June 15 Eastern Iowa Severe Weather--The Little Cell That Could

A small cell, alone and by itself, began to form around 5:00pm CDT, Thursday, June 15, 2017, about 40 miles north of Ames, Iowa. An hour later it had grown to what the radar image above shows, complete with a sizable hail core. It was time for me to depart Cedar Rapids and intercept it, and I traveled north on Highway 13 as the system continued to move on an easterly track.

Near Coggon, Iowa at 6:35 pm, the anvil cloud of a smaller cell out ahead of the main cluster exhibited this bizarre wave pattern on its edge. Image looks northwest, captured through my windshield. Below, a radar image of the moment, with a white arrow indicating the smaller cell.

A couple of minutes later and now looking northwest at ground level. Though this cell was not severe-warned, it still sported an inflow cloud (seen at left). The location here was just south of Ryan, Iowa in SW Delaware County. The most intense part of this cell was located about 19 miles distant, near the town of Winthrop. Behind it, the main severe system had split. The northern half tracked roughly NE toward West Union, Iowa. The southern half of the split moved southeast.

7:05 pm. Looking west from 255th Street (D34) at Highway 13 and about 5 miles south of the town of Manchester in Delaware County. After staying at this location for about a half-hour, I realized the leading edge of the southern part of the split was moving too far south of me. It was time to pack up and head back from whence I came and get ahead of the storm. Nikon D7200 DSLR camera.

Above is a radar image corresponding to the photograph above it. The target at right represents my position with the white arrow pointing to the intense area seen in the background.