east of Kewanee, IL during the mid-afternoon...
On May 6th, I was able to chase in the local-area since I had the day-off from work. Early on during the morning I analyzed an outflow boundary that was pushing south into an unstable air mass across north-central Illinois. Since convective inhibition was already weakening by noon I headed north out of Peoria, IL with a initial target of Kewanee, IL (my hometown). This outflow boundary would provide a focus for convective initiation and was pushing into an area characterized by 4,000J/kg of CAPE, 0-6km shear approaching 40kts, a supercell composite approaching (8), and the presence of a moist boundary-layer with dew points near 70°F. Convection began to erupt over my target-area by early-afternoon along this outflow boundary. I set myself up east of Kewanee, IL in rural-Stark County, IL as severe thunderstorms began to form with this storm taking on some supercell characteristics at times though its life-cyle. This developing supercell appeared the most organized just east of Kewanee, IL as it had a large rotating wall cloud for a time, but quickly became outflow dominate with transient mesos over the next couple of hours. With that being said I continued to chase this storm all the way to the Illinois River outside Lacon, IL and than let it go and progressed back home to Peoria, IL. I stopped along I-74 east of Peoria, IL for a time as I did some time-lapse video as the outflow boundary tried to initiate new convection in this area. After realizing the main "forcing" pushed off to the east I headed back home and called it a chase. I added several photos and some time-lapse video below:
A closer-view...
Initial wall cloud south of Kewanee, IL...
Whale's mouth of the outflow dominate
convection over this wind farm...
Tornado-warned at the time, but
outflow dominate...grr!
Convection struggling to develop
with a stoup cap to the south...
Turkey tower! (Canon 70-300mm telephoto-zoom lens)
I've added a YouTube time-lapse (above)
I've added another YouTube time-lapse of convection
trying to overcome a stout cap (above)
I've added a GoPro video (above)
Here's (Part: II) of my GoPro video (above)
That ends this chase log. It sure was nice to get out for a couple of storm chases especially since the weather pattern is rather tranquil for May standards right now in regards to severe weather over the central Great Plains and Midwest. Hopefully, things change soon with a more active pattern especially as we head into June...
