CheeselandSkies
Member
Putting this here so I can include the full summary without it getting lost in the main event thread. @ashtonlemleywx and others can put theirs here, too if desired.
After botching several golden opportunities to see a spectacular, significant tornado going back to at least 2014 (or 2005 if you count the Stoughton F3 which nearly hit my house), finally got that monkey off my back yesterday in a big way!
Overnight/early morning developments had me considering switching my target to somewhere in Illinois rather than Iowa (possible later initiation and longer window for a discrete mode); but after another quick check of data before leaving work, mainly just consisting of the latest HRRR (soundings and synoptic maps, not just sim ref/UH!) and visible satellite I decided to stick with Iowa. Somewhere along/south of I-80 but it was really going to depend on how things developed on radar, since they were going to be moving at 60+ MPH toward me at the same time I was racing toward them.
I was initially tempted to go after a lead cell that showed a promising hook as it crossed I-80 east of Des Moines. It appeared to be on course to pass near Belle Plaine so instead of taking 151 all the way down to US-30 and I-380 as intended, I headed west on 30 from Cedar Rapids. However, now my target storm appeared to be struggling to take off on radar, even losing its severe thunderstorm warning for a while. Meanwhile, a storm to the south near the IA/MO border was looking better and better. I plugged Sigourney into my GPS and was off, on a route that took me through Blairstown, Margeno and North English. The railroad crossing gates were down on the Union Pacific main line in Blairstown. One of my other hobbies is railfanning, but this was NOT the time I wanted to see a train. The train crept up to the west of the crossing and stopped, and after about 30 seconds the gates went up. Phew!
The storm picked up a tornado warning, but fortunately for me didn't produce right away. It now looked like Sigourney would be too close for comfort to the forward flank of the fast-moving supercell, and I did NOT want to core-punch through blinding rain/possibly hail. I now plugged a little town called Keota into my GPS.
As I got nearer I began to pick up a little bit of rain from the forward-flank anvil of the rapidly approaching supercell, but nothing too heavy. Now the tornado warning contained the wording of a confirmed "large and extremely dangerous" tornado, and radar showed a very intense couplet and a clear tornado debris signature. It was now just about 4 PM. My heart began to beat faster as I turned west on IA-92 from IA-77 just south of Keota, turned my car around to face east in case a quick escape from the path was needed, then looked to my southwest...
A wedge tornado was already ongoing, but with distance and (lack of) contrast I couldn't really see the motion with it. After watching it approach for a few minutes, the storm cycled right in front of me. A small but intense area of rotation formed out in front of the first tornado (white cloud tendrils toward the upper left in the photos above), tightening into a truncated cone with a dusty debris cloud whirling below. It quickly became fully condensed, albeit shrouded in dust. Here it almost looked like a clone of Gilmore City, IA from last April, which I missed despite being within easy striking distance of the storm when it first went severe-warned.
It then went through a rapid intensification and several changes in appearance, becoming a narrow Henryville-esque drillbit which expanded into a dusty stovepipe. Will continue in the next post due to attachment limits.
After botching several golden opportunities to see a spectacular, significant tornado going back to at least 2014 (or 2005 if you count the Stoughton F3 which nearly hit my house), finally got that monkey off my back yesterday in a big way!
Overnight/early morning developments had me considering switching my target to somewhere in Illinois rather than Iowa (possible later initiation and longer window for a discrete mode); but after another quick check of data before leaving work, mainly just consisting of the latest HRRR (soundings and synoptic maps, not just sim ref/UH!) and visible satellite I decided to stick with Iowa. Somewhere along/south of I-80 but it was really going to depend on how things developed on radar, since they were going to be moving at 60+ MPH toward me at the same time I was racing toward them.
I was initially tempted to go after a lead cell that showed a promising hook as it crossed I-80 east of Des Moines. It appeared to be on course to pass near Belle Plaine so instead of taking 151 all the way down to US-30 and I-380 as intended, I headed west on 30 from Cedar Rapids. However, now my target storm appeared to be struggling to take off on radar, even losing its severe thunderstorm warning for a while. Meanwhile, a storm to the south near the IA/MO border was looking better and better. I plugged Sigourney into my GPS and was off, on a route that took me through Blairstown, Margeno and North English. The railroad crossing gates were down on the Union Pacific main line in Blairstown. One of my other hobbies is railfanning, but this was NOT the time I wanted to see a train. The train crept up to the west of the crossing and stopped, and after about 30 seconds the gates went up. Phew!
The storm picked up a tornado warning, but fortunately for me didn't produce right away. It now looked like Sigourney would be too close for comfort to the forward flank of the fast-moving supercell, and I did NOT want to core-punch through blinding rain/possibly hail. I now plugged a little town called Keota into my GPS.
As I got nearer I began to pick up a little bit of rain from the forward-flank anvil of the rapidly approaching supercell, but nothing too heavy. Now the tornado warning contained the wording of a confirmed "large and extremely dangerous" tornado, and radar showed a very intense couplet and a clear tornado debris signature. It was now just about 4 PM. My heart began to beat faster as I turned west on IA-92 from IA-77 just south of Keota, turned my car around to face east in case a quick escape from the path was needed, then looked to my southwest...
A wedge tornado was already ongoing, but with distance and (lack of) contrast I couldn't really see the motion with it. After watching it approach for a few minutes, the storm cycled right in front of me. A small but intense area of rotation formed out in front of the first tornado (white cloud tendrils toward the upper left in the photos above), tightening into a truncated cone with a dusty debris cloud whirling below. It quickly became fully condensed, albeit shrouded in dust. Here it almost looked like a clone of Gilmore City, IA from last April, which I missed despite being within easy striking distance of the storm when it first went severe-warned.
It then went through a rapid intensification and several changes in appearance, becoming a narrow Henryville-esque drillbit which expanded into a dusty stovepipe. Will continue in the next post due to attachment limits.
