June 26, 2021

Tornadic supercells got going on the I-39 corridor by late morning on this event, and I was already missing the show before I was even ready for the day. Parameters looked favorable in the afternoon closer to home so I decided to play that instead. I headed off developing cells at Jacksonville where I promptly lost data due to the Verizon hole. I had to call Brindley for a nowcast, and she informed that there was a tornado warning in progress on a cell immediately to my southwest. I went in for the intercept, coming upon a big RFD gust front. This view looking north at an occluded horseshoe shaped updraft base would be the best structure I’d see for the day. I tracked the storm north of Springfield through the squirrely roads along the Sangamon River as the cell lost its structure. When I hit I-55, the next cell down the line went tornado warned, and I dropped south for what should have been an easy intercept. My timing was a little off as I caught the storm near Williamsville and I wound up in the core without much of a view, and was even dodging a rain wrapped Bear’s Cage for a bit.

I tried to work the tornado warned HP supercell all the way toward Champaign, getting ahead of it and in the notch briefly near Clinton, but never really managed to catch anything for the effort besides a rainy gust front. The cell looked like it was falling apart while new tornado warnings were popping up on a north south line along I-57. I tried to punch through the line on the grid, but wasn’t making any headway, and was risking hydroplaning, so I decided to give up the chase. These pretty rain bands in a sunbeam on the way home were the most photogenic part of the day.