Hits and Misses from Our March 10, 2026 Illinois Storm Chase (Part 3)

 

Darkness was now approaching in our day's chase, but we were now in good position to intercept the severe-warned storm to our west. A "hook echo"signature can be seen in this Radarscope image from 7:05 pm CDT, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. 

7:23 pm. While driving south on state highway 78 about 2 miles east of the village of Lafayette in Stark County, Illinois we could make out definite ground scatter nearby, even in twilight conditions. There was no obvious funnel condensation connected to it, so we could only guess. Tornado? Gustnado? RFD blast?

7:24 pm. Similar image. The vortex approaches the road. It wasn't until post-processing that these images revealed proof of cloud circulation above the ground scatter and a pronounced inflow tail cloud feeding into the storm at right--something not achievable with the naked eye.

7:24 pm. Similar image zoomed in. This feature was moving northeast (right-to-left in this image) from Lafayette toward Toulon, Illinois, where a NWS survey a day later confirmed a tornado (EF0) north of the town. 

7:25 pm radar image of our location with the storm's hook echo passing directly over us. 

7:29 pm. Back on the road again. Above, a probable tornado looking southeast from state highway 17, as seen from the town of Toulon in Stark County, Illinois. The image is blurred from motion and darkness. 

7:30 pm. Wheeling through Toulon. The barely discernible black shape of a tornado is seen behind the Stark County Courthouse on West Main Street. Nikon Z6ii camera.

 

7:32 pm. Our location directly in the notch of the tornado-warned storm.

7:34 pm. Inevitable Emergency Alert for tornado warning.

7:48 pm. Fully dark and sirens wailing. Probable tornado, captured with my iPhone 11. Image looks north from 600 N (East Williams Street), just east of Wyoming, Illinois. Rain and RFD was blasting this area.

7:50 pm. The chase is over. Our location is just west of the storm's hook echo, and just east of the town of Wyoming. A significant hail core can be seen to our northeast that we thankfully stayed away from. Now we drove back to Peru, Illinois (50 miles), where I transferred my gear back to my car for the 2 1/2 hour drive home. Heavy rain conditions until about Peoria, then uneventful after that. I arrived home just before midnight. We had made some poor decisions in this chase (storm chasing is not an exact science) as in the day's initial storm formation, but achieved success later in the day (though not really seeing it until post-processing of these images).

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Hits and Misses from Our March 10, 2026 Illinois Storm Chase (Part 2)

 

Continuing west from our positions near Minonk and Pontiac Illinois earlier in the day to intercept initiating storms, we encountered this towering supercell at 6:26 pm CDT (Tuesday, March 10, 2026) in La Salle County, Illinois, less than a mile west of the village of Cedar Point. A tornado-warned storm near Kewanee, Illinois was ongoing, about 35 miles to our west. Unlike the chase earlier in the day, this storm was moving in our general direction.

6:30 pm Radarscope image, showing the tornado warning (red) and severe thunderstorm (yellow) boxes affecting the Kewanee and Princeton areas. The blue target icon shows our mobile location and heading.

 

6:44 pm. Closer to our target and with an Emergency Alert notification on my cell phone. The alert warns of "destructive baseball size hail."

6:47 pm. Rear Flank Downdraft (RFD) surge while looking north along County Road 1725th East about 2.2 miles southwest of the town of Tiskilwa, in Bureau County, Illinois. RFD cut is the brighter area at center.

6:48 pm. Similar view, stationary about one tenth mile south of 800 N Avenue. Image shows lowering just above the line of trees at center, RFD cut above it, and inflow tail cloud at right. This area was tornado warned. 

6:54 pm. Looking west from state highway 16 (Kentville Road), about 4.4 miles northwest of Tiskilwa, Illinois. The tornadic area of interest is at right, RFD cut at center.

6:54 pm. Looking northwest at severe-warned storm as seen from a wind farm on state highway 16 (700 N Avenue), about 4.2 miles southwest of the town of Tiskilwa in Bureau County, Illinois.

7:05 pm Radarscope image, showing our mobile location about 3.5 miles southeast of the town of Kewanee, and inside a severe thunderstorm warning box. We are just east of our original waiting location, Galva, Illinois!

7:18 pm. Looking southwest at a lowering feature from state highway 9, about 4.3 miles west of Elmira, Illinois in Stark County. The feature was part of a "tail-end Charlie" supercell and sports an inflow tail cloud at right. Darkness was now gathering making chasing these intensifying storms all the more dangerous. Nikon Z6ii camera.

Continued...

 

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Hits and Misses from Our March 10, 2026 Illinois Storm Chase (Part 1)

 

Odds of significant severe weather from southeastern Iowa into western Indiana were in place on Tuesday, March 10, 2026. My son Ryan and I arranged to meet in Peru, Illinois to decide our best location for the chase. En route to my 2 1/2 hour drive to Peru, the Storm Prediction Center (SPC) upgraded the previous Enhanced Risk to a Moderate Risk (shown above, posted at 3:00 pm CDT), ramping up the drama. We lunched together at the Peru Culver's, where Ryan determined our best storm initiation waiting location, that being around Galva, Illinois, about 50 miles to the west. We bided our time at Galva Park, then became aware around 2:50 pm of a small storm forming in Bureau County, about 34 miles to our northeast. Believing our current location as prime, we stayed in place. Ryan considered the small but growing radar signature as a "bait storm," not to be acted upon as it was early in the day's process.

3:55 pm. Tornado Watch #32 is issued for a wide area that included southeastern Iowa to western Indiana. Because of this, we still ignored the growing storm cell in Bureau County to our northeast. 

By 4:15 pm with no sign of storm initiation in our area, we were forced to "take the bait" of the eastern storm and scramble in its direction. Very soon the storm went tornado warned. Because of road networks, chaser convergence and the speed of the storm we struggled to keep up. We had hesitated too long! This Radarscope image above from 4:57 pm shows the severe and tornado warned storm near Pontiac, Illinois, and our position (blue target icon) far to the west. 

Though we continued to struggle to gain on the storm, its amazing supercell structure in the distance dominated the horizon, and confirmed its powerful state. The first four images of the collage shown above stretch from 5:23-5:41 pm (eastbound on County Road 14 and State Highway 116 east of Minonk, Illinois). We decided to end our chase at the approach to the town of Pontiac, as we perceived the storm as weakening and we continued to lag behind. Time to turn back west and intercept storms that were now initiating in the area we had been previously. Many seasoned storm chasers did the same. The last two pics in the sequential image above show the storm in the east as seen while northbound on Interstate 39, about a mile northwest of Minonk. And of course at this moment, the storm began to strengthen again and would go on to affect Kankakee, Illinois with a violent tornado. Nikon Z6ii camera.

Continued...

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A Celestial Hit and Miss

The planetary "parade" on Saturday evening, February 28, 2026 was viewable in Eastern Iowa, the following total lunar eclipse on the morning of March 3 was not. Even the February 28 event was not a slam dunk as a large bank of clouds approached my location, but as it turned out a gap in the clouds to the west and dissipation of others allowed viewing of the planets Venus, Saturn and Mercury. Some of the remaining clouds can be seen at right in the image above, looking west at 6:45 pm from Lowe Park in Marion, Iowa. The 1.24 magnitude planet Saturn can be seen at center top, -3.36 magnitude Venus at center just above the horizon, and 1.49 magnitude Mercury right of Venus. Image is a 1/3 second exposure at f/4, ISO 1000, 42mm focal length.

 

Zoomed in capture (63mm) at 6:47 pm. Air temperature was 27 degrees F. Nikon Z6ii camera.

Sad that skies were overcast on March 3, preventing the viewing of a probable beautiful lunar eclipse!

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Just Enough Crystal Drift

 

Though the morning at this moment (7:14 am CST, Sunday, February 22, 2026) was not particularly frigid (8 degrees F) there were enough ice crystals drifting downward in the upper atmosphere to create a brief sundog and sun pillar as shown here from parking lot at Noelridge Christian Church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Ice crystals act as prisms and when they form horizontally they create the distinct parhelia phenomenon known as sundogs and sun pillars. This horizon display did not persist for long after its capture. Image is a 1/400 second exposure at f/11, ISO 100, 26mm focal length. Nikon Z6ii camera.

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Leftover Pics From July 3, 2025 Storm

FROM THE ARCHIVES: 

The 2025 severe weather season in Eastern Iowa was very quiet, without much to capture photographically. Therefore, the following are some leftover archived images not originally used on my website from that active day north of Cedar Rapids on Thursday evening, July 3, 2025. The image above looks north at 8:03 pm CDT while on Alburnett Road in Marion, Iowa, about one mile south of County Home Road. The (severe-warned) storm cell seen in the background was located about 30 miles distant, near the town of Independence in Buchanan County.

8:08 pm. An inflow cloud (warm air feeding into the storm) silhouettes itself in front of the setting sun, producing brilliant backlit rays. This image looks west while northbound on Highway 13, just north of County Home Road, near Marion, Iowa.

8:11 pm. Northbound on Highway 13, north of County Home Road. A low cloud base can be seen on the horizon at right.

8:13 pm. Dynamic looking inflow cloud feeds into severe-warned storm (right), which was located in southeastern Buchanan County. Image captured northbound on Highway 13 about 2 miles south of Central City in Linn County.

8:23 pm. Two inflow tail clouds converging into the storm, with a forming wall cloud at center. This image looks northwest from Highway 13, just east of Coggon, Iowa in Linn County and just west of Monticello Road.

8:26 pm. Northbound on Highway 13, just south of Ryan, Iowa in Delaware County. A funnel cloud has now formed from the wall cloud (behind trees at right). 

8:27 pm. Looking northeast at a funnel while eastbound on County Road D47 (310th Street), about .4-mile east of Highway 13 and about .6-mile southeast of the town of Ryan.

8:32 pm. Looking north from 190th Avenue, about .1-mile south of 295th Street, and about 3 miles northeast of Ryan in Delaware County. Behind the trees at center is Golden Church. The amazing illuminated inflow cloud stretches over the buildings, and feeds into a severe-warned storm (right), located about 8 miles to the northeast, near the town of Manchester.

8:32 pm. Similar image. 

8:32 pm. Similar image. A lot going on in this picture: Inflow cloud at left, cloud striations above center, two more inflow clouds at right, an RFD clear slot between them and a lowering beneath them. Nikon Z6ii camera.

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Color My World

Eastern horizons were briefly brilliantly color-splashed in the northeast quadrant of Cedar Rapids, Iowa during the morning of Sunday, February 1, 2026. Red sky at morning usually means imminent precipitation, buy only light snow fell a few hours later. The image above looks east at 7:14 am CST as seen from Brentwood Drive. Air temperature was 15 degrees F. 

 

7:21am. Looking east from Noelridge Christian Church in Cedar Rapids. 

7:22 am. Looking southwest. Water tower illuminated.

7:25 am. Looking southeast. Nikon Z6ii camera.

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