Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Eyeballing the west

Been a long time since I've updated the blog for a legit severe chance, so here goes. Complex scenario today with several MCS' and areas of cloud cover ruling the potential target area. Either way, very strong upper level system will continue to dig into the midwest spitting out impressive shear values. Where heating can occur, a decent shot at supercells will follow. Supercells are possible as far west as NE/KS but I won't be making that big a day out of this. It is still August, and I do have a lot to do this week. This is my only day "off" though, so I'll be watching locally.

I'll be watching the Interstate 72 corridor closely today. Shear will be a little stronger north of there, but this is where the best juxtaposition of cape and that shear will be located. Without going to far into detail, I'll just be spending the day keeping an eye on satellite imagery to see where the best pockets of heating occur. I'm feeling pretty good hunching on some clearing ahead of the system ejecting out of Missouri in a couple hours. I think it seems doable to see a few severe storms, potentially supercellular across central Illinois this evening, likely very near the I-74 and I-72 corridors.

This is not a day I'm so sure of that I'll be spending the entire day sitting in the target area waiting, but I won't sleep on it. Target area for storms should be reachable in a short time, anyway.

2 comments:

Chuck said...

Did you chase the storms for Loami or Williamsville? Reporting significant damage for both towns and appears the tornado jumped over Springfield.

Andrew Pritchard said...

I was on a storm further south that produced a tornado near Rochester. Of course, I saw nothing but a ton of rain.