Illinois River east of Lewistown, IL
On June 25th, I once again spent most of the day at work in Peoria, IL. I kept a close eye on the weather situation again. I noticed some severe convection developing along a remnant outflow boundary during the afternoon in central Illinois. These storms were severe-warned, but I decided not to chase these once I got off work around 4:00pm. I chose to hang back and await new convection to form along another boundary left from these storms farther west in west-central Illinois along the Illinois River. This area featured a destabilizing atmosphere with 3,000J/kg of CAPE, 0-6km shear approaching 40kts, and a moist boundary-layer with dew points reaching 72°F. Storms did form but struggled for most of the evening however to maintain their vigor. Nevertheless, I spent most of the evening along U.S. 24 along the Illinois River snapping photos of the developing convection before heading back to Peoria, IL shortly after sunset. These storms looked the best during the evening hours east of Lewistown, IL. They struggled to become surface-based however until the better forcing arrived after dark. Once the sun went down I called it another night in Peoria, IL. I've added a few photos from this particular evening below:
This was a rather quick chase once I got off work. Hopefully, I'll be back to this area sometime soon along the Illinois River since it's quite photogenic especially if a good storm is in this area. I'll be working on more posts over the summer. From this point forward however I'll be storm chasing locally when opportunities present themselves in the coming months. Stay tuned for future updates.
