Severe Thunderstorm Chicago 6.24.09

This storm popped up out of nowhere it seemed. It produced 60mph winds and took off part of a roof at St. Lawrence High School, and overturned a baseball dugout. It also up rooted large trees and snapped branches across town. Here are a few photo's taken from Elgin Il.

Chase 6.1.09 / Shelf Cloud With Hail Shaft

So I debated if I wanted to go out and chase this day with being off work early. I decided to save the money this time around with some large out breaks being expected coming up in the next week. However as I watched GR3 I saw there were reports of hail up to .75, so I decided to take a drive a little north to intercept and maybe get some good hail vid.

As I was getting closer I realized I was not going to make it, the storm was to far East at this point.

I stuck around for a bit watching to see if anything else was popping up. There was a small cell that was growing on radar and after a little while GR3 was showing hail on this one up to .50 so I sat in place and waited for it to come to me. At this point I realized my camcorder hard drive was full! So I just went for photo's this time around.

I was getting excited as I watched it grow on radar hoping for some good size hail. As it was about a mile away I watched it start to fall apart! There was a little hail that fell but it was only about pea size so nothing to big. However it was still some what photogenic, it is always cool to see a shelf with hail shafts! So I was able to get a few photo's from it.

I am getting very excited about the upcoming events for possible severe weather and I'm watching it closely and keepin' an ear open for what other chasers are thinking. So we will see what becomes of that this weekend!

New Chase Vehicle!

I finally pick up a new chase vehicle! This should help a bit from gettin stuck on mud and dirt roads! There is a lot of work to do still but it will come with time. Here are a few pics....