Summary: Chased early season setup intercepting several tornado/severe warned line segments noting areas of rotation and a few funnels but could never confirm any tornadoes. Stats: Tornadoes: 0 Hail: 0.00″ Wind: < 58mph The setup: Strong, seasonal speed shear as a deep trough plowed into the midwest coupled with record warmth as far north as [...]
The nation is gearing up for its first potential widespread severe weather event to take shape on Tuesday the 29th. As such, I am preparing for an early season chase. A quick look at SPC shows a very large risk for severe thunderstorms, especially across the lower MS river valley where a moderate risk is [...]
Attempted to shoot the Geminids on the morning of December 14th 2012. This was my first time messing around with a DSLR, so while not perfect, I am certainly pleased with the results. I definitely need to get ahold of one of these before chase season 2013.
Summary: Got on severe storm in Iowa with cool structure but no severe weather, called chase and detoured for new outflow driven storms in Illinois with huge dust clouds along the gust front. Stats: Tornadoes: 0 Hail: .50″ (dime) Wind: est 55-60mph outflow. Detailed Account: Today seemed to have less potential [...]
It seems that during one of the worst droughts in decades, the only way the area around Chicago can get rain is by getting pounded with severe storms. Tuesday morning’s round of severe weather was no surprise to many. Impressive parameters for severe storms were noted hours before they actually arrived. With the record heat [...]
Storms erupted to life once again the morning of Sunday, July 1st for the Chicagoland area thanks to a gravity wave caused by collapsing storms in Iowa colliding with a frontal boundary that has been wobbling across the area the past couple days. The image below shows how it all happened. Click for full size. [...]
After a March that was generously warm (The warmest on record in many locations.) Much of the midwest is now under siege by an intrusion of colder air. Freeze Warnings are posted for all the locations in this map. While we were certainly spoiled by the March warmth, such occurrences of cold this year are [...]
The forecast for storm initiation due to weak forcing is still the big issue with todays setup. Shear is there, and instability (albeit in a very narrow corridor) is also there. The big fly in the ointment continues to be the lack of any real appreciable forcing. There is not much of a wind shift [...]
For the second day in a row, both Chicago and Rockford have broken their record highs. From the NWS: RECORD EVENT REPORT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CHICAGO IL 120 PM CDT THU MAR 15 2012 …RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE SET AT CHICAGO-OHARE AIRPORT… AS OF 1 PM…THE HIGH TEMPERATURE OF 77 DEGREES AT CHICAGO OHARE AIRPORT SET A [...]
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