03/25/07 REPORTS: MN, WI

[Melanie Metz]

Our first MN chase of the year started out in Albert Lea. Bill Doms, David Drufke and I (along with others) waited for initiation at the Shell gas station and headed North on I-35 as cells fired just to our NW close to 4pm. We managed to stay on the southern cell in the line through Goodhue county to the river. We decided not to cross into Wisconsin and headed home early after a decent local chase. Initially the cell produced a brief wall cloud/ lowering (no rotation noted) but quickly became elevated and elongated as it approached WI.

It was great to get on the road again!

Full Chase log and photos:
http://www.twistersisters.com/032507.htm

 

[Bill Doms]

Outcome for the day was about what I expected with the total lack of directional shear and the surface temps outrunning the dewpoint. When the 17Z MPX launch data came in showing the slight capping inversion, I knew were were in trouble as the WRF forecasted LCL's of <1000m were not going to happen. Still was a great way to get all the kinks worked out of the equipment (and add some new ones). Best part was ice on the lake and snow in the woods and north facing slopes yet! Spring in MN!

My version: http://www.mnwxchaser.com/07march25.html

 

[Reed Timmer]

MAJOR bust here after an all-night 11 hour drive from Norman...now we're driving all the way back.

We'll need to work out the blood clots tomorrow!

 

[Joel Wright]

Bust. That's the word of the day lol. I guess sometimes things just don't develop as planned.

Jeremy Ludin and I made great time and positioned ourselves just east of Hayfield MN by 2:30, as we watched the cumulus field grow to the west. Things were looking pretty good at this point. Screaming south wind, gusting to over 40mph, and relatively decent moisture. Little did we know how quick our moisture would mix out.

We watched as one storm went severe warned just to our north in Goodhue CO. We had a pretty nice vantage point of the southern end of that cell as it went by. Still, we were hoping, and expecting the large towers to their south (just to our west) would go.

Soon it was very apparent what was going on. Cloud bases began to rise, and we could actually feel the air getting drier as the wind began to veer more and more to the southwest. Arg!

We considered heading east, but nothing seemed to be firing there yet, and going much further east took us into hills and trees. So we called it a day around 5:30 and headed for home.

Here's a view of the severe warned cell just to our north in Goodhue CO MN around 4:30pm I believe...




Edited to shrink the pic a bit...

 

[Andy Rice]

Well..... Bustola.....

Started in Madison, Targeted Rochester...... had a brain fart and thought I could catch the cell East of La Crosse..... reality set in that I was better off on the MN squall line.... and I kicked back north and rode the south end of the bow into eau claire area..... and called it a day.

It was a nice drive..... and I learned that while southern MN is good chasing country, Western Central Wisconsin is awful. I had never chased in either before.

The early season taste of chasing just got me more excited for April-July

 

[Ross Lazear]

Well, it wasn't a total bust by any means...but certainly not the greatest chase. Left Madison at 8:45 AM with a target of Albert Lea, MN. My chase team and I were getting excited about the rapidly growing cumulus field to the west, and got word from base support that the CU towers were focused along a SSW/NNE line just to our west. So, we headed north on I-35, then eventually booked east, following the same cell that Bill Doms and Melanie Metz were on into Goodhue Co., MN. Saw the same lowering on that cell between Kenyon and Wanamingo on Minnesota Hwy 60... Have pics, but can't seem to attach them right now...

At Zumbrota, we took Hwy. 58 NE to Red Wing and passed a group of four chase vehicles on the right side of Hwy 58 right before Red Wing (was that your team, Bill?). We actually did decide to cross back into WI at Red Wing, and proceeded to follow the storm east along US-10 toward Mondovi, WI. By then, it was basically the southern cell of a bowing segment of multi mini cells. There was some scud and a lame shelf cloud... We continued NE on Wisc. Hwy. 37 to Eau Claire, where we eventually watched it pass by with the sun to our back from frozen Lake Wissota (this segment which briefly bowed out did some wind damage NE of Eau Claire).

This seemed like a real problem with unidirectional shear and not quite ample instability. Also, the best forcing was a bit too far from the best lower trop. shear regions.... Oh well, still early in the season!

 

[Doug_Kiesling]

Well, I would not call it a total bust.

Ended up at the same Shell gas station with Bill, Eric, Mel, David, Tony, and some new chasers that asked it they could tag along too.

For hours and hours this morning I reviewed data, looked at the ruc, reviewed even more data and picked two targets. One near Albert Lea to Owatanna MN and the other near Hastings MN.

Since Hastings MN is on the Mississippi River and the target area would be in Wisconsin, I said, eh, NO.

So I went with the southern option.

Why do I sucker myself into chasing setups that the surface, 850 and 500 mb winds all scream at almost the same direction? The best backing winds were from Hastings to Eau Claire WI but again, even that was 45 to maybe 90 degrees at best.

But it was not a total bust. I got to test out the new transmission and work out some bugs in the new data setup.

And yes, I did it, I took one for the team. After I met up with most of the group just outside of the base of Mt. RedWing, I did it... I went into the forbidden chaser land... I went into Wisconsin.

Half to chase and half to check out that area just for kicks. I made it to just east of Plum City where I said enough was enough and turned around after my phone got a signal.

Cell phone coverage from Mt Plum City WI to Mt Red Wing MN to Mt Prescott Wisconsin poor to none. I say MT. as a joke because their is no mountains but the roads all go through river valleys and you get on top of them from time to time. For the most part your maybe 300-500 feet down in the sub basement of a valley.

I did see some short lived lowering on the tail end of the stuff that went into Wisconsin but I did my Wisconsin chase for the year and got it out of the way on the first chase so I won't be tempted to go again.

Lessons ReLearned:

Don't go into Wisconsin. Highway 52 is your neutral ground to say, enter at your own risk because your not going to see anything but hills and trees from this point foward.

When Surface, 850 and 500 mb winds are all going the same way and really fast, with temps and dew barely over the 75/55, your chances of seeing a tornado is slim and the storms are going to race off at light speed.

And when doing 5 over the speed limit, ALWAYS let the guys speeding by at 90+ pass you. While we were all driving north on 35 to the cell that just went up, a Lincoln blew past me like I was standing still. I was doing 75 and they had to be doing at least 90 to 100.

A few minutes later, a MN State Trooper came flying up behind me and I was thinking oh crap, this is not Texas, you can do 8-10 over up here before they get anal. I moved over and he blew past me like there was a tornado on the ground. So I thought there was and I was thinking oh crap, what is happening up here?


Until a few minutes later, the trooper had the Lincoln pulled over.

That and pea sized hail was the extent of the chase.

This is what we saw just east of Medford

http://www.weatherpaparazzi.com/blog/00_photoblog/032507_DSC_5852.jpg

 

[Daniel Christianson]

Can someone please label a DOH! or put a KICK ME , sign on my back? i made it to Albert Lea around 1, i figured stuff was going to fire north, so headed that way, got on the goodhue county cell, which was the oh so few min worth the chase" NOT!... i think i need to stay home more often then chase every chance i get lol.. i only have video of this chase since my camera phone went dead, i need to buy another digital camera again.. im just bad with them ive gone through 4 , 1 dropped in the sink of water, 2-3-4 well left them on the damn roof while i was too excited video wise of storms .. i gotta get to work ...

 

[Jim Bishop]

Wow! One of the most painful busts of my career. Chased in Northern Iowa/Southern Minnesota. My girlfriend and I had left Lubbock, TX Saturday morning after chasing in Eastern New Mexico Friday, and drove straight to Kansas City, arriving at 1:30am Sunday. We took a 3 hour nap and then continued to Northern Iowa to near the Minnesota border. Major bust!

We woke up in Ames, Iowa at 9am. We have a LONG drive back to Houston. I have to work tomorrow...

 

[Bob Hartig]

A whole lotta miles for not much. We left Grand Rapids at 7 a.m. EST with an initial target of La Crosse, WI--not good territory for chasing, but workable logistically for a quick Mississippi crossover and N-S, E-W options. From there we broke west along I-90 into MN till we arrived at the western edge of a broadening and ripening Cu field east of Rochester. At that point, our story is pretty much everyone else's: watching the T-Td spread grow and contemplating the height of the cloud bases.

We eventually decided to intercept the southernmost cell in the string that was scooting across the northern 2/3 of the first watch box. For a few minutes back in Wisconsin, it actually looked like that cell was getting its act together with what looked like a couple wall clouds and tantalizing lowerings, but it was hard to tell exactly what was going on given the terrain, and by the time we found a decent place to stop and view, the storm was clearly linear. Some impressive wind at the gust front, but not much else to show. We wound up heading back and watching the happy little family of supercells to our east on the radar.

Back home at 3:30 a.m. and at work at 8:00. Frustrating to drive that far only to watch the atmosphere mix out. I've been on this forum for a long time now, but experientially I'm still pretty green, so I guess for me even a bust is educational. Thankfully, there's a whole storm season ahead.

 

[Jerry Funfsinn]

Waited most of the afteroon in Claremont until things fired. Picked up on the storms
north of Owatonna MN and followed northeast until I hit the mighty Mississip at Lake
City. Pretty uneventful other than the laptop crashed right after initiation after
performing beautifully all day.

After traveling 1600 mi on the latest chase weekend would I do it all over again? Hell yes,
chasing is alot like the lottery, you have to play to win.
Jerry Funfsinn
http://www.creativejetstream.com

 

[Josh Richardson]

Well it wasnt a clear sky bust but still a bust. Pretty much the same story as everyone else. Playing the MN/IA border basically waiting for the CU field to finally start doing something before everything started to mix badly. Had to jet from Osage IA and try and catch the Owatonna storm that moved at like 50 mph, got to Blooming Prairie and had it in view but realized it wasnt worth it. After that just went down I-90 east until we finally gave and called it a night.

 

[Dean Baron]

It was really nice to get out again so early this year! Met Rich at his house, we left around 11, got to Owatonna (my original target) around 12:30, sat around there, got some data, had a bite to eat. Headed down to Albert Lea and waited down there for about an hour, talked to some people down there, looked at some data. We saw the tops on the Owatonna storm go up almost 30,000 ft. in 2 scans, headed north on 35 to intercept it booked it east and north on the pitiful road networks in Rice/Steele county (never realized how hard it is to chase a storm that is moving northeast at 50 mph :shock: ). Finally caught up to. From about 4:30-6:15 we didnt have radar because we thought we had lost our connection, turns out it was just the NWS having problems with the radar, if we had known, we could've just as easily have used La Crosse radar if we had known. Got into Goodhue county, tried following it, end up calling it a day just west of Red Wing as we really didnt want to chase a weakening storm in to WI. All in all, it was cool to meet some new people, especially some of the more experienced chasers. Felt good to get out again so early as well, and atleast it wasnt a clear sky bust for us. 3 counties (Rice, Steele, Goohue), no tornadoes, no hail, howling wind (probably 25+ sustained surface winds before initiation), 1 tornado watch, 2 severe thunderstorm warnings, not sure how many miles. Pics:
Rain foot as we are briefly ahead of the storm:

Precip area as the storm races past us and makes us wonder how the hell we got so far behind it so quick:

Wall cloud and maybe a funnel? i doubt a funnel, but has the look of one. before everything becomes rain-wrapped:

Precip area of a storm to our south:

Back of the storms just west of Red Wing when we gave up on it:

 

[Jeremy Ludin]

As Joel Wright said, BUST! Oh well, I don't think I'd take this chase back. We still learned quite a bit today. Besides, it was still nice to get away!

Full report here

 

[Ron Riemersma]

Got started a bit late and decided to target LaCrosse, WI. Sat in a CU field, watched a few towers go up and eventually took off after one that showed some potential as it raced off through West WI. As has been said, it really is amazing when you are driving down the interstate and you are still losing ground on the storm. We were fortunate, as two discrete cells did form south of our initial storm, and then headed our way. So, we basically just headed back east, and planned the intercept, watch / follow for a short time, and then wave goodbye as they flew through the lousy road network.

We saw this just outside of Tomah, WI.

We followed through Tomah and were surprised to hear their sirens-- as it was not Tornado warned. I think this is the cell that did produce several hail reports.

Even though we had discrete cells, it appeared as their tops were getting sheared off and never got very organized.

Not exactly what we went out for but, it is WI in March...