09/14/09 What was the: Summer of 2009

A Monarch butterfly...seeing less and less of this species
in the past 10 years locally...
you can't help to wonder...climate change?

After nearly a month "blog hiatus" I figured I'd throw together a wide-selection of pictures taken over the summer months to close out this season with a summer 2009 post and update my followers on some information. Thanks to a prolonged dry spell we really haven't had a "second season" for severe weather here in the Midwest here in September, but this has allowed me to already look forward to next chase season. I'll be streaming LIVE for ChaserTV next year and even this winter which will allow you to be in the passenger seat during chases or extreme weather events. I've also newly created a YouTube channel for past and future chase footage (Check it out here). I've also added some equipment upgrades over the last few months and more info can be found at my website on my equipment page. Looking back this past spring/summer was rather rewarding as this was truly my first full-season of chasing. I saw 3 tornadoes this past season. 2 of which were locally in Illinois and Iowa the other was the Aurora, NE tornado in June. My chasing travels led me across 5 different states this year (IL, IA, KS, MO, NE). All in all, a successful season even with a late-start from Mother Nature with a disappointing May. But now summer has ended and we transition into fall...

A morning glory with some stunning colors

Summer would not be complete without a pool right?

Some incredible flowering plants around
this area if you look hard enough

A member of the Mantis family (macro-lens)

Yet, another butterfly (Painted Lady) but this time on these daisies

Sunflower-type plant (macro-lens)

Talk about...RED (macro-lens)

No shortage of color around this area

More and more red...

A male garden spider (macro-lens)

 A neat flower!

 "Stars & stripes"

 "Our rock"

 "Pretty in pink"

 Butterfly!

A female garden spider (macro-lens)

Waterfall cascading water into our pond

A bumblebee finding some nectar

Talk about colorful (pansies)...(macro-lens)

Trying my best to play with fire...

After a wet summer day...you could
find something like this (macro-lens)

The Monarch butterfly extending its wing-span

As one season ends another begins...the beginning of fall foliage

This begins some more photography from this past summer...here's a collection of some of my favorite family pet pics over the last few months:

Nikki, one of our two female cats

 A great pose!

 Fox!

"Friends"

 Bowser digging!

Luigi again...

Luigi posing...

Luigi, our male cat and is no stranger to the camera

Angel, the other female cat (Calico)

On the prowl...

Indy, posing for the camera (Yellow Lab)

Umm...expecting a call?

One of our goats enjoying some cement blocks

Close-up of our trouble-maker

I'll take a line in Ghostbusters from Bill Murray here:
"Dogs & cats living together...mass hysteria!"

Another goat sunbathing in the pasture

Check back over the next month as I'll be planning to get a fall post on here as well once when the fall foliage really blossoms here in the upcoming weeks or if any active weather makes an appearance...

08/20/09 Photogenic Local Thunderstorms

Thunderstorm showing off its picturesque nature
southeast of Kewanee, IL

Today, a few thunderstorms developed locally around 7:00pm during peak heating across Illinois and provided a few picturesque photos in the western horizon. Just enough moisture was present in the low-levels combined with surface heating and cold-air aloft which aided in the development of these storms near sunset. I added a few photos below including a quick time-lapse:

First view of the thunderstorm as it approaches

Beautiful intense rain shaft with this storm
thanks to some awesome contrast

Thunderstorm actually strengthens upon arrival,
but still below severe-criteria

Rain shaft and outflow nearly overhead

An easy find across from the front porch...rainbow!

Another cell at sunset to my south
with some mammatus under the anvil

YouTube time-lapse (above)

08/09/09 August Electrical Storms

August lightning display near Princeton, IL

Wow, what an insane day for severe weather and intense thunderstorms thanks to the August summer-heat. It's hard to get tornadoes during August, but what you can get is some extreme wind events and incredible lightning displays here in the Midwest and yesterday was one of those days. This was all thanks to the well known "ring-of-fire" pattern that fires off convective complexes on the central plains heat dome's periphery. On Sunday, I debated on chasing either in northern Illinois and/or Iowa due to an enhanced damaging wind threat. However, I changed my mind once I analyzed outflow boundaries from several convective complexes pushing southeast toward central Illinois from eastern Iowa. These boundaries were heading into an area of extreme instability 4,500-5,000J/kg of CAPE analyzed by the RUC. By late afternoon a bow-echo was racing east across central Iowa into this area as well, but a warm-layer aloft (cap) was suppressing convection from forming all afternoon near the boundary. Nevertheless, thanks to an unstable-moist environment and ascent from the previous mentioned bow-echo the cap was "zipped" west-to-east along this boundary at sunset across central Illinois. This provided several local photo-ops. Yes, I missed some insane shelf clouds photographed in Iowa, but by chasing locally I have no regrets based on some of the images I was able to grab during the evening and overnight. I don't think I called it a night till about 1:00am! I grabbed many convective tower shots near sunset than switched over to lightning-mode for about 4-hours. Witnessed a few bolts from the "blue" as it seemed everything was electrically charged last night thanks to the extreme instability that was along this boundary. So all in all, I may have missed some incredible shelf clouds in Iowa, but I wasn't left empty-handed by any means. I've included many photos below from yesterday as it was incredibly hard to choose my favorites. Note: I'd highly recommend enlarging the lightning photos while viewing to get the most dramatic effect...

Amazing shot here as this tower accelerates vertically allowing for the cirrus above to be forced
upward giving you that levitation-look

Yet another...just goes to show you when the cap breaks the
vertical momentum of updrafts is quite strong (Click to enlarge...)

This tower initiates and later becomes a very healthy thunderstorm

As the sun sets here it's incredible what Mother Nature can produce in a simple photograph

Another awesome updraft shot...
having the right lens makes all the difference

Turkey towers along OFB struggling to overcome the cap initially

Another "levitating cirrus" above this updraft
with strong vertical momentum

Close-up of a "Turkey tower"

Yet another updraft shot...

First branching stroke of the evening...a night where everything

seemed like it had an electrical charge

The start of several storm structure/lightning shots

Thunderstorm that exhibited some rotation near Princeton, IL
showing off its lightning display

Dual positive strokes???

If you're into photographing lightning last night was your night...

Simply beautiful and dangerous at the same time

Not as long as an exposure here, but if this was daylight that would be a "bolt-from-the-blue" above or in this case a "bolt-from-the-stars"

Branching ground stroke originating from this storms updraft

I'm sure people were saying "Oh, that's heat lightning" last night...umm NO!!!...as their is no such thing as heat lightning

Just an insane lightning display to my east

Talk about a great night for
lightning thunderstorm structure shots I'd say
 

A short YouTube time-lapse (above)