Summary: Dashed into Iowa to catch isolated, but elevated storms with prolific hail cores. Got cored with hail up to ping pong ball size before night fell and storms transitioned to linear mode. Stats: Tornadoes: 0 Hail: 1.50″ (Ping Pong) Wind: n/a The Forecast: Strong baroclinic zone setup with quasi-stationary boundary draped across the midwest. [...]
Summary: Went after initial severe storm development close to target area before they moved into bad Ozark terrain. Abandoned initial storms for new round of cold front storms to the south before those died. Called chase, had dinner and left for home. Stats: Tornadoes: 0 Hail: .50″ (Dime) Wind: n/a The Forecast: Deep [...]
Summary: Played storms that developed north of triple point boundary getting some brief bouts of hail, elevated structure and blowing RFD dust. Stats: Tornadoes: 0 Wind: n/a Hail : 1.00″ (quarter – officially severe.) The Forecast: Another marginal day. Similar setup to day before, but with sharpening dryline now forecast to move east instead of [...]
Summary: Gambled with day before the day potential cap bust, and lost. Stats: Tornadoes: 0 Wind: n/a Hail: 0.00″ Storms: 0 The Forecast: Initial piece of progressive trough moving into the plains. Ample moisture was finally in place creating strong instablity for early April standards. Forcing along a retreating dryline was weak at best. Cap [...]
After a brutal winter dominated by frequent visits from the dreaded polar vortex, and more snow days for kids than parents probably cared to deal with, spring has been slow to arrive. While meteorological spring begins on March 1st, the equinox (the actual start of spring) isn’t set to arrive for a few more days. [...]
Well, today the first official thunderstorms for 2014 in Chicago go into the books. As I’ve done in the past, here is a blog of the event. This year, like 2011 and 2010 it came in the form of thunder-SNOW, instead of the thunderstorms we’re typically used to seeing in spring. The Chicago area seems [...]
Facebook weather pages are a popular source of information, but it is important to understand the nature of the posts being made. I run a page on facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/TornadoChasing which serves two main purposes. The main purpose is to showcase my work as a storm chaser and the other is to spread weather information and forecasts [...]
Summary: Intercepted several severe warned storms noting photogenic rain bands, several gustnadoes as well as possible tornado we could never get confirmation from. Called chase early to begin long drive home for work obligations the next day just as storm goes tornado warned, giving us all brief heart attacks. Stats: Tornadoes: 0 Hail: 0.50″ Wind: [...]
Summary: Drove around most of the day, re-adjusting target for miniscule parameters in hopes of initiation before catching a brief glimpse of a dying, non severe storm as the sun set. Stats: Tornadoes: 0 Hail: .00″ Wind: n/a The Forecast: Large expansive warm sector ahead of slow moving trough. Ample instability under modest flow along [...]
Summary: Chased late season high risk outbreak in local turf catching the large, long tracked and unfortunately deadly EF-4 tornado that tore through Washington Illinois. Stopped to perform search and rescue before resuming chase catching a distant view of a second tornado near Dana, IL. Called chase once storms got too far ahead and had [...]
Connect via Social Media!