July 13, 2010 SE North Dakota Supercell
Hadn't really looked at this day much until the night before. I'd moved up to my parents house in Minnesota and was counting on Wednesday local chase. Made the decision to chase around midnight after reviewing some model data and seeing the 4km firing a lone supercell in SE North Dakota. Had 40kt westerly winds at 500mb (21z), 20kts WSW at 700mb, 35kt South wind at 850mb and SSE 925s at 30kts. 15kt SSE surface winds as well. Shear looked better than wed IMO, as Wednesday was looking like it would go linear very quickly, and just a small window for tornadoes.
Left home at 10a.m. targeting Mooreton, ND. Morning HRRR runs where firing storms further south into NE South Dakota. Changed plans a little bit and got to Sisseton, SD at 3pm. Storms were ongoing in ND, but they looked unimpressive on radar. Cumulus were looking not so great and another check of the radar at 3:30 and it was looking more organized, at this point I decided to race north on I29 for the this storm. Exited at Mooreton, and got west to Gwinner, ND before getting north of Lisbon where I intercepted the storm. All the while worrying the day was shot and I wouldn't see anything worth a crap. I was racing the meso (or at this point it looked a bit shelfy) to my east/west highway and I met it at the intersection!
I was surprised at how good the storm looked visually based on radar. Going east on hwy 46 now and the storm seems to be moving almost due east along the hwy. Stopped and Mike was just ahead of me again! lol, chasing is crazy in that regard, run into people you know all the time - in the middle of nowhere.
Below its about to get its act together. This was just west of Enderlin, ND I believe.
Now hoping east again and here's where it really starts wrapping up and rotating pretty good. The thing cycled probably 3 times and really tried, and might have produced a tornado but every cycle the RFD cut in and occluded the rotation, wouldn't have been bad if it hadn't been filled with rain and hail! thats the story of this year I guess, can't remember the last dry RFD I've seen.
The road I'm on below the College of Dupage research vans were there when I pulled off the highway and started filming, I sat there for a solid 10 minutes and there were probably 12 cars of which at least 8 were chasers. Keep in mind this is July and it's North Dakota! Really hoping this is not the future of chasing - everyone chasing every day of the year. Figured I might run into a couple other chasers, but it was almost crowded.
Storm was now turning right, and the hail core was over the highway. Managed to get a few new dents in quarter to golfball sized hail. Got plenty of video of the hits, not sure if I'm going to post it or if I'll wait and just put it on the Dvd (doing one either this fall or next fall, not sure yet) Below I'm now 6 miles south of Leonard, ND. Structure was sweet. Again you can see the wet RFD cutting in and the wall cloud getting wrapped around.
Just a bit after this the storm just kinda lolly gagged for over an hour. Ran into Chris and Evan who were parked next to Mike again (we had gone separate ways earlier). Talked for a bit and kept going east. Got to the interstate east of Walcott and dropped south to catch a view of the updraft, since the storm was not going to tornado anytime soon. Exited my Abercrombie, ND pull off just west of the interstate. Who do I run into again? Mike lol. Talked for probably 30 minutes as the storm literally just sat to our north. He ends up starting the drive home, and I figure I might as well do the same, but following the storm is on my way home, so I figure might as well see if it does something as the Low level jet kicks in.
Above is in Minnesota now, NE of Kent. Kinda cool view of the entire storm, updraft and now a developing wall cloud with some striations above it. Starts looking like it might try and do something again now. I blast back north to get close to it. Need a freaking tornado in this shot above, would be a sick structure shot if it had a tor under it.
Now near barnesville, MN, nice wheat field foreground to make the scene even cooler. By now Mosquitoes were attacking like mad and I just wanted to get home. Chris and Evan stayed the night at my parents place to chase the next day, which I ended up screwing up on and my car broke down. Pretty confident this was the last chase of the year for me, as my car is going to end up costing me a lot to get fixed.
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