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Just like I had no thought of chasing in IL the day I wound up there I had no thought of chasing IN either. I stayed in Mendota IL the night before and some in chat pointed out the IN chase and asked if I'd chase the s IN hills. I laughed and said, no way in hell. Well, this trough that was prog'd to be very weak by now was still not very weak. The mid-level flow had actually increased quite a bit and a 55 knot wnw jet was going to slam into some extreme instability this day in IN and OH. SPC issued a moderate risk with a big area of 10% hatched for tornadoes. I glanced at stuff quickly and figured I was only 4 hours from Indianapolis IN. What troubled me right off the bat was where the best boundary looked even this early in the morning. It already looked like the best bet would be over s IN and maybe early. I went anyway and found myself Crawfordsville IN around 2pm. That bounadry hand't moved much but was still located in a pretty unchaseable terrain. I chose to let it go because of that. Soon the best stuff popped on it and a tornado warning was issued only a coupe counties to my south. I stuck with the cold front moving through eastern IL and was soon regretting the drive down for this. The problem was again stuff going up ahead of the front and screwing up any inflow air that moves from that direction. Any storm on the cold front would only have a small window of good air to use. I hated that feeling and especially so with the best storms so close yet in such crappy terrain and the fact I was so far from home. I go north and south over and over on this highway north of Crawfordsville wondering what to do. Storms in eastern IL were moving this way but weren't doing so well. The other problem was construction in this area not allowing me to go west and look at them and leaving me stuck in one lane fun south of Lafayette. So I was essentially stuck with whatever I could get to come to me from IL. I wasn't about to blast east of Indianapolis in hopes that stuff popping up out there would do any better than the stuff to the south. It was looking bad fast. Finally the storm coming east from IL gets going, and gets going it did! It was a chore to keep up with its whole life. It was very shelfy from the start but the shelf had fast motions to the north around it, which gave me some hope. It was very energetic as well. The image is the storm looking west towards Romney IN.
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It wasn't doing a whole lot but be a bit severe until it got to Frankfort. It started to become very severe at this time. It even had mean looking structure for a bit, but I could never really get ahead of it for a good look. The next image is on the west side of Frankfort or some town just west of there I forget.
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I was getting very strong differential winds where I was at south of the main part of the storm. I'm pretty shocked the semi that was infront of me for most of it didn't go over. He was close a couple times. The trees on video are getting beat around violently through all of this. They are shredding and thrashing all around. I don't know that I have any other video with that kind of tree trashing. I wasn't noticing it that much at the time as I was hoping they'd stay standing and just looking out for anything. I noticed it last night while watching the video to get some of the captures below. You can see a bit of a wall of dust behind the church there. I imagine the strongest winds were just north of me. I'm interested to know how strong they got. They really did seem vicious.
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Heading into Frankfort now and not at all happy about it. I saw it on the gps and was like, oh yeah, I'll get through that in a day. Hell was going on in the city as I moved east. This construction barrel was much higher before this. I think it had hit the ground and went way up in the air from the bounce. Just before this I was doing 50 and stuff was racing east going past me. Then I'd hit the front or something and would be hit by very hard south winds. Then just as quickly around to the north they'd go. The area any meso might have been always seemed to be just north of me during this.
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This image is being stuck in the city and crap flying everywhere. Some of the wires were rather funny to watch, they were swinging around so wildly. Maybe I'll put up some video of this. It was actually very unnerving driving around all the tall trees. I think I get through this light and can see a very long line of stopped cars going east. I thought surely something blew over on the road down there so I turn on a side street. There are tall trees everwhere here. I was saying little prayers down the streets, "don't fall on my ass!". I go south a couple of blocks off of here and then east. My first attempt to go back north to this highway and a big tree is laying across that road. It became much more of a challenge to get through the city than I had originally thought.
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Needless to say the trip through Frankfort put me well behind the show. I catch back up but by now there isn't a lot to be seen. This cg hit somewhere just east of me. There is less than a second between it and the thunder on video. These last 3 images are from video. There was quick light changes on two of them and you can see the resulting encoding artifacts from the HD Video. The one with the barrel has them because I was panning so quick at that time. The video isn't as bad as these two make it seem. I begin the trip back home shortly after this last image. I actually drive all the way back to NE after this. I got into Chicago around 6:30-7:00 and my lord what a mess on the south side of town. Why do they make traffic stop to pay a .60 toll with construction like that going on at the time??? I can't imagine having to take that every day for work right now. They had some odd areas with very low speed limits around there too. I was like, no wonder stuff backs up. You get some fool actually doing 45 that snarls things up. I was extremely glad I was not in the eastbound lane at this time. It was a standstill for miles. I get back home about 2:30 a.m. That is a lot of driving for some flying leaves, tree branches, and a big orange barrel. Thank god through that I got to see such a severe storm. It made the drive home a smidge more tolerable. Those first few miles really do suck though. You play the same song over and over in your head, "I'm so far from home, I'm so far from home." The thought that got me the most was when I realized I was further now than I was when waking up in Ada OK earlier in the year. I clearly remember that morning and not wanting to make the drive home. Well on this one I remembered that feeling of being far from home and knowing I wasn't even that close and it was evening. For some reason it wound up not being too hard to do. I wake up the next day and wind up in far nw KS. It would be nice if the effort involved would equal a tornado here or there, but no.
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