CheeselandSkies

Actually reminds me a bit of 7/12/23 in NE IL. What look like rain showers on radar spinning up little tornadoes seemingly at will. Salty because I targeted NE IA to SW WI and just drove in a big circle while seeing nothing as the storms moving into northern IA turned into a big blob except for the far west end, and from what I can tell even that wasn't that great. Got home about 2 hours ago. Based on forecast parameter space these things should have been Plains-caliber cyclic tornadic beasts. SPC MD has some good details on why this wasn't the case: https://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/md/md1682.html

Smoke rain now. Will be interesting to see how my Corolla which is parked outside looks after this.

Hell I'll gladly take some footage of a smoke if it forms within view of my porch. Otherwise I'm getting hammered after work and staying tf inside.

Tuesday was 5 years since a fairly prolific tornado outbreak in north central-northeast Iowa. I managed to put myself in great position for the Waverly multivortex EF2 and then blow it, only getting 30 seconds or so of footage AFTER it produced its last visibly condensed vortex. Thus I don't count it as my "official" first tornado although I did glimpse an elephant's trunk vortex in my rear view mirror before pulling over, snapping a photo (during which it was still partially condensed) and then rolling video after which it stubbornly refused to condense again and I was apparently more interested in filming the more visually ominous inflow band.

12Z GFS (among other models/ensembles as per SPC's latest 4-8) is spicy for Monday 7/20. However I think a lot is going to depend on if these fires can be tamped down somewhat in the meantime, as this would be another northwest flow setup.

Mets at my work said we hit upper 400s for AQI around midday, shattering the old record for Madison (set during Smokeageddon '23). However my phone hasn't budged from the 156 it displayed early this morning, even after I rebooted it.

Yuck. I think the highest I saw on my phone during Smokeageddon '23 was in the high 300s. 156 right now. Definitely has that hazy look and campfire smell.

As annoying as a miss south major winter storm.

Bonus, kill off the Cyclospora parasites.

Yeah, being the epicenter of a super outbreak will do that.

Been shut out of even attempting to chase all the recent IL action by the setups occurring when I'm on a family vacation (6/11), on Father's Day (yesterday), or simply too far south for a workday/night chase (the one in between). However, this is what I was doing 10 years ago OTD:

...and nearly all of them have been south of I-80/definitely 88. The exception on 4/17 I didn't chase...assumed everything would be HP and it was...except when Harrison-Rockton briefly popped out of the rain and was gorgeous. My only tornado this year is in Minnesota of all places, on April 13. Sandwiched between driving back from my tour which ended in OKC on the evening of 4/12 and nearly wrecking my car chasing 20 miles from home on 4/14.

All that, and I slept right through the storm.

That would be me.

Sign of very strong LL shear. I've seen it when arriving to the target area on nearly every chase day I've had when I've either seen tornadoes, or there were tornadoes in the vicinity but I missed them due to being dumb. Shame it will likely go to waste for anyone north of I-72 today.