Severe Cell In Eastern Iowa

This storm cell was about 40 miles away from the observer just before 5:30 PM on Tuesday, May 24, 2011. I had fought rush hour traffic during a mini-chase to finally pull off Interstate 380 at the Toddville, Iowa exit just north of Cedar Rapids to get the opportunity to shoot this photo. The image looks northeast and was taken from Cora Mae Lane, about a 1/4-mile west of the exit and about 3/4-mile southeast of Toddville. At this hour the cell was located about 40 miles away in extreme northeast Jones County, and about 20 miles southwest of the city of Dubuque. The storm cell began to fire up in northern Jones County about 3:20 PM and went severe-warned before 5:00 PM. By 7:00 PM the cell had nearly reached the Illinois border and had diminished considerably.