Ashton/Fairdale/Rochelle Illinois Tornado 4-9-2015

Thursday April 9th was a day that was on our radar for quite a few days prior, a low pressure system ejecting out of the plains that was forecasted to deepen along with an associate warm front and strong moisture was the basis for a possible severe weather setup. As early as 4 days prior the Storm Prediction center had outlined the area for possible severe weather as well as long as the atmosphere could recover from overnight convection and instability could build in.
The night before 2 things really stuck out while looking at models, one showed a decent area of clearing that would allow the instability to build and the other is a composite models that blends certain dynamics to give us a "significant tornado index" which had a bullseye over northern Illinois. The morning of an enhanced risk with a 10% tornado probability was given with the mention of possibly a strong tornado or 2.




Our starting point was The Mt Carroll area, a decent road network with options in all 4 directions if need be. While traveling south we encountered the warm front as the windows fogged and you could see the temp gauge jump a good 10 degrees in a matter of seconds. We traveled down I88 and decided to get off on US 30 and set up in Morrison incase we had to cross the river. The 1st tornado watch of the day was issued followed by a second  50 minutes later covering all of northern Illinois into southern Wisconsin.


 

One by one it would seem storms would initiate and then quickly die. This seemed to be as rain cooled air was sucking all the instability out of these storms so they were just unable to maintain.

Meanwhile in eastern Iowa along the cold front a few cells had seemed to tap into some better instability and maintain there supercell charachteristics After watching the cell for awhile and nothing good happening in our current target area we made the decision to cross the river into Iowa and go after this cell. After the 20 minute drive to the Mississippi river and crossing into Iowa, we quickly realized that this was probably not the best move for us for 2 reasons. 1. There are very limited river crossings back into Illinois to stay with the storm and 2. We learned over a few events to stick with the original plan.

We crossed the Mississippi river back into Illinois and decided to go back to the Morrison area and wait for the storm to cross the river to us. After what seemed like an eternity the storm was finally approaching the river and had a decent hook and rotation on it according to radar. We got into position north of Morrison and awaited the arrival of the now tornado warned storm.

 

After a few minutes and seeing some lightning the storm arrived and had almost no structure and we quickly realized that if a tornado was in there it would surely be rain wrapped and in our best interest to get a little further east and try to gain some better visibility of the base. As we retreated east the storm lost most of its rotation and was now looking to be gusting out. As we were contemplating our next move a cell had quickly formed to our southwest and would become severe warned in a matter of minutes.

 

Over time I have learned that certain storms have a certain "shape" to them and this one definitely seemed to fit the build. We decided to abandon the storm to our west and make a beeline east to try and catch up with this cell as it was now starting to rotate and look very healthy.

We passed through Oregon, Illinois and across the Rock river on route 64 where the tornado sirens were echoing across the whole city. We met up with the cell that was now tornado warned and had a distinct supercell shape with complete with a hook and strong rotation. We were positioned NW of the storm so a decision needed to be made whether to attempt a dangerous core punch or allow the storm to move a little further northeast and get behind it.

 

After proceeding a little further east into the core of the storm we were met with some baseball sized hail that was pounding the car and in danger of shattering the windshield so we decided to pull over and go with plan B.

After being pelted with hail for several minutes the tornado emerged from behind the wall of rain and hail and much to our surprise was a rather large "wedge" tornado.

 

We procceded to follow and stair step the tornado as long as we could before getting cut off by law enforcement and damage along the way. We stopped on the side of the road to snap some ore pictures and the tornado evaded us and disappeared into the dark skies to our northeast. A smell of pine and earth filled the air along with an eery silence. Several law enforcement were just across the field from us and we would soon learn that bare spot we were seeing was once a house that was now reduced to a slab of concrete. Luckily they were not home at the time. After the tornado had disappeared we were greeted with an ominous shelf that would be the end of our day.

 

Unfortunately 2 people lose their lives in Fairdale as well as many houses and structures demolished along the way. I made a return trip to Fairdale the next day and was completely taken aback by what the power of nature is truly capable of.

 

Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone affected by this tragedy.

 

 

 

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