Change of Plans, Change of Location

Many times intercepting the right storm or going in the right direction for storm initiation is a challenge for mobile spotters. Such was my situation on Saturday, July 20, 2019. A healthy storm cell less than 50 miles northwest of Des Moines, Iowa, and moving ESE, went severe warned at 4:15 pm. My dilemma was now this: head south and west for an intercept that would be about four hours away and hope the storm maintains its current strength, or do the opposite and go northeast where the Storm Prediction Center had posted an Enhanced Risk (above) earlier at 11:15 am. The risk included the possibility of tornadoes. A thin line of storms began advancing east northwest of Cedar Rapids before 5:00 pm, so I made the decision with my spotting partner to head north on Highway 13.

We arrived at our spotting location at the intersection of 255th Street (D34) and Highway 13, about 3.25 miles south of Manchester, Iowa in Delaware County. By this time the previous line of storms had almost died out. It soon became apparent nothing was going to happen in this area. In the image above, cumulus towers form far to our southeast at 5:53 pm CDT. And guess what? The aforementioned storm cell in central Iowa to our southwest was still rolling along and holding its severe warning. Time to bail and head back the way we came.

The fastest route to intercept the storm was to take County Home Road (E34) west to connect with Interstate 380 south. Above, the leading edge of the storm cell is beginning to blot out the setting sun at 6:32 pm as seen from County Home Road, about .8-mile west of Highway 13.

6:35 pm. A brief pause at the four way stop on County Home Road and Alburnett Road north of Marion, Iowa produces this image of the storm cell, whose most intense area is about 62 miles to the southwest, near Lynnville, Iowa in Jasper County.

6:35 pm. Continuing west again on County Home Road. Leading edge of the storm has now covered the sun.

6:47 pm. Now southbound on Interstate 380 near Cedar Lake in Cedar Rapids. The immensity of the storm's anvil is evident.

6:48 pm. Vertical image includes the Cedar River Tower and Quaker Oats in downtown Cedar Rapids.

6:52 pm. Southbound on Interstate 380, about .1-mile south of US Highway 30. Southern sky is dominated by the storm's anvil.

7:19 pm. Continuing south on US Highway 218 near the Kalona/Highway 22 exit (Exit 80) in northern Washington County. Mammatus formations now appear under the severe-warned cell's anvil.

7:34 pm. Looking west at the mammatus-laden anvil, while southbound on US Highway 218 near Haskins, Iowa.

7:36 pm. Similar shot, while located just north of Ainsworth, Iowa in Washington County.

7:58 pm. Now at our stationary spotting location (Pilot Flying J gas station/truck stop on North Grand Avenue in Mount Pleasant Iowa, Henry County). At left, fellow spotter Billy Gant readies his camera as the storm approaches our position.

8:01 pm. Looking northeast at more mammatus formations. I checked into the Washington County Skywarn amateur radio net (W?ARC repeater, 147.045), and provided periodic reports throughout my spotting stay here.

8:05 pm. Approaching shelf cloud panorama looking west. Copious amounts of lightning were occurring predominately from the right half of this image.

Radarscope frame capture corresponding to 8:06 pm, showing our position (target icon), the severe-warned polygon and the area of high reflectivity bearing down on us.

8:07 pm. Billy Gant (foreground) photographs the incoming shelf cloud and gust front in this image looking southwest.

8:11 pm. Another panoramic capture.

8:13 pm. Dramatic capture of mammatus skies, looking southeast.

8:15 pm. Looking due west. This feature caused us alarm. It's dark rising motion met the rear underside of the shelf cloud from ground up. It completely dissipated however, in just a few minutes.

8:17 pm. Another shot of the ominous feature.

Radar image corresponding to 8:15 pm. Our location is indicated by the target icon, with the white arrow pointing to the area where the feature from the two above images was captured. Black arrows indicate storm movement.

8:28 pm. Scud-like fingers protrude from the leading edge of the gust front. The blurred image was caused by shooting it hand-held, with the shutter staying open longer from darkening conditions. At 9:10 pm the severe warning was lifted, the storm weakened, and we were on our way back home. Nikon D7200 DSLR camera.

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Index It As Hot!

Weather conditions on Friday afternoon, July 19, 2019 at this location (on the grounds of Echo Hill Presbyterian Church) north of Marion, Iowa were: 96 degrees F, 64% humidity, 82-degree dew points, resulting in about a 110-degree heat index. There wasn't a cloud in the entire sky. For all captures I used my Nikon D7200 DSLR and Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 lens with an X2 77mm ND filter. Each exposure: 1/160 second at f/3.5, ISO 200 and 11mm focal length. The image above looks north at 3:27 pm CDT.

3:32 pm. Image looks northeast.

3:33 pm. Image looks northwest.

3:34 pm. Looking north. I used a two-second delay and held my tripod-mounted camera high for this capture to enable it to shoot over the cornfield.

3:40 pm. My home weather station told the story upon my return home.

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Summer Classic

This was the Storm Prediction Center's (SPC) convective outlook at 11:54 pm CDT, Wednesday, July 17, 2019. Much of the state of Iowa was in the yellow Slight Risk category. The classic formula for summer gust front storms was developing this day in the state: a cold front colliding with a warm sultry air environment. (At 12:15 pm, prior to the storm's arrival, temperatures hovered at about 86 degrees F. At 1:52 pm, after the storm had passed, it had dropped to 69 degrees F.)

On radar prior to 1:00 pm, a linear stretch of storms was bearing down on the Hiawatha/Cedar Rapids/Marion metro area, having originated in western Iowa earlier in the morning. All of the following images were captured from or near the intersection of Progress Drive and Martha's Way in Hiawatha, Iowa and were imaged by my iPhone 6-Plus camera. The above image looks west at the approaching storm at 1:05 pm.

Radar frame capture corresponding to 1:05 pm. The target icon shows my position to the storm, whose movement is indicated with arrows. The well-defined linear nature of the storm is evident.

1:06 pm. Panorama of the approaching storm, whose leading edge was only about 8-9 miles distant at this moment.

1:06 pm. Another panorama shot.

1:06 pm. Looking southwest. An area of the leading edge of the gust front appears almost vertical here as it was nearing my location.

1:07 pm. Turbulent appearing clouds thrashed by high winds as the front nears me from the west.

1:07 pm. Looking southwest. Front leader of gust front gobbling up the warm air as it plows east (left). Note the clouds indicating high wind and rain behind it (right).

1:08 pm. A look to the northeast down the other end of the line. Though never reaching severe levels at this location, high winds, heavy rain and lightning followed--in classic summertime fashion.

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July 3 Storms

The weather pattern in early July in eastern Iowa was the formations of isolated non-severe storm clusters. Such was the case on the afternoon/evening of Wednesday, July 3, 2019. Visually impressive, but not packing much of a punch in criteria with the National Weather Service. Above, the camera captured this panoramic image of a storm tracking northeast just to my south (center background) at 3:12 pm CDT, as seen from Alburnett Road and Flight Drive in the Marion, Iowa Bowman Meadows housing development. Below is a Radarscope reflectivity capture of the storm at about the same time.

3:39 pm. This somewhat ominous looking area was approaching from the southwest beneath the updraft seen in the top photograph. Same location. Nothing significant would happen here and I stayed for only about another 30 minutes before returning home.

4:39 pm. Radarscope frame capture now showing an interesting line of storms to my west. Though again not severe-warned, I hoped I might get some nice gust front pictures, so I hurried northwest to intercept. Unfortunately, the chase required driving through a large area of blinding rain (white circled area) first. My targeted line of storms to the west was moving NNE.

5:05 pm. Northbound (northwest) on Interstate 380. I just got passed by Nick Stewart and the Channel 2 Road Warrior. We obviously shared the same goal. In short order the rains came from the dark area seen at right background. It was a "core punch" of sorts, and the drenching rain didn't end until I was somewhere between the towns of Brandon and LaPorte City. 

5:25 pm. Looking west while northbound on I-380 just south of the Gilbertville exit (Exit 62). I had now caught up with the storms and was clear of most of the rain. 

5:26 pm. A second encounter with the Road Warrior and Nick Stewart. I was westbound on Poyner Road just west of the I-380 Gilbertville exit.

5:28 pm. Stationary now and in spotting position on Poyner Road, about 1.2 miles east of Gilbertville, Iowa. This storm was looking very good to my southwest and I expected it to go severe, but it did not.

Radarscope frame capture corresponding to the moment. 

5:28 pm. Panorama capture of my spotting position and vehicle.

5:33 pm. Closeup looking south toward heavy rain core.

5:34 pm. Panorama, this one wide enough to include two rain cores.

5:34 pm. Another rain core closeup.

5:36 pm. Looking southeast. This object provided a little more excitement in the storm encounter. Seen faintly at center is a descending vertical tube of air, probably a benign funnel. The vision dissipated in about 20-30 seconds. I did not linger here much longer, opting to head back south and out of the potentially heavy inbound rain.

5:48 pm. Looking east at the edge of the rain as I sped south (southeast) on I-380 near Exit 55, and away from it. Storms were not severe here, but it had been worth the drive because of the exceptional visuals. Nikon D7200 DSLR camera.

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