On December 1st, 2018, my wife, my bestie, and I embarked on a journey to Western Illinois to enjoy a late afternoon of late-season storm chasing.
The SPC indicated a slight risk for severe storms in the area, with several low-top supercells possible. Although I didn’t know it was going to be the largest December outbreak for Illinois, models did point to a favorable environment for tornadoes, and I had high expectations for the chase day.
As we left Pana and headed north, I had to stop at the Dollar Tree in Taylorville to pick up an elf hat to bring in the holiday spirit; after all, it was December.
We then embarked on our journey northwest towards Jacksonville. As we drove down I-72, the SPC issued a tornado watch at 2:15 PM. Radar had been showing something forming off to our west, and that was the target storm we chose. As we continued west, we could see a large bowl underneath the low-topped storm. It was go time, and it would not be long before the storm would produce its first tornado.
We had approached the storm to the south of Beardstown. This is where details of my exact location get muddled, so bear with me as the locations are approximations. As we headed to the northwest to intercept the storm, we got lost on a winding trail. I did not see the sign that said “Bridge out,” but rest assured, a bridge was out. If it were raining, or if I were not paying attention, we would have driven right into the large creek.
At this point, I thought the chase was over. We had made a wrong turn somewhere, perhaps Albuquerque, and now we were out of position and behind the storm. We finally got back onto the main road and followed the winding road through the trees. As we broke out of the trees, we could see a large bowl with a funnel descending to the ground. We drove a bit closer before stopping the car to take a look.
We intercepted our first tornado just outside of Beardstown, IL. This was a brief tornado but very photogenic as it fully condensed. The tornado appeared to lift, so we moved into town to get back into position. As we moved into town, traffic was a pain in the butt. Everyone and their mom, grandma, and sixth cousin twice removed was out looking at the storm as it moved through town. In hindsight, the tornado was still on the ground, moving through parts of the town.
We got out of town and continued to track the storm. I had no cell service, so that meant no Google Maps, no radar, and this was going to be a visual chase moving forward. As we continued to track the storm, it attempted to produce a few more tornadoes. I was watching a storm to the south with the occasional update of radar data, as a storm that was producing tornadoes down by Litchfield was inching closer to my home. At this time, I was alerting friends and family about the approaching storm near home.
The storm we had been chasing for a while now started to show signs that it was about to do something. A few moments later, a large tornado developed in the field ahead of us. We drove closer to the storm to get a slightly better view of the tornado.
As the tornado dissipated, we sat and contemplated whether to continue or head home, after all, it was getting dark. We decided to give it 20 more minutes, and that was a great call because the storm would produce a small but strong-looking tornado in an open field once more. We sat and watched this tornado as it moved across the field into the trees. At this point, we decided to call it due to the setting sun. I was also hangry at this point.
As we sat at the gas station, refueling after a successfully adrenaline-filled day of chasing, I watched the radar with fear as what looked like a strong tornado was about to move into the city of Taylorville. I had friends who lived in Taylorville, and my stomach sank watching that storm along with the “TORNADO EMERGENCY.” Reports started to filter in that Taylorville had received significant damage from the tornado. As we headed back home, we had to drive through Taylorville to get back to Pana. It was at this moment I realized how much damage the city had received.
In total, 29 tornadoes occurred in Illinois, making it the largest tornado outbreak in December since 1957. The strongest tornado was the Taylorville tornado, which was rated as an EF-3 with winds of 155 mph.
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