Rare SPC High Risk Day Impacts Johnson County Iowa With Tornadoes

This predicted upcoming storm system on the last day of March, 2023 was not going to be an ordinary one. This was evidenced by the NWS Storm Prediction Center's posting of an Enhanced Risk (Level 3, above), four days in advance on Tuesday, March 28. The area included large areas of Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois and my home, Eastern Iowa.

5:00 pm CDT, Wednesday, March 29. Forecasted Enhanced areas expanded.

7:00 am CDT on Thursday, March 30, the day before the event. The categorical outlook has been upgraded to a Moderate Risk (Level 4), and shows ominous areas for tornadoes, hail and wind. Pivotal Weather Graphic.

7:00 am CDT, Friday, March 31--day of the event. All areas have been expanded and energized.

9:05 am CDT. Email from NWS Quad Cities (DVN) Weather Forecast Office goes out to all area severe weather spotters from Warning Coordination Meteorologist Rich Kinney for an awareness "heads up."

11:00 am WeatherTap screen capture showing the dark red area of the Moderate Risk with numerous spotters located throughout, including myself.

11:00 am. SPC Mesoscale Discussion 390 goes out, with the expectation of a "Upgrade to tornado-driven High Risk (Level 5) to be issued at (11:30 am CDT)." 

 

High Risk (Level 5 of 5) is quickly issued, which includes portions of eastern Iowa and western Illinois. The Moderate Risk area is also expanded.

11:12 am. Screen capture of my home Tempest Weatherflow weather station, showing dew points approaching 60 degrees, falling barometer and strong southeast winds. 

11:16 am. SPC Mesoscale Discussion 393 for a PDS (Particularly Dangerous Situation) Tornado Watch likely to be issued in the next one to two hours. Areas included eastern Iowa, western Illinois and northern Missouri.

11:25 am. Satellite image showing large areas in Iowa of ample sunlight, creating atmospheric instability.

11:35 am. SPC four panel outlook, showing an area of High Risk now included in portions of Arkansas, Tennessee and Mississippi in the South.

11:41 am. Pivotal Weather High Risk map.

11:48 am. WeatherTap screen capture, showing the recent High Risk upgrade area (lavender). 

11:49 am. NWS Forecast Discussion.

11:57 am. PDS Tornado Watch 93 is issued for a large portion of Iowa, northern half of Missouri and western half of Illinois.

11:57 am. Seriously worded and colored issuance of forecasted "Major Severe Weather Outbreak Today and/or Tonight." Now I was in spotting interception mode. But where? The best bet was south of Cedar Rapids, deeper into the High Risk "danger zone." Going solo today, I did not think it prudent to travel too far in these conditions, so my initial thought was setting up spotting operations in the relatively nearby town of North Liberty in Johnson County. I departed Cedar Rapids around 12:10 pm CDT.

En route to North Liberty I of course changed my mind. The small town of Hills, just south of Iowa City had served me well in the past, with a wall cloud sighting on one occasion and a nearby tornado on another. Above, I approach the Hills, Iowa exit on US Highway 218 at 12:51 pm. The unstable atmosphere is evident with churning clouds seen to my south.

At my stationary spotting location at the Animal Haven Veterinary Hospital parking lot in Hills. I first asked permission from the proprietors to locate there. I had originally parked at the Casey's Convenience Store next door, but changed my mind. My vehicle mobile weather station is shown here at 1:16 pm, showing robust southeast winds, temperature of 69 degrees F, and a dew point of 60 degrees.

1:20 pm. Yours truly in a serious "selfie" pose from my spotting location at the veterinary hospital on Oak Crest Hill Drive SE in Hills, Iowa.

2:39 pm. Mobile weather station monitor, now showing 72 degrees F temperature and 64 degrees dew point.

2:51 pm. Gathering dark clouds to my southwest.

3:37 pm. Approaching supercell with mammatus on the leading edge of its anvil. The tornado from this storm impacted the town of Keota.

3:38 pm. Velocity radar capture showing rotation (left) and my location (lower right).

3:40 pm. West-looking vista of mammatus clouds, with US Highway 218 in the background. Note the inflow cloud feeding into the storm at lower right.

3:46 pm. Looking northeast at mammatus cloud formations. Many of the structures seen in this image would be severely damaged by the arrival of another tornado, about one hour and 15 minutes later.

3:57 pm. Radarscope frame capture showing tornado-warned cell at left center, and my spotting location in Hills, Iowa.

4:07 pm. Radarscope frame capture. The storm has tracked farther northeast and is about to impact the town of Keota.

4:07 pm. Left edge of an EF4 wedge tornado, located about 30 miles distant, near the town of Keota along the Keokuk and Washington county line. This image looks southwest.

4:12 pm. Tornado is tracking closer to me now from the southwest. The lighter clouds seen among the dark mass of the tornado are rotating around it (from left-to-right in image).

4:12 pm. Similar image. Inflow cloud can be seen low along the horizon at left.

4:13 pm. Radarscope frame capture. The second storm cell (toward bottom) was severe-warned at this time but would eventually become the culprit that would spawn the EF2 tornado that struck Hills.

4:16 pm. Tornado panorama looking west.

4:16 pm. Inflow cloud feeding into the tornado (left center).

4:17 pm. Looking west at the tornado. By this time I had communicated its presence to the Linn County ARES Net via amateur radio, and verbally to the employees of the veterinary hospital where I was located.

4:22 pm. Radarscope frame capture.

4:27 pm. Tornado emerges from behind the line of foreground trees. I had to run across the road and along a fence toward the right (north) to obtain a better visual to confirm for spotting. The tornado was now a lower EF2 rating.

4:31 pm. Radar capture.

4:32 pm. Radar captures.

4:36 pm. Tornado panorama looking west.

4:37 pm. Layered convective clouds looking south. The Casey's convenience store is in the background. It was from this direction--and a bit toward the right--the second tornado would form and strike this very spot.

4:37 pm. Cell phone Emergency Alert.

4:39 pm. Looking east over the roof of the Animal Haven Veterinary Hospital at picturesque swirling clouds. It was around this time I made the decision that probably kept me from serious harm: I had my pictures and video (please see my 10 minute YouTube spotting operations video), so I wanted to head back north, partly to get closer to home, and partly to be able to continue to image the tornado to my west/northwest as I ran "parallel" to it. What I wouldn't know until I returned home was that this very location became heavily damaged by the second tornado, which hit about 15-20 minutes after I left. Was it a God thing that I made this decision?

4:43 pm. Heading back north on US Highway 218, just north of Hills. Tornado is at left, with elongated inflow cloud at right. But all was not well yet: What I absentmindedly disregarded was the fact that the highway direction south of Iowa City travels to the north/northwest, and the tornado was tracking to the northeast. This meant that at some point I would cross the storm's path. Nikon D7200 DSLR camera.

4:48-4:49 pm radar captures.

4:56 pm radar capture. Around 4:55 pm I had reached Coralville Lake on Interstate 380 when high winds and blinding rain swirled over the pavement in front of me. Estimated quarter size hail hit my vehicle and I began to notice random leaves fluttering down from high in the sky. I'm guessing I was inside RFD winds or possibly the outer circulation of a nearby tornado. Thankfully, I emerged from this area unscathed. 

4:56 pm. Tornado-warned areas stretching from Mt. Pleasant in the south to Waverly in the north.

Comparison images of structures just north of the veterinary hospital in Hills, looking north/northeast. Top image at 3:46 pm, about one hour and 15 minutes before tornado struck; bottom image (courtesy of KGAN TV2) in the immediate aftermath of the storm.

NWS service Overview of Tornado Outbreak and Surface Analysis map.

Tornado track maps for Eastern Iowa (left) and the Iowa City area. As of this posting, over 20 tornadoes touched down in the state of Iowa on this rare High Risk day. The towns of Hills, Coralville and Solon, all in Johnson County, reported significant storm damage.

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Jupiter and Mercury Were Bashful, but Venus Wasn't

On an evening with the possibility of seeing five planets in alignment, plus the moon, I would only view two. Jupiter and Mercury were setting precariously close to horizon and still within the sun's glare, and unfortunately clouds along the horizon blocked their viewing. Mars was the other observable planet, near the moon, but it was high in the sky and out of the camera's viewfinder. Uranus can only been seen by the naked eye in very dark skies, and it was light enough in this setting that even the camera could not resolve it without resorting to very long exposures. That left Venus, front and center and blazing away at magnitude -4.02. In the image above Venus hangs over the afterglow of the day's sunset, seen at 8:07 pm CDT, Tuesday, March 28, 2023, from Lowe Park in Marion, Iowa. Metal effigy park sculptures can be seen in the foreground. 0.4 second exposure at f/2.8, ISO 250, 11mm focal length. Nikon D7200 DSLR camera.

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Aurora Finds Its Way South To Iowa

A strong geomagnetic storm on Thursday, March 23, 2023 stimulated Aurora Borealis (The Northern Lights) throughout the state of Iowa and persisted into early the next morning. Spaceweather.com issued alerts to the probability well in advance of the event. In the Cedar Rapids metro area the question wasn't so much as to if it would occur, but would the sky be clear enough to witness it? Yes and no. The most intense period may have been around 10:45 pm CDT on March 23, as shown on the Aurora Alerts app image above, but skies in Cedar Rapids were mostly cloudy at that time. 

I was setting and resetting my cell phone alarm in hourly increments, starting about 9:00 pm, rising and going out on the back deck each time to observe the sky. Around midnight (March 24) the sky suddenly appeared mostly clear. I first photographed the north sky from nearby Bowman Woods Park (above), but this limited because of trees and too much light pollution. The aurora can be seen at lower left. Image captured at 12:17 am CDT, and is a 8 second exposure at f/2.8, ISO 1000 and 11mm focal length.

My next move was to get in my vehicle and move to the intersection of North Marion Road and White Road (42° 6'59.60"N,  91°35'58.00"W), a favorite dark sky vantage point north of the city of Marion, 1.5 miles north of County Home Road (E34). There the bright horizon aurora was immediately evident. Unfortunately, by this time the geomagnetic activity was in decline and dimming by the minute. The image above looks north from that location on North Marion Road at 12:40 am CDT. It is a 5 second exposure at f/2.8, ISO 2500, 11mm focal length.

Aurora alerts info for 12:43 am. Note the difference in intensity from this alert image to the one at top. 

Panorama image captured at 12:45 am. Image is a 5 second exposure at f/2.8, ISO 2500, 11mm focal length. Lingering clouds can be seen at right. Air temperature was 27 degrees F.

12:49 am. 4 second exposure at f/2.8, ISO 2500, 11mm focal length. I didn't get much sleep this night, but it was definitely worth it as this was the first aurora display I witnessed in the metro area since July 15, 2012. The (March 23-24) aurora event was classified as category "G4" (severe), and was witnessed as far south as New Mexico! Nikon D7200 DSLR camera.

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Winter's Orion March-ing To Spring

One of the most dominant and recognizable constellations during the winter is Orion, the great hunter of ancient Greek mythology. The constellation features three prominent stars: Betelgeuse, Bellatrix and Rigel, as well as the NGC1976 Nebula in Orion's sword. Orion is always followed by his faithful hunting dog, the constellation Canis Major, which contains the night sky's brightest star, Sirius. Orion continues to stand out well in March's southern skies, but begins to dip lower on the horizon and into the growing glare of the sun before disappearing in April. Above, Orion is seen looking southwest from Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa at 8:17 pm CDT, Monday, March 20, 2023, the first day of spring. At lower left is the -1.47 magnitude star Sirius. The bright object at upper left is the 0.37 magnitude star Procyon in the constellation Canis Minor. Image is a one second exposure at f/2.8, ISO 2000 and 14mm focal length.

Closeup of Sirius (lower left) and Orion at 8:18 pm. Orion's belt and sword are easily recognizable. 0.6 second exposure at f/2.8, ISO 2500, 14mm focal length. 

The -4.01 magnitude planet Venus was not to be left out of the sky show this evening. It is seen here setting in the west from Bowman Woods Park. 0.6 second exposure at f/2.8, ISO 2500, 14mm focal length. Air temperature was 45 degrees F. Vernal Equinox (first day of Spring) arrived at 4:24 pm.

Speaking of spring, purple and yellow crocuses poke up here from the formerly snow-covered ground of our backyard on Tuesday afternoon, March 21. The flowers made their first appearance the day before, right on the first day of spring. The crocuses appear randomly throughout the backyard each year. Nikon D7200 DSLR camera.

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Winter Not Done Yet

As has been the trend the past several months of March in Eastern Iowa, winter has been reluctant to move on. Snow is falling in the image above, captured at 7:06 pm CST, Saturday, March 11, 2023, looking west over Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Cedar Rapids would receive about 1.5 inches of snow by the time the event ended the following day.

Panoramic image of a large line of clouds, the last remnant of the snow system as it moves east. Image looks east from the Bowman Meadows housing development in Marion, Iowa at 10:56 am CDT, March 12, 2023. Nikon D7200 DSLR camera.

Radar image corresponding to the panorama image above it. Target icon locates the camera, with the green signatures at right indicating the clouds. The line of clouds stretched from northern Illinois well into Wisconsin, some 140-160 miles distant.

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Joshua Tree and the Mohave Yielded Good Photography Results

A recent vacation to Joshua Tree National Park, the Mohave Desert and the Palm Springs area of California provided for some good sky and weather photography opportunities. The panoramic sunset above looks west at 5:25 pm PST on Monday, February 13, 2023 from Kelso-Dunes Road at Kelbaker Road in the Mohave National Preserve.

6:29 am PST, Tuesday, February 14. Sunrise in Joshua Tree National Park.

6:33 am. February 14. The sunrise from a nearby location.

6:42 am. February 14. Sunrise panorama from Joshua Tree National Park.

7:08 am. February 14. Sunrise from Cholla Cactus Gardens in Joshua Tree.

9:00 am PST. February 14. Clouds paint a butte with shadows in Joshua Tree.

9:09 am. Rainbow formed from the line of rain clouds rolling over the background mountains in Joshua Tree.

12:42 pm PST. Tuesday, February 14. Driving into and through a sand squall while northbound on North Indian Canyon Drive near Palm Springs. iPhone 11 video frame captures.

Mount San Jacinto (10,834 feet) is shown spectacularly shrouded in clouds as seen from Dillon Road near Desert Hot Springs, California at 3:07 pm PST, February 14. High winds have also kicked up sand at the base of the mountain.

This is what Mt. San Jacinto looks like on a clear day (following day, February 15).

6:11 am PST, February 15. Sunrise from Joshua Tree National Park.

6:31 am. February 15. Panoramic sunrise view from Keys View overlook in Joshua Tree. Weather conditions here were bitterly cold: temperatures in the lower 20s, with wind chills at or below zero.

6:31 am. February 15. Continuation of panorama toward the south. Mt. San Jacinto can be seen at right center, and the distant 11,503-foot Mount San Gorgonio at far right.

Smaller panorama of same scene.

6:52 am. February 15. Sunrise at Joshua Tree.

10:31 pm PST. February 15. Night panorama from Keys View overlook (5,185 feet), showing Mt. San Jacinto with the lights of Palm Springs, Palm Desert and other towns along its base. Red tinted area at lower right is reflected light from my headlamp. 8 second exposure at f/2.8, ISO 1250, 11mm focal length.

7:43 am PST. Friday, February 17. Sunrise above the Bullion Mountains along North Amboy Road in the eastern Mohave Desert.

7:47 am. February 17. Stratus overcast skies seen while northbound on North Amboy Road in the Mohave Desert.

7:49 am. Looking east along North Amboy Road in the Mohave Desert.

8:39 am PST. February 17. Cirriform clouds shroud the sky behind Amboy Crater. The dormant/extinct volcano is located just south of the old Route 66 in California, and rises 250 feet above the Mohave Desert floor. The volcano is thought to have last erupted some 10,000 years ago.

10:15 am. Sun halo behind Amboy Crater. Nikon D7200 DSLR camera.

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Gettin' Together

The planets Jupiter and Venus were on a celestial rendezvous during the final evenings of February and those of early March, 2023. The close proximity to one another is known as a "conjunction." The planets glittered in the western sky after sunset. Jupiter is above Venus in this view from Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa at 6:39 pm CST on Saturday, February 25. Jupiter shone at magnitude -2.09, and Venus at -3.96. Image is a 3 second exposure at f/5, ISO 160, 35mm focal length.

Same view and location the following evening (February 26). Jupiter and Venus have inched closer in this capture at 6:37 pm. Contrails stretch across the sky. 2 second exposure at f/4.5, ISO 160 and 34mm focal length. The sky clouded up a short time later, and remained that way until the evening of March 1.

6:27 pm CST, Wednesday, March 1. Looking west from Noelridge Christian Church in Cedar Rapids. The planets are side-by-side and within one degree of each other, with Jupiter at the left. Jupiter shone at magnitude -2.08, Venus at -3.97. Image is a 1/4 second exposure at f/7.1, ISO 160, 26mm focal length. Note the line of clouds at lower right.

Pictured here are the line of clouds approaching from the northwest. In about 15-20 minutes this cloud cover would arrive and obscure any further viewing for the evening.

6:38 pm CST, Thursday, March 2. Back to original location at Bowman Woods Park, and on a spectacularly clear evening. Now Venus occupied the upper position in the conjunction. Jupiter shone at magnitude -2.08, Venus at -3.97. Air temperature was 33 degrees F. Although Jupiter and Venus appeared very close to each other in our skies, the planets were in reality 6 billion miles apart. 0.5 second exposure at f/4.5, ISO 320, 34mm focal length. Nikon D7200 DSLR camera.

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