05/21/10 Backyard Magic

A cone funnel cloud in the backyard again...

southeast of Kewanee, IL (2 years in a row)

Last Friday, a bizarre sequence of events from a pulse thunderstorm under a low pressure center in central Illinois lead to a cone funnel cloud that I observed in the backyard in rural-Stark County, IL. This turned out to be a big surprise as I was watching some pulse convection moving from the southeast to the northeast (odd direction). I was watching this convection due to the fact that as I walked out the door I noticed we had gone "calm" and knew the low pressure center of this system was nearly overhead. This would help create some low-level shear that maybe one of these storms could tap as they moved into my area that received just a bit of instability (1,000 J/kg CAPE) earlier in the morning. Sure enough as I watched this storm get more organized yet looking pathetic on radar and velocity scans the sucker puts out a funnel cloud half way to the ground in an open field. Absolutely crazy considering the ingredients were terrible on this day for severe weather in these parts. I quickly began shooting some photos, but an ongoing shower overhead and poor contrast helped to block a great view for a time, however I still managed to get some photographs of this "cone" as it wrapped up under a weak mesocyclone. Once it wrapped-up a funnel cloud aloft it redeveloped to the northwest and formed a nice wall cloud for a time as well. What a treat! Adding some icing on the cake after the event was that I remembered I was streaming obs. from my personal outdoor weather station at that time. Since I knew my station was in the inflow region this got me quite excited to have a data-rich data-set from an odd "event". Take a look at the graphs here. What you will notice at the time of the "event" (1:00 to 2:00pm) winds go calm at my location, pressure bottoms out, and my location had a 70/65°F surface ob. This may lead to a future study from my location since this area has been a hotbed of "funnel-cloud/tornado activity" over the last few years for instance: 05/10/04 (Funnel Cloud), 06/10/04 (Tornado), 06/16/09 (Funnel Cloud) and not to mention many "areas-of-rotation" being observed. Is it something geography-related or is it just strange coincidences? ...something to ponder! I've added some more photos below:

First glimpse of the cell as it developed off to the southeast
(notice some day-time heating occurring...hmm)

Wide-angle view with cone (center)
and wall cloud (background)

For better viewing I enhanced the contrast
on the photo (above) (beautiful cone)

Second attempt to produce with a pronounced lowering

Wall cloud (left) & hail shaft (right)

One last view of the wall cloud
before I head off to work

What a random day! It seems every year my backyard is a special place for Mother Nature to work her "magic". Stay tuned for a future post on last Monday's chase in western Nebraska.