On May 3rd, I was working till 5:00PM in Peoria, IL, but knew the prospects of my first storm chase of the year were slowly improving throughout the day as it appeared at my location in Peoria, IL that I was in a favorable area for convective initiation by mid-evening. I quickly got off work shortly before 5:00PM and analyzed the situation. I quickly found that I wouldn't have to go too far to find a good storm to chase as my location on the north-side of Peoria, IL was characterized by 3,000J/kg of CAPE, 0-6km shear at 30kts, a supercell composite approaching (12), and the presence of a moist boundary-layer with dew points approaching 70°F. I began to head north as convective initiation was beginning to my northeast. I headed north out of Peoria, IL on IL-Rt. 40 to keep up with the developing convection knowing I'd have to get across the Illinois River at some point. I crossed the river at Lacon, IL and progressed south and east from there along the Illinois River as the storms began to mature to my west. After sitting for a little while chit-chatting with some other storm chasers. We headed north to intercept a severe thunderstorm that was quickly developing to our west just to the southwest of Lacon, IL. Once this storm became severe-warned I punched south on IL-Rt. 89 near Washburn, IL and began to watch this developing supercell outside of town. This storm had some amazing lightning at this point which quickly pointed to storm intensification. Surface winds actually did slowly back towards sunset which led to some rotation from this severe thunderstorm. I sat near Washburn, IL for nearly a hour snapping several photos and then transitioned to lightning photography at dusk as this storm was moving very slowly and became progressively outflow dominate. This supercell was quite a prolific lightning-producer to say the least! Once I had enough I headed back to Peoria, IL in hopes to photograph a developing Mesoscale Convective System (MCS) to my northwest after midnight. I shot a few photos of a shelf cloud passing overhead and then quickly called it a night after a busy evening. I added some of my favorite photos and even some time-lapse video below:
Convective initiation beginning during the mid-evening...
as it passes overhead! I've added a YouTube time-lapse (above) I've added a YouTube GoPro video (above)
Overall, for my first official storm chase of the year I really can't complain. I was able to snap some good photos and ended up on the right storm during this particular evening and I was quite happy with how it all went. It's not often when you can chase on a half a tank of gas and end up with a nice supercell. I did end up chasing again on May 6th as well. More to come...
