Biggest uncertainty as I planned this chase was whether the early morning convective system over the area would clear out. I waited until the last possible minute, and, when I saw that a nice clear slot was starting to develop, I called David up. After some quick negotiations, we left Peoria at 1:30, targeting Beloit, Wisconsin.
We got to Beloit, and due to some data card malfunctions, stopped at an old friends house to catch up/borrow their internet. A nice broken line of storms was developing along the boundary layer at this point, and there were already several tornado-warned cells within the line. I decided to target the westernmost, most isolated cell.
Got on the cell a few miles north of Janesville, and a large, rotating wall cloud quickly became apparent. we chased this cell for quite a while, but it was very high-based, and seemed to have a problem really rooting into the surface layer.
After about 30 minutes on this cell, a cell behind us went tornado warned, and we started getting reports of funnels. Started heading back towards this cell, and got onto the best wall cloud of the day.
We pulled over about a mile ahead if it, about 3 miles SE of Whitewater, and let it go right over our heads.
It was pretty incredible - although I'm still kicking myself for not being able to stay with it - we really had problems with the road network around the Lake Koshkonong area. After the wall cloud became rain wrapped, we decided to target the last storm to the west, which was still tornado-warned...and ended up getting a nice wall cloud from that, as well!
We ended up missing the two tornadoes from the cell we were on - could see the wall cloud and rotation at the time, but were just stuck in the jungle, and couldn't see much. Frustrating, but...for a slight risk day, well worth it!
Ended up quitting for the night at about 8 PM, in Mukwonago, WI, and drove about 3.5 hours to get home to Peoria.
