fluoronium

It's been a month since I've had a good rain, and the near term looks bleak. Smoky skies have become the norm.

Starting to relate to this...

I chose a great spring to plant an orchard.

Tuesday was a legendary chase for me. Incredible mothership structure and the strongest tornado I've seen while chasing so far. Lightning was bonkers as well. It definitely makes my bust on 3-31 less painful.

Might see some cold core action in IL/IN tomorrow. Dews are pretty marginal but it's local enough for me that there's a good chance I'll be out.

I chased the death band of snow to somewhere between Pontiac and Kankakee and it was INSANE!! It was scarier than most tornado chases I've been on since it was very difficult to keep my vehicle on the road. 2"+/hr rates and screaming winds with multiple rumbles of thunder. It was great.

weenie mode activated (but forever damaged from the christmas bust)

I didn't end up chasing Iowa on Monday since there wasn't the model uptrend in moisture that always seems to happen with these cold season events. Of course, it still dropped a wedge.  These cold core setups almost never look "good" but man do they manage to produce.

Looks like Ohio is next up in the cold core gravy train. I won't be chasing you know that silly parameter space is going to do it. SPC is even giving it a D2 slight!!

Absolutely, and I welcome it. Don't get me wrong, I love snow, but a photogenic tornado under a crisp winter supercell is hard to beat. It seems you can't buy a good chase day in spring here, so I'll take what I can get.

Another opportunity for cold core tornadoes? Why the hell not?

No interest from the SPC yet, but I've already got my cameras charging.

January 3rd was one of my best storm chases ever! I saw multiple tornadoes, and got within 100 meters of the EF1 tornado that went through Maroa, IL. I also witnessed an anticyclonic funnel, as well as beautiful winter mini supercell structure. The lightning was great too! I love these Illinois troll days.

Don't sleep on the opportunity for cold core tornadoes tomorrow. SPC is not interested but I think it's one of my best local chase setups in quite some time. When you get record warmth and moisture up here at this time of year, somebody's gotta pay for it.

Upcoming torch is looking really nice about now. A lot of areas are going to get much needed rainfall.

weenie mode activated

10 hours ago, Malacka11 said:

Either February 1st, 2011 or October 11th, 2021. I think we all know what the first is... I was rather young but I remember the principal announcing that school would be cancelled for at minimum the next two days. I also recall there being an abandoned car on the road in my neighborhood when there was still only an inch or so on the ground. What really stands out to me was how quickly the snow accumulated in a matter of hours; I was playing with my Legos upstairs, listening to the wind, and in just a few hours everything was drifted to shit outside. The fort we built in the biggest  snowplow mound nearby was one for the ages too.

The second date marks my first successful tornado intercept. I had seen a few funnels before but I hadn't really documented them well. I was also all on my own this time; I just decided to wing it after work. The cell that produced my nader (for the record, definitely a very weak tornado) was just a tiny little "popcorn supercell" that formed ahead of the nearest, larger severe t-storm. It was truly a tiny cell, but it had an extremely definitely updraft with some textbook features that I found very educational for future chases. Easily the biggest problem I've encountered on my attempts is simply not knowing the difference between real phenomena and clouds that simply look like them. On a previous chase with some buddies I missed a funnel cloud visible from miles away because I thought it was just something else and that it couldn't possibly be a tornado, just to check radarscope and find that it was. 

 

I'm still salty about this day. (october 11 that is) I got trolled by some linear garbage with weak couplets to the southwest. I was out of range when that minisup fired and flew towards roanoke, even though it was closer to where I was living at the time than where I was chasing.

As for my favorite day, that's a hard choice. I saw 7 tornadoes on august 9, 2021 so that day is up there. GHD III was great though because I bought my dream property because of it. The snow kept others from visiting so I could put in an offer and buy it without going into a bidding war.

Brutal going directly from beautiful warm temps to CAD season without any exciting event in between. That stretch of nice weather was great though and I got a lot done in the yard.

^ I saw this run and immediately conceded to weenie season.

I wouldn't mind a redo of the Halloween 2019 snowstorm. Fall colors plus fresh snow is hard to beat.

On 10/10/2022 at 4:04 PM, Harry said:

 

Yep! Jan 67 in the far nw corner of town over into the NE part of Kalamazoo county around Gull Lake which ended up the bullseye of the storm with 31" inches. So yeah I think 30+ is very doable around Chicago. Total for here was 28.6"! 

Btw.. A repeat of that would do for me. 

this storm was preceded by a huge tornado outbreak (for January) which makes it the ideal snowstorm for me too


https://www.weather.gov/dvn/01241967_tornadooutbreak

Lots of lightning over arkansas and missouri with the snow and ice.

Solid chance for severe weather on twosday in the southern parts of this subforum. I'd love to start chase season in February this year, and then follow it up with another snowstorm afterwards.

NAM casually suggesting tornado potential over areas with snow still on the ground

The snowfall rates in this storm were really impressive, although I have no idea how much actually fell due to the drifting. I can't remember the last time I've had two big snows just two weeks from each other. It's definitely nice to get some good winter weather after a snowless December and January.

I love driving around when everything looks so frozen and desolate.

This final death band has been extremely impressive. Excellent finale to an awesome storm. 

It's impossible to make a good snow depth measurement due to all the drifting. The snow hit full force around 10AM and it hasn't let up in since. Even if official totals end up lower than GHD 3 here, this storm is going to be a lot more memorable due to the crazy snowfall rates and the bulk of the snow falling during the day.

Graupel mixing in after being snow all day. I'm hoping this means I might get some thundersnow after all. 

Absolutely dumping pixie dust right now. Heaviest snow rates of the season for me.