Last wednesday (5/13) I took a day off from work and went storm chasing in south western Illinois just over the border into Missouri. That’s me near the driver side in the picture to the left. Drove nearly 1000 miles in 16 hours but we were able to get our eyeballs on what is now known as the Kirksville tornado. Gilbert Sebenste (NIU staff meteorologist) did a great job picking the area for us.
Our initial target in the morning was Springfield, IL. By the time we reached Springfield Gilbert saw that the clearing we were hoping for was happening, but it was going to be further west into Missouri. As we headed into Missouri Gilbert radioed that we needed to head towards Mason, MO as two storms were firing to our north west. Gilbert chose the southern most storm, as is the normal decision. Just as we pulled into a good spotting location northeast of the updraft (best location when you think the storm will have heavy precipitation) we looked over the hill about 4 miles and saw that the northern storm had dropped a tornado!! Thinking the southern most storm was still the right play we continued staying with it, but it never did anything impressive. Once we realized that the northern storm was going to be the only play, we bolted east and got ahead of it as it crossed the Illinois border. We got some great early evening shots before heading home.
David Mayhew was with us and he does a much better job of storm photography. So check out his website. http://www.davidmayhewphotography.com
