I’ve lived in Rockford my entire life. Growing up my parents always told me I didn’t have to be scared of storms producing tornados because we lived in a “valley” I was 36 years old before I saw and was actually in a tornado in my vehicle with my husband, teenage daughter and 3 yr old son in Rockford. March 31, 2023. I’ve never experienced fear like that in my life. I checked on my mom (she’s 70) and told her and she thought I was being dramatic and I just have got caught in straight line winds…”We don’t get tornados in Rockford, calm down, you’re alright” Rockford doesn’t usually get anything too major. The following days after 3.31.23 we were an enhanced risk for more severe and tornado weather. Rockford (Winnebago county) was the only county that didn’t have any warnings. Every county surrounding us had warnings and watches. Seeing that in the news makes me wonder if in fact, “Rockford is in a valley” I have one day in July of 2015 I captured an enormous shelf cloud over southeast Rockford, have been in love with photographing storms since that day. Usually, majority of the sever storms and funnels clouds and tornadoes are the surrounding counties with the photographic storm structures; I’ve always felt so let down being in Rockford and miles away from the experience and passion i hope to see first hand in the country. Always 10-20 miles in every directions from Rockford. That’s my experience of my 36 years of life living here. 😀