After yesterday’s rain/lightning chase, I was wondering what today would bring. Of course there’s nothing like waking up to a high risk of severe weather! All the ingredients looked to be in place for a potential outbreak. Already at 8:00am there was a tornado in E. KS, so I figured it was going to be a long day. I packed up the gear and headed out at 11:30am. I took I-74 and then hopped on US 136 and headed west. During this time, a tornado watch was issued for central/western Illinois warning of possible 4″ hail and 90mph winds! I continued west until reaching Rushville, and then I headed north on US 67.
I made it to Macomb around 2:30pm and noticed some storms firing up to my northwest. I continued north on US 67 and then received a severe thunderstorm warning for the county to my north! I pulled off about 3 miles north of Roseville, IL to let it pass. I never encountered anything more than heavy rain though. This thing was moving at 55mph, so there was no way I was going to catch up with it. I headed back south on US 67 and stopped in Beardstown to take a look at the data. I talked to a few chasers that were in Jacksonville and they said they were giving up and going home. There were still storms in Missouri headed our way, so I wasn’t about to give up just yet.