Chase Log: Tornado Warned QLCS in Illinois on March 15th
- Andrew Pritchard
- Mar 17
- 3 min read
I'm not a full time storm chaser, but I am a full-time meteorologist and full-time family man and it's sometimes funny how severe weather and chase days play out. You've got days like last Tuesday, March 10th where my busy calendar had me spinning and wondering if I'd be late for the highly anticipated outbreak of supercells and tornadoes to my north, and then you contrast that with days like Sunday, March 15th where I actually found myself wishing it was a bigger chase day because I was so free and antsy to get on the road.
The forecast on March 15th was pretty straight forward. You had a big a** trough digging into the Midwest with tons of lift and wind shear that was off the charts, but this was all coming in on the heels of a couple bigger storm systems that had mostly shoved the deep moisture that fueled the March 10th severe weather outbreak south back toward the Gulf of Mexico. That mean Sunday's setup would be a highly sheared, low instability day.
Most guidance suggested a QLCS, or an extensive squall line riddled with embedded supercells or mesovortices that could spawn a few tornadoes and pockets of significant wind damage.
As I watched the forecast evolve through the day it was pretty clear that I wouldn't have any better chance at seeing a rain-wrapped tornado or some severe winds anywhere else across the risk area that extended from the Midwest into the Mid-South than I would right here in my own stomping grounds surrounding Champaign-Urbana. In fact, as we got into the mid-afternoon hours it appeared rather likely that one of these kinky little line segments would come racing up toward Champaign County / east-central Illinois during the evening hours. Staying put was probably my best bet.
Still, I got antsy and loaded up the car and drove to the gas station to top off and grab a fountain coke and just go for a drive. We were staring at two days of frigid winter temperatures and some light snow behind this storm system so I wanted to get out and enjoy some chasing vibes, even if it was likely to be a frustrating, non-photogenic event.
Really not wanting to get lured too far away from Champaign County assuming that a warned portion of the line would eventually be coming through, I stuck to the back roads as I slowly crept east toward Decatur to pick off a spinny portion of the line along Highway 51 near Maroa to Clinton.
Caught some fun vibes with creepy sirens sounding in Clinton, but that was about it. Now, another tornado warned portion of the line was pointed right at Champaign-Urbana, with a new warning including southwest portions of Champaign County. I quickly plotted a course to jump on Interstate 74 and get back ahead of this portion of the line to my south, planning an intercept south or east of Champaign-Urbana.
I got back into Urbana and hopped on Highway 130 south right as a new tornado warning came out for the southern half of the county, including southeast Urbana. I decided I'd intercept the line in Philo, IL where there's a pretty good view to the east. More sirens and fun vibes as the line rolled into town there with borderline severe 50-60 mph winds.
Seems a few tornadoes did touch down from this kinky little line segment as it was southwest of town, but the circulations fell apart on radar as they got closer and damage surveys stopped finding tornado tracks about 30 miles southwest of Champaign-Urbana.
The pattern looks really quiet for the next 1-2 weeks or more and it doesn't look all that likely that I'll be observing storms again until at least the end of March if not into early April so I'm grateful for a handful of opportunities here in the early season so far. A couple of highly photogenic, tornado-producing supercells on February 19th and March 10th and a little tornado warned QLCS on March 15th - we're off and rolling with the 2026 storm observation season!
