Author: Brian

Next Severe Weather Event?

With yesterday’s severe weather event in the books, and northern Illinois slipping back into winter, I’ve been looking at the GFS; eagerly looking for the next event as well as some more spring like temperatures. There is a possibility on March 2: A surface low will move through the Central Plains into the Mississippi River…

By Brian February 21, 2014 Off

Storm Chase of November 17, 2013

November 17th was the second and final High Risk day of 2013, as well as the largest severe weather outbreak of 2013. Both days, Illinois was interestingly enough. It seems that when I moved back to Illinois from Oklahoma, I brought the tornadoes with me. The setup was definitely unusual for November in Illinois. Abnormally…

By Brian November 17, 2013 Off

Storm Chase of 04 October, 2013

This was a late year Moderate Risk day that I, in retrospect, did not bring my A-game to. My initial target area was central Iowa. I got on the road a little too late in the morning. Then, lots of road construction west of Elgin slowed me down even more. After I got into Iowa,…

By Brian October 4, 2013 Off

Storm Chase of 12 June, 2013

This was the first High Risk day of 2013, and my home town was included. Honestly, from the beginning I thought it was being over-hyped. People were calling for a big tornado outbreak, and then a derecho. I thought there would be severe storms and maybe a couple tornadoes. But hey, how often does northern…

By Brian June 12, 2013 Off

Moore, OK EF5 Tornado Damage

The day of the Moore tornado was the last day of my little storm chasing vacation. After I struck out in storm chasing, I went and hung out in Norman for the rest of the evening. Then I tried to find a hotel room. What I hadn’t thought about was the many, many displaced people…

By Brian May 21, 2013 Off

Storm Chase of May 20, 2013

I had spent the night in what I call “my hotel” in Norman, OK. Woke up a little later than usual this day, as I had stayed up late the night before to visit with a friend. As soon as I walked out of the hotel, I felt the warm, humid, windy weather wash over…

By Brian May 20, 2013 Off

Storm Chase of May 19, 2013

Day two started out in Wichita, KS. I was a little unsure of where exactly I wanted to target. Originally I was thinking Tulsa, or slightly west of there. Eventually I decided on either Perry or Guthrie, Oklahoma. So I headed south, and stopped for lunch in Perry. As I waited in Perry, storms began…

By Brian May 19, 2013 Off

Storm Chase of May 18, 2013

Saturday was probably my favorite storm chase ever, and probably my most successful. As you can see in the pictures below, I saw four tornadoes from a good distance and got some great pictures and video. Furthermore, the tornadoes were, for the most part, in the middle of open fields. The first one was the…

By Brian April 18, 2013 Off

Storm Chase of April 17, 2013

This was my first storm chase of 2013. While it was a Moderate Risk for parts of Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, and Missouri, it was only a Slight Risk for northern Illinois. I honestly was not expecting much on this chase, I mostly just wanted to see some weather. I started off heading west, towards Dekalb.…

By Brian April 17, 2013 Off

Joplin, Missouri Six Months Later

I stopped in Joplin again during my latest drive back to Illinois. It was nearly six months to the day since the monstrous EF-5 tornado tore through the city, and killed 160 people. Much progress has been made since my last drive through Joplin. Just about all of the debris and wreckage has been cleaned…

By Brian December 20, 2012 Off