Chasing Phantoms

The Storm Prediction Center (SPC) had earlier given much of the state of Iowa an Enhanced Risk for severe weather on Wednesday, June 28, 2017, and indeed conditions appeared favorable as the afternoon rolled on. Above, some examples for that included Tornado Watch 375 at 2:55 pm CDT (A), blossoming cloud tops in the satellite image from 3:37 pm (B), and an eastbound severe-warned cell west of Waterloo, Iowa around 5:30 pm (C). Also at that time were tornado-warned cells just SW of Des Moines. I conceived a "full proof" plan in which I would travel north, intercept the Waterloo cell, allow it to pass by, then have time enough to travel back south to head off the tornado-warned cells from Des Moines which I assumed would be far enough east by then. Trouble began almost immediately. I had only gotten as far north as Urbana on I-380 from Cedar Rapids when the formerly formidable looking severe cell west of Waterloo lost its severe warning and began to decay. Time to head south and intercept the tornado-warned cells now south of Des Moines! From now on though, I would find myself becoming "The Storm Killer"-- every severe storm I approached for the rest of the evening would lose its warning status. Tama to What Cheer, What Cheer to Sigourney, storms fizzling out all around me. It was at Sigourney that I glanced at my radar for the Cedar Rapids area and noted a tornado-warned box just NE of it. A significant tornado was seen on the ground by scores of people in the Central City, Prairieburg area, and even in Marion! Had I stayed home I would have almost certainly seen and captured tornado footage. Instead, I headed home via Williamsburg, I-380 north through Cedar Rapids and settled for images of (you guessed it) a former severe-warned cell that died as I approached it near Center Point, Iowa. I've estimated that I drove some 230 miles just to capture the following images:

7:24 pm CDT. Looking northeast at an area of severe weather, about 40 miles distant, stretching from the towns of Garrison to Alburnett, Iowa. This location was on O Avenue at 290th Street, one mile west of Parnell, Iowa in Iowa County, about about five miles south of Williamsburg.

7:31 pm. Looking back toward the southwest while northbound on Highway 149, about a half-mile south of Williamsburg.

8:24 pm. Looking north from the Center Point Travel Plaza in Center Point, Iowa. Brilliant sky caused by setting sun shining through gaps in clouds on the horizon.

8:27 pm. Looking NW from the Center Point Travel Plaza in Center Point. Severe warning for the cell seen in the background at left was about to be lifted.

8:33 pm. The storm cell, which minutes before lost its severe warning, is seen in the NW sky from the Center Point Travel Plaza in Center Point. The storm was about 24 miles distant, near the town of Dysart.

8:38 pm. The same cell, but now exhibiting a horseshoe-shaped shelf cloud ahead of it. Nikon D7200 DSLR camera.