April 17, 2026    
(Click on images to enlarge them)

This was projected to be a non-chase day as storms were forecasted to be in our area after dark.  My son Ryan and I had discussed the options and despite the threat, decided the best daylight storm parameters were too far away to warrant a long drive.  The Storm Prediction Center put out a Moderate Risk with an emphasis on straight line wind and large hail.  The tornado threat was greatest further north.  Our area had an Enhanced Risk of severe storms with a 5% Tornado Risk, 5% Hail Risk, and a 10%, Intensity One Wind Risk.



The afternoon begins as I'm waiting for my wife, Sally, to return home from an outing with her friends.  When she arrived home, the plan was to head out to dinner.  As I'm waiting, I check the radar and see storms had unexpectedly fired to the southwest.

On any normal day, I'm not going out of my way to take a look at these storms, but Sally and I are heading out that way for dinner any way, so I place this in our planned dinner trip.  She arrives back home and I hustle her into the car. Unbeknownst to her, there was now something more than just dinner planned.
We head out and I fill her in on the plan to intercept the approaching storms.  Tornadoes were not a part of the plan with these storms, but getting in a spot to see some hail was the hope.  We traveled out Interstate 70 into St. Charles County, Missouri, but the rush hour traffic came to a near standstill, so we exited and worked our way over to Interstate 370, then north on Highway 79.  The plan was to intercept the strongest of the storm cell as it crossed Highway 79.  As we approached the storm, it became severe warned.



We made our way up Highway 79 to an intercept point near Old Monroe, Missouri and had the now, two severe warned storms overtake us.  Our hope to see hail faded as the storm went by producing no hail and nothing extreme in wind velocity. 





With the storms now past us and moving into Illinois, we turned the car around and returned for our original plan of a quiet, relaxing dinner. 


On a side note, this same storm we let go by us at Old Monroe did some major wind damage at my sister's house 6 miles to the southwest of Old Monroe, near Flint Hill, Missouri.  My sister had the neighbor's patio cover laying upside down in her back yard taking out part of her backyard fence.  It also shifted her own pergola off of the patio.  Many other items were blown all around the neighborhood.






Travel Log
1.5 Hours  -  55 Miles
Click on the link below to see video of some of these storms.
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