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Tuesday, March 26, 2019

March 24, 2019 chase log: Chester, Illinois supercell

By DAN ROBINSON

Editor/Photographer

I had low expectations for this day thanks to the non-existent surface flow, but it otherwise looked like a solid supercell day with the very cold midlevel temps moving overhead. I started with a developing supercell storm just south of I-64 in the STL metro, but this was quickly squashed by a large area of precip breaking out ahead of it.

By now a potent supercell had been ongoing for some time over in Missouri, but essentially out of play in bad terrain and roads southwest of STL. I dropped south to Chester to await the storm crossing into better chase territory in Illinois. When it moved into view, the updraft structure was half decent with periodic RFD clear slots cutting in on the right side and some very low and ominous-looking wall clouds. Rotation on radar was rather weak at this time, however.

Supercell near Chester

Wall cloud and clear slot

I broke off of this storm to get back to STL before a secondary line of storms moved through. These beat me there by about 20 minutes, with some decent lightning on the front side.

This Youtube video includes a lightning shot from this day at 1,500 frames per second: