June 23rd, 2000 - Champaign County, IL, Intercept
A day where I was not expecting to chase. I didn't even check the weather. I had to go down to Champaign to help my dad with an auction and was fully expecting to sit there under a tent and bake. At about 3 PM the radios in the car started going berserk with a severe thunderstorm watch being issued for Central IL among other places. Interesting...this day could get interesting after all. I didn't have a laptop back then so all we could do is drive west and listen for warnings on the radio and look for dark skies. Since we were planning on chasing, we didn't bring any sort of still or video camera.
URGENT - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH NUMBER 482
STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK
240 PM CDT FRI JUN 23 2000
THE STORM PREDICTION CENTER HAS ISSUED A
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH FOR PORTIONS OF
CENTRSAL AND NORTHERN ILLINOIS
NORTHWEST INDIANA
EFFECTIVE THIS FRIDAY AFTERNOON AND EVENING FROM 300 PM UNTIL 800
PM CDT.
HAIL TO 2 INCHES IN DIAMETER...THUNDERSTORM WIND GUSTS TO 70
MPH...AND DANGEROUS LIGHTNING ARE POSSIBLE IN THESE AREAS.
THE SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH AREA IS ALONG AND 70 STATUTE MILES
EITHER SIDE OF A LINE FROM 10 MILES WEST NORTHWEST OF MOLINE
ILLINOIS TO 5 MILES EAST OF DANVILLE ILLINOIS.
REMEMBER...A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH MEANS CONDITIONS ARE
FAVORABLE FOR SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS IN AND CLOSE TO THE WATCH AREA.
PERSONS IN THESE AREAS SHOULD BE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR THREATENING
WEATHER CONDITIONS AND LISTEN FOR LATER STATEMENTS AND POSSIBLE
WARNINGS.
OTHER WATCH INFORMATION... CONTINUE...WW 480...WW 481...
WW 481 WILL BE REPLACED SHORTLY WITH A NEW WW COVERING THE
REMAINDER OF W CTRL IL AND ERN MO.
DISCUSSION...THUNDERSTORM COMPLEX WITH EMBEDDED BOWS/SUPERCELLS
EXPECTED TO EVOLVE FROM STORMS NOW OVER SRN/ERN IA. THIS ACTIVITY
SHOULD MOVE/DEVELOP GENERALLY E/SE TOWARD CNTRL IL. OTHER STORMS
MAY FORM ALONG STALLED FRONT IN NRN/CNTRL IL AS LOW LEVEL JET AHEAD
OF IA COMPLEX ENHANCES WARM ADVECTION OVER REGION.
We didn't wrap up in Champaign until 5 or so. Below is the radar image (taken at a later time)
We headed west to the west side of Champaign as the line was moving in and experience some fairly gusty winds. I believe the wind itself was sub-severe, but occasionally there were rather intense gusts. There was damage after the storm went through, we witnessed numerous limbs down and a couple trees were knocked over. A lot of cloud to ground lightning and torrential rain as well.
| 0000 |
UNK |
CHAMPAIGN |
CHAMPAIGN |
IL |
4011 |
8825 |
NUMEROUS TREES AND POWER LINES DOWN COUNTY WIDE. THE WORST AREA IS AT
COUNTY ROADS 2400 N AND 1000 N. FROM THE COUNTY SHERIFF. (SPI) |
Overall it was a surprise chase from my point of view. If I was more on top of things I probably would have recognized the set up and at least brought my camera with me to have some documentation. This was my first intercept of a severe warned bow and it looked MEAN. It contributed to the reason why I love hail and mean looking cores.
