What a great day! Adam Lucio, his g/f, my g/f and I set out at around 10 A.M. For days we were sitting there not being able to concentrate on anything in anticipation of the outbreak of severe weather and tornadoes that the models were hinting at. I originally wanted to target S IL near St. Louis. Things were coming together down there for a tornado or two and a strong one at that. Better shear to the north while better instability to the south. I have been and always will be a fan of instability so that definitely influenced my decision to make a run down I 55.
As we were driving down I 55 we ran into some left over MCS action that was rather electrified as it moved north of the boundary and into Indiana. We hit the Pontiac area and the sky turned an evil gray/black as the sky opened up. LCL's were LOW. It was encouraging to know that if a storm got on this boundary later in the day, things could go haywire. I received numerous calls on the way down to our target from various chasers including David Draun and Ben Holcomb all wanting to meet up in Springfield. Adam and I agreed it would be a good idea as I had never met either in person and it is always nice to meet up with people who have the same interests as you do. We took the scenic route through the ghetto of Springfield, IL, to get to the Road Ranger Ben was chilling at.
We got there at 12:30 - 1 P.M. ish and found Ben. With Ben from Michigan was L.B. LaForce, his dad Bill, and Andrew Glenn. We went over mesoscale analysis, satellite and radar data, as well as surface observations. Our original target was Vandalia area which was about 60 miles to our SSE. There was an MCV moving over S MO with its sight set on the STL metro area. As this moved closer to MCV a tornado watch was issued. It was quite the predicament. Satellite data showed a nice dry slot moving in up through Central MO with NC MO and WC IL in its cross hairs. While an interesting boundary (either warm front or OFB) was laying just to the south of the STL area. This boundary was firing off convection just ahead of the MCV. At this time another tornado watch was issued for the MCV.
We were becoming more and more turned off to the idea of heading south as the anvil from the MCV was overspreading the area and likely contaminating the instability. There also looked to be a few gravity waves and horizontal convective rolls showing up via satellite in NC MO which caught our attentions. At this time David Draun and his g/f and Matt Cumberland both met up with us in Springfield, and we discussed the situation. We were getting ready to take off after a few of us used the washroom when Benjamin Rock, Michael Landelius, and Cliff Speares all joined our little convoy. It was really great meeting some of these guys finally and just added to the contacts I have made.
We decided to head west toward Pittsfield, IL, as they had a good surface ob per the METAR at 77/68 with a SE wind at 24. It was a little under an hour drive to Pittsfield and we all made good time, expect for Dave as he had to make some stops along the way. We pulled off just off the I 72 ramp near Pittsfield and decided that we needed to be in Missouri. It was our hope to stay in IL, but we weren't going to let our preferences stand in the way from seeing a tornado. We decided to stage camp in Hannibal, MO, as there were still zero radar echoes popping up anywhere near us. We chatted for 20 to 30 minutes and met up with Scott Bennett from Nebraska. I have talked to alot of these guys for a year or so, so again it was GREAT to meet them face to face.
*Matt Cumberland inspecting the skies as we chill in Hannibal, MO*
*From left to right: Scott Bennett, Cliff Speares, Benjamin Rock, Matt Cumberland, Ben Holcomb
Then it happened....... INITIATION! A string of echos developed from S IA in to E KS. We watched and waited to see if one or two of these would turn into a dominant one. 5 minutes later.....someones weather radio started going off. TORNADO WARNING for Sullivan and Adair County. We were 60 miles from Edina and 85 miles from Kirksville. The storm was still 20 miles west of Kirksville near Milan and moving NE at 50 according to the warning. It was a long shot, but we felt we could take US 61 north and then west on SR 6 that we could make things interesting.
We kept heading northwest along Route 6 and began seeing an anvil to our west. As we got closer to La Belle, we started seeing a rock hard updraft tower to the west and some intense CG. As we headed west into Edina the time was about 6:20 P.M. We started seeing a huge lowering to our west, we couldn't confirm anything, but it DEFINITELY looked like something menacing was going on. We got just north of town and crested a hill when we saw a HUGE wall cloud. It was amazing. Was about 7 miles to our west and slowly moving toward us. Finding an area to pull off on SR 15 was a challenge. Not much of a shoulder and where there was the view to the west was obscured by trees and hills. We kept heading north into the teeth of the storm when we FINALLY got a great vantage point.
*This was the view at 6:22 P.M. from 2 miles N of Edina.
At this point I will let most of my videos do the talking for me. From 6:20 to 6:50 P.M. were some of the most exciting and exhilarating times I have had chasing in my 12 years out there......
*This was the long version I taped. My gf's mom called so most of the audio is of her talking about random things. However, the picture and video is just amazing. So if you can bear with the audio you will see mother nature at her very best.
* Here is the shorter version from when the first vorticie spins up to where the first bonified tornado touches down VERY briefly. I hypothesize that this was the last gasp of the eastern storm that developed ahead of the Kirksville storm. I believe this eastern storm dropped multiple spin ups like the one Skip Talbot and Brandon Sullivan documented.
*This cell exhibited AMAZING structure - I believe the eastern cell's wall cloud is visible to the right and the Kirksville storm is coming up out of the rain here. The time of this video was 6:31 P.M.
*This is when the beast appeared. I had been hearing reports of a large tornado to our west and wasn't seeing it. Until finally we zoomed in on video and saw a vorticie dance by..... a couple seconds after that a cone formed on the left side and swept north and widened into a skinny stovepipe as the RFD wrapped around from the south and almost completely obscured the tornado. This is where many other chasers were screwed. They were positioned about a mile south of us and had clear view of the first circulation to the north, but were unable to see the second one further SW due to the precip wrapping around and cutting off their visibility. You basically had to be right in the path and in the notch to get a good view and fortunately we made it and had that view. To this date I have not seen any other video of this tornado. So I believe Adam and I were the only ones to see it!
We were sitting at the bend in the road to the west. As the circulation was heading southeast directly at us
*This is part 2 of the tornado. It is completely wrapped in rain and I believe it also picked up in forward speed. At this point it is within 3 miles of us and closing in. This video was taken at 6:36 P.M and ends at 6:37. The storm report says there was damage at the location we were sitting at at 6:40 PM. So we made the right call when to bail out.
*We bailed south as the tornado got too close. The RFD was bowing out ahead of the area of circulation so it was already crossing the road to our south. Winds were strong out of the south and west here. Probably at around 50-ish. This video was about 6:39 PM. So the tornado was RIGHT behind us.
*We hit Edina with sirens blaring and we attempted to go east out of town, as it turned out we would have been driving right into the secondary circulation that dropped another tornado. Wind were swirling and changing directions and were fairly STRONG so we bailed back west to Edina to wait it out.
*We sat in the gas station as sirens still blared and discussed our situation and showed our radar position as well.
* We went back north on SR 15 and ran into the damage path just north of Edina, or exactly where we were sitting. A close call indeed.
*An outbuilding is damage by the tornado just N of Edina.
Overall it was a very rewarding chase. It is sad to hear the deaths in Kirksville and the loss of property, but I feel satisfied knowing I made every attempt at getting good timely reports and it is a little more satisfying to know that we were the only ones that may have captured this tornado.
