April 2 2006

Sangamon County, IL
Sunday April 2nd was expected to be another big Sunday in an active early spring in Illinois. Indeed it was as 26 tornadoes were reported across central Illinois, along with numerous damaging wind and hail reports.

An issue with my car the night before left me without transportation, but my dad expressed interest in chasing so we made plans to head out that evening.

Storms exploded in eastern Missouri during the afternoon and began to march across the state of Illinois during the early evening. We left Urbana around 5 PM and headed west on Interstate 72. We spoke with WILL meteorologist Ed Kieser briefly who was back in Urbana doing severe weather coverage of the event. He recommended we just stop east of Springfield as storms would be moving into that area soon.

We began hearing spotter and public reports of tornadoes on the west side of Sangamon County so we got off I-72 in Mechanicsburg, IL. After heading south a bit, some structure began to become visible and another tornado was reported just to our southwest by about 10 miles. I began seeing what looked like a mesocyclone and some lowers and suggested we turn around and head back north a few miles and set up shop.

The storms were hauling at around 50-60 mph so our view would be quick before we were over taken. If we were going to see a tornado, it was going to have to do so during a very narrow time frame. I saw one area, which likely produced the tornadoes near Rochester and Riverton. A lowering with distinct rear flank downdraft was visible to our north west. Another notable area was much closer to us, only about 5 miles to our west. The area needed watching, and spotters began reporting rotation in the area shortly thereafter. No tornado was reported in this area however.. (of course, that would have been too perfect)

It wasnt long before we needed to fly east to attempt to keep ahead of the storm. Winds and rain overtook us not more than a few minutes after we left. About 5 miles down the road we began to get small branches blocking the road, until things got worse and the entire road was blocked off by a row of downed trees. We turned around and headed back west but decided to pull off and ride the storm out. The hail followed soon, with stones of around an inch being driven by the high winds.

Once things let up we got back on the road and made our way back to Interstate 72 and headed west. We encountered several areas of damage along the way, and saw powerflashes ahead of us a few times. Things were a little intense as NWS warnings continued reporting a large and dangerous tornado in our county, heading towards home.

We returned home around 9:00 to a dark town. Power was out to many locations across Champaign County. A few structures in the Urbana area recieved extensive damage from straight lined winds. One tornado was reported in Urbana, but I'm hesitant to believe this report without having seen any good evidence of it.
 
First views of the storm near Mechanicsburg, IL. This vol. fire fighter didn't like the idea of us hanging around, but we explained to him that we knew what we were doing and would take responsibility for our own actions and he didn't seem to mind us after that, and even talked to us a bit about some of the information he got over the radio.
RFD notch about 5 miles to our east. You can see the notch right about the spotter's flashing lights. This is the area I believe likely produced the Riverton tornado in Sangamon County.
Looking to the south, nothing but shelf cloud.
Second notch further to the NW. Can sort of see it wrapping around above that white building. The closer notch is just moving into the screen in the upper left.
Being overtaken. This didn't take long at all. I knew the window was brief, and it just decided not to produce in the time we would have been able to see it.
Now we had to focus on the high winds. You can't see it too well in this crappy capture, but a branch comes dropping out of this tree right at this moment as we approach it. The top of it can be seen just above the road between the lines and the tree.
To quote Mike at this moment "okay... now we got a problem" Row of trees/parts of trees were blocking our east option.
We turned back around, but had no choice but to go further into the core. Here's Mike scanning the horizon as we sit through a good sized hail core. The winds had let up somewhat at this point, but were still driving the hail at speeds of 30-40 mph.
Back home now in Urbana, neighbors tree toppled over and was blocking the entire road. Further north a brick carwash was destroyed. One woman who sought shelter in the carwash was trapped briefly.
In comes public works to clear the way.
Storm reports from the day.