Well we made it all the way to the latter part of May this year before we saw any wind, hail, and serious thunderstorms with lightning…luckily no tornadic activity nearby, but we all know that straight line winds can be just as damaging. On May 18th, 19th, and 21st, we had some thunderstorms come in with squall lines ahead of them…squall lines usually are accompanied by a front line of wind and wild looking clouds too…

…on the 18th, I drove up to the Sunny Jim Bottomley City Park near the ball diamonds and pool, where one has a commanding view of the skies to the northwest, great place to view and shoot sunsets too…saw the squall line coming in from the northwest and observed the clouds darkening down and the winds in the squall line…

Weatherscapes 2019-0518 Squall Lines Entering City from NW

A few days later, another ominous looking storm came in from the west this time…marching up I-44…heard Crawford County dispatch it as moving through the Cuba area with some wind observed and a threat of hail too…so I let my Mom know to batten down the hatches, and then Onyx and I drove out to the FF Bridge over 44 to watch and record it coming in from the west…

…that is the central part of the storm…more to the south a mile or so, and extending more to the north at least a few miles…moving to the east and going right up I-44 as reported…looking south from my position on the bridge over 44 toward the Meramac River…

…and about the time I spotted the extension clouds to the south darkening down, the wind picked up…and then it was reported a possible funnel cloud south of me a few miles…

…and within a few seconds, the southern extension clouds began moving at a pretty good clip toward Sullivan in the form of a squall line….

…while the clouds to the north began darkening down as well…

Weatherscapes 2019-0521 Squall Line From West With Wind

Luckily, this one passed through Sullivan with just a little bit of wind, lightning, and thunder, and nothing more, and then moved straight east across Saint Clair and into Jefferson County…I believe radar detected tornadic activity in the skies, but I don`t recall any reports of funnel clouds reaching the ground. A week later on June 4th, the squall line that came in was alot more dramatic to photograph and film. See the next story for that one.