So I chased on Wednesday (August 19th) and it was definately the weirdest effing chase I've ever been on. Watched a couplet on the TDWR TMSP move north from Richfield right over downtown Minneapolis. Shaked it off as a fluke eventhough the couplet was rather nice and there was even a morphed hook on BR1 for a while. A tornado warning was issued north of this couplet including right over my house in New Brighton, MN. As soon as I saw this warning I knew I had little time to get out. Despite the rain and low visibility I knew that there was a small chance for me to get in the right position to see a tornado. Long story short, chased storms to just north east of North Branch, MN. Decided to head home going through North Branch to get back to I35 south. As soon as I got in to the town I saw numerous trees down and even a telephone pole snapped off near the top. Ended up pulling off and walking around a bit. Biggest thing was near the middle school where two metal bleachers were flipped over and one was dragged along the ground about 30 yards. This ended up being confirmed a tornado by NWS-MPX as an EF0 with winds of 70-80 mph. Not much else to say, was within a couple miles of a a tornado but had to be in the exact right spot at the exact right time to see them due to rain and piss poor visibility. As far as poor warning time, this definately wasn't an easy setup to see coming, although there were definately signs that something COULD happen. Not many pics, mostly just of the damage in North Branch but nothing real impressive.
Forecast for August 24th, I'll be back in school so we'll see if I actually end up chasing this, but there is some potential for a supercell or two up near Fargo, ND. MLCAPE between 1500-2000 j/kg, helicities not real impressive but I've chased worse, lots of linear forcing but it could be interesting right as the storms get going. WRF breaks down the CINH and H85/H7 temps before 00z so this should go before dark. MLCAPE staying around 1000 j/kg after dark so we could have a marginal MCS move through northern MN later in the night. Like I said, should turn linear pretty quick but it could be interesting early. Target right now would be Fargo to Wahpeton, ND to Fergus Falls, MN right now. I'm out of school at 1:50 on Monday and figure 3 1/2 hour drive I should be in position by 5:30 and that should be about the time initiation occurs. If nothing else get some shelf footage which is something I have amazingly not gotten much of this year, plus I need my NoDak chase this year. May post once afternoon runs come in, but I think it could be interesting, especially early.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
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That system this past Wednesday was very odd. We had tons of rain from it here in Duluth...between 3 to 5 inches. Also had a period of gale force E-NE winds between 6PM-8PM which helped to pull down some trees and power lines across parts of the city. Weird!
That was by far the weirdest chase I've ever been on. It was basically chasing tornadic showers. A couplet is there on radar one scan and gone the next.
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