Long-Lived Tornadic Supercell Chase in Southeast Illinois | Feb 19th, 2026

It sure didn't feel like February on Thursday down in southeast Illinois. Multiple rounds of long-lived supercells producing tornadoes and big hail blew up across portions of the Ohio Valley ahead of a potent early season storm system.

I left Champaign-Urbana around 11 AM, stopping at the Quik Trip in Effingham to gas up, grab a fountain coke, and apply a fresh coating of rain-x to the windshield. I moved down to the town of Flora where I found myself getting impatient with percolating showers/weak storms off to my west and southwest.

Noting some more intense updrafts finally emerging to my west I crept back to the north through Louisville and up to Dieterich as a supercell quickly took form to my west. During my first stop-and-look at the storm it was already producing an obvious funnel cloud that reached about 1/2 way to the ground. Repositioning a little closer and looking for a better view another funnel cloud developed and also stretched about 1/2 way down. The storm continued to spin hard in the Mason - Edgewood area where an EF-0 tornado has been confirmed.

This was a rare treat for the early-season, which is typically riddled with fast-moving storm setups where you're constantly on the move. Instead, I was able to set up for 30 minutes in this one location with multiple cameras running time lapses as the storm basically sat and spun in the same spot to my west. It felt so good to be standing out in the open with a rumbling storm to my west with stiff inflow winds at my back.

The storm continued to threaten to produce a bigger tornado while spinning off little funnels and weak circulations as it tracked increasingly quickly to the northeast.

I got caught up in thick storm chaser traffic near Newton, IL and tried escaping the crowds by venturing north into the rain/hail core and slicing through the hook to get back ahead. This never really worked out as I found myself in a deluge of quarter to ping pong ball sized hail that completely covered the road in a sheet of ice.

At about the worst possible time my car slid a bit on the ice and ever so gently my two right wheels grabbed the edge of the road surface and the steep ditch to the right of the road. At this point I was fighting a losing battle against gravity and an ice-covered ditch and slowly accepted my fate as my car slid into the flooded ditch and became stuck.

In 25 years of chasing storms, this was my first time truly becoming stuck. Kind of a culmination of factors here... ice covered road from dense hail being the first, but in a lot of cases slipping a little on a country road would be no big deal. Even if I went completely off the road in most cases it would be a matter of just driving back onto it. In this case though, I'd slid off a rather steep ditch and after talking to a local there, I learned that particular ditch has been notorious for flooding because of a lack of a culvert under a driveway 100 yards further up the road, and there are actually plans to fix the drainage there this summer.

So there's the other factor, even on a normal day sliding off the road here into this ditch, I still should have been able to reverse back to a less-steep part of the ditch and drive back up onto the road. Instead, the ditch was just retaining tons of water and had a lake there waiting for me.

Worst possible time to clip the side of the road and worst possible little ditch to slide into.

At the end of the day, all's well that ends well. There was a home nearby and the residents happened to be watching the storm out the window. They saw my headlights on the road (pointed at their house, instead of the road, hahah) and came down to check on me. Their family owned a towing business in nearby Newton and they offered to call a tow for me to pull the car out. I said my pride would love to try and work to get it out on my own but gladly accepted the help with darkness only an hour away and new storms blowing up to my southwest.

The tow operator was a master of his craft and quickly got my car out with zero incident. Probably about as anxious as I'll ever be on a storm chase there, sitting in my beloved new Forester hoping it gets pulled out without any damage. I was moving again before dark! Lucky too, as that second round of supercells pounded the very spot I was stuck with another round of heavy rain and hail. I'm sure the water level was even higher in that ditch an hour or so later, and if my car was there it may have been a completely different scenario.

Back on the road I decided against dropping down in front of this second round of tornado warned supercells and decided I was content with what I'd already seen and was already feeling lucky as it was to be back on the road and headed home. Stopped off for a burger and a chocolate shake at Freddy's in Mattoon before finishing the drive and pulling back in at home in Urbana a little before 9 PM.

Very enjoyable first chase of the year, and hopefully an omen of storms to come in 2026!

Some video captures from the chase:

Funnel cloud near Mason, IL during the first view of the storm.

EF-0 tornado near Mason, IL

Entire supercell, big updraft, clear skies to the south, rain free base and wall cloud, falling precip out ahead streaking through the sunshine. It's spring!

Rotating wall cloud / weak tornado near Mason, IL

Rotating wall cloud / weak tornado near Mason, IL

Rotating wall cloud / weak tornadic circulation near Mason, IL

Off-kilter frame from my gopro timelapse, love this full view of the supercell!

Rotating wall cloud from the drone.

Suspicious area near Edgewood.

Tons and tons of snow geese in front of the rotating wall cloud south of Dieterich.

Trust me, the Subaru was having fun.

My saviors out there, the nicest folks you'll ever find keeping me company waiting for, and now standing watch while the tow pulls my car out of the ditch.