7/3/2009 - Chicago's Independence Eve Fireworks

For the second year in a row, Sharon and I viewed the Chicago Independence Eve Fireworks Show (associated with the Taste of Chicago) from the Museum Campus. The fireworks show -- along with the beautiful skyline -- did not disappoint. The lake breeze brought the firework smoke across Grant Park and the lakefront, making for an eerie view of the city. Below are some pics, which you can click on individually to enlarge a bit. I've actually got the entire display on HD video, but I'm unsure of an easy way to upload it. Instead, I'll provide a lower resolution, sped up version below. Enjoy!

7/2/2009 - Cubs vs. Brewers

After living in northern Illinois for four years, Sharon and I thought it was about time we went to check out a Cubs game at Wrigley Field. So, I StubHub'd some nosebleeds, pricelined a River North hotel, and we made a weekend of it. We picked a great evening to go -- the weather was perfect and the Cubs bats were working. In fact, we got to witness a Derek Lee grand slam. The Cubs won 9-5. Below are some pics from Wrigley, as well as a few views along the Chicago River the next day.

Box Score for 7/2/2009

The infamous rooftops of Wrigley.

View from our seats.

View from left field.

The ballpark has great character, though missing the fancy scoreboards most parks have these days (my eyes had a tough time seeing the center field scoreboard).

Lights of Wrigley -- turned on finally in 1988.

Trump, Wrigley, and Wabash.

Contrasts in architecture.

Kayakers take to the Chicago River -- man-made -- canyon.

The various angels of the Wrigley Building.

6/27/2009 - Northern Illinois Shelf Cloud

A short chase today to intercept an eastward-moving MCS straddling I-88 and I -74 corridor. Sharon and I left late in the afternoon -- well after initiation in eastern Iowa -- intercepting the shelf cloud south of Dixon, IL. We tried to stay ahead of the system as it "gusted out" near Waterman, eventually driving back to DeKalb as the northern end of the line decayed.

Shelf cloud south of Dixon, looking north.

South of Dixon, looking west.

Mendota "Hills" windfarm, near Paw Paw.

Another view of the shelf at the wind farm.

A small bit of time lapse from the short chase.

Animated gif illustrating the MCS -- we were chased by the northern surge across Lee County.

6/25/2009 - NIU Mammatus

Severe thunderstorms over Stephenson and Winnebago Counties threw a delightful anvil atop NIU Thursday afternoon. Mammatus routinely punched downward from the anvil making for a spooky skyscape on campus. Below are a few images of Davis Hall -- home of NIU Geography and Meteorology -- silhouetted with mammatus. As an extra bonus, I've thrown in a short time lapse of towering cu and orphaned anvil/virga shower over the Kane County region, as viewed from NIU.

6/21/2009 - Dike, IA Tornado

Sunday was an interesting day – Sharon and I woke in Kettle Moraine State Park campground after enjoying a Phish show the night before at Alpine Valley. Though we had the campsite reserved for another day, we decided to pack up and head toward Iowa for the chance of storms and an air conditioned hotel room with a shower (hey, we are getting old!). After checking out Lake Geneva, we ventured west through Beloit, Dubuque, and over to Independence, IA, where we checked in at a motel early in the afternoon. After check-in, we tidied up and got back in the car and raced westward toward storms that had formed an hour or so earlier near Williams, IA. We intercepted the storms along US-20 near Cleves, IA – in fact, we drove up on a nice wall cloud producing intermittent funnels with wisps of clouds/circulations touching the ground (aka weak-ass tornadoes) as we exited the 4-lane at Cleves. This primary circulation became rain-wrapped and we scooted east and southeast along county roads through the towns of Wellsburg and Holland, where we witnessed intermittent funnel activity and strong low-level rotation. We failed to see the rain-wrapped tornado near Holland, but we did see a big mass of precip rotating feverishly. We pushed east and then south along a dirt road east of Holland where we went under a new, small updraft. We kept our primary “eye” out to the west toward the more “severe” storm, which was had the rain-wrapped circulation near Holland. However, my attention quickly turned to this small storm we had just gone under during its development stage since it was acquiring a unique “kink” feature and, soon, a funnel. We scooted east to stay ahead of the eastbound storm to our immediate west, keeping an eye on this small storm to our north. Soon, a funnel reformed, lengthened, and produced a nice elephant trunk tornado near Dike. Admittedly, our position for viewing the tornado was not great since we were a good 8-12 miles from this tornado. But, hey, I’ll take it. [For a closer view, check out this pic here!] The tornado quickly became engulfed (from our perspective) with rain from the west as the west storm wrapped around the Dike storm. We then ventured south and east to intercept a new storm that put on an outflow dominant display at sunset between Dysart and Vinton, IA. Ended the night with a short drive to our hotel where we enjoyed the air conditioning!

You’ll have to excuse the photography below. I did not anticipate chasing this weekend, so I only had my cheap point-and-shoot, as well as my small video camera.

Funnel near Cleves, IA.

Small storm south of Dike wraps up quickly -- producing a funnel -- as it crosses the warm front. The more "severe" storm (pictured above in 1st pic) was off to my left at this point.

Tornado. Contrasted to bring out the tor a bit better. Hog farm was damaged. [For a closer view, check out this pic here!]

Wider view of the tornado ... a good 8-12 (?) miles away.

Storm near Dysart, IA -- soon became outflow dominant.

A bit of time-lapse for the day. Nothing great; but, hey, it's something.