6/12/2010 - Morning Microburst and Evening Lake Breeze Boundary

Though Saturday didn't feature a tornadic supercell in Illinois, I was treated to a couple of unique weather opportunities. The first was a quick "chase" to intercept an early morning MCS moving into north-central Illinois. This MCS featured a wet microburst in the Lee and DeKalb areas. The video below illustrates the blinding rain with sustained severe winds just east of Paw Paw.

Video of the wet microburst during the morning.

Radar grab of the MCS that produced the damaging wind reports.

On the way back from the grocery store later Saturday afternoon, I noticed an interesting "shelf" cloud formation over the DeKalb "skyline". After a brief data check at home, it was obvious a lake breeze had made it all the way to DeKalb County. Though lake breezes are common in the Chicago and 'burbs regions, they rarely make it out here to any substantive degree. In addition, they are rarely "marked" by such a cool cloud formation. I was quite surprised that the breeze had progressed this far westward, especially considering two eastward moving MCSs had moved through the Chicago area that day. I ventured to the wind farm south of Malta where I snapped some pics and took in a bit of time lapse of the boundary as it approached. Below is some imagery from this unique weather treat.

KLOT base reflectivity loop, which illustrates an MCS across Indiana and a radar fine line (i.e., the lake breeze boundary) moving across northeast Illinois.

Panoramic of lake breeze boundary. A much larger image ... and second ... are available for download. Browsers won't support such large images usually, so you'll have to download then view if interested.

Gif animation of stills as lake breeze boundary approaches.

Gif animation of stills as lake breeze boundary passes.

Time lapse of the boundary.