Jeff Frame
@vortexjeff
Teaching professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Illinois. I teach weather. Posts are about weather and sometimes sports. Storm chaser. PhD, MS PSU; BS Michigan. All opinions mine.
I pulled weeds on Saturday, and they're already back. Using Roundup tonight ☠️
Slow moving structured supercells were relatively rare in 2026, but here are my top 4 structure chases of the year so far: 1. May 24: Yankton, SD 2. June 1: LP/NP supercell from Calhan to Limon, CO 3. June 16: Sunset supercell, Columbus, KS 4. June 22: HP beast, Akron, CO
Impressive bow echo has evolved from the morning storm complex and is now over the Minnesota Arrowhead
Yesterday was supposed to be an easy 5 hour drive home until a supercell developed in front of us
Day 14, 6/24: We expected an easy drive home, until we hit a light shower east of the Illinois River on I-72. Radar revealed a supercell to our northeast that exhibited a large wall cloud at times. Best drive home ever!
Day 12, 6/22: Followed a storm from I-80 near Kimball, NE, to I-70 near Siebert, CO. This was likely the longest storm observation period temporally in all 25 of my field courses
Day 11, 6/21: Observed a supercell with a large wall cloud along the NE/KS border near Benkelman, NE
Day 10, 6/20: Wyoming looked great, but the atmosphere underperformed owing to persistent capping. Saw a couple of storms northeast of Cheyenne (neat town) and east of Chugwater
Day 9, 6/19: Hoped for a storm in northeastern Colorado, but morning guidance indicated that storms were unlikely there. We instead targeted a Marginal Risk in New Mexico and saw a marginal, but photogenic storm
Day 7, 6/17: Observed a rapidly rotating wall cloud that came very close to producing a tornado near La Cygne, KS, and at least three additional supercells
Day 6, 6/16: After a morning discussion, we decided not to target fast moving storms in IL the next day, so we observed an uninteresting storm near Coffeyville, KS, until a beautiful sunset storm developed on our way to the hotel in Joplin.
Days 4/5, 6/14-15: Down days owing to an overforced slop pattern yielding a cold front crashing into Texas south of the jet axis. Hiked western Missouri and toured the Joplin tornado memorial.
Day 3, 6/13: Observed an outflow dominant HP supercell in northeastern Kansas. Storms fortunately weakened as they approached our hotel in Topeka.
Day 2, 6/12: Storms in SE Colorado were unimpressive except for lightning from a left split
Day 1, 6/11: Decided against what looked like messy storms in Illinois and drove to SE Kansas. Observed two supercells with wall clouds and one of the best shelf clouds that I've seen
Day 0, 6/10: Left Urbana at noon, a day early, to chase Missouri. A supercell developed along an outflow boundary near Monroe City. It was great for a bit, but dissipated as it moved into cold air. Then targeted an HP supercell over the rough terrain of north central Missouri.
234pm: Looks NW from Rochester, IL. Motion generally from right to left
Great chase yesterday! Followed the higher visibility western storm from I-80 until the cells merged into a monster north of Akron, then to I-70. Maybe our longest chase ever by time with a storm.
218pm MDT: Supercell thunderstorm near Kimball, Nebraska. Large flat base
Had a nice storm today in SW Nebraska with some structure, a large wall cloud, and even a dust devil. On the way to Sterling, CO, tonight