April 4th 2010 Elvaston, IL Supercell
Well I was more focused on Monday April 5th to really be too excited about this day. But I ended up getting the better day out of all three. Main thing was a short wave imbedded in a longer wave trough that was moving through, helping advect moisture out ahead of a cold front which was oriented more towards a linear mode than any severe outbreak mode. Meaning the flow was of a more linear fashion and helped to throw up mulitple cells forming a squall line very quickly. Which is kinda what ended up happening more than anything. It wasnt quite a squall line but might as well have been. It was leaning more towards line than anything else. The exact dynamics escape me due to Monday being more of a concern.
But I was still in place just in case anything good were to go up, thankfully!!
Well I ended up out with Terry again on this one. We had been sitiing just south of Galesburg IL when we noticed things going up. So we dove south and west towards the river. Hoping to get on things early before they lined out. We ended up playing tail end charile to a right split. Awesome. Given the shear profile this was perfect. And I was hoping for a right mover.
Below is an image as I was en route to the right split as the cells were splitting. You can see two anvils. One is the left spilt to the right of the image. And our storm to the left. Headed west in this shot. That V shape of blue sky is the distance between the two cells that will grow over time. As our dominate right moving storm continues to the southeast by east. And the other to the east northeast.
Mammatas of the rigth moving cell as we approach from the east moving west!
Finally on the base of the storm near Elvaston, IL. This thing was rotating like mad pictures just dont do it justice. Still had decent structure though!
Picture below is as it got closer! Decent rear flank downdraft at this point. Good rotation, just wasnt cutting in as it should be.
Few minutes later. Really decent RFD now. Cutting in nicely too. But wasnt producing for some reason?! I dont know why should have been close here. RFD is really bowing it out here and later. Just doesnt get it done for some reason. Great rotation throughout. This thing was really spinning.
We soon gave up as it just more and more wanted to go linear. Even after having a good 20 mins or so of possibly producing a tornado. Just couldnt get it done. We soon just went up and got cored by it, than sat back and shot some lightning for a while. Not much lighning but some!
Not a bad chase given Monday was a bust and tuesday kinda sucked, really at least for us folls on the warm front! LOL