caution with our moves, we ultimately lost the storm.







At Walshville is where we would get our closest intercept and the point at which the storm appeared to be getting its act together. This shot is courtesy of Richard who snapped while I drove. Since we weren't able to confirm the activity, we didn't bother reporting what we saw.




Now SW of Hillsboro, we had no choice but to let it go as I missed a turn that would have taken us N to Taylorville. By now heavy rains were filling in along the S flank as we were being overtaken. This storm was tornado warned from before it crossed from MO all the way up into Sangamon county.


Much later at Pana, we stopped to check out a local cemetery and await the arrival of a new severe thunderstorm that as far as this line was concerned would've been the "Tail End Charlie" as some will understand. It didn't do much and basically lost it's warning right in front of us but was still a fitting end for a day we didn't think would produce for us.






Short video, somewhat redundant...

Developing Supercell at Moweaqua IL

Awaking yesterday and seeing how showers were lifting from S of the warm front (WF) that draped across SC IL, I knew right away by the returns that they were going up supercell style with surface winds backing from the ESE. With two areas of convection to the SE and SW and having only $13 to budget for fuel which meant being highly conservative, I decided to head S and in such a way as to let the SW activity come to me even though the SE action was warned but moving away. Opting for the easy way proved wise for the most SW storm earned tornado warning. Planning an intercept from somewhere S of Pana, as I got past Moweaqua, I looked off to my W and noticed am amazing base on a cell that didn't have much of a radar signature. I pulled off on a country road to spend some time with it figuring all the while that the other storm would just come to me. The first three images are of this storm with the third being a carefully spliced panoramic.







Still intent on the SW storm, I abandoned this one thinking it was going to die. This would be a mistake for as I traveled S, the other storm died while this one intensified! Turning around at Assumption, I eventually caught back up with outside of Dalton City and then over towards Long Creek on US 36. The storm really seemed to be getting its act together at this point with tremendous rising motion feeding into the base. Just as soon as I got to La Place however, the updraft shut off and the storm fell apart. It was here that I found Chris Heater and Richard Lewis where we chatted until virtually all of the clouds were gone.









At this location the ground was littered with dime to nickel sized hail so I spent some time with the macro attachment. Chris is holding the first stone and as for the final, managed to spot a slug that made for an equally interesting model. Check out how you can see my reflection, the stone is about the size of a kidney bean! All in all a very good day and especially considering that better activity was forecast to happen much further W in MO/IA but didn't come together.