June 21, 2026    
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As my son Ryan and I prepared for this day's storm adventure, we were planning on a chase relatively close to home with only a slim hope of finding a storm with Tornado potential.  We would find this day far exceeded our expectations.  The Storm Prediction Center put out a Slight Risk for severe storms with a 5% , Intensity 1 forecast for Tornadoes.

We left the house about 1:00 in the afternoon with the idea of going into Illinois on Interstate 64.  As we were leaving, a storm to our southwest caught our eye that had minor rotation, so we looped around St. Louis on Interstate 270 to meet it.  The storm had very heavy rain as we drove through it, but the rotation never intensified.

We made our way east on I-64 and decided to hold in O'fallon, Illinois.  We grabbed some lunch and browsed through current data and watched the radar.  We were expecting storms to fire to our west and come toward us, but we saw a storm intensifying to our northeast and watched it become Tornado warned.  We debated for a few minutes about going after it and decided even though it was out ahead of us, it was close enough where we could catch it and get out in front of it.  We grabbed Highway 50 going east. 




We closed the gap and had just enough time to head northward to get in front of it.  We chose to go north on Highway 37 instead of Interstate 57 to give us more east road options.  As we neared Kinmundy, Illinois, we were just ahead of the rotation. 



We got through the town and got out in front of the storm and then parked to take a look behind us to the west.  The storm began to Tornado.  (No damage survey posted here by the NWS)








As the storm came toward us, we repositioned further east as it recycled.  It had crossed the highway and developed a huge fast, rotating wall cloud that put down a multivortex Tornado to our north.  (Kinmundy IL damage survey below)





As we continued to follow along side of the storm to our north, a new wall cloud and a new rotation caught our eye to our south.





It is unclear if this circulation ever made ground contact.  As the storm moved east and weakened, we made the decision to intercept a Tornadic storm that was producing a big Tornado to our south.

As we traveled south on Highway 130 toward the storm, another updraft and wall cloud formed to our east.  Some thought went into following this storm, but with few road options east, we continued on our path south.  We made it down to the city of Albion, Illinois just ahead of the Tornadic storm.  We moved just west of town on Highway 15 to view the back side of the storm and saw another huge rotating wall cloud.






Once again, the rotation had many vorticity fingers coming down, but from our view, we were unable to confirm any ground contact although we were sure there was some.
From here we moved east over the Mt. Carmel, Illinois bridge into Indiana and down Highway 65 to latch on to another cell near Owensville, Indiana.  We pulled up to the cell south of the city and saw a huge, fast spinning wall cloud with a multivortex Tornado.  (Owensville/Fort Branch, IN damage survey below)







We followed the storm east on Highway 160 and were surprised to see a fully condensed cone form as the Tornado roped out.

We continued to focus on the cells around us and made our way eastward toward Interstate 64.  As we approached the Interstate, another Tornado warned storm was within range in front of us.  We could make out what appeared to be a Tornado near the city of Linville, Indiana, especially as we hit the entrance ramp to the interstate.  (Linville, IN #1 damage survey below)

As the last of the daylight was on us, we exited Interstate 64 at Highway 231 and positioned ourselves in a spot to watch another Tornado slip by just to our north.   (Dale, IN damage survey below)



The spin was rapid in the rain curtains and clearly circulating at ground level, but was difficult to see as the light was fading.  With this Tornado now past us, we ended our eastern pursuit of storms as now the darkness of night had taken over.  We stopped right up the road to get gas and many people including families were exiting the restrooms where they had taken cover from this tornado that passed very near, if not right over the gas station. 

As we headed back home on Interstate 64, there were still 3 Storms to work around, 2 of which were Tornado warned.  We navigated through the Tornadic cells, but ironically, as we passed the unwarned cell, a lightning bolt lit the sky and Ryan yells out "stovepipe on the ground".  We took the exit at Highway 41 and put the camcorder on the spot, but in the complete darkness, we can barely see the lowering, but the detail is not there to confirm anything else.


It was an extremely wild and fast paced day.  We saw a total of 9 different supercells and 9 fully formed wall clouds including those we observed after dark.  We have evidence of 4 different Tornadoes, but it's very possible and probable that every wall cloud had some sort of ground contact as the rotation in every wall cloud was intense at times.  We were in ideal spots for viewing the entire day.  Even the chaser convergence was in check today due to multiple storms.

National Weather Service Surveys






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Complete Trip Map

11.5 Hours  -  519 Miles
Click on the link below to see video of some of these storms.

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