A pre-birthday present for myself brought me to a quick trip into Illinois for what appeared to be a significant tornado event. It did not disappoint! By mid afternoon, I was heading towards the Bowling Green, MO area and ended up too late for the supercell that produced 2 good tornadoes there. Heading east, I decided to get ahead of a cluster of supercells and play the southern storm.

As I was passing through Carlinville, a tornado warning was issued. Not long after heading east of of town, a funnel formed to my south. It dissipated quickly only to be replaced by another one. It also dissipated. As I stopped near the I-55, a strongly rotating mesocyclone formed, and quickly dropped a large tornado. This tornado did damage to homes, power lines, and trees and was rated EF3. Most of the shots here are video stills, as I didn’t have a chance to take still photos.

2011, April 2011, Illinois, supercell, tornado