4/13 Weather Summary and Outlook, Storm Chase Summary

Another up and down week for our weather, temperatures varied from 35° to 79, we recorded 1.54 inches of rain. Our thoughts are with those that suffered damage during the storms on Wednesday. We recorded a 39 mph wind gust here in O'Fallon, but another weather station I own at Polestar Marina recorded a 50 mph wind gust. 

 Our outlook looks very familiar this week; rain/storms are possible through Thursday at this time. Severe weather is once again possible, my thoughts at this time are Monday and Wednesday will be the days that need to be watched, as always, this is subject to change. Late week brings more cool air to the region with low's possibly dipping into the 30's.

 I did get out on my first storm chase for 2013 this past Wednesday. I headed into Illinois to track the discrete thunderstorms that were forming in front of the main line. I was able to intercept one storm near Prairie de Rocher, IL. The image with this article is from the storm.. This storm looked to have a funnel cloud or two, but never put down a tornado. I produced a time-lapse video of this storm that shows the storm's motion at just over 10X normal speed. The video can be viewed on YouTube. This storm rapidly fell apart soon after the video, I then tracked another storm until just north of Mt. Vernon, IL. This storm was eventually tornado warned, but no confirmed tornadoes were reported. I returned home just in time for the main line to move through the O'Fallon area.