April 11, 2019

Statistics

Initial Target
Start
End
Storm Intercepts
Tornadoes
Hail
Wind
Features
Miles
Quad Cities, IA
Lincoln, NE 7:03 AM 4/11/2019
Springfield, IL 11:53 PM 4/11/2019
None
0
0"
0 mph
Elevated Updraft Base, Rainbow
764

Summary

Marginal warm front play in western Illinois. Storms failed to materialize beyond some elevated showers.

Crew and Equipment

Chase partners: David Oxley. Equipment: Sony AX100, Samsung S9.

Video

Map

Details

From my mornign chasecast:

"Heading toward Quad Cities, attempting to play the cold core end of this. HRRR suggests a couple lines of storms, one passing eastern IA and northern IL in the morning, which will likely be initially elevated. Second line looks to develop atop low in western Iowa arcing across Iowa into northern Illinois. Hoping to pick up a low topped supercell as it approaches the warm front in vicinity of Quad Cities near 20z, tracking into northern Illinois by 22z. Brief tornado possible as storms cross warm front, now forecast along the I-80 corridor. 1000 SBCAPE with low 50s dews is marginal, but with cold air aloft, hoping for steep lapse rates and 0-3k CAPE compensating. Storms. WIil be small and low topped."

Elevated Shower
Viola, IL
1:44 PM
David Oxley was sponsoring me for the 2019 Chicago Marathon with a donation to the ALS Society of Greater Chicago. He signed up for a single chase, but the day before was pretty lackluster and there was another marginal opportunity on the way home, so I wanted to give it another shot. We hoped to catch a low topped storm on the Illinois warm front.

Elevated Bases
Viola, IL
3:51 PM
Instability was meager with a socked in warm sector. We watched some elevated yet pretty bases in Viola, IL before relocating to the Galesburg Airport to get right on the frontal boundary.

Afternoon Warm Front Position
1 miles NNW of Cameron, IL
4:51 PM
SPC shrank the 2% tornado probability to a tiny stretch of the Illinois warm front on the afternoon outlook. As the day progressed, hopes faded for a storm chase.

Rainbow
Langley, IL
6:35 PM
Nothing more than a few showers materialized, most of them baseless by the time we passed them. A pretty rainbow on the drive home was our only consolation prize. I dropped David off with family in downtown Chicago before making the trek back to Springfield the same night.

Conclusion

I wish I could have gotten David a better storm, but hopefully he had a good time, learned something worthwhile, and still saw some interesting sights on the Plains. When you schedule in advance, however, winding up with a solid couple of bust days is just part of the game.

Lessons Learned


Follow On The Web!
Storm Chasers Giving Back!

Webpage, graphics, photos, and videos © Skip Talbot or respective owner 2018.
skip.talbot@gmail.com Skip's Webzone