09/06/08 NIU Fall 2008 Part: I

Entrance to Castle Drive on campus with flowering "NIU colors" (wide-angle view)

This morning I decided to walk around campus for a bit taking in the last "summer colors" before fall really kicks in here in the upcoming weeks. Soon enough all these flowers and greenery will begin the annual change as the fall colors begin to make their appearance around the U.S. and here on campus in Dekalb.

Altgeld Hall with lots and lots of different colors...

A different angle here entering Castle Drive.

It was a rather "cool" morning to get out and after a good "soaker" Thursday with 1-2 inches of rain pretty common around the Dekalb-area it sure felt like fall and not early September. However, low humidity and temperatures in the 70's are nothing to complain about at all.

Swen Parson Hall

Altgeld Hall again (landscape-view)

Over-looking Davis Hall once again...

Myself (AMS President) posing for a quick photo with the "castle" Altgeld Hall behind me

There's no swimming or paddling in the East Lagoon right? I guess they're the exception!

Well, that's about all for now...Stay tuned for a Part: II to this post when the fall colors present themselves in Dekalb in the upcoming weeks.

08/13/08 LP Thunderstorms & Lightning

A rather nice shelf cloud to my northwest as the cold pool gets established

I spent this evening sitting back and enjoying what mother nature had to offer which was in the form of some thunderstorms riding an advancing warm front. It was a pleasant surprise since these thunderstorms were LP or "low precip". These storms usually give you picturesque photos because more of the "storm structure" is easily visible. Also with these types of storms the rain clears out fast which allows the sun to poke through allowing for rainbows, brilliant sunsets, etc to be viewed pretty often. Sometimes these events produce your best storm photos of the year as well!

Instability increasing shown by these CU towers as the upstream convection approaches

Today, was definitely a good day for storm photography. Around 5pm I wandered out to a spot about a quarter mile away from home to set up and take in the sight of an approaching thunderstorm. Enjoying one of the last "free days" I have left with traveling to Dekalb, IL in a week for move-in day and another academic semester. Storms were moving rather slow at 20mph in some cases this evening which meant it was boring for a bit until the storm got close enough when thunder could be heard.

A rather stormy country road this evening

Another view of the approaching shelf cloud

I didn't expect to see much, but thought I'd get a few good pics. A few was an understatement! I think I took around 200 photos nearly filling up my card for the Canon Rebel Xti. I don't think I've ever had the pleasure to do that before. So this will be a rather long post since their are many photos to choose from, but unfortunately I won't be able to post them all. Anyway back to the weather the storms slowly traversed south from the north/northwest and I didn't know this at the time, but they sent out a "cold pool" while I was out observing which meant I was greeted with a nice shelf cloud. I'll take it since the last few chases haven't even produced a good "shelf". The outflow kind of snuck up on me with a good 20mph gust...and with only being a quarter mile down the road from home I had to storm chase...well...running like hell. That's the first time I've storm chased with my feet instead of a vehicle. Probably will be the last! Luckily, though I got inside before the downpour hit.

All that instability from the day being released as the storm departs

There's that rainbow I was predicting as the odds were in my favor

A new convective tower sours through the atmosphere along the newly developed outflow boundary

These were good thunderstorms, but not quite severe in nature. After the rain passed right on cue...a rainbow appeared for 2 minutes. I watched for a good hour or two. Near sunset the outflow boundary ignited new convection to my southwest so I took some time-lapse video.

Sun beginning to set providing some odd sun rays

Convection continuing to fire on the outflow boundary to my southwest providing some of the better storm structure images as of late

As the sun sets this storm shows it's lightning display producing my best lightning images of the year (Click to enlarge)

This thing just wouldn't let up nearly striking the exact area every minute...it was a site to watch (Click to enlarge)

Darkness fell and I thought I'd had enough, but I noticed an awesome lightning show south of me. So I ventured back out for some dusk lightning photography...this was an excellent decision providing the best lightning shots for myself this year. I was astonished at the barrage of intense CG's in a relatively low-CAPE environment from this storm. It was the easiest lightning storm to photograph as nearly every 40sec it would light up and send a CG stroke directly below the updraft. I guess you don't need high-CAPE after all to get good lightning shots! I've been waiting for one of these events and tonight was just that! This was one of those "surprise days" not even severe thunderstorms, but they still provided some great photography!

07/21/08 Afternoon Central Illinois Supercells

The cap breaks and this storm quickly becomes a supercell south of Galesburg, IL

Yep, indeed another post here today...Now that's exciting when you can post 2 severe storm events in one day! That rarely ever happens it seems and to go a step farther, start with a derecho and end with supercells. Wow! that gets a storm chaser excited!

Supercell as it passes to the south of Galesburg, IL with some strange cloud striations

Dodging the rain & hail on US34

Unfortunately, I had prior obligations and couldn't get out till late in the evening which was a little late for when convective initiation began. After routinely getting radar updates and peeking at the mesoanalysis I knew it was just a matter of time when the cap finally broke. After 7pm this indeed happened with extreme instability in place. -10 LI and 5000J/kg of CAPE across northern Missouri and central Illinois. Add moderate shear and things got going like an atomic bomb out there this evening.

Myself posing for a quick photo on this day in this convective environment

Galesburg municipal airport seen here...must have been fun navigating around this convection huh?

I've included 3 images below of one of the best rainbows I've seen in quite sometime. This was nearly directly over the interstate in Knox County. At times this also had cloud-cloud lightning strikes within it, but was rare and very difficult to photograph unfortunately.

Magnificent rainbow seen here as I escape the heavy rain and hail

Sometimes being on the wrong side of the storm is worth it...

This stretched across the entire eastern horizon and was breathtaking...what a catch!...

However, being that I got behind on my target of Macomb, IL I couldn't get to the southern flank of these storms. Yet, I got some of the best images of the year on the downdraft-side of these storms. That makes me appreciate a little more the picturesque structure you can get being on the north-side of these supercells. I arrived outside Galesburg, IL around 8pm near the municipal airport hoping to stay out of the traffic in that area. To my approval this storm was intense with a constant barrage of lightning which is usually the case in high-CAPE convective environments.

Beautiful mammatus seen here looking north

Interesting to see how quickly your lighting changes on these mammatus once the sun begins to set

This image was actually taken later under the anvil at home directly over my house

Close-up of some amazing mammatus as I arrive home

So after roaming around US34 in Knox County I took several pictures that presented themselves. To my liking I was greeted with some nice structure shots, a rainbow over the interstate, and some of the best mammatus I've seen this year! So this quick chase that lasted around 2 hours was definitely worth the short trip especially getting home before dark. I did see more then one deer running about. Those things will change someone's fortune rather quick on the roads at dusk. Anyway, I arrived home in a rather good mood with an awesome end to a double chase day! The front will be shoved far enough to the south to allow Canadian high pressure to move-in tomorrow. Well long day, so I'm off to catch up on some much needed Zzzzz's.

07/11/08 Central Illinois Multicells

(LP) Multicell passing to my east into rural Stark County

Some multi-cells formed in a weakly sheared environment this afternoon while I was busy at home taking care of some odds n' ends. Some briefly became severe-warned especially in central Illinois near Lincoln, but that was about it. They did provide a few decent photos however. The main action was in Minnesota today with around 10 confirmed tornadoes-->SPC with a spring-like cold front up that way. I've actually seen some good tornado footage already up that way with some "stovepipe" tornadoes. Looks like most of the action tonight will stay north of me in Wisconsin. However, that could change if development continues southward along the cold front in Iowa over the next several hours. We will keep a close eye on that as they should cross the river around dawn tomorrow morning if the cap erodes in central Iowa. I actually could use some rain around here as it's getting pretty dry here as mid-June to present has been very dry as the rain continues to split my hometown north and south.

A darn right hot/humid day turns dark pretty quick as a shortwave kicks off some convection in west-central Illinois

07/10/08 Kewanee, IL Photogenic Wall Cloud

Wide-angle view here of a beautiful wall cloud to my east/northeast of Kewanee, IL

Today was very FRUSTRATING...This is usually the case with summer storm chases when you're lacking shear. A supercell develop around noon however along an outflow boundary near Monticello, IA. Being that this storm was discrete which is hard to come by I decided "what-the-heck" let's venture out after this thing. So I figured I would catch it if it held together as it crossed the rive.

This is one of the first shots I took as it was beginning to organize and notice the rail/hail core to the right...

I arrived near I-88 waiting for the supercell to cross the Mississippi River near Lyndon, IL. It eventually does, but that discrete action went by-the-way-side pretty quick when the outflow boundary it was intersecting became very active nearly on top of me. Then a loss of Internet access quickly annoyed me for a bit as well. I then punched through the big rain-makers south of I-80 on route 40 near Sheffield, IL after I gave up on that storm when it went outflow...This day just was really bad for photography...everything was rather ragged even shelf clouds didn't produce good photos. So after being a tad frustrated with the lack of decent photos I headed back home to Kewanee, IL.

A frustrating storm chase sometimes pays off when the storms come to you instead...
This was an "armchair chase" in my backyard at 5pm (Glad I called a quits on the chase early eh?)

I was sitting in my office getting settled in and heard some intense lightning "all of a sudden" out the window...I glanced at the radar seeing that a new storm had developed on the old outflow boundary nearly right overhead of Kewanee, IL and began moving east of me. I ventured out the door with the tripod and cameras in hand and started taking some pictures. The lightning really didn't cooperate to my liking, but as I was busy setting up the camera I saw a horizontal roll cloud start to develop to the rear flank the storm. This was interesting...especially when soon after the storm gains some rotation and produces a nice photogenic wall cloud off to my east. Since I didn't have a radar in front of me I dismissed this first, then watched and observed more and more and then saw the rotation with my very own eyes. I was a tad excited as it REALLY SURPRISED me! Especially, after how the day had already gone.A common rule is never underestimate outflow boundaries because they allow chaotic things to happen and this was no different. Also, I tend to wonder what affect if any the horizontal roll cloud played in this. A sign of horizontal vorticity perhaps? What's interesting is as soon as that formed the updraft appeared to take that vorticity and produce the wall cloud and "hang-me downs" below it. A very interesting experience to observe no doubt as it has me scratching my head some. Well that's all for now I might add a few more images depending on how tonight's actions goes.