6/12/2008
We didn't chase this day, but a few storms ended up producing tornadoes in eastern Iowa and far western Illinois in the evening hours. They were weak and short lived, but in retrospect we probably should have been out in eastern Iowa that evening.
Early in the evening I checked the radar and noticed a nice cell popping just southwest of Erie. I looked out the window and was surprised to see a powerful updraft nearly overhead in the southwestern part of the sky. I quickly grabbed the camera and snapped these pictures...
I quickly jumped in the car and headed out west of town. As I was leaving the west side of Erie the base of the storm came into view. I couldn't believe how nice the storm looked. It had a very nice rain-free base and associated lowering. For a bit I thought it could drop a tornado at any moment.
I followed the storm for several miles to the north but I gave up on it since some other tornado warned cells were moving towards the Quad Cities (about 25 miles to the southwest). As I was leaving the storm I snapped this pic of the backside of the storm.
The storms in the QCA were tornado warned, but never produced any confirmed tornadoes. Darkness set in within an hour or so of the pictures above, so chasing was pretty much done anyway.
All in all this day wasn't all that great, but to have a cool storm like this pop up just a few miles from home is pretty sweet! | 
