Elburn IL. Tornado Damage Survey 8.19.09

I visited the reported area where the Tornado touched down. At this point I was positive that it was not a tornado but a microburst or straight line winds. I spoke with the home owners who were working with their insurance company trying to sort out things. They were gracious enough to allow me to walk throughout their property and take photos.

After viewing the damage I will admit it had a damage path that clearly resembled a tornado rather than straight line winds. The national weather center also confirmed there was two tornadoes. They had aerial view of the damage path the extended 40 yards wide and produced winds up to 105MPH. I am a little saddened that a tornado was so close to home and I was not there before this home was hit. I may have been able to provide further advanced warnings compared to the few mins. he had to get his kids to the basement.

Also as to yesterdays blog....In Huntley IL. there is video of a funnel cloud, so I stand corrected once again. There was a lot I learned from this chase, neither one of these storms showed any indication of a tornado, however it seems within the 5min. loop of radar this storms produced and I was unable to view it. Also I typically stick to radar, however again I realize now I need to expand to other options of GR3 to view different types of storms to see more clearly as to what may be going on......
Here are the paths the tornadoes took:

These photos were taken by the EF1 on the lower left side of the photo. As the tornado passed over RT 47 it passed over two homes. The photos below were taken from the home on the SE side of the tornado, which had larger damage.

Huntley IL. Storm Chase 8.19.09

Tornado Warnings blared as I left my home to get on the road. I realized as I listened to the tornado sirons this would be a very interesting chase.
I viewed GR3 and saw nothing on radar....I mean nothing! It looked like a blob of rain, but yet the sirons were going off. I was absolutly confused on this chase! On the road I ran into some fellow chasers who as well were confused and could not spot anything remotely resembling severe weather.
I continued north to interecept another cell which had claims of producing a tornado off of RT47 and RT64. I ran into Ben and Cliff who were heading in the same direction as I was, north to Huntley. As we entered Huntley IL. the tornado sirons stared to blair again! We were in awe as we looked around and saw nothing again! Blue patch there, another blue patch there, light rain and NOTHING on radar...
At this point we wanted to continue north on RT47, however Ben at this point realized he had a flat tire and he could not continue. I travled a bit north to see if I could view anything and saw a small shelf, but nothing else. There were many low lying scud clouds resembling a possible funnel cloud but nothing else.
I pulled back around and headed back to Ben and Cliff to see what help I could be. Local law enforcment pulled up to use to check to see if we were ok. We spoke to them for awhile about the sirens going off and we how we were unsure as to why they went off. Turns out the public had reported funnel clouds, which I'm sure were just low lying scud clouds.
After Ben fixed his flat, we knew we couldn't meet back up to the "severe storm" that continued north. So we headed back to view the damage of the possible tornado that was reported. I was fixed on the thought that it had to have been straight line winds or a possible microburst. (However after viewing the damage today, I realized it was in fact a tornado). We couldn't get down the road to view the damage as there was down power lines. So at this point we called it and heading home.

Eagle River WI.

Here are some photos take while on vacation in Eagle River WI. Provides for some great scenery compared to back home...

Bond Falls MI

During my vacation to Eagle River we took a drive to Bond Falls MI. to check out the waterfalls. It was amazing and I look forward to the next time I go to try out different filters and angles. Until then....enjoy these.....