On June, 23rd, I ended up chasing some severe convection that developed in west-central Illinois along a remnant outflow boundary. This boundary which was leftover from overnight convection in Iowa was entering quite an unstable atmosphere to its southeast. I ended up heading out along the Stark/Peoria County-line during the mid-afternoon as convection began to explode in a rather unstable atmosphere near Galesburg, IL. Upper-level winds were rather weak aloft so most of these severe storms were instability driven and outflow dominate. The area out of ahead of these severe storms featured 3,000J/kg of CAPE, 0-6km shear at 25kts, and a very moist boundary-layer with dew points near 71°F. Once I headed west out of Peoria, IL reaching IL Rt. 78 the storms had already become outflow dominate. They did however, send out a new outflow boundary that began to sag into Peoria, IL by mid-afternoon. I quickly began to head back to Peoria, IL knowing this would provide the focus for additional severe thunderstorm development with a very unstable atmosphere in place. Upon arriving back to Peoria, IL (northwest-side) the boundary lit-up overhead providing a few photogenic photos which I was quite happy with. Once the severe storms passed I called it a day and spent most of the evening relaxing as I was due back-in to work the following day. I've added photos from this local chase day below:
Good stuff!
I've added a YouTube time-lapse of the shelf cloud from a GoPro
camera mounted on a flagpole at my parent's house
outside Kewanee, IL (above)
This was a fun local chase day since it produced some interesting photos within a hour of home for myself. It's always a treat not having to go far to grab some good photos near home. The following day I left work early as a derecho was taking aim on central Illinois. I'll update with a future post regarding that day soon.
