After having a letdown the previous chase day in roughly the same area of convective potential in west-central Illinois I was hoping for some better convection on this day (June 10). This chase day looked to have some potential once again in west-central Illinois as the previous day, but maybe a little more promise. After logging in another shift at work during the morning and early afternoon I hit the road shortly after 4:00pm once again analyzing the situation on the road. I found myself heading southwest toward Rushville, IL on U.S. 24. Why you ask? Well, this area was becoming increasing supportive of severe convection as instability was increasing with 2,000J/kg of CAPE available, 0-6km shear around 30kts, and a moist boundary-layer with dew points near 70°F. This area was also destabilizing ahead of a cold front and with convergence increasing along the front by mid-evening a discrete supercell quickly formed near the southeast IA/IL/MO border-region southwest of Burlington, IA. I found myself intercepting this tornado-warned supercell north of Rushville, IL and southeast of Littleton, IL around 7:00pm. Once I got a good view of this supercell I could clearly see it was outflow dominate. My positioning however put me in quite an interesting location as new severe thunderstorms quickly exploded to my southwest. I quickly realized these storms would contaminate this supercell's environment so I gave up on this storm and focused my attention to my southwest. This is where I observed a splitting supercell looking southwest toward Rushville, IL. I watched this storm rotate briefly for a bit as it became more and more severe. This storm quickly began to overtake me however as I nearly got clobbered by large hail as this storm was hauling. I decided to quickly retreat northeast to try to get out of the path to avoid some hail damage to my brand-new Ford Escape. You got that right! I took shelter at least for my vehicle's sake east of Littleton, IL and let the storm munch a few towns to my south with large hail and heavy rain. As the storm(s) began to pass and merge with other storms I followed in pursuit on U.S. 24 heading northeast back toward Peoria, IL along the Illinois River. I'm glad I chose this route because as a photographer I ended this chase very happy. I was treated with a breath-taking sunset as the departing convection provided some spectacular mammatus at sunset along the Illinois River. Maybe the best mammatus I've photographed this spring quite possibly? I also photographed a pretty cool roll cloud as well! Anyhow, I called it a chase soon after and headed back to my apartment in Peoria, IL. I've added some photos from the chase below as well as some time-lapse video of the splitting supercell below:
I took this shot by pure accident (lucky daylight bolt)
Brief rainbow as I wait out the storm to escape the hail...
(bout the only severe weather I WILL take
shelter for as a storm chaser)
(bout the only severe weather I WILL take
shelter for as a storm chaser)
First view of the picturesque mammatus at sunset!
One last shot of the mammatus clouds at this location...
Along I-474 beneath the undulating mammatus
under the anvil as the sun sets...
under the anvil as the sun sets...
Kind of an end of the world kind of shot?!
One more shot as I start to lose all
my light as the sun sets...
my light as the sun sets...
A quick shot of the apartment complex
where I live in Peoria, IL
I've added a YouTube time-lapse (above)
where I live in Peoria, IL
I've added a YouTube time-lapse (above)
This concludes this chase account. I may have ended this chase without a tornado, but I ended up intercepting a tornado-warned supercell however which is good enough for me. As a photographer I scored with quite a beautiful mammatus display which made the drive home worthwhile. I'll be posting more in the coming days as I haven't had much free time as of late as the work-load has piled up so to speak. I've around 7-8 more posts to go I believe. Good God! Stay tuned.
