On August 20th, 2019 a severe bow echo swept out of Iowa and into central Illinois. I parked myself west of Champaign-Urbana to watch the storm roll in and was treated to one of the most spectacular shelf clouds I've ever seen.
The hours following the storm were filled with frustrating conversations about whether the sirens should or should not have sounded in Champaign-Urbana (they should not have!) and a tree that fell on the utility line behind my house, but the shelf cloud was one to remember!
Not to be outdone, the early morning sky was just as insane. I went into the office around 5:30 AM and noticed a thunderstorm in Indiana was blocking out the sunrise from half the sky, resulting in a dramatic divided anti-crepuscular ray sunrise.
