May 29th 09 Local Chase

We started off chasing a discrete cell up in Lebanon, IN, which was looking pretty good, until we started down this one country road just north of Lebanon, only to be hindered by the fact, a semi had rolled over further down the street...luckily for us, a local was out on the road, directing traffic to turn round and divert, before we got too far down...We appreciated that, as it meant we were not suck for long, we just did a u-ey in someones driveway, then headed south again. We then carried on due east, but by this time, the cell I was on literally fell apart right in front of me...It had a rain shaft that lasted all of 2 minutes. It basically ate itself up, and dumped on its updraft, which for a while had been pretty good...




Lebanon cell in its early stages

Anyway...I thought that was going to be it for the night. My radar had crapped out on me, and I was getting pretty pissed at that point.
We sat and discussed what to do next, and I suggested we head west down 70, because there could be some good stuff brewing over there. Anyway, we headed back to 65, to get back over to 70. As we were heading down 65, to the west I could see some pretty awesome looking structures hanging over the I70 region.

I was taking pics and posting them right onto facebook, as I was travelling...
(Pics of the I70 storms below)

We headed in the general direction of I70, and it wasnt long before we got ourselves a really awesome lightning show. We decided we would take US40, so we didnt get all the traffic and semi's etc. I cannot stand chasing on the Interstate...

We lost daylight pretty rapidly, and finally came to Brazil, IN, when we actually found ourselves under this huge meso. I had it back up on radar, and it looked very impressive. Best storm we have happened upon, so far here in Indy! (It was preceded and followed by at least two or three others just like it. I was amazed they didnt all congeal together, like most of these systems tend to here in Indiana...)

We sat in a parking lot for a while and took in the lightning show. Literally every flash was CG! All around us. It was wild, and the rain was also really heavy. This was a slow mover. This cell wasnt going anywhere for a while.

After about 20 minutes, when we decided the storms had died down a bit, we decided to head for home, as it was now 11.30pm on a work night (oops), and we were both beat!

We turned the truck round to get back on the highway, and as we did, a bolt hit the ground on the median, practically beside us! That is now FOUR occasions where I have had close shaves with CG! It was really weird, cos this time, it was night time, and the lightning was so much brighter, It almost stung my eyes!

Anyway, we headed home, after a successful evening, as such. No tornadoes in the end...But what a lightning show! I could see it for miles in the distance, still dropping bolts in the same area, for ages. That was a good strong storm. I like!!

Got back home, and not a drop of rain had even touched the ground-surprize surprize!