00:00We want to get to the big story with Chief, well, now to head over to meteorologist and storm chaser
00:05Tony Laubach.
00:06Tony, I almost gave you a promotion there. I have no authority to do such a thing.
00:10But he's joining us now live from Willow Hill, Illinois, just east of Newton.
00:15So what do you see, Tony?
00:18Well, I'm seeing the honorary title, so I appreciate that, Jeff.
00:21But yeah, in all seriousness here, you're looking at what we're looking at is the wall cloud of this tornadic
00:26storm that we've been following for the last hour.
00:28Just to the northeast of the town of Newton, this has been a storm we've been tracking since 3 o
00:35'clock central time.
00:37Continues to kind of go through phases.
00:39We see a rotation kind of get together a little bit, and then it kind of weakens.
00:43One thing that's kind of happening here at the low levels, we don't have a ton of wind right now
00:48at the low levels.
00:49That low level shear is usually kind of vital for connecting the dots from the rotation in the storm,
00:55which is clearly evident to the rotation closer to the ground.
00:59Right now, that has been lacking.
01:01We have seen 5 to 10 mile an hour winds.
01:03It's about all we're getting.
01:05So there is some wind at the surface, but really it doesn't seem like there's enough right now.
01:09And certainly the storm's not generating enough of it to get that spin from the mid-levels down to the
01:15lower levels.
01:15The bad news, though, we are not seeing this as the only tornadic storm.
01:19We've got a cell to the north that's also tornadic, and one to my south, which has also got my
01:24attention as well.
01:25That one, I'm certain, is going to pick up a tornado warning here before too long.
01:29We're starting to see increased rotation on the storm.
01:32That one would be to the east of Dundas, to the south of Oblong.
01:37That one is moving up to the Illinois 33 vicinity, likely to cross the river right near Palestine here in
01:45Illinois
01:46before it works its way into southern Indiana.
01:47So we are tracking these storms here as they start to work their way toward the Indiana state line.
01:53We've got two of them tornadic right now.
01:56You're looking at the southern of the two tornadic storms.
01:58That one just recently picked up a tornado warning.
02:01So folks in Yale, you are under a tornado warning until 4.30, so another 27 minutes for you.
02:06That storm knocking on the door.
02:08You're probably going to see some hail with that, maybe up to ping-pong ball size, inch-and-a-half
02:13hail with that,
02:15maybe approaching golf ball, that's quite the core, so certainly some heavy precip here.
02:19But as we continue to show this storm, that area we were lowering, you know, we were talking about the
02:23lowering,
02:24you noticed when we got into the hit how bulky and kind of blocky it was,
02:28and now we're kind of starting to see that fizzle a little bit.
02:30So maybe some good news that the rotation's kind of weakening, at least visually,
02:35as the storm continues to work its way off to the east-northeast, despite a very impressive radar signature.
02:41Again, a very fat hook with this indicating HP, so you might have a hard time seeing into this storm.
02:48So if you're in Yale, Annapolis, you're probably going to be next in line here after this thing rolls through
02:54Yale.
02:54You probably may not see this if you don't know exactly what you're looking for, as it could be buried
03:00in rain.
03:01I'm just to the southeast of this, basically looking up into the notch area of this storm,
03:06and I'm well to the south and safe of it.
03:08But again, folks in Robinson, Flat Rock, those are the folks on the southern cell here,
03:15the severe thunderstorm warning for that cell with one-inch hail, goes until 445.
03:20That one I've got concern that could become tornadic as well.
03:23So we're watching the two tornadic storms, the one that's working its way into Casey,
03:27the one to my north of the cell that I'm looking at here,
03:31which now is pushing into the Yale, Illinois area with some rotation
03:36and possibly some big hail with that as well, Jeff.
03:40Here, Tony, and yeah, I agree.
03:42Especially one radar scan ago, that southern, well, I say unwarned.
03:46It's a severe thunderstorm-worn cell to the south.
03:49One radar scan ago, it had some pretty strong rotation.
03:51We're going to see that.
03:52I agree.
03:53It has the hook, it has all the earmarks of the storm that will likely go tornadic fairly soon.
03:59So that's moving from the southeastern corner of Jasper County,
04:02northeastern Richland County of Illinois,
04:04stepping into Crawford County as we speak with some hail, damaging wind, and potential for a tornado.
04:08But two nasty-looking cells, as Tony was mentioning,
04:10and he's on this one that has the most photogenic appearance on radar regarding this hook.
04:15And he's looking at this from near Hunt City to the north.
04:20Tony, if you're still with me there, are you seeing any new lowering at this point?
04:26I'm panning over here.
04:28So, again, we're kind of panning off to almost my due north.
04:31So we're just west of my due north looking now.
04:35There's an area behind the trees.
04:36Obviously, as we get closer to the river, we kind of get into a more forested area.
04:40So visibility gets a little bit rough with the terrain.
04:42It's not as bad as some areas in the southeast by any stretch.
04:46Certainly not the greatest.
04:47That would indicate visually where the bigger lowering is here.
04:52I'll zoom in a little tighter for you.
04:54What we might be seeing in this area, Jeff, is what we kind of call a handoff.
04:58A lot of times you get the area of rotation that starts to kind of weaken a little bit.
05:03And as you saw in the last couple of minutes, that blocky wall cloud kind of fizzled away.
05:09Sometimes that storm hands that rotation off, if you think about it, kind of like a handoff.
05:15And we see that rotation move a little bit further to the north and east within the storm.
05:20So that, I think, is what's happening now.
05:21So we call this a cycle.
05:23When we say a cycling supercell or a cyclic storm, a lot of times you get an area of rotation.
05:29It weakens, passes that off to the next area in the storm further to the east.
05:34And I believe that's what's happening now.
05:35So this would be pretty much just passing just north of Hunt City, south of Yale.
05:41So it looks like it's going to split the difference between those two towns as it works its way toward
05:45Annapolis.
05:45But that southern cell, as you mentioned there on radar, certainly on reflectivity, looks impressive.
05:51We'll see if that gets any stronger as well, too, Jeff.
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