April 2, 2025
Statistics
Initial Target
Start
End
Storm Intercepts
Tornadoes
Hail
Wind
Features
Miles
Curran, IL
Springfield, IL 2:36 PM 4/2/2025
Springfield, IL 3:54 PM 4/2/2025
Curran, IL
0
0"
0 mph
Gustnado, Gust Front
43
Summary
Local chase of an extreme shear, low CAPE event intercepting severe warned cell close to home with prominent gust front and gustnado.
Crew and Equipment
Solo chase. Equipment: Sony AX100, Canon 60D with EFS 10-22, Samsung S9.
Video
Details
I elected not to chase the main risk area of this event due to storm mode and location. Extreme shear, low instability and the Ohio River Valley is not an ideal combination, yielding fast moving cells while contending with trees and river crossings. A small, unwarned shower went over the house in the warning. I was surprised to see it going through the motions of a supercell cycle with a spiral shaped updraft and tiny RFD notch before it gusted out. With 500 effective SRH every updraft was trying to do it no matter how small.
A warned cell that was discrete enough to chase approached the house from the west so I decided to go after it.
The warned line was kicking gustnadoes over the dry fields. One of them got stretched into the lead edge of the shelf cloud as the gust front approached my location. Looking south at the feature, it very much looked like a tornado and could have easily fooled spotters. I'm pretty sure it was a non-tornadic outflow feature, however.
Conclusion
This was an extremely localized and impromptu chase with no real expectations, so the interesting gustnado feature made the day for me.
Lessons Learned
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