CheeselandSkies

Already took next Wednesday off to keep open the possibility of chasing Tuesday afternoon...even before what I saw yesterday.

Uploaded an unlisted quick cut to my YouTube channel. Now off to bed.

What a day. Intercepted an ongoing wedge tornado at Iowa Highway 92/77 just south of Keota right around 4 PM. After watching it approach for a few minutes (pointing my car ready to blast off if it looked like I was gonna be in the path) the storm cycled right in front of me. A small but intense area of rotation formed out in front of the first tornado, tightening into a truncated cone with a dusty debris cloud whirling below. It quickly became fully condensed, albeit shrouded in dust (almost looking like a clone of Gilmore City, IA from last April, which I missed despite being within striking distance of the storm when it first went severe-warned). These are the two video screenshots included here, thanks to attachment limits. It then went through a rapid intensification and several changes in appearance, becoming a narrow drillbit which expanded into a dusty stovepipe. An explosion of debris ensued as it impacted some structures while crossing 92 just to my west. @andyhb has seen the screenshot I posted on TalkWeather. As it passed into an open field just to my northwest, the tornado was now a stubby, dusty wedge beneath a ridiculously low-LCL, sculpted tornado cyclone/collar cloud (not unlike some of the April 27, 2011 tornadoes, except this one could actually seen without intervening hills and trees!). The rope out of the first wedge was actually still on-going at this time, I didn't even notice it in real time but captured it by happy accident as the strong inflow wind (to my at-the-time annoyance) panned my camcorder off the new wedge. At this point I realized I'd better move if I wanted any hope of staying with the fast-moving storm. I blasted east on 92 all the way to IA-1, where I turned north. I pulled over to set up again just after getting through Kalona, but just as I did so the cell began to be affected by surrounding upscale growth. I was able to catch a distant view of the fast-moving rope out from this location. This is my kind of chasing. No zero-metering for me. If the tornado didn't kill me, either my mother or my wife would.

With overnight/morning trends I"m strongly leaning towards retargeting to somewhere between I-80 and I-74 in IL instead of going to Iowa; looking like initiation will be further west and earlier in the latter state, increasing the likelihood that the discrete mode will have ended by the time I can intercept after leaving work at noon. CAM solutions suggest IL should have an hour or two longer before CI.

00Z has it too, but it then turns it into round 1 of potential supercells across IL, and fires another round behind that. Iowa looks a lot less impressive (at least purely in terms of simulated discrete convection with strong UH) this run compared to previous ones, though.

What a way for MKX to start their afternoon AFD...

@SchaumburgStormer Gotta include the one with updraft helicity for full geddon effect.

I've noticed that, too...I may be remembering wrong but I think the most active discussion thread on this forum during the April 27, 2011 outbreak was in TN Valley...even though that technically only covers far northern AL...even though in my mind "the Southeast" has always included all the former Confederate states except Texas.

Actually, the hodographs/wind barbs on the forecast soundings (with less clockwise curvature/veering with height than I'd like) remind me of two setups last year...one of which produced a violent, long-track discrete supercell tornado, and the other did not (but still produced strong embedded/QLCS tornadoes). 3/5 and 5/30.

Lots more instability up into the Midwest than the NAMs, although the hodographs are surprisingly fairly straight, at least early on, in the face of such a powerhouse low. Any thoughts as to why that might be? ...oh, and of course, a simulated supercell into the Chicago area.

06Z GFS actually slows down the trough ejection to the point where Wednesday 4/5 might end up being the bigger day verbatim...not unlike a certain past event recently discussed on another forum. Same days of the week, too.

Yeah @andyhb that 3CAPE is a big red flag screaming "CHASE THIS!"

Also notable that the 00Z NAM forecast dewpoint in east-central Iowa for 21Z tomorrow is 7 degrees. In 48 hours that's supposed to be nearly 60. In fact, last couple of NAM runs (especially 00Z) suggesting the northern end of this setup might struggle with moisture return moreso than previously thought. That cold high pressure tomorrow is really gonna wipe it out. OTOH it is the NAM so... And the precip fields even appear to be popping an arc of semi-discrete convection in that classic sweet spot just southeast of the surface low.

18Z GFS getting the low down to 979MB on the IA/MN border at 21Z Friday. Just southeast of the triple point in east-central Iowa is a pretty screamingly obvious target, square in the left exit region of the mid-level jet. For some reason low-level backing isn't stellar despite the powerhouse low. 18Z NAM, surprisingly, is more progressive and somewhat weaker initially but deepens the low from 21Z to 00Z with better low-level shear, with the target right over MBY into north-central IL. MKX remaining noncommittal, understandable at this point given the usual uncertainty with warm fronts in this region this time of year.

One interesting thing about that CFS map, there are cold anomalies in the West as well. So it's not the usual pattern of a locked in Hudson Bay vortex/PV lobe pouring cold air into the Lakes/East while the West bakes.

OH MY GOD the 12Z GFS at FH204 (00Z 4/5). Almost made me forget about this coming Friday. @andyhb@Chicago Storm

3/28/20 do-over?

Looking at Friday as my first chase day of the year. Hope it doesn't trend too much further west, as I have work till noon and will have been up since 2AM (3AM start). I believe the 5-hour positioning drive immediately after my shift clouded my decision-making last April 12th, contributing to me missing the Gilmore City tornado despite being like 10 miles from the storm when it first went severe-warned.

The HRRR lost its cluster of simulated long-track, warm sector sups with phat red UH streaks for a few runs in the mid-morning. Just speculation on my part but I think it was confused by the moisture mixing out and whether the later mass response/LLJ would be enough to recover from that. The 17Z run is back to suggesting several long-track, cyclic sups capable of families of EF3+ from LA/AR into MS this evening.

Same guy @Chinook posted the video from. I enjoy his videos as he generally forecasts without hyperbole unlike Weed Trimmer or Ryan Hall.

So does 18Z GFS. East-central IL at 21Z 3/31. Still a long ways out but it's nice to see something on the board.

Ik,r?

Only downside is periodically losing everything to a 130kt+ hurricane, and your insurance refuses to pay out because the industry would collapse if they did. Although Tampa seems pretty safe...Ian was always either gonna take the path it did or meander in the northern Gulf and limp into the Big Bend as a sheared barely-hurricane, so because the Tampa area lay between those extremes it was center of the cone for a while.

What else is new? lol

Long range Goofus loves cold so much, I've been tempted to ask why doesn't it marry it?