May 20, 2025

Brindley and I were on the way home from the Plains, not really expecting to chase this day. The main tornado target looked to be over the unfavorable terrain of the southern states. Coming into Springfield, however, cells erupted southwest of town and started picking up tornado warnings. Still coming up from the south on I-55, I was worried that we would once again miss the show.

We soon had a visual on a scuddy wall cloud to our west, hinting that the storm was still organizing and we weren't late to the party. The chase was on.

We took I-55 North to I-72 Wwest for the intercept, the wall cloud now hanging over the interstate.

Exiting on MacArthur and stopped on a broad, little used portion of intersection, we had a great view of the approaching wall cloud while the sirens in town wailed.

There was no tornado or tight rotation, so we let the surging wall cloud go overhead. Brindley and I were out of the car, shooting panos and video as it passed. Feeling the winds, listening to the sirens, and surrounded by high contrast structure, it was probably the most exhilerating moment the two of us shared together this season, and all on a local, impromptu chase.

Invigorated by the intercept, we were excited to continue the chase, following I-55 around to the east side of town before exiting to track the east northeast moving storm. Looking east at the backside of the clear slot/wall cloud:

We ran east for a ways, stair stepping on the paved road grid that makes chasing central Illinois a dream. The chase had peaked with our intercept in town, but we still had several photogenic, high contrast views of gust fronts and lowerings. And for the first time on this run all the way to Oklahoma and back, it felt like we were on a real and exciting storm chase. We tracked with the storm until it appeared to have permanently gusted out and was starting to weaken before calling it and heading back to Springfield.