Downtown Villa Grove, IL Fire

I was alerted by a text message from David Bellmore around 6:30 PM of a major fire in the downtown district of Villa Grove, a smaller town about 20 miles south of Champaign-Urbana, suggesting I go document the blaze. I quickly made my way and grabbed the camera gear and hit the road. Immediately upon exiting Urbana on Route 130 southbound I could see the smoke plume, from nearly 20 miles away. It wasn't hard to spot either. Not like an "oh yeah, something must be going on way down there" but more of a "oh crap."

Anyway, for an event such as this I will simply let the photos do the talking. It was very fun to later meet up with David, who also happens to be a fire fighter for the Edge-Scott FPD who was called from Urbana to assist in the fire.

I'm all for sharing by the way, but please don't let me find these images on other sites with my name cropped out. That's stealing.

August 8 surprise mini-supercell

Today was as fun as they come. I spent the better part of the day texting back and forth with Colin Davis about how today seemed to be just another day in 2011 where local storms would dodge us and leave us hanging dry. I've spent the better part of the last month or so enjoying the beautiful summer nights shooting astro-photography, but I've been dying for something convective!

I saw a line of storms blowing up in northwest Illinois that seemed to be taking a dive to the southeast along an outflow boundary that was draped across the area. This would potentially bring the storms fairly close to my home base in Champaign. I glanced at visible satellite imagery and noticed a large area of clear skies as a result of subsidence behind the grunge that I was sitting under at the moment, which made me think that I may have a pretty good view of the storms as they passed to my north. I knew for a fact that almost all of my camera batteries were dead, so I got those charging in hopes for a time lapse opportunity once the storms drew nearer and the sun began to set. I'm a complete sucker for convection at dusk. A large billowing updraft tower being speckled by lightning just after sunset glowing in the twilight gets me just about as excited as a violent supercell in the plains.

I still wasn't confident in the storms even surviving long enough to make it into what I'd consider an acceptable range for a day such as this (not planning on any tornado warned mini-supercells, at this point!). I was invited to dinner at El Toro, which I can rarely resist and decided to take that offer up. I'd have plenty of time to gorge myself on delicious Mexican food and still be able to make it out for a time lapse / twilight photo op should the storms survive through my dinner.

After I'd finished up, I glanced at the latest radar imagery on my phone and saw the storms weren't looking all that impressive anymore, but figured I'd head out anyway. I grabbed a 32 oz. fountain Coke and was on my way! I initially headed east away from town and just planned to find a spot a few miles outside of town to just sit and kill the next hour photographing whatever came my way. Upon driving east down the country roads I noticed that beautiful sight - a nice crisp updraft tower surging above the muck. Perhaps not all was lost. I pulled off briefly to look around, admiring both the resurgent storm to my northwest, and other storms exploding from the disorganized mess that I sat under all day as it moved into Indiana. That's when I looked back northwest and had an odd realization, for this region anyway. I could already see the base of the thunderstorm to my northwest, near Bloomington, which would place the storm 45-50 miles away still. That is almost unheard of in this region, especially in August! You're lucky to see the base of a storm at 10 miles out given the above circumstances. It was almost like being on the high plains. It was at the same moment that I realized I could see the updraft base that I realized that a Tornado Warning had been placed on the storm. I almost didn't react and continued to sit there. I shot Colin a text that said something to the effect of "I can see the base of the tornado warned storm near BMI from here". That's when I finally had that 'duh' moment... uh, you are looking at the base of a tornado warned storm. Perhaps... perhaps, I should move closer? Has it really been that long since I did this dance?

I began flying north down one of the classic central Illinois back roads, grabbing my video camera to do a quick narration essentially stating "I'm hesitant to call this a chase, but look over this way and we've got an isolated tornado warned storm to my northwest". Local chases are the best for ease of navigation, especially when your home turf is central Illinois. Paved grid road networks! I just continued to blast north down my little country road until I found my spot. I still wasn't sure what to make of it. Out of the blue, I was starting at a tornado warned storm. I located the main updraft region, set up the video camera and began time lapsing the storm.

I could tell the main region which produced a tornado near Hudson, IL was being replaced by a new updraft to the south which actually worked to my favor as it would be much more visible. This new updraft quickly sprouted a blocky wall cloud which upon reviewing video did exhibit rotation. I was sitting back a distance still so that I could shoot uninterrupted time lapse video and structure shots. I wasn't under the impression that I would be seeing any tornadoes, so I hung back to have a more ideal vantage point for the time lapse / structure shots. This would be the safer bet image wise, but if the storm -did- produce any brief tornadoes they would be easy for me to miss.

During the peak appearance of the new wall cloud I did note what appeared to be one or two brief slender funnel clouds, but again, I was sitting back much further than I otherwise would on a traditional tornado oriented chase. The wall cloud soon fell apart and it became a structure / updraft tower / lightning session.

As I stated above, I can hardly contain myself sometimes when I see that glowing updraft surging upward into the twilight while being illuminated by frequent summertime lightning. I dropped south and east a couple of times in order to keep the low clouds out of my shot before I finally let the big sweeping gust front overtake me. There's no way to really convey to an 'outsider' the kind of 'high' that these experiences bring. I've whined before and don't need to go back into this being a very up and down summer for me, but I think the end of this intercept may have been about the highest I've peaked as far as overall emotional bliss. A camera full of convective photos, the rushing noise of the outflow blowing through the corn stalks in the distance as the gust front glides down the road toward me, the moon now in full swing illuminating the still flickering updraft. I stood in the middle of the road for a while honestly not even wanting to leave. I legitimately wanted to stand in that road for the rest of the night letting the scene suck me in.

Of course, this wasn't an option, and I was anxious to see what kind of imagery I'd come away with so I gradually made my way back to the car, picking up my tripod/camera and the Coke that I was still sipping on. Again hitting on the luxury of local chases, I didn't bother looking at any maps to plot a course back home, but simply started driving. I'm rarely in the northeast part of the county so it was fun to revisit some places that I remember passing from storm intercepts of the past. Immanuel Luthern Church in Flatville, Illinois stood out like a beacon on the horizon. I remember first seeing that church on a chase with my father, and mentor / the reason I am the weather nerd that I am today, Ed Kieser back in May of 2003. While I'm trying to quickly find a photo of this place, I see the website calls itself "The Cathedral in the Cornfield". I almost stopped to snap a photo for nostalgia sake, but didn't. The name really is fitting, however. Here's someone else's flickr set based solely on the church. http://www.flickr.com/photos/zaruka/sets/72157624233301697/detail/ I have video of us just sitting in the parking lot there plotting our next course of action, back when I was a silly 16 year old filming hours and hours of pointless video, that I now find not quite as pointless as it's filled with all sorts of memories that can now come back to me when I pass through these open roads that so many city-dwellers will never take in. Central Illinois may not be filled with the abundant natural beauty and dynamic landscape that regions out west my have, but I'm certain I will miss the simple beauty should I fulfill my dream of leaving this state behind in the near future.

I rolled back into Urbana right as the sweeping gust front, or "whale's mouth" engulfed the city lights.

I shot plenty of time lapse video, but I only have my laptop down in Urbana and it is about on my last nerve so I won't bother uploading any of that. The most likely outcome will be to have it thrown into a time lapse compilation that will likely be put out in place of a DVD this fall. There simply is not enough material to make a DVD a worthwhile effort this year.

Anyway, the photos.

My initial view of the storm after deciding to give chase.

At super wide 10 mm, it isn't very easy to make out details along the updraft base, but the photo below displays the developing wall cloud. No still photos of any of the hard to see, slender funnels.



And, it was show time. The following photos are probably out of order, but the general idea is clear.







If you still need more, the full high res flickr set is available here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/prairiestormmedia/sets/72157627266813957/

More night fun

We've finally had a "cool front" or two roll through the midwest to relax the heat and humidity over the area and I've been taking advantage by getting out and enjoying the night sky. We've hit rock bottom as far as thunderstorm activity goes locally, so night photography, which is usually what gets me through the boring winter months, has been my go to activity.

I'm not a big fan of the terrain and lack of abundant photo foregrounds in the immediate Champaign area so I've continued visiting the old high school favorites. There's a clearing in a corn field with a couple silos and an old red shed on a hill north of the railroad crossing near Block, IL that I frequented over the winter that I decided to visit a couple of nights ago. The view from the spot is among my favorites. The photos below won't convey it, likely due in part to the super wide 10 mm shot, but you can see for miles and miles on the western horizon. The 'views' in central Illinois are few and far between, so I've grown to love this spot. Like the little valley that the railroad crossing south of Block sits on, the hill is there as a result of the glaciers depositing rocks and boulders in mounds known as moraines.




Last night I was feeling antsy again, so the abandoned house that I found back around age 16 that I revisited last winter came to mind. I still want to shoot a star trail time lapse there, and yet again I didn't accomplish that. However, I was happy with the star filled sky coupled with moonlit foreground shot that I came away with.



And finally, this was a hastily composed shot on my way back from Sidney the other night. The shot isn't very impressive, but it wreaks of nostalgia. My friend David Bellmore and I frequented this spot on 1100 North when we were little pubescent kids wasting film.

Summer Convection

Had a nice ten mile 'chase' yesterday. A summer instability driven thunderstorm pulsed up north of town during the mid-afternoon. I was initially uninterested and actually spent the next hour at the gym (periodically checking radar, of course... I'm not -that- out of it). Walking out I was pleased to see the towers still erupting to my north. I went home and checked radar to get a better feel for where things were popping and what storm motions were going to be. My financial situation right now and a couple maintenance issues on the vehicle don't allow for a bunch of "just for fun" driving but it was apparent that the storm to my north would be crawling toward me, so I figured it would be silly not to venture out to my little view point south of Urbana.

Since I really went around the same two or three square mile country road grid during the entire hour or two I was out there, I won't write up about any specific and will just post some photos.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

The entire flickr set is available here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/prairiestormmedia/sets/72157627166180513/

Annoyingly blogger posts all of these photos in a jumbled order, so the time sequence is off here.

This is looking to my south toward the farm house that has already been featured several times before.


All I could hear at this point was a loud whooshing roar from the precipitation shaft to my east. This is at super wide 10 mm, so while it looks somewhat distant here, I was actually just a stones throw from being soaked.


The ole farmstead to my south upon initially arriving at my spot. Amazing how quickly things change from this, to the first image above. Summertime in the midwest!


This is looking northeast toward the storm, again, after first arriving out at my sitting spot.


The storm is probably at one of its strongest points right now as it makes one final surge before dying out.



Summer in Illinois. I'm sure I will miss this eventually once I am finally able to leave this state. I'm not sure what it is about this image, but even though it's only existed for less than 24 hours I get very nostalgic looking at it.

Late Wisconsin night sky update

Not going to write a lot, but did come away from the trip up to Wisconsin with a couple decent night sky photos. I originally started with that static shot posted below, and was going to trail the stars in the southern sky, but my family lit up a bonfire to my north so I quickly abandoned that first shot and spun around and trailed the north sky.

More from last week...

I had a few more photos from the sunset / star trails adventure last week outside of Urbana that I figured I would throw up. Likely will not have anything new to add for the rest of the week, but as per usual I will be spending the coming 4th of July weekend in Wisconsin with my family on what should be an amazing and well needed vacation. I will hopefully have plenty of new material following my return next week.

Oops, I did it again...

I promise this is the last time that I will neglect my ever so important blog. For all of you four readers out there, I apologize again. I believe I had somewhat of a moment this evening. I hit on it a little in a previous post, but I've been somewhat of a lame bum this spring and early summer, for various reasons. I've lacked the motivation to do all of the things that I love, including hunting down storms and going on random outdoor adventures.

That all said, I've progressed light years in the last month and have been returning to my normal self. Today, a round of mushy, yet still intense thunderstorms plowed through town. I only drove a mile or so to an open parking lot on the edge of town where I was blasted by 50-60 mph winds. After dinner I received a text message from a friend demanding that I go out and photograph the sky because there were cool clouds.

I'd just finished eating dinner and figured I may as well. I invited my younger brother, Wil along and we set out for the open countryside just south of Urbana. We caught a glimpse of a pretty sweet rainbow fragment as we were leaving town but just as we got outside of the urban surroundings the sky had changed and the rainbow was no more. We made it to one of my favorite spots on a hill (a moraine left by the glaciers during the last ice age, actually!) and set up shop.

There was nothing extraordinary about this sunset, but what I felt certainly seemed that way. Being out in the open, surrounded by nothing but corn and a rolling summer breeze, with an ever transforming orange sky to my west, I finally felt back at home. This is where I belong. Not at home feeling sorry for myself for whatever reason. All this time I have lacked the motivation to do the things that I love, because of how I was dealing with these things, when it was exactly where I needed to be. I'd gone out to the state parks a few times in the last month or two, but it didn't feel right. It felt forced. Even while nabbing tornadoes in Oklahoma a few weeks ago, I still felt held back. But tonight, for whatever reason, it became clear that I am finally back.