June 30, 2014 Double Derechos
This event was a very highly anticipated one. A Moderate Risk was in place with 15% tornado probabilities in southeast Iowa and 5-10% probabilities into northern Illinois. It appeared possible that a few strong tornadoes and an intense derecho would be a significant threat to those in Iowa and Illinois. This day was a "pretty colors" kind of day, where several parameters were maxed out such as EHI and supercell composite. Plently of shear, instability, and helicity was in place. Perfectly looping hodographs. However, it appeared that storm mode may remain linear. The hype train had sucked everyone in again.
This day we were actually contemplating leaving our typical chase area (of a measly 6 or 7 counties) to take a trip to the outflow boundary in southeast Iowa. However, we decided against it in fear that nothing supercellular would take shape, a decision we wouldn't regret. However, the squall line roaring across eastern Iowa quickly became the feature of interest. Once it crossed the Mississippi River, the apex of the bow appeared to be riding I-88. We pulled the trigger and took the 45 minute haul up I-39 to Rochelle. Once we got there, the line which was producing 80 MPH winds less than an hour ago was likely only producing 40 MPH winds. The southern portion, which was headed to the area back where we started, had gone severe warned. Crap. Now we had to drive ALL the way back to where we started.
We arrived in Peru about 20 minutes ahead of the line, which featured a pretty strong velocity couplet over Bureau County at the time. I was surprised the Quad Cities NWS didn't issue a tornado warning on it. Chasers such as Adam Lucio were right up next to it. He was probably seeing something interesting. In the meantime, my Dad asked if he could take a short, "5 minute" trip into Menards. I didn't see any harm in it as long as he took the designated 5 minutes. Well, nearly TWENTY minutes later, he comes out the door with 6 bundles of freakin' hardwood flooring. Crap! Why on EARTH would you think NOW is the time for your FLOORING NEEDS?! Needless to say I was ticked off. The black shelf on the front of the line was rapidly moving in, and it had an eerie fluorescent green glow underneath it. It was the most incredible and scary storm structure I'd ever seen. But I couldn't snap any pictures or take any video because we were loading freakin' flooring into the back of the Blazer we use as a chase vehicle. In the process we managed to snap the head off of my anemometer. CRAP! And by the time we were pulling out of the Menards parking lot, 50-60 MPH winds and blinding sheets of rain were slamming us. CRAP! CRAP! CRAP!!! This stupid and unnecessary setback probably just cost us the chase.
The only road option we had to catch back up was I-80. Driving down an interstate during severe weather is a nightmare. Flustered semi drivers are gunning it trying to get away from the storms, as were members of the public. We actually did manage to get back ahead of the line, but I knew it wouldn't last long. Ottawa and its rush hour were only a few miles ahead. Surely traffic would end the chase.
Looking south, I noticed some low hanging features I'm 100% sure were scud, but there was one feature that dipped down, formed a cone shape, almost touched the ground, arguably kicked up some dust for a second or two, then lifted, all in a period of 10-15 seconds. Also, there were green patches in the sea of red in velocity mode in the vicinity, so this may have been indicative of maybe some mesovorticies. Even with all of this, I highly doubt it was a tornado. It was just too sketchy of a situation to be very believable. An interesting feature, but likely an insignificant one.
A few minutes, later, we finally arrived in Ottawa. The same black shelf with its eerie green glow were looming in the distance. And, as I had anticipated, traffic was horrible. Every light: RED. People driving eradically because of the frightening skies. Even though this didn't yield much in the way of pictures or video, my dash cam caught a very hectic scene with cars scattering everywhere and a monster about to engulf everything. The situation got even more hectic when the winds started whipping again. Now we had panicked drivers, a scary (and very impressive) whale's mouth, and trees whipping, garbage flying. The dash cam footage was fantastic.
We eventually got out of Ottawa and were now racing east on Route 6 to get to Marsailles. We got there, and the exact same scene minus the panicked drivers unfolded. Stuff was flying everywhere. Mainly garbage, but some lawn furniture was as well. We drove by an apartment complex to watch someone's door rip open with a winds gust and basically disintergrate into several pieces. The dash cam was pointed in the opposite direction of that door, so of course I missed filming it. But the power of wind I got to see that day was incredible.
Headed home, we stopped in Ottawa to see if there was any damage. One portion of town actually had substantial tree damage so I decided to shoot some B-roll type footage.
Later on in the evening, another squall line in northwestern Illinois strengthened and impacted my home in Putnam County. I didn't get any footage worth a darn because it was dark, but these storms packed 40-50 MPH winds. As they pushed east, they caused significant wind damage and multiple tornadoes in the Chicago area. Among towns hit by tornadoes were Earlville and Plainfield.
Lessons learned: 1) Chasing is NOT the time for shopping!
2) Don't get caught in a populated area during a chase.
3) The interstate is only a last resort or if there is ample time ahead of a storm.
