Before the first tornado was spotted, the video camera was on the sky, capturing some impressive cloud to ground lightning strokes (shown below). Approximately 10 miles east of Jacksonville, Illinois at 6:05 PM CDT, the storm interceptors were traveling eastbound on US HW 36 when the tornado dropped out of the sky 2 miles behind them. Gwen Jewett first spotted the tornado when she just happened to look in the rearview mirror. Pulling off to the side of the road, the crew set the video camera on tripod and began recording.

A "striking" cloud to ground (CG) lightning bolt which emanated from a supercell thunderstorm located 12 miles southwest of Jacksonville, Illinois.

Looking west at a wall cloud and tornado condensation funnel along US HW 36 approximately 10 miles east of Jacksonville, Illinois.

At this time, a translucent debris shield was apparent below the condensation cone which was located about 3 miles from our filming site.