We awake in Quincy, Illinois after a successful chase yesterday.  The Storm Prediction Center has forecasted a Moderate risk of severe storms with a 15% hatched area of level 2 intensity.

Ryan and I chose our initial target in southeastern Iowa as the storms were forcasted to initiate in southeastern Iowa or northwestern Illinois.  Upon reaching Mount Pleasant, Iowa, we took notice of some morning storms moving out of that area.  Those storms piqued our interest just enough to make our decision to follow them.  So we crossed over the Burlington, Iowa bridge back into Illinois taking Highway 34 east, 67 south, then 116 east following one of these storms to just north of Fairfield, Illinois.  At that point, we let the storm pass right overhead.  Nothing to report other than a barrage of cloud to ground lightning bolts, some at close range.

With time to spare before repositioning for the later show, we moved north to Galesburg, Illinois for lunch.  A review of the data took Iowa out of the target area and shifted everything into Illinois and further south.  As we began to see individual cells develop in a line to the west, we took note that the southern storm got a rather quick Tornado warning on it.

We made the decision to head for the southern most cell in the broken line.  We drove back west on Highway 34, then south on Highway 67 toward McComb, Illinois. 

When we reached McComb, we moved west on Highway 136 to meet the storm around the town of Tennessee, Illinois.  We were now in position to have a view into the rotating part of the storm.  For a very brief time, we witnessed a funnel come down.  We did not see it make contact with the ground although others around it say it did.

As the storm continued its trek eastward, we stayed out in front of it stopping at various times to take another look.  The storm continued to show good rotation, but could not put down a Tornado.

Near the town of Ipava, Illinois, a cell out in front this one we were following was moving north and on a collision course with the cell coming out of the west.