Welcome to the Northern Illinois Storm Chaser Danny Neal's blog

Welcome to my blog. My name is Danny Neal and I am a storm chaser. The goal of this blog is to enlighten you about issues and controversies with in the hobby of storm chasing and to write up chase reports during my adventures out on the open plains.

About Danny

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Danny Neal
Chicago-Land, Illinois, United States
I am a firefighter from the Chicago suburbs, I love helping people. My heart lies into public safety, which is why I also chase extreme weather. I have been chasing since April, 15th, 2008. On June 1st, 1999, we were almost hit by an F1 tornado north of Bloomington, IL. This reinforced my respect for severe weather. From 00-03 I spent most of my free days on the plains chasing tornadoes with my best days being April 23, 2000, April 14th, 2001, and April 20, 2003. From 2003 to 2006 I witness the best nature could offer. Chasing well over 100 days in that time frame. Finally school caught up with me where I had to take 2007 off for the most part only to get back out there in 2008. We will see what 2009 has to offer!!!
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Wednesday, June 10, 2009

AMAZING CHASE TRIP/RIP FABIAN

JUNE 5TH - WYOMING/NEBRASKA MAGIC

JUNE 6TH - RIP FABIAN


JUNE 7TH - MO ATOMIC SUPERCELLS

Saturday, May 16, 2009

AMAZING CHASE LOGS

2 AMAZING CHASE LOGS FROM 3 CHASES!

APRIL 25th

APRIL 26th

MAY 13th

Very exciting chases!

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

CHASE THIS WEEKEND


View Severe weather threats 4/23-4/27 in a larger map

woob woob woob

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

March 31st, 2009 - Sub-severe storms

Some sub-severe storms rolled through my neighborhood today. Just my documentation of it

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

March 23rd, 2009 - Kansas Chase

AMAZING DAY

http://northernilstormchaser.com/March-23rd---Southern-Kansas.php

Read all about it!

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Chase March 23rd???


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I have outlined a general area (I EMPHASIZE GENERAL) where I believe severe weather will occur and have outlooked a little better risk in the red where I am 50% or greater sure a severe weather set up will occur.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

March 10th, 2009 - Chase to Central Illinois

CHASE TO CENTRAL IL - MARCH 10TH ..... Adam Lucio and I chased to SW IL yesterday, almost busted but caught two feisty cells near Decatur, IL.

Monday, March 9, 2009

March 8th, 2009 - Chase to Central Illinois

Evening all,

Needed a good sleep so I just got done typing up my report on the days events in Central Illinois. It can be found...... HERE

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

OFFICIAL RELEASE OF WEBPAGE

NORTHERN ILLINOIS STORM CHASER Check it out!!! big thanks to David Drummond and Dryline Hosting for making this possible!

Sunday, March 1, 2009

New Website!!!

NorthernILStormchaser.com is official courtesy of dryline hosting. I am still trying to build the website so it is not even close to being done lol just an FYI

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Tornado Siren all clear sounding vs the sounding of a NWR

IMO the sounding of a siren for an all clear is pointless. It is contradictory. What happens when the initial warning is issued and they blow the sirens for 3 minutes and then 10 minutes later they blow them again (the storm hasn't hit yet) and people mistake that for the all-clear? Like has been brought up 100,000 times in the past, the tornado siren is technically meant for those who are outdoors and away from a tv or radio. Unless you live within a close proximity of the siren, who would actually hear the warning siren let alone the all clear. Especially if you are huddle in the basement in an interior room. I know at my house I live 3 blocks north and 4 blocks east of the nearest siren and I can't even hear it (and my room is upstairs next to an outside wall facing the siren). Peoples' all clear should come from the NWR/media/radio stations. I.E - "The tornado warning for XXXXX County has been cancelled/allowed to expire." IMO that is the only all clear the general public needs.

Technically each home has the capability to have its' OWN personal tornado siren.....its called a NOAA WEATHER RADIO. http://www.essortment.com/all/tornadossiren_rntb.htm this article posted above lost my interest...... They are trying to argue a tornado siren will wake you over the roar of an oncoming tornado. The only way that will happen is if you sleep with the windows open and you are within a few blocks of the tornado siren. We should be seeing less articles on the wonders of outdoor sirens and more articles on the wonder of what a NWR can do.

In THIS article http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/feb2008/torn-f13.shtml ......

""""Discussing the lack of warning sirens in the state, Alabama Governor Bob Riley added, “Can the state afford to put sirens all over the state of Alabama right now? We can’t without a tremendous amount of federal assistance.”"""""

You don't need them. It may costs thousands of dollars to have a network of outdoor sirens, when that same allotment of funds could have bought the entire population of that state a cheap weather radio. You have a hell of a lot better chance, hearing a loud siren going off in your bedroom than you do one that is miles away.

http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/29581894.html In the final article posted it opens as:

""""""More than 10,000 residents in southwest Milwaukee County would not hear an outdoor warning siren if a tornado swept through the region.
The 51 tornado sirens in place do not fully cover all of the county's residents, a Journal Sentinel mapping analysis found. These sirens are sometimes the only warning that a deadly funnel cloud is fast approaching.""""""

Again..... why waste money on coverage of tornado sirens? Media needs to continue to promote and push for weather radios. Most fire departments hand out free smoke detectors to those in need, why not start handing out cheap battery powered WX radios. This whole article is crying for change for more coverage in sirens......EXCEPT for the bottom (Sirens called archaic) I wish I had read this far before using the smoke detector reference.....

"""""""What is the best means of warning people and the most cost-effective ways of warning people? Weather radios are so cost-effective and inexpensive they should be as standard in the home as a smoke detector," Maack said."""""" <------Now lets continue to run with this idea.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

2/10 - Severe WX Outbreak: Radar Grabs

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Sunday, February 8, 2009

UPDATE: 2/11/09 SVR WX POTENTIAL

New NAM is out, showing a more favorable set up for severe weather in IL/IN area.

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Winds TRYING to back in IN and IL with a nice plume of 60 to 65 degree temps in the warm sector.

Photobucket There should be sufficient lift on the nose/outside of the strongest mid-level winds

Photobucket A hint of some CAPE near peak heating and in an area of lift.

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Lifted Indicies back up my point in the area of greatest CAPE.

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Not a lot of precip which isn't a bad thing. Lets hope the dry punch verifies and allows for even more instability!

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One of the bad things about this setup........ Storm motions are going to be INSANE.

It is looking better for a low topped day in this area, again not saying a tornado outbreak is being called for, just a very interesting February set up and within chase range too ;)


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2/11/09 - Potential for Severe Storms in Great Lakes


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I've made a preliminary outlook area for low topped-fast moving supercells on Wednesday afternoon. Not to say there will be tornadoes.....it just seems like this general area has the greatest of the (least) chance lol.

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Certainly not a classic set up by any stretch of the imagination, but may be the equipment check chase I have been longing for all winter!

UPDATE: 2/10/09 SVR WX POTENTIAL

Looking over the models this afternoon, I still like NC to NE TX and SC to SE OK for severe weather and possible tornadoes. It even appears according to the NAM that CAPE is pushing 2000 j/kg from the Red River to I 20. Helicity is as impressive as you are going to get along the Red River with 500 m2/s2 and decent storm motions. With moisture to be there and favorable surface winds, along with upper level winds, I believe there will be tornadoes From DFW up to Mc Alester, OK and East of there by late tomorrow afternoon, but more likely tomorrow night. By overnight the storms will be congealing into a severe squall line where it could wreak some havoc on the Mid MS Valley into the Eastern Great Lakes.


If I were to chase...... I would even base out of Denton or Stephenville, TX, but chasing through the Metroplex is never easy and couple that with the fact this may be a night event. Not to mention the further N and E you go the worse your terrain is going to get ;)

Saturday, February 7, 2009

February 10th: Severe weather possibilities in the Southern Plains

Decent CAPE in some spots spiking at 1500, good shear, and do-able helicities (per the NAM) make for an interesting day ahead on Tuesday. I can see discrete supercells developing if cloud cover doesn't hold down the instability. (NAM isn't predicting any precip that morning on the last run) So we will see if it verifies. I kind of like the area of the Red River down to Waco and west to Abilene for a chance of supercells Tuesday afternoon and evening. Of course thats just based on the latest run and everything is subject to change. Even the GFS has been coming around on this event IMO. 3 more days. I likely wont chase this from Chicago, but I lived in OKC or NOLA it would be tempting. It really isn't a bad chase set up for FEB.

NAM:
Photobucket Surface-Based CAPE

Photobucket 3 KM Helicity

PhotobucketSurface Td with wind

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Haven't posted in a While

Just wanted to say I am as sexy as ever.........

Saturday, January 10, 2009

F5 Data and Storm Chaser List

Check out Andrew Revering's webpage and data service! He has over 500 (508) chasers listed where you can find your favorite chasers webpage or web content. http://www.aprweather.com/pages/spotters.php He also heads the http://www.f5data.com/ page. "More Data, Better Forecasts" Just giving a shout out to someone who has put a lot of time into this. Again, thanks for also doing chase case #3 on STORMTRACK. 

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

April 14, 2001 - Pratt, KS Tornado and Supercell

http://www.stormtube.org/play.php?vid=202

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

April 23rd, 2000 - Mc Alester OK area Chase








Enjoy!

Danny's Storm Chasing Videos

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