2023Apr04pictures.html

April 4, 2023

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For the second time in a week, Ryan and I had an opportunity to chase storms. Like the Storm Prediction Center outlook from only a couple days ago, it showed two Moderate Risk areas where the greatest possibility of tornadic cells could occur.

We chose the northern target as supercells were forecast to initiate in daylight versus the nightfall initiation in the southern area. We headed northward around 9:30am. After a quick lunch in Hannibal, Missouri, we chose the city of Mount Pleasant, Iowa as our target city.

We sat in the city park for a couple hours waiting for things to develop. The only storms we saw were several cells that erupted out in Central Missouri. Storm parameters were optimized in far southeastern Iowa and adjacent western Illinois. Those storms raced to the northeast as we kept a watchful eye on them. With no other storm brewing, we finally made the decision to head toward the Mississippi River Bridges and as those storms neared, crossed over the bridge at Burlington.

We continued to work our way down on the east side of the storm cluster working to get in position on the southern most cell. That cell was the one that continuously remained the strongest. As we got into position on the southern end, the cell increased intensity quickly and rotation became very visible.

We had a wide open position and watched the area of rotation spin as it approached where we sat.

Although the spin was quite hard, the storm closed in on us and we had to bolt east, then north to stay ahead of the storm. At one point, when we looked back into the approaching wall cloud in the haze, we saw a tube stretch down to the ground.

Rain quickly wrapped around the tornado and we continued on. Eventually we lost the race to stay in front of the fast moving storm. We were far enough to the north of the tornado to be out of its path, but we found ourselves in the blinding rain and hail. Luckily, we encountered nothing larger than quarter size.

We now found ourselves on the backside of the storm as we emerged from the heavy rain and hail. Our goal was to follow and regain viewing position again. Wasn't log before Ryan shouts out "Tornado". He found the rope out stage and the end to the cycle of the tornado.

After the rope tornado met its demise, we moved eastward into Table Grove, Illinois and what we discovered is the town took a direct hit from this tornado and debris was everywhere blocking any access east.

Having to go way out of the way to the south to avoid blocked roads put us way behind the fast moving storm making any attempt at catching it impossible. We came across multiple areas of damage along its path. We also came across a wide area of hail from the size of golfballs up to the size of softballs (measured at 4").

After dark, we stopped for dinner in Havanna, Illinois at the Pizza Hut. After dinner, we dealt with some starting trouble with the car, but by a stroke of luck, a local guy drove up and helped solve our car starting problem and we headed home.