March 11 2006

Tuscola, IL


An active severe weather day was progged across central Illinois, mainly western portions were several people witnessed gorgeous supercells during the evening. I had to work during the evening though and was unable to get out until after dark. At this point the storms had merged into a bow echo and were racing towards my area. Other cells developed ahead of the bow echo, one of which dropped hail on me as I headed out the door.

I targeted what I thought would be the most intense part of the bow, which ended up being near Tuscola, IL. There was a decent amount of lightning which backlit a low shelf cloud that was hugging the ground. There wasn't much structure to be seen, just a backlit shelf cloud.

It wasn't long before the storm overtook me, and it hit me hard with winds. Even though there were severe warnings, it did surprise me with it's strength. The winds were sustained probably around 60 mph. After about  5 minutes of heavy rain and winds, some hail began falling. Eventually there was more hail than rain. I reported dime sized hail (0.88") to the NWS in Lincoln, but a few stones probably reached an inch. After 10 minutes, it was all finished. I watched the lightning briefly on the backside of the storm before I headed back to Urbana.

Lightning backlighting the shelf cloud as the bow echo races towards me.
More of the same, looking west towards Tuscola.
Wind driving the hail as it bounces across the road in front of me.