I got off of work at 4 and met Jason there to make our trek west, as we were headed west a few beastly looking cells had formed in eastern Iowa so the decision was now to continue with our original target or make a move into Iowa in hopes of catching one of these discrete supercells before they became linear. As we drew closer to our target, 2 storms had become dominant, one in Iowa and one in Central Wisconsin near La Crosse, both moving away and virtually out of reach. We stopped near Hazel Green, Wisconsin to evaluate our options, after about 30 minutes or so a small cell began to form just north of our location, shooting out quite a bit of lightning, a pretty good sign that a storm in strengthening pretty rapidly.
After having a horrible time finding a north road, we finally were able to catch up to this storm and hang with it for a little while before it dissipated, leaving absolutely no chaseable storms anywhere in the close area. Being 7pm and not a single cell close on radar, we decided to head home, feeling dejected after another cruddy chase...or so we thought!
As we neared Monroe a few cells were starting to intensify around northwest Dane county, which we had very little hope for being mesoanalysis showed a mainly dry, stable airmass over the area. Nonetheless we continued to monitor the storms. As the sun began to set, we decided to turn north and see if the would do anything, much to our surprise, they finally went severe warned for high winds and hail and our once hopeless day was about to turn around.
As we finally made an approach to the storm, the intercloud lightning was non stop, as we came over a hill, the setting sun reflecting pink skies and anvil crawlers were providing another show that only mother nature herself can do!
As the sky was lighting up with lightning, the sun had set and darkness was now taking over, in return our 1st night chase was about to begin! As we got closer to the storm, lightning was beginning to illuminate a very scuddy base, something we had to watch between flashed for awhile to determine what we were actually seeing. When the storm was nearly on top of us, the lightning illuminated one of the most beautiful striated shelf clouds I have ever witnessed, only catching brief glimpses with bright flashes.
With the storm virtually on top of us, we decided to race east to get back ahead of what had now became a very outflow dominant storm that was starting to turn more southeast. As we got into Rock county (our home county) we contemplated where to set back up. As we did this you could still see what was a beautiful shelf cloud continue to be lit up by constant flashes of lightning! We decided on an open field that we have shot many times from on local storms. As the storms approached Rock county, they continued to be severe warned.
When we finally made it to our spot, we could see the same shelf in the city lights over Janesville heading right at us, with our cameras out, the shelf approached us and put on another magnificent structure display.
With the passing of the shelf and the beginning of heavy rain and small hail, he chase day came to an end, but not before realizing that we had infact had a successful chase and completed our 1st night chase! A night we will not soon forget!
Thank you all for taking the time to read and if you have no yet, be sure to like us on Facebook for more pictures, stories and more! https://www.facebook.com/WisconsinWeatherPhotography
