4/4/2010 - Northwest Illinois Convection

During a nice afternoon walk with Sharon and Chase, I kept a watchful eye on developing thunderstorms to the southwest of DeKalb. I was happy Chase got to experience his first bolts of distant lightning and thunder during the walk -- though, I believe I was a lot more ecstatic about it than he was. Upon our return to the house, I quickly loaded up the car with my gear and took after some new storms developing to the west of the Quad Cities. I figured I could watch the current decaying storms in my rear-view mirror as I drove to the west on I-88, while keeping a radar eye on the stuff moving out of Iowa. By the time I arrived at the Rock Falls, IL exit on I-88, I was mesmerized by the mid-level cumuliform undulations and quickly stopped to acquire some time-lapse. Below are some pics and a time-lapse video as I sat and watched near the I-88/U.S. 30 interchange. The storm was severe warned, but waned by the time it made it to my location. The ride home provided for a nice car wash, which the Camry was in bad need of.

You can email me at my niu.edu address and request a higher resolution video for your viewing pleasure.