Still Formidable Up North

After the tornado-warned cell had moved past me in east-central Washington County, Iowa on the afternoon of Thursday, April 9, 2015, severe activity was still going on up north. The image above looks northeast at a blackened sky as seen from 150th Street at Underwood Avenue, a quarter-mile east of US Highway 218 and about 3.3 miles southeast of Riverside, Iowa. Time was 4:39 PM CDT.

Also looking ominous was this view at 4:48 PM, seen northbound on US Highway 218, a little over a mile south of the Hills, Iowa exit. The structure in the background is a severe cell located in northern Johnson County and southern Linn County. Nikon D5000 DSLR.

The set of radar images above show the birth of the severe system that moved through southeast Iowa that afternoon. Each box is a one-hour increment of time. The arrow indicates the severe cell I would encounter as it reached Washington County.