Our experience of the central Illinois tornado outbreak ended with a beautiful sunset in the west, and the “I-72 supercell” receding into deepening evening darkness. The storm was producing an F3 tornado in the Decatur area at this very moment, a vortex not visible from here due to distance, darkness and intervening low clouds. Nonetheless, we had seen a few other tornadoes with this supercell, and could head back to Kansas City the next day satisfied with our imperfect but still rewarding first chase experience in the Land of Lincoln.
1 SE Rochester IL (19 Apr 96) Looking E
39.7338, -89.5089