April 26th, 2009
Black Hawk County, Iowa
Mesocyclone with strong rotation.

Sat on the fence all day Saturday and Sunday morning wondering if the airmass would become unstable enough to produce some supercells.  Target whole time was between Des Moines and the Minnesota border.  After seeing temps reaching 70° close to the border I decided to leave at 2pm.  Made it to Iowa border around 4pm and quickly decided I had to go the distance.  At the time there was thunderstorms just west of Des Moines and some new development over the city.  Decided to break off I35 and head East on Hwy 20 towards Waterloo.  Encountered the first storm which had tons of rain and a shelf producing strong winds with one more cell to my East.  Figured the leading cell would be the best so I pushed east again.  In the City of Waterloo I encountered the core of the storm with strong RFD type winds and small hail.  Made one more push and made it to the front of the storm as it passed to my north when I finally saw the meso.  This thing was huge and very low to the ground with tons of rotation.  Honestly thought at any time a small spin up would occur somewhere over this area. Quickly became influenced by the shelf behind it and decided to call it a day.

Base of new storm to my SE over Toledo, IA.	Some type of rotation started to show up and get wrapped in rain.	My best estimate is this was a wall cloud that became rain wrapped.
Finally ahead of the cell and seeing a shelf to my south.	To my west there was all sorts of hanging rotation like this.	Would consider this a funnel but the focus screwed up my pic.

Mesocyclone over Waterloo area	Meso embedded with the shelf.	Meso looking great and hugging the ground with strong rotation.
Closer look at the meso showing funnel type fingers almost.	Looking north of I380	Meso loosing its striations and cruising north.

Shelf to my West.	Meso looking more unorganized.	South side of the shelf.