Day 3 rolled around, and still, both the NAM and GFS were showing a very significant severe weather/tornado outbreak was on par for Monday. SPC quickly got a hold of this and issued a Day 3 Enhanced area over Michigan and Wisconsin with the mentioning of strong tornadoes. So, of course my excitement level is beginning to rise.
Throughout this whole forecast, models were having a hard time getting a grip on where exactly this event was going to take place. But, one thing was clear, something big was coming.
The day had finally come, it was time for a chase day and what would likely be the last day of the season. I decided to leave right after work and get a jump start, so I can find some where to sleep before the big chase. But, I still had a big decision to make. Michigan, or Wisconsin? Both looked like significant areas for severe weather and tornadoes. But both had major issues. Not to mention a 100 mile across lake that kind of stood in our way leaving us unable to adjust. I took one last look at models as I was on my way to Chicago where I had planned to sleep for the night and decided on the Wisconsin target.
Everyone waited eagerly for the Day 1 outlook including myself as I refreshed the page about 100 times while driving through Indiana. Finally, it was out and a 10% hatched area was placed over Southeast Wisconsin. and extreme northern Illinois. Right over my target area of Rockton, Illinois.
After arriving in Rockton just before the sun came up, I grabbed a couple hours of shut eye and awoke to gray gloomy skies and a raging MCS with tornado warnings on it back in Iowa and Wisconsin moving right my way -_-. Was this going to be yet another day where parameters were amazing and ruined by early morning rain? Time would tell! As I waited in a Casey's parking lot most of the morning I kept seeing wind reports of 80-100mph winds coming from the morning MCS. It baited me out, as I was bored, had lots of time, and couldn't sleep. I scurried over to near Orangetown, Wisconsin and waited for it to approach. I was soon overtaken by a crappy looking shelf cloud and was only hit with 20mph winds. I wondered, did I really over shoot this thing by that much? Nope! The MCS died faster than I have ever seen one die before.
I made it back to Rockton and parked at a Taco Bell for some lunch and took a look at Mesoanalysis. I noticed two things. One, was an outflow boundary draped from Davenport, Iowa into Illinois and back over to Des Moine, Iowa. I also noticed that the parameters were beginning to make a southerly trend. I texted my friends Alec and Stephen saying "Wouldn't surprise me if we end up heading South today". Sure enough, the new outlook came out and the highest tornado area had shifted South to the exact areas I had been eyeing. You know what else changed? The hatched area for tornadoes was gone -_-. With rain seeming to linger forever, and severe warned elevated storms in Iowa at 3pm I was beginning to think we were end for a hard bust. I originally was going to station in Rochelle, Illinois. A town a despise after missing the gorgeous, violent tornado there in April. But high res models showed isolated storms firing along the Iowa/ Illinois border along the OFB. So I met up with some of my best friends Alec Scholten, Stephen Jones, and Jason Cooley in Sterling (where I had just been a week before) to discuss the forecast.
We noticed clearing and a CU field going up in central Iowa with a pocket of 5,000 cape working its way North. We agreed to keep trekking West and found ourselves sitting at the Iowa I-80 truck stop where we bumped into Ben McMillan and the Iowa Storm Chasing Network crew. At this point, I was really beginning to lose hope as it was now going on 4pm with a high stratus deck and light rain falling. Storms finally initiated South of Des Moine and we patiently waited in Iowa City picking our move. The storm was struggling to get organized, but it was the only game in town, and it was also over 100 miles away. We would make it to just Southwest of Washington, Iowa before calling off the chase and turning around towards a developing storm near the outflow boundary and with better backed winds. At this point, I thought 100% for sure we are going to bust now. We missed a strong tornado on the southern storm and the rest of the storms looked like garbage. We unfortunately lost Alec and Jason in Washington from a detoured road and they didn't know we turned around. They continued South as we fled North.
We made it to just South of Muscatine, Iowa and got our first glimpse of the "storm". On radar, this storm looked like absolute junk. But in person, it looked fantastic! There was a huge RFD gust front, clear slot, and alligator mouth feeding into the wall cloud. I almost thought there was a large tornado on the ground. But I could see just above the tree line to notice there was no kind of funnel.
Our storm began to look like complete garbage after this, and I thought it was done for. But, it was just going through its first cycle. What made it worse? There was now a tornado warning and confirmed tornado headed directly for where I parked my car! I am beyond furious at this point, and there were tornado warnings to our North and South. But NONE for where we were. Our storm was closest to the boundary and it was not doing anything!
Angry, we fly East into Illinois and well out ahead of the storm to sit and see if our storm was going to do anything. It was this storm or bust for us, as both others were out of range. After bumping into Ethan Schisler and Kholby Martin I had a sense of Deja Vue. An ominous lowering appears out of the rain and begins to swirl. I was having flashbacks to Clinton, Iowa as it looked identical to what I saw just before seeing an EF1 tornado. I knew it was going to happen, so I get back onto the road and in a clearing and waited for the show.
3 minutes, 30 seconds later......tornado on the ground! So much frustration, so much anger, all gone!
I was expecting this tornado to be it and for it to quickly die off. But, I look back and it had grown, and it grew fast! The tornado was now almost a quarter mile wide paralleling us!
As Stephen was trying to get me to stop, I was attempting to find a spot out ahead of the tornado where we could park and watch it approach. Suddenly, my heart sank. We entered the town of Edgington and I parked in the High School parking lot. I was filming a large, wedge tornado with no sirens going off. I thought for sure this tornado was going to impact, and obliterate the town and thought I would have a horrific front row seat.
But, the town didn't get away that easily. Impact! The tornado grazes the southern fringe of Edgington as I watch debris fly high up into the air and power lines begin to explode.
Tornado flings debris and roofs into the air
We quickly scramble to get back into position. This is when we get our close range intercept! As we quickly catch back up to the tornado a barn explodes into pieces!
We round our friends Ethan and Kholby here, and boom! Power lines explode and power poles snap and a crazy vorticie shoots across the field next to us! Absolutely amazing close range intercept!
Power Poles now explode and sway back and forth.
We followed the tornado for a couple minutes longer before it lifted. We decided to call the chase as it was getting dark and wanted to get our footage and photos up as fast as possible.
Conclusion:
This was my second best chase of the year, and the best footage I have captured in my chasing career, and is the closest I have been to a very visible tornado in my chasing career! Days like this are why I absolutely love storm chasing. Just when you think the day is over, nature throws you a bone. You go the whole day not knowing what to expect and hope to be surprised and boy we sure were! Patients paid off this day big time. This tornado was rated EF2.
Footage from the chase.
