A pretty storm near Woodford, Illinois.
Alethea Kontis and I started the 2025 storm chase in a place I’ve rarely chased: Illinois. We’d set out from Florida the day before, and it seemed silly to go all the way west to traditional Tornado Alley when it looked like the best storms might occur in the upper Midwest.
En route, we spotted the town of Metropolis on a map. I may have made a funny comment about Superman. We had no idea that when we stopped for gas, we were stopping in Superman central. The gas station was full of fun Superman stuff, and we headed downtown to a fabulous shop and an an awesome Superman statue. I still wish I’d shot a time-lapse of the beautiful clouds flowing behind it!
From there, we wandered around southern Illinois trying to get into position on a decent storm. The cells were pretty but not particularly powerful. But we saw a lovely supercell and a pretty golden sunset.
