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How you know the day is over.

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Crappy storm near ottumwa iowa

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Convection! Heading south to the iowa missnuri border towards developing thunderstorms.

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Clear skies in ottumwa iowa! Eating at taco johns awaiting convective development. (we hope)

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What type of day not to chase. Mark sefried, darin kaiser and myself are currently en route to a cloud covered ottumwa, ia hoping for a glimmer of hope we will see some clear skies. Shear is there, instability likely wont be.

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I wish i were chasing now.

Spring is back!

After early season events raked the midwest and long quiet spell will finally be put to rest tomorrow.

I will likely be meeting up with Mark Sefried in the Peoria area tomorrow morning. Our current thinking is that we'll play the warm front early in the day, and then should it look like convection will not initiate along the warm front we'll drop further southwest back into the warm sector.

Should development occur along the warm front, it looks like it has the potential to go tornadic. Further southwest along the cold front tornado potential isn't quite as strong, but there's a better chance for severe thunderstorm development in this area. Linear seems to be the most likely mode, but with such a dynamic system, supercell thunderstorms can't be ruled out. With that threat comes the attendant tornado threat.

Be sure to check back for updates through out the day.

Flooding in Eastern Illinois

Rapid melting of 10 inches of snow followed by 5+ inches of rain together in 24-36 hours combined for a ton of water with nowhere to go. I shot some video and photos of the rapidly rising water levels across Champaign County Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.

For a full account and photos, click on the link below.

http://prairiestormmedia.com/6feb2008.html

Welcome!

Welcome to the Prairiestorm ChaseNow Blog. Here I'll be posting my severe weather forecasts, storm chasing plans, and in the field, real time updates via cell phone as the chase evolves!

Stay tuned as severe weather season is just around the corner so this page is sure to be changing quickly!