05/10/08 Spring Blooms on Campus

Altgeld Hall

All across campus spring has finally bloomed after Dekalb was hit hard with a very white and cold winter that hasn't been experienced in quite some time. The plants and trees seem to be enjoying the spring-like weather as much as Dekalb residents and students on campus.

Castle Drive

Holmes Student Center

Swen Parson Hall

A goose trying to decide if I'm going to dive into the East Lagoon. You first buddy!

Well that's all for the spring pics around Dekalb since the weather hasn't cooperated recently since it's been cloudy and wet. Stay tuned for more updates. I'll be in Florida in about a week and will post some pics from Sarasota, FL when I get back. What a nice vacation it will be after a long and hard-working semester. Hopefully the "nice convection" will hold off till I get back for some local chasing and some chasing out in the plains. Crossing my fingers on that one! Good luck to all my fellow chasers in the next few weeks as they organize in the Great Plains!

03/03/08 New Beginnings @ NIU

March sunset and melting snow a sign of spring

Well after a tragedy a couple of weeks ago NIU will never be as it was...it will be stronger and will be a closer campus. A forever changed campus but a closer knit campus I believe. As far as the weather goes...it's meteorological spring and yesterday highs climbed into the 50's for a short time...but not so fast don't put the shovels away quite yet. Snow by Tues? Well looks like it's on the horizon but...hang on to your spring hopes it looks like late next week another quick warm up is on the way as the active pattern continues...come on SPRING...

10/18/07 Fall Tornado Outbreak

Supercell west of Kankakee,IL crossing I-57 and producing a wall cloud

Wow what a tornado outbreak and October of all months. However, I'm not a bit surprised due to the dynamics that were in place today, everything just came together and that rarely happens. You rarely see all of the severe weather as "supercell mode" especially in October and here. Early on a MDT risk was issued for extreme Eastern Illinois and much of Indiana. So at 9AM under sunny skies the chase was on. Got to my target around 12:30pm but was concerned that the best chance for development in the evening would be farther east into Indiana. Upon realizing this I ventured into Indiana for a few hours ending up Northwest of Lafayette, IN. CU were all over all morning and afternoon as another wave of CU moved in later. I witnessed a lot of up and down CU and this briefly concerned me. CAP was in place and the concern was that darkness would beat the eroding cap which means a disappointing long ride home. So as that was becoming more evident I decided to head back west giving up on Indiana. On the way back convection began behind me (figures), but as it did new convection fired from a Bloomington/Normal to Chicago line. All of which included around 5 supercells. I caught two of them by making a quick decision to hit I-57 running southwest to northeast with the moving storms. It was a great call. I got two supercells to my west on the interstate. One south and one north of Kankakee, IL. Overshooting tops and classic supercell structures formed. A rear flank downdraft formed on the cell north of Kankakee, IL. As it did a wall cloud and funnel cloud formed. Just about every picture today was awesome with great lighting due to the storms initiating near sunset. I got some great meso shots when I pulled off the interstate not risking getting hit by the core of hail and rain.

 Driving off into a destablizing atmosphere!

 Moisture convergence!

 Indiana!

 I-57!

 Convective initiation!

Kankakee IL supercell

09/06/07 Double Rainbow

Double Rainbow!

Took some picks of some isolated showers and t-storms this evening before sunset that developed just to the east of DeKalb. We didn't get any rain on the west-side of campus just some darkening skies to the east. However, got some great shots and the above pictured double rainbow that was to my east.

These showers and isolated t-storms dimished at dusk and now attention will turn to tomorrow morning with the next chance of showers and thunderstorms with the approach of a cold front throughout the day.

T-storms rumbling east

08/23/07 A Move-in Day to Remember

Mesocyclone

Wow, what a day that won't be forgotten for years. Aug 23, 2007 move-in day at NIU. Well it started very well and early for me at 5:00am. On the way to DeKalb was a beautiful sunrise and sunny skies. Thankfully I got moved in before noon because not soon after dark skies started to roll into DeKalb. A stop at Walmart turned into an interesting moment. Once inside a major storm could be seen rolling in with intense lightning. As it did a possible tornado was reported in the area so everyone including myself had to go to the middle of the store. The storm came in quick with big time rain and some hail. Unfortunately with such a busy day I had no idea what the weather situation was. It was one of those days that I just didn't get a chance to look at the radar at all. I wish I did. I found out from Andy Bullock back home that major damage was reported in my area and Bradford, IL a town very close to my house. I'll try to update this later with some grlevel3 pics if i can figure it out. However, flooding caused major problems in DeKalb. 6+ inches of rain fell very quick with 4+ in my hometown as well. Break from the weather and rain for awhile and we need it as school starts back Monday. I'm sure the last week or weather will be all the talk here in a couple of days.