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July 5, 2004 – Chase to Western IL

I wasn’t expecting to chase today as the main area seemed to be further west into Missouri. (we’ve been there enough this year!) As the day went on though, the SPC sent out updates saying there was a small tornadic risk in western Illinois. (nifty 5% area!) I decided to take my normal lunch hour rather than work through it and leave early, really not expecting to get out and chase. I started to change my mind when a tornado watch was issued at 4:00pm for western Illinois. I left work at 4:30pm and went home to load up the gear. I departed Champaign at 5:00pm and headed west on I-72. Despite there being a tornado warning out for Kankakee county and seeing the storm from Champaign, I decided that the best stuff should be further west. (I would have never caught up to it anyway) As I got west of Springfield, I noticed ‘something’ to my southwest but I wasn’t seeing anything on radar/satellite. When I got to Jacksonville I almost decided to go south to attempt an intercept of whatever was down there, but decided against it.

I kept going west on I-72 until I started seeing stuff firing up to my northwest. I got off at exit 46 and headed north on SR 100. I took it north and then jogged onto US 67 which would take me more in a northwesterly direction. As I entered McDonough county around 8:00pm, I checked radar which showed a line of storms just to my northwest. (yay!) Once I got to Macomb, I headed west on US 136 mainly due to the slow people in front of me who must have thought it was still Sunday instead of Monday. Once I got into Tennessee (yes, I’m still in northwest IL..) I headed north on CR 11 towards the cell that was starting to come into view. I started seeing a very nifty shelf cloud with a possible wall cloud behind it. (about time!) As I got closer, there appeared to be some funnel looking thingies (yes that’s the official term for them) coming out of this possible wall cloud, but I don’t put any merit into them at all. (no rotation from what I could see)

Around 8:45pm I pulled off on N 2000 road just northeast of Bladinsville to watch what was left of this thing. I saw a few more funnel wannabees, but nothing more than scud. While I was sitting there, I heard this strange rushing sound coming from my north. I shut the car off and listened more carefully. It sounded like a hail storm, but I quickly discovered it nothing more than rain hitting the crops. (which eventually hit me) Around 9:00pm I finally gave up on this thing and decided to make my way back home. I headed east on RT 9 and then back to US 136 where I stopped in Havana for a much needed fuel stop. On the way back I was hearing numerous tornado warnings, but nothing confirmed on the ground. The lightning from these storms provided quite the post-4th of July fireworks on the journey home. I continued east on US 136 and then hopped on I-74 for the rest of the trip home.

Final thoughts:
It wasn’t too bad of a chase for early July, definitely some interesting stuff. The shelf cloud I saw ranks right up there with the one back in March up near Kankakee. I do remember now why I don’t like chasing in July, CORN! This is Illinois though, so that’s just something we have to live with.

Total Chase Miles: 380 miles

Stan Olson 2004, Chase Logs, Weather No Comments

July 2, 2004 – Chase to Central Oklahoma

A rare three day weekend presented itself to me and I wasn’t about to pass it up. There was a slight risk for southeast Oklahoma on the SPC Day 2, and the models were indicating some wind shear. (decent enough for July anyway!) Normally I’d never drive all the way out to Oklahoma for a slight risk, but I wanted a road trip and the storm possibilities were just a bonus. I made my way through work on Thursday just waiting for the day to be over with so I could begin my journey. I went home at 4:30pm and packed up the gear along with a few odds and ends to get me through the extended weekend. I loaded up the car and headed out of Champaign around 5:30pm on Thursday afternoon (7/1). I took I-72 west to I-55 south to St. Louis, then I hopped on I-44 west. I made a stop in Rolla, MO around 10:30pm to get a much needed food and gas pit stop.

I continued my journey west on I-44 in search of a hotel, but each one I passed looked pretty packed to me. I pressed on westward and before I knew it I was in Oklahoma. (sweet home ala..err..Oklahoma!) The state greeted me the way I left it back in June 2001. As soon as I got on the Will Rogers Turnpike around 3:30am, all hell broke loose. The sky lit up with lots of lightning and the wind was driving the rain so bad that I had to pull off for a few minutes. (SE of Quapaw, OK) As far as I know, there wasn’t any severe warnings out but it was pretty impressive. It let up and I continued my way southwest on I-44 towards Tulsa. I was starting to get a little low on gas, so I got off I-44 near Big Cabin in search of a gas station. The one I saw seemed to be diesel only, so I continued south on US 69 in search of some petrol. 🙂 As I was driving along, my low fuel light came on letting me know I’d better hurry up with the pit stop. Up ahead I spotted a small gas station with my kind of gas, but at 4:30am it was closed! I continued south and ended up in Pryor, OK where there was a nice 24 hour Phillips 66 to greet me. (whew!)

I proceeded south to Chouteau and then headed west on US 412 towards Tulsa. I got to Tulsa around 5:30am and it was pretty neat to be able to drive downtown without any traffic around. I kinda just drove all around Tulsa just killing some time before deciding where to go from there. I got on I-244 and then just got onto US 64 when I started getting small hail! Just as I got off the highway, the power in the area went out. (oh boy, here we go!) Actually it was probably just the light from the lightning tricking the sensors in the street lights, but it provided some early morning excitement. I drove around Tulsa a little longer and finally decided to head south towards the target area of Ada. I took US 75 south from Tulsa and then headed southwest on SR 1 towards Ada. I arrived in Ada around 9:30am and was ready for a driving break, as well as gas/food. There wasn’t much open food wise at that time, so I drove around town for awhile.

I found an old empty parking lot next to the road and decided to pull off and check some weather data. The slight risk on the Day 1 had expanded to include almost the entire state of Oklahoma, with a 5% tornado threat in the southeast part of the state. Satellite imagery showed the skies west of me starting to clear out so that was somewhat reassuring. I was getting low on gas again, so I stopped at a Shell gas station to fuel up. I paid at the pump, but the darn receipt machine was broken so I had to go inside to get one. The first thing the two ladies at the counter ask me was what I had all the antennas on my car for. I told her I was a storm chaser and then they asked me if any bad weather was coming their way. Now since I didn’t stay at a Holiday Express last night, I told them there probably wouldn’t be anything severe in the area. After making a bathroom stop, I was on my way again looking for food.

I spent most of the morning and early afternoon in Ada just waiting for something to happen. I finally got tired of sitting there and departed around 3:00pm. I headed south on 377 and then headed west on 177 which turned into 199. I stopped in Ardmore to fill up on gas and take a bathroom break. When I came out of the gas station, my weather radio was going off signaling a severe thunderstorm watch for SW Oklahoma and NW Texas. (about time!) This was a bit away from my target area, but since there was still numerous hours of daylight I decided to go for it. After dealing with the insane amount of stoplights, I continued west on US 70. I wanted to drive into Texas just to say I’d been there, but I came up about 1/2 mile short of that goal. Anywho, I was getting rather water logged, but there was no gas stations/rest stops on this road. I turned off on a country road and found a rather large tree to shade (pun intended) me from any traffic. (or so I thought!)

I look around and upon seeing no one, I do my business. Of course, out of nowhere comes a guy in a pickup from the south who honks while he drives by my location. (at least it wasn’t a cop!) Embarrassed, I get back in my car and proceed back to the highway. I continued west on US 70 and stopped just west of Grandfield, OK to survey the sky. There wasn’t much out there and I was painfully considering calling it a bust. I decided to head back east of US 70 and then north on US 277/281. Around 6:35pm I saw what appeared to be a developing tower to the northeast, so I decided to continue in that direction to check it out. Data coverage was very spotty here, but I did notice something just south of Purcell, OK. I called my buddy Mike Cox to have him check it out, but at the time I spoke to him it didn’t look very impressive on radar. (this would soon change!)

I continued heading east and then north trying to get closer to it. Around 7:00pm I noticed what appeared to be an overshooting top on this cell, a very promising indication that this thing was gathering strength. As I passed through Duncan, OK, the cell was really taking shape now and looked spectacular. (I wanted to pull over and take some stills, but I had to get closer before it got dark.) Around 8:20pm just east of Joy, OK I noticed a base, but nothing dangling below it. At 8:41pm, I pulled off next to a cemetary just south of Statford, OK to take some pictures. The storm was now due southeast of my location and appeared to be dying out. I was treated to a nifty array of colors as the sun set on the storm.

After watching the storm die, I proceeded north on US 177. I called some chaser friends of mine in Stillwater and suprised them by telling them I was just south of town. I made it to their house around 11:30pm and we watched some chase video for awhile. I had not had any sleep since I left Illinois, so I was really in need of rest. I left their house around 1:00am to search for a hotel. I drove around for quite awhile looking for one of the cheaper places, but could not find one. I finally settled for the Best Western in Stillwater for a whopping $75.00 for the cheapest room they had. (at least it had air conditioning) Being 2:00am, I wasn’t in the mood to argue or go searching another town for a cheaper place. I brought the gear in, took a shower, and took a much needed nap.

After a nice long rest, I got up and checked the latest Day 1 outlook. Ironically southern Illinois was in a slight risk of severe weather, but I was kind of looking forward to just going home. (I was already looking at a long freaking drive back) I left the hotel around 11:30am and headed north on US 177 to the Cimarron Turnpike. Then I took I-44 all the way to St. Louis, then I-70 east to I-57 north to Champaign. I think I finally rolled in around 10:30pm on Saturday evening. *yawn!*

Final thoughts:
What a nice way to spend the holiday weekend! Nothing like an almost 2000 mile drive to get away from everything. 🙂 I don’t think it was too shabby given the lack of data I had out there. It was nice to be able to chase visually which is normally impossible here in IL with all the haze. Post-chase analysis showed that my cell actually split into 2 cells and the right split was the one I was on. Overall it was a fun chase and at least I didn’t get stuck in a ditch this time. 😉 I can’t wait to visit Oklahoma again, always seem to have good luck there.

Total Chase Miles: 1,950 miles

Stan Olson 2004, Chase Logs, Weather No Comments

May 29, 2004 – Chase to Northern Kansas

I had been waiting for this weekend all year as it was the only time during prime chase season that I’d have 3 days off work. After last weekend’s outbreak in the plains, I didn’t think this weekend could be as good. After sifting through all the models, forecast discussions, and the good ole gut feeling, I picked a target area of Salina, KS. (which I found out later that quite a number of other folks did as well!) Due to the fact that it was Memorial Day weekend, the SPC, NWS and the media were really stressing the severe weather possibilities. It appeared the plains were in the bulls-eye on Saturday and then the midwest on Sunday. My goal was to chase in Kansas on Saturday, then race back home early Sunday morning and chase in Illinois. I’ll save you the time of asking the question and just tell you that I am indeed insane. 😉

After loading up all the gear, I departed Champaign around 7:30am on Saturday morning. We had blue skies here with a very comfortable, almost chilly conditions. I knew that where I was going, it would be a lot more warm and humid. I took I-57 south to I-70 and made my journey to the west. During the drive, I periodically checked weather data to see what was going on. There appeared to be a decent cloud cover over Kansas which had me worried at first, but with later satellite updates I noticed those quickly dissipated throughout the morning. I also noticed the SPC had issued a high risk for a big portion of NE/KS/OK. I made a stop in Columbia, MO for some gas and lunch at McD’s and wondered why both were cheaper out there than it is here in IL. 😉 Anyway, I got back on I-70 and continued west to my target area. I passed through Kansas City around 2:30pm and was alerted of a PDS tornado watch for Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. (whew!)

I tried to gather as much data as I could as I went through Topeka as there is no Verizon coverage past there. Shortly after leaving Topeka, my chase pal Mike Cox text messaged me letting me know storms were starting to fire up NW of my target area. (wait for me!) Around 5:00pm I stopped in Salina, KS to fill up with gas. As I got out of the car, the insane 40-50mph winds grabbed my beloved Cubs hat and took it for a ride. I ran after it and recovered it, must have been anti-Cubs winds or something. I pulled off the side of the parking lot to call Mike and see what was going on with the weather. (he was chasing in Iowa/Missouri) There weren’t any tornado warnings out yet for my cells, but he said they were increasing in size.

While we were talking, I noticed my Wi-Fi card had connected to a wireless network. I thought it was someone’s personal network or something, but when I loaded up a browser it took me to a signup page for TruckStop.net. They were charging like $29.95 / month or something like that, but all I needed was an hour or day’s worth. I went through the signup procedure and discovered a day’s worth was only $5.95, cheap enough even for me! Once I put my info in there, I was on the internet. (yay, data!) I started looking at radar/satellite loops to see what was going on. We had several storms to my north and then had some firing up further south of me. Both areas were prime for big stuff, so I wasn’t sure which way to go. I finally decided to go north, that way I could follow the storms back home. I headed north on US 81 and heard a tornado warning for Cloud county, which was 2 counties north of Salina. As I got closer, I was hearing lots of reports on the scanner of large hail and tornadoes. (here we go!)

I entered Concordia, KS around 6:00pm and the weather radio went off for a tornado warning in Republic county which was due north of me. I headed a bit west on CR 350 and as I came down a hill, I could see a nice cell/wall cloud to my west. As I continue west, I start seeing a mothership-shaped cell that looked amazing. (I definitely knew I wasn’t in Illinois!) I attempted to get closer to it, but unfortunately the road network went to hell and started curving back to the north. I quickly turned around and headed back east. As I went around a curve heading south, I noticed the striations in the clouds to the west of me. At the same time, I heard law enforcement on the scanner reporting a tornado on the ground just north of Jamestown. Sure enough, I took a gander and saw a brief glimpse of the tornado (more of a funnel cloud from my viewpoint). I made my way back to US 81 and headed south towards Concordia again. I headed west on CR 360 and located another wall cloud to my WNW.

I turned north on CR 775 and went about 1/4 mile up the road and pulled off to watch the storm. At 6:27pm, a tornado was reported on the ground 3 miles west of Courtland, KS which was about 17 miles from my location. I observed a wall cloud for about 10 minutes, but it never did drop anything. I headed north on CR 775 and then west on SR 28 towards Jamestown. I zigzagged north and west a few miles and eventually ended up on CR 769 about 3 miles northeast of Jamestown. I was now witnessing damage that this tornado had caused including a nice lovely tree blocking my path to the north. I headed back south, then west, then north again and encountered more trees scattered across the road. I turned around again and attempted to find a better path around the damage. It was now 7:00pm and it was slowly starting to get darker, but still plenty of daylight.

I called Mike back and was giving him a few updates from my end. I said “between the damage scattered around and these darn muddy roads, it’s hard to get around.” He jokingly told me to not get stuck out in the middle of nowhere, which at the time I didn’t really think about too much. (if only I knew then what I know now!) 😉 Anyway, I headed back east on CR 352 and then south and the east again to SR 28. I made my way back into Concordia (I seem to be attracted to that town alot on this chase!) and then head back north on US 81. As I headed north, I encountered a horde of chaser convergence. Tour groups, caravans, antenna farms, you name it and I saw it. (most of them were all well off the road as to not cause any traffic problems) I got just south of Belleville and decided to head west on CR Q. I heard the scanner mentioning strong rotation west of Scandia which was just about 7 miles to my west. I could see a nice wall cloud but from my viewpoint I couldn’t see underneath it.

Around 7:40pm, I made my way to the intersection of CR 15 and CR R (4 mi SW of Belleville) to stop and shoot some video. There was a wall cloud visible to my NW which I focused on most of the time. Being smart this time, I got out the tripod and shot some video of the wall cloud. The rotation was pretty darn impressive and I kept seeing funnels trying to drop down during the event. As the wall cloud became rain-wrapped, I focused my attention on the usually boring scud junk that was in front of me. It was getting sucked up into the clouds and literally going in all directions. I continued watching the storm as it moved to the east towards Belleville. I could hear the tornado sirens from Belleville going off, so I was hoping everyone there was taking shelter. At 8:00pm I decided to get back in the car and attempt to follow it. These country roads were getting really mushy at this point, but seeing how I was just one lousy mile away from the highway I figured I’d have no problems.

I headed east on CR R and was doing fine till about half a mile down the road. I was going very slow and not turning much, but the road had a mind of its own. I started sliding to the right side of the road and almost hit a wire fence. Luckily where I was there was some grass, so I amazingly turned the wheels just right to get me out of that scary situation. At this point I attempted to back my way up the road. That was going pretty good until I got to the hill, then I lost traction again. This time I slid to the left side of the road and there was no chance of recovering this time. My luck had run out as no matter what I did, I wasn’t going anywhere. I got out of the car and instantly sunk several inches into the mud. (great, there goes that pair of shoes!) I walked around to the front of the car and the wheels were not even making contact with the ground. (this is the one time I really wish I’d gotten a gas guzzling vehicle with 4 wheel drive!)

I now faded back to the conversation I’d had with Mike just over an hour ago about not getting stuck. I decided to call him and confirm the news that I indeed had gotten myself in quite the predicament. 🙂 He gave me a couple numbers to try on my cell phone for assistance, but none of them worked. Given the amount of severe weather still in the area, I made the decision to call 911. It’s amazing I even got through to them given the amount of stuff that was going on. I told the dispatcher my location and requested a tow truck. She said they were very busy but would send someone out as soon as possible. (this was at 8:30pm) I waited an hour just listening to the scanner and weather radio, but never heard anyone dispatched. I called again at 9:30pm and 10:30pm, but no one ever showed up. Another line of severe storms had formed and was moving through at this point, so I was getting rather concerned about my safety. I had no access to weather data at this point, so I couldn’t tell how severe the storms were.

I decided to call 911 one more time at 11:30pm and they finally decided to send an officer out to my location. Due to the now soupy road conditions, the officer could not make it to my location. Had I not been listening on the scanner, I would have never made contact with him. I heard him call the dispatcher and tell her that he was not going to drive his vehicle down the road. Despite calling 4 times, the dispatcher did not have my cell phone number. I could see the guy’s lights flashing way up on the hill, so I decided to make the muddy rainy slip-n-slide walk up the road to meet with the officer. He was smoking a cigar and asked me what in the world I was doing out here. I shuttered to say ‘chasing storms’, but he didn’t really respond negatively to that. I asked him if he could get a tow truck out here, but he told me they were swamped and wouldn’t be able to get their big rig down this muddy road.

He considered using his 4×4 to pull me out, but said he’d never make it down there. He ran my license and then offered to take me into town (yes, the one just hit by a tornado which I’m assuming had no power) to spend the night. I declined and said I’d just sleep in my car as there was no way I was going to leave all my gear in my car. He wished me well and told me to avoid the mosquitos if I could. I thanked the officer and made my way back to the car.

I called Mike on the trek back and told him I’d be out here awhile. While I was on the phone, I noticed I couldn’t see my car lights on anymore. That’s all I needed now was the battery to be dead. A big sigh of relief came upon me when I noticed it was just a small hill (this road was full of them) blocking my view. After scraping as much mud off as possible, I climbed back in the car and let it run for awhile to charge the battery. The storms seemed to die down and move out of the area, so I felt rather relieved yet still very frustrated at the situation. I decided just to try and get some sleep then worry about a tow truck in the morning. I think I dozed off for a few hours, but woke up around 4:30am. I started the car again and tried backing out of the ditch, but still no go. At this point all I kept thinking about was missing out on the high risk back in Illinois.

I had to come up with something, so I decided to call the roadside assistance number that had been included with my new car purchase last year. I didn’t think anyone would even answer the phone, but sure enough they did. I gave the representative my location and all the details and she told me they’d have a tow truck to me in 60 minutes. I laughed on the inside as I knew there was no way in hell they’d get someone out there that quickly. 15 minutes later, the tow truck operator calls me to verify my location. Soon after that, I saw headlights coming down the road. I was hoping he wouldn’t get stuck as the road was still pretty muddy. He hooked me up to the truck and pulled me out of the ditch. I really didn’t realize how deep I was stuck in there, I must have sunk in quite a bit.

Anyway, he got me back on the road and asked me if I thought I could make it back to the highway. I was very skeptical that I could, but told him I’d try. I put the car in drive and proceeded towards the highway. I could feel the car wanting to dive back into the ditch, but I managed to keep it out and make it back to the pavement. I waited for him to meet me up there and I thanked him several times for getting me out of there. I was so happy to be mobile again and still having a chance to chase back in Illinois.

I headed south on US 81 around 6:00am and made my way back to Concordia. On the way, the car felt very loose in the steering. I was very concerned I’d damaged something under the car, so I decided to take a closer look. I pulled off at a car wash and gave the poor car a much needed bath. I’m not sure how many quarters I used, but it was quite a few! As I was washing, I noticed there was so much mud caked around the wheels and struts that it was causing the car to be loose. I diligently cleaned out as much mud as I could and then continued heading south on US 81.

Total Mileage: 1,575 miles

Stan Olson 2004, Chase Logs, Weather 1 Comment

May 24, 2004 – Chase in Champaign County

*This chase refers to May 24th, but my chase didn’t begin until the early morning hours of May 25th.*

Today wasn’t really looking too good for a chase around east central Illinois. The main show was back in northern Missouri and southern Iowa where the SPC had a high risk out. I watched in frustration at work as all these cells fired up and went tornadic, all the while hoping no one was getting injured or killed over there. As the day went on, the SPC seemed to keep shifting the high/moderate risks further to the east. Would the storms really hold together that far east, only time would tell.

As the late evening progressed, I noticed the storms were still sticking together as they made their way into Illinois. At 10:45pm (5/24), the SPC issued a tornado watch for central Illinois. (no sleepy for me!) The storms were starting to form into bow echoes as they made their way towards my area. I kept flipping back between WCIA-3 and WAND-17 as each of them broke in with live radar updates at such a late hour. I figured I wasn’t going to get any sleep with all the storms, so why not go out and see what these storms were packing.

I quickly packed up the gear and headed to the car around midnight. My plan was to head to the SW part of the county and intercept the line of storms. I made my way to CR 700E and 1000N and sat there for a few minutes. The weather radio went off at this time (1:20am) with a severe thunderstorm warning for Champaign county. It mentioned a severe thunderstorm over Sadorus, which I was just 4 miles from. It had quite a bit of lightning and rain, but not too much wind. I was quite surprised not to hear any spotter nets going at this time, so I chatted with my dad and a few other hams on the local ARES repeater. (if there was something out there, I’d let them know!) I headed west on 1000N and attempted to pull off the road to measure some wind speeds. I didn’t care for the incline of the road, so I attempted to pull back on the road but the car didn’t want to cooperate with me. The tires were spinning, but I wasn’t going anywhere.

At this point, I decided to just pull off the road even further into the grass and see if I could get any traction that way. (ah, my first off-road experience in the ZX2!) So after going a ways in the grass, I decided it was time to get back on the road. I floored it and made it up the hill back onto the road. (whew!) I then headed south on 300E and found a much more stable spot to pull off the road at. I stuck the anemometer on the roof and measured a peak gust of 43.7mph. I checked radar shortly after this and noticed things were dying out very quickly, which was fine by me given the late hour that it was. 😉 As I made my way back east on 1000N, I noticed some decent tree damage just south of the airport. I took a few pictures and continued on my journey back into town. I took the scenic route and noticed a few limbs down around Hessel Park in Champaign, but nothing blocking traffic. I continued north to Randolph and Healey where I noticed a tree that was completely blocking Healey.

Being the helpful chaser that I am, I decided I’d better call this in so the road crews could get it cleaned up before morning. So just around 2:20am, I called the non-emergency police number and reported the damage. A few minutes later, I heard my report go across the scanner as crews were dispatched to the scene. (I’m being a tad over dramatic, but this was pretty much the pinnacle of the chase!) I made it home around 2:30am where I quickly found my way to sleepyland to dream of future chases.

Final thoughts:
Well it wasn’t too bad of a chase for only going 40 miles in the wee hours of the morning! It was nice to see several TV stations breaking in throughout the night to stress the risk from these storms. (the radar was nice to look at too!) There were a few tornadoes embedded further south, so it was definitely worthy of a tornado watch.

Total Chase Time: 2.5 hours
Total Chase Miles: 40 miles

Stan Olson 2004, Chase Logs, Weather No Comments

May 23, 2004 – Chase in Central IL

After Saturday’s bustola in northern Illinois, I wasn’t sure if I was going to chase or not. I had considered finding a hotel in northern Illinois for a possible Sunday chase, but decided I’d just save the money and head home. Looking at the morning SPC Day 1 outlook revealed yet another moderate risk plastered over northern Illinois, Indiana, and southern Michigan. I was being rather lazy on Sunday morning, just glancing at the weather data when my buddy Darin called wanting to know if I was going to chase. Since he moved to southern Illinois, we haven’t had a chance to chase so I figured today would be a fine day to break that streak. He was at a friend’s in Decatur, so I decided to meet him in Bloomington and we’d go from there.

I departed Champaign around 10:30am and received word of a tornado watch for southern Illinois. (what in the world is going on here!) I didn’t think much of it and continued on my way. There was also a tornado watch out for northern Indiana and parts east of there, which also didn’t look the greatest. I met up with Darin at a McD’s in Bloomington and we gathered data on my slow cell phone connection. At the time, everything was still pointing to somewhere in northern Illinois. We were originally going to target somewhere south of I-80 between the Quad Cities and Peru. Around 12:30pm, I received word of a mesoscale discussion for NE MO/E.IA/W.IL regarding a potential tornado watch. They mentioned significant tornadoes and very large hail, so that quickly got our attention. Decision time… Do we keep to the north, or do we head towards western Illinois? We both agreed on the western Illinois area and picked our favorite hotspot of Macomb to target.

We headed south on US 51 and then headed west on RT 136. We were pretty much in grunge city the whole way over, but once we hit Macomb the skies cleared which gave us some hope of a good chase day. We pulled into a Walmart parking lot in Macomb around 2:30pm and sat there waiting for initiation. We sat there for quite awhile watching stuff go up and then die a quick death, evidence that the bloody cap was winning the battle. Around 3:30pm, I got a call on the ham rig from Mark Sefried and Scott Kampas saying they were coming into town. (they had just made the long journey back from Nebraska!) We all sat there watching the cap trying to break, but it seemed like it was never going to do so. Then we started noticing some decent stuff going up to our southwest. Radar confirmed this as stuff was firing up right along the IL/MO border and looked to be what we were waiting for. Just after 5:00pm, a tornado warning was issued for Scott county which was about 3 counties to our south.

Mark and Scott decided to take off for this cell as Darin and I continued to watch and wait. As we were waiting, I was wondering why my radio wasn’t talking and why the laptop was running off its own battery power instead of the inverter. I tried starting the car, but she was dead to the world. (well isn’t this just peachy…) Luckily, Darin had some jumper cables and we were able to get it going within a few minutes. After waiting a little longer, we decided that this was probably the main show so we should try to go after it. We departed Macomb around 5:30pm and headed south on US 67. I saw the one big storm in front of us and then noticed something further to the east trying to go up. We headed east-southeast on SR 125 and then south on SR 78 towards Jacksonville. We stopped for a few minutes just south of Virginia to shoot some stills and video of this decent looking supercell to our south.

As we were admiring this nifty cell, I got word of a tornado warning for Sangamon county which was the county to our east-southeast. (time to intercept this puppy!) We hopped on I-72 and headed east towards Springfield. We noticed a few lowerings/possible wall clouds to our south, but the contrast was too crappy to tell for sure. We were getting low on fuel, so we pulled off at exit 93 to get some gas. I checked radar real quick and noticed we were definitely getting closer to this cell, but wanted to head south a bit. I suggested to Darin that we hop on I-55 south and see if we couldn’t get a little closer to this thing. He agreed, so we hopped back on I-72 and then went south on I-55. I noticed a nifty rainbow under some mammatus clouds to my east and then saw the much darker skies to our south. (I really wasn’t trying to punch the core, honest!)

The rain was starting to pick up a bit at this point, so time to prepare for possible hail. While I was doing so, I noticed a massive string of vehicles on both sides of the road trying to take cover under an overpass. Some of the people were actually double parked extending onto the highway, which brought traffic to a halt. (I took some video of these misinformed citizens to share with NWS offices) Anywho, we continued south and started getting into some small hail, so I blinked my lights at Darin to take the next exit. We got off at the Auburn/Pawnee exit and headed for the Mobil station. We noticed a firetruck sitting there as well as a cop, so we weren’t sure what was going on. A firefighter came over to us and told us that a tornado was on the ground and to head south. Darin had gotten out of his car to get a closer look and the firefighter tried to get him to take cover in the Mobil station.

By this time I had already pulled out of the gas station and was waiting for Darin. After a few moments, he managed to get away from there and continue the chase. (maybe Darin needs more antennas on his car?) 😉 We headed a mile north and sat there while the rain pounded us with occasional bouts of very small hail. After about 5 minutes of that, we headed back south on I-55 to Farmersville. We stopped at a gas station and noticed a possible wall cloud to our west. There wasn’t much if any rotation to it, but it was still worthy of watching. We went just up the road to get a better view of this and sat there and watched it for a good 45 minutes. As it passed just to our north, we noted numerous temp/dew point shifts which reminded us of April 30, 2003. 🙂 At 8:45pm I heard the weather radio going off in the car, so I walked back to listen to the warning. It was a tornado warning for Christian county, which was the county to our east. (our cell, woo hoo!)

We followed it east into Christian county near Morrisonville, but it was quickly dying out as nighttime fell upon us. It was getting late, so we called it a chase and decided to seek out a place of food stuff. We got on SR 48 and headed northeast towards Taylorville. Darin got a phone call from Mark saying they were at some pizza joint in Taylorville, so that’s where we headed. Upon arrival to Angelos Pizza, we encountered quite a chaser convergence. We met up with Mark Sefried, Scott Kampas, Colin Davis, Andrew Pritchard, Dave (Andrew’s driver), and someone else who I can’t remember their name. (sorry!) We enjoyed some very good pizza and I took the leftovers home to enjoy another day. 😉 It was getting late as some of us had to work on Monday while others were planning their next chase target. I made my way to I-72 and headed back to Champaign, arriving around midnight.

Final thoughts:
Well it didn’t quite pan out as the outbreak the SPC was expecting, but it was a decent chase nonetheless for Illinois. 🙂 It was nice to chase with Darin again, hopefully we can get a few more in this year before the snow falls. (did I just say that?!) Thanks to the all the chasers at Angelos in Taylorville, nice to meet the ones I hadn’t met before!

Total Chase Time: 11.5 hours
Total Chase Miles: 385 miles

Stan Olson 2004, Chase Logs, Weather No Comments