Yep, indeed another post here today...Now that's exciting when you can post 2 severe storm events in one day! That rarely ever happens it seems and to go a step farther, start with a derecho and end with supercells. Wow! that gets a storm chaser excited!
Dodging the rain & hail on US34
Unfortunately, I had prior obligations and couldn't get out till late in the evening which was a little late for when convective initiation began. After routinely getting radar updates and peeking at the mesoanalysis I knew it was just a matter of time when the cap finally broke. After 7pm this indeed happened with extreme instability in place. -10 LI and 5000J/kg of CAPE across northern Missouri and central Illinois. Add moderate shear and things got going like an atomic bomb out there this evening.
Myself posing for a quick photo on this day in this convective environment
Galesburg municipal airport seen here...must have been fun navigating around this convection huh?
I've included 3 images below of one of the best rainbows I've seen in quite sometime. This was nearly directly over the interstate in Knox County. At times this also had cloud-cloud lightning strikes within it, but was rare and very difficult to photograph unfortunately.
Sometimes being on the wrong side of the storm is worth it...
This stretched across the entire eastern horizon and was breathtaking...what a catch!...
However, being that I got behind on my target of Macomb, IL I couldn't get to the southern flank of these storms. Yet, I got some of the best images of the year on the downdraft-side of these storms. That makes me appreciate a little more the picturesque structure you can get being on the north-side of these supercells. I arrived outside Galesburg, IL around 8pm near the municipal airport hoping to stay out of the traffic in that area. To my approval this storm was intense with a constant barrage of lightning which is usually the case in high-CAPE convective environments.
So after roaming around US34 in Knox County I took several pictures that presented themselves. To my liking I was greeted with some nice structure shots, a rainbow over the interstate, and some of the best mammatus I've seen this year! So this quick chase that lasted around 2 hours was definitely worth the short trip especially getting home before dark. I did see more then one deer running about. Those things will change someone's fortune rather quick on the roads at dusk. Anyway, I arrived home in a rather good mood with an awesome end to a double chase day! The front will be shoved far enough to the south to allow Canadian high pressure to move-in tomorrow. Well long day, so I'm off to catch up on some much needed Zzzzz's.
