Had we not had this extensively sucky pattern, I would have considered yesterday an interesting chase. We chased north central to east central MO. Somewhere northwest of Columbia (De Witt) was our target as the storms came through into NW MO. It was a healthy looking bow/HP on radar and when we saw there was an inflow notch on the east side, we were hoping that the storm was hugging the warm front. Missouri and there "wonderful" obs showed cold air to the north and warm air to the south of I-70. We were not sure exactly where the front was. We found it. About ten miles north of I-70 because when we approached the storm temperatures were in the mid 60's. Very strong ENE winds were flowing into the storm.
It soon lost its "inflow notch" and started to become a bow. Which was cool. We stayed at the apex of the bow for a long time. IT was dark and scary, some OK lightning and a great mix of boiling shelf clouds and aqua colors. The area was "chaseable" for a while although a little windy. Eventually, we headed south to get to the Interstate to get across the river. Of course, somewhere closer to STL the storm was tornado warned. We tried to head north no matter what but the roads NW of STL are awful. We just couldn't make it. We were in a lot of wind for a long time and were actually traveling along the intersection of two outflow boundaries, hoping to have a rogue storm develop in the cold air. Alas, it was not to happen.
Ending up in IL we were in the warm air (still 81 at 7:30) but these storms were bound to be elevated above the front. We eventually called it off as our last hopes became dashed as cold air preceded rain by about 10 minutes.
And now we go home and figure out what few days we want to go sight-seeing.
Paul
1 comment:
Hey, if you guys end up further east in Quincy, IL, look me up - I'll give you a few tips on where to go and what to do if you're bored and have no chances elsewhere in the country. Sounds like you got pretty close as it was!
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