Not a lot to say about Wednesday July 16. CAPE values in excess of 3500-4000 J/KG and little Cap led to some storms firing in Lower Michigan, including a bow echo over in Wisconsin that came across the lake. I left work early and shot up US-127 to the Shepherd, MI area. Indications of 3.5 inch hail were most likely over exaggerated, however, I expected to at least find some hail. By the time I made it up there, most of what was severe previously had gone. I chased through some torrential downpours and a lot of cloud to ground lightning.

I had been watching the weather for a few days and was expecting at least some sort of Severe Weather on Wednesday. I was afraid I might be disappointed. Disappointed I was not as the Lower Peninsula of Michigan was rocked with Heavy Rain, High Winds and Hail including a TON of hail in Charlotte, MI.

I started the day waking up late since I had been off of work for almost a week. Within an hour of being awake, I was still liking parameters and storms were firing in WI. The Storm Prediction Center placed Lower MI under a Severe Thunderstorm Watch until 500pm EDT.

There was a Moderate Risk of Severe Thunderstorms out for Indiana and Ohio, however, the risk of tornadoes was very low. It appeared that mostly this would be a wind/hail event day, and mostly that is what it was.

The day started off when myself (Ben Holcomb) and Chad Rust left Lansing, MI around 5:30 am. We got an earlier than anticipated start, and headed south to Indy then west to Effingham. We passed a few elevated garden watering cells on I-69 in Indiana on the way down with some good lightning. Once we started getting into Illinois, it appeared that maybe we were wasting gas. I even contemplated splitting and going north to the target near Davenport, IA as I didn't think I'd be able to get south fast enough to meet the cells in Arkansas, Tennessee and Mississippi.

Thursday April 10 appeared to be a very big outbreak day in the days leading up to it. The Storm Prediction Center had marked all of Arkansas as a MDT risk and had strong wording and talks of upgrading to a HIGH risk. Unfortunately, not everything panned out the way we thought, and it turned out to be quite a bust. In all, I traveled 1600 or so miles, and wasted money on gas and a hotel.

The SPC was predicting a moderate risk of tornadoes and Severe Weather in general on February 5, 2008 up to 4 days in advance. I made the call on Monday evening to head out early on Tuesday to Southern Indiana as the Storm Prediction Center had a hashed area of 45% chance of severe weather, with a strong emphasis on Strong, Long-tracked Tornadoes.

A Tornado Watch for Southern Lower Michigan in January! What a rare occurance. I started the chase off around 1600 Eastern Time right after leaving work. My chase partner this evening was my co-worker Andy. We headed down I-69 towards Kalamazoo and got onto I-94. Reports of Tornadoes and heavy damage kept coming in from the Rockford, IL area, and then further along from the Racine and Kenosha, WI areas. We both made it to Kalamazoo and stopped for gassing up and dinner as there were 2 supercells worth chasing - One was down near St.

I was awakened around 5:30 or 5:45 am to my weather radio this morning. Severe Thunderstorm Warnings for many counties in Indiana, including Hillsdale County in Michigan. Then it went off again for more Severe Thunderstorms this time just off to my west. A quick check of radar showed a line of storms with high winds.

October 18, 2007 was a day that I will remember for quite awhile. The Storm Prediction Center had been forecasting a large Severe weather outbreak for 3 days, and Thursday the 18th is when it all came together. I took off down I-69 right after getting out of work at 1500 EDT. I was in Indiana by about 1630 (1530 local time) and got on I-80 and headed West towards South Bend. From there I got off at US-31 and headed south down to Rochestor, IN. By that time a hook was already starting to show on the radar and a Severe Thunderstorm warning was out for the storm.