On the afternoon of 10th November, we were driving back home from Indianapolis. We were very aware of the severe weather outlook, and had checked the position of the line of frontal convection before we left. It hit Indianapolis about 30 mins after we left, and numerous tornado and severe thunderstorm warnings were issued for that area. Although we were gaining ground on the advancing squall line, we saw some very impressive pre-frontal convection along the way, including a large cumulonimbus as we approached Cincinnati (below).

Upon arriving home, we kept the TV tuned to the weather radar, and waited for the line to approach. We already have an emergency plan in case of tornado warnings, and were ready to put it into action. The following charts showed what happened in our area.

This is a doppler radar picture of the squall line as it advanced towards us. The orange and red represent the heaviest rain and hail, thus indicating the positions of the strongest cells.

This visible satellite image shows 15 minutes of lightning strikes superimposed in red. This gives some idea of the intensity of this squall line.

Severe Weather alerts, issued by the National Weather Service, about 45 minutes before the squall line hit us. The red boxes are Tornado watches, the yellow blobs are Severe thunderstorm warnings, and the red blobs are Tornado warnings.

I shot the video below from out back patio. The first one has an excellent CG strike within 1 mile of us. The second one has plenty of flashes, and our local tornado sirens going off! (We quickly established that this was a false alarm).

Please be patient with the video - it was dark by this time, so the only real detail you can see is while the lightning flashes. But I do recommend having the volume turned up a notch :-)

This final chart shows the locations of all the severe weather that day. This was a major outbreak, with close to 50 reported tornadoes and at least 35 fatalities. We were very lucky not to suffer the full fury of the system in our area.