Intercepted a long track hail producing supercell just outside of Butler Illinois in Montgomery County, which as of now sets the record for the most vicious core thus far in Illinois for 2011. Large striated structure signifying the storm was rotating attm, and noted a large inflow tail off to the SW.. Watched the storm change direction 3 times in front of me before I made my decision to bail south and get out of the way of the maxed out dbz cell on radar which signified HUGE hail. Sitting on the south edge of the core, golf ball and tennis ball sized hail began spitting out around me. After core passage i made my way back north through Butler and noticed many cars damaged and the ground completely covered in hail, along with some tree damage.

Playing conservative after monitoring storm evolution coming out of E MO and S IL, i played on the discrete supercells ahead of the main tornado warned line, as they were LP in nature and had better chance of getting organized for a big tornado. Unfortunately too many storms were firing from morning outflow boundaries, in return not allowing the supercells to stay isolated and produce the numerous long track tornadoes that were forecasted. I intercepted a total of 3 tornado warned supercells, non of which produced anything aside from mesocyclones, and large hail. Still seen awesome structure, hated to see the high tornado potential wasted, but overall was a good thing considering the lives already lost in this deadly 2011 year.

With an area of low pressure moving over Central Illinois, dynamics would offer the potential for an isolated severe storm, with possible funnel clouds and brief tornadoes over much of the area. While most played south of the low, assuming to stay where more of the warmer air and dew points were stationed, i chose to hang out in NW Macon County on some of my favorite back roads, hoping mother nature would throw something my way in the spinning atmosphere closer to the center of low crossing. Sitting roughly 3-4 miles N-NW of Warrensburg Illinois, i was initially observing a non rotating Wall Cloud to my NW, hoping this would be the one to go up and do something interesting for the night. Given the area i had selected of a high point in the terrain, it was easy to see anything occuring in all directions. Looking SW after the NW Wall Cloud began to dissipate, i noticed what appeared to be a large gustnado forming. Little did i know this would go on to be a full landspout style Tornado. As if that wasn't enough, i progressed a lil further west toward a developing cell near Illiopolis which soon went on to be severe warned. Intercepting, a large wall cloud and multiple funnels/brief spin up was observed just east of the town as i made my way out from under the base and to it's NE. ATTM the almost stationary storm wrapped up for a brief moment at peak, with a nice LP supercell structure just outside of Niantic on the NW side. I sent my reports as well as photo and video evidence of the tornado into the ILX NWS office in Lincoln Illinois. They're convinced it is a Landspout Tornado, and thanked me for providing information for had they not aquired would of went unnoticed, as they had no idea this was occuring. I sent in my reports via ESPOTTER at the time of occurrence, though the report didn't make it through to where it needed to be, to become an official tornado warning/report at that time. NWS is due to possibly confirm this Monday May 16th.

Initiation began in Mclean County IL before sliding southeast toward Edgar County IL where I had targeted. Intercepting the first cell near Vermillion Grove, i spotted a funnel cloud which prompted one of the first Tornado warnings of the day for these cells. After going through my photos i came across one which reveals what i had missed during the chase, a small "needle style" tornado on the south side of Vermillion Grove. It dissipated as quick as it formed as evident from images prior and past that particular scene. As this moved off into Indiana and became outflow dominate, the next cell to the northwest, also tornado warned, provided an even more impressive structure as multi funnels and large lowerings were observed all along the strong rotating leading edge, with a Tornado Reported 2 miles SE of Allerton IL.The last cell in the line east of Garland IL was one of the more classic supercell structures i've seen in Illinois. Large Mesocyclone and Wall Cloud was observed before the rain wrapped and I lost all visual....

Microbursting gust front with decent sized gustnadoes and 50mph winds impacted parts of Central Illinois during the late afternoon/early evening hours.

Intercepted this tornadic supercell in it's early development west of Arkdale in Adams County Wisconsin. NWS survey shows near 20 mile path of damage rated EF-2, with the tornado reaching 1/2 mile wide from Arkdale to Cottonwood to County rd G. I would have had front row view of the damaging tornado in it's prime of producing damage had i not lost my back window completely when re positioning east.

Despite the fairly strong capping in place thus reducing maximized convective potential, strong storms moving out of SE Iowa would stay supercellular through NW Illinois. I intercepted northwest of Monmouth Illinois, witnessing a decent sized mesocyclone within the remaining hook echo as it passed almost overhead, as well as some of the most electrified skies I've seen in a long time.

Getting more confident with my forecasting as my target area of Adair County IA validated around 5pm as a tornado warned supercell I had been tracking moved into the area. Captured one of 2 tornadoes on this cell, then hammered by golf ball sized hail. The 2nd tornado was captured on an approaching line segment with embedded meso west of the initial sup's, and did go tornado warned as it was in Adair County as well. Didn't get the chance to see any LP tornadoes that were out there, though with a spot on forecast, 2 tornadoes captured, and getting hit with golf ball hail, it was an epic and successful day nonetheless. 2011 will be a year to remember...