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April 22, 2005 – Chase in Eastern Illinois

I wasn’t really planning on chasing today, but the SPC teased me with the first morning Day 1 and the moderate risk that it plotted. The next 2 outlooks ended up moving the threat further east and south, but I wasn’t giving up hope yet. They issued a mesoscale discussion for eastern IL and western/central Indiana stating a possible watch was in the works. Satellite showed a nice clear slot pushing into IL and the upper level low was heading this way. Luckily things at work were going real slow, so I was able to sneak out early and prepare for a possible chase. The first severe cells were down in Perry/Washington county and were hauling it to the northeast. My plan was to head south and then jog east/south to intercept them.

I departed a little after 2:00pm and stopped to top off the gas tank. ($2.29/gal) I headed south on I-57 until I reached Mattoon. I decided to head east on Rt 16 till I got to Charleston. (go EIU!) After struggling through traffic, I made my way out of town a few miles. I heard a broken transmission on the scanner reporting a tornado on the ground in Macon county. I quickly pulled off the road and called my pal Mike Cox for an update. He said it looked like junk on radar, but said the warning stated there was a confirmed tornado on the ground. I decided to get back online and check this for myself. The stuff I was originally going for south of me seemed to be moving at a pretty good clip. I said the heck with it and decided to head back west and then north.

Once back on I-57, I checked radar again and noticed the stuff in Macon county was dying out but some new cells were popping up right north of me. When I intercepted them, they were nothing but heavy rain. Nothing else was looking worth a hoot in the area, so I decided to call it a chase. I headed back home and arrived back in Champaign around 4:45pm.

Final Thoughts:
Well I didn’t see much out there, but it was better than sitting at home. Thanks to Mike Cox, Andrew Pritchard, and Skip Talbot for keeping tabs on me out there. 🙂 Hopefully May will bring some better stuff our way.

Total Mileage: 145 miles

Stan Olson 2005, Chase Logs, Weather No Comments

April 20, 2005 – Chase in Champaign County

Ah, April 20th, a very popular chase day for many. Last year, I intercepted a tornado south of Kankakee on April 20th. While the setup today wasn’t the same, I still wasn’t taking any chances. The winds were lacking in both shear and speed, but we had decent instability which I was hoping would pop something severe. I watched storms fire up in the afternoon in western IL with several going severe mainly due to hail. My plan was to stay close to home and chase whatever came to me. After leaving work around 4:00pm, I saw a couple of cells firing up west and southwest of town. On the way home, I filled up the gas tank at a lovely $2.32/gal.

I departed Champaign at 5:00pm and headed north of town to attempt an intercept of the cell coming in from the west. I made my way north of town and stopped at CR 2550N / 800E (6 miles west of Thomasboro, IL) as the rains began to pound me. While I was sitting there, I encountered some pea sized hail. I glanced at the radar and I was clearly in the core of this little cell. I sat there for about 10 minutes and then proceeded to head back south towards Champaign. As I went south through town on Mattis Avenue, it was raining like a June storm. The road was almost like a lake and all the cars were more like boats than cars.

I finally made my way out of town and continued south on Rt 45. When I reached Pesotum, I decided to head east a ways to follow some scud junk and to get out of the heavy precip. I made a stop around 6:30pm at CR 1800E/200N to take a few pictures of this scud junk. I checked radar again and everything seemed to be moving out of the area, so I decided to head back home. On the way back, I headed west of town and took some shots of the sunset and some mammatus clouds. I also spotted a pickup truck who had run into a power pole and split the thing in half. (I had heard the call on the scanner) A sheriff had just pulled up, so I didn’t bother trying to take any pics. I headed back home and arrived around 7:40pm.

Final Thoughts:
For not having any severe warnings, this wasn’t too shabby. I’m not sure I have ever seen it rain this heavy in April as it felt more like a June storm. Hopefully we’ll get some better storms later in the month.

Total Mileage: 90 miles

Stan Olson 2005, Chase Logs, Weather No Comments

March 30, 2005 – Chase to Piatt County

There’s nothing like waking up to the entire state of Illinois draped under a moderate risk! At first I thought it was an early April Fools joke by the fine folks at the SPC, but after further review I noticed there was indeed a chance of some severe weather. Unfortunately I was stuck at work till 4pm, so going after the prime target of north central Illinois or anything in Iowa was definitely out of the question.

During the afternoon, storms started firing up in western Illinois. Several of them went severe and then finally one went tornadic near the Peoria area. I sat there at work drooling at the radar screen and was hoping that someone was chasing it. Right before I left work, I tried to come up with a target area. I had planned on heading up towards Bloomington, but with the storms moving at 65mph I had to readjust my plans.

I departed work at 4:00pm and headed home to load up the gear. I started powering up all the gear and of course I blow the fuse to my power inverter. (I hadn’t tested it since wiring it direct to the battery) When swearing at the fuse box didn’t fix it, I swapped out the fuse and we were back in business. By this time I had decided to head a bit south rather than attempt catching the insanely fast moving storms to the north.

After topping off the gas tank at a lovely $2.35/gallon, I headed south through town and then west out into the country. I ended up in Piatt county just southeast of Monticello, IL. (around 5:30pm CST) I found a great flat area at 1100N/1400E and pulled off the road to begin watching this cell to my SSW. After just a minute or two of sitting there, a severe thunderstorm warning was issued for it. (yippeee!) I grabbed the cameras and hopped out of the car. The winds were howling and unfortunately I didn’t have time to throw the anemometer on the roof. I setup the tripod for the camcorder and held on to it while I shot some stills with the other camera. I heard some thunder and it started to rain, so I quickly grabbed the gear and retreated to the car.

It started pouring pretty good and then I heard some hail slap the car. Radar wasn’t indicating much in the way of hail, so I didn’t worry about it pelting the car. (it was only pea sized hail anyways!) The storm quickly passed and I jumped out of the car to take a few more pictures before it scooted out of the county. I wasn’t seeing much of anything forming back to my southwest, so I decided to make my way back home and call it a chase. More storms fired up a few hours later, but nothing worth going out again.

Final Thoughts:
Well this wasn’t too shabby for the first chase of the year. I wish I could have gone to Iowa or northern Illinois, but given the circumstances this was pretty nifty too. It was a good test run for all the gear and it will give me a few more ideas for future chases. I’m definitely happy that spring is here and can’t wait to go on the next chase!

Total Mileage: 50 miles

Stan Olson 2005, Chase Logs, Weather No Comments

November 24, 2004 – Chase to Kentucky

I was somewhat drooling over the late November moderate risk setup over southern Indiana through Kentucky. Unfortunately, I was scheduled to work a half day which would ruin any chasing plans. What made matters worse was the expectation of 1-3 inches of snow here in the afternoon and evening. I grudgingly went into work at 8:00am and glanced at the weather setup just wishing I could chase. There was a nice dry punch of air coming in that was clearing things out very quickly to make way for sunshine in the target area.

Around 9:00am CST, one of my co-workers showed up who I thought would be taking the day off. I thought to myself (and eventually out loud), why do we need 3 techs here the day before Thanksgiving? I spoke with my boss who quickly agreed and told me to go home. (yay!) I left at 9:30am CST and boogied home to gather the chase gear. I knew winter weather was quickly moving in, but I figured why waste the opportunity to chase one more time this year.

I departed Champaign at 10:00am CST and headed east on I-74. I encountered moderate rain showers all the way into Indiana. At 11:30am CST, I received a text message alerting me of a tornado watch covering parts of southeastern IL, southwestern IN, western KY, and western TN. (woo hoo!) I reached Indianapolis around 12:00pm CST and decided to head south on I-65. As I made my way further south into southern Indiana, I received another alert of a new tornado watch covering southern IN, central KY, and southwestern OH. (double woo hoo!)

As I approached Louisville, I noticed that I was getting low on fuel. (thanks to the indicator light on the dash that said ‘low fuel’) Unfortunately, someone had blown a tire or something which caused traffic on the bridge crossing the Ohio River to come to a halt. We finally got moving again and I quickly made my way to the first exit to fill up. 9.5 gallons later, I was back on the highway in search of storms. I noticed it was much warmer at this point and the sun was peaking through.

I continued my way on I-65 and was getting quite hungry. I pulled off at a McD’s in Lebanon Junction, KY to grab a bite and check some data. Radar wasn’t looking very good as all I saw was a line of junk heading my way. I did notice a tornado warned cell up in south central Indiana, but there was nothing close to me at this point. I did get a nice downpour for a few minutes while I was sitting there, but didn’t see anything even close to severe. After the shower passed, I noticed a nice double rainbow out the window. I snapped a few still shots of it with the 35mm, but didn’t bother shooting any video.

From what I had gathered from the data, things were not looking very good at this point. I decided to call it a chase at this point and make my way home. Conditions at home had unfortunately deteriorated since I was last there. I was getting reports of very slick conditions due to rain changing over to snow which obviously had me quite concerned. I headed back up I-65 through Louisville and then on to Indianapolis. I ran through some patches of rain on the way north, but did not see any winter weather. However, I did notice it getting much colder outside as the windows were starting to fog up.

Once I started heading west out of Indy, things started to get interesting. I hit some patches of rain that quickly changed over to snow. I decreased my speed as to not take any chances with spinning out of control. At one point I saw the guy in front of me swerve just a tad. Just after I saw that, I realized that he had hit an icy spot in the road. Luckily I slowed down even further so when I hit the icy spot, I had no problems at all. I made a stop at Crawsfordsville in hope of filling up the gas tank, but as I approached the stations they were all without power. I continued my journey westward on I-74 back into Illinois. I stopped in Danville, IL and filled up the gas tank and about froze my tail off. (would someone remind me again why I took my gloves out of the car??)

I proceeded slowly towards Champaign and noticed numerous vehicles in the ditch and median. (most seemed deserted) I finally made it home around 9:00pm CST and quickly got inside to warm up. 🙂

Final Thoughts:
My first chase to Kentucky didn’t go so well, but it was fun to get one more chase in this year. November chases have not gone well for me, but had I not gone there would have been a major outbreak. While this chase didn’t turn out the way I wanted, I definitely have alot to be thankful for this year in the way of my chasing adventures. Hopefully I will get even more chances in 2005.

Total Mileage: 550 miles

Stan Olson 2004, Chase Logs, Weather No Comments

July 13, 2004 – Tornado intercept near Carlock IL

A moderate risk in July here in Illinois?? That’s what I awoke to on Tuesday morning. The models were showing some decent wind shear across parts of Illinois today, not to mention the insane amount of instability and moisture in the air. I was thinking it would be a good day for severe weather mainly because my weather server at home took a crap on me and decided it didn’t want to operate today, so that meant no weather updates to my cell phone. When I got to work, I loaded up all my weather applications and monitored the situation closely. I noticed one lone supercell firing up in northwest Illinois late Tuesday morning that made me wonder if things were going up too soon. Several tornado warnings were going out shortly after 12:30pm, this thing was churning! At this rate I would never have a chance to chase. I normally get off at 4:30, but I pulled a few strings and managed to get off at 1:30. I went home and loaded up the gear, then headed out to chase this thing.

I headed west on I-74 just after 2:00pm, hoping to get to Bloomington and then go north from there. As I got closer to Bloomington, I was hearing reports on the scanner of tornadoes in Woodford county. I got off at the Carlock exit and as I made it to the top of the off ramp, I saw something to my north that caught my eye. There appeared to be a tornado about 10 miles to my north, but the contrast was so low that at the time I could not confirm that it was indeed a tornado. (video analysis confirmed a tornado) I headed west and then north of Carlock, trying to get closer without driving into anything I would later regret. 😉 As I headed north, I had to check the map several times to make sure I wasn’t in Missouri. Most of central Illinois is fairly decent for chasing, but I managed to find one of the most tree covered, hilly parts of the area. (not to mention the freaking corn fields!) Anywho, I made way to US 24 and headed east to El Paso (IL, not TX) and then headed south on SR 251.

I continued south till I reached Kappa, IL and then headed west on CR 600N. At 3:40pm, I started receiving some small hail about 2.5 miles west of Kappa. As in previous hail encounters, I thought it’d be wise to get off the road and wait out the storm. I found a farmer’s driveway and parked next to a tree. (which provided no hail protection since I was on the wrong side of the tree) As I sat there, the hail continued getting bigger which had me worried a bit. Once it was over, I jumped out and grabbed a few of the bigger chunks. The pieces I measure were 1.75″, but they had melted a bit by the time I got to them. (back in Kappa, there was 2.75″ baseball hail reported!) The guy whose driveway I was in came out after the storm and talked with me for a few minutes. He said that the hail took out one of his north windows of his house. He also mentioned that he saw the tornado earlier from his house, which made me very jealous. 😉

After talking with him for a little while longer, I decided to follow the storm back home. I never could quite catch up with it as I made my way back to the southeast. I did see some nice mammatus on the way back as well as two semis that had been blown over on I-74 near Mansfield. I got home around 5:00pm and enjoyed the mammatus directly over Champaign.

Final thoughts:
Never thought I’d be seeing a decent chase here in Illinois during July, but today was definitely one of those days. It was very frustrating to have the stuff firing up so early in the day, but at least I was able to get off work early and go chase. NWS damage surveys revealed F4 damage near Roanoke, IL, which was just north of where I was. Luckily no one was killed from this event, so kudos to all the spotters/chasers out there for keeping an eye on the sky.

Video

Total Chase Miles: 170 miles

Stan Olson 2004, Chase Logs, Weather No Comments