William Reid
EF2
Our (Tempest Tours) group began this day at Wolseley, SK (east of Regina), and targeted the Swift Current area and points southwest of there in sw SK. This area was progged to be north of a surface low in nc MT. An e-w CAPE/theta-e axis was expected to shift north during the afternoon from n MT into extreme sw SK, and 850 winds were easterly at about 20 knots thru Swift Current by 00Z. A second target area was western ND, where big CAPE values resided along with backed surface flow, but the cap was stronger there and the upper winds were weaker compared to sw SK and vicinity. So, we went west on Hwy 1, had lunch at the A&W in Moose Jaw again, and continued to Swift Current.
By about 23Z we were hanging out around Admiral and Shaunavon. A very healthy cell with strong rotation was near Havre, about 80 miles to our southwest. We considered blasting towards that, but storm towers were finally building nearby, in our target area. We positioned ourselves just south of the largest storm base, north of Shaunavon. This was around 01Z. It took a little time, but the storm gradually attained supercell status and began to spin hard at mid-levels, according to the Glasgow radar. We watched a heavy precip core develop north of the base, which led to a large and low wall cloud. We got east of the WC west of Neville on route 4. Cloud motions were very nice, but there was no strong and persistent low-level rotation. Cool west winds hit us before I would have liked, too, so there may have been some outflow issues. We scooted east on 43 a few miles and looked back west and northwest again. A very impressive and large "barrel" was practically scraping the surface. It looked for all the world like a very large tornado, but there was only weak rotation with it. VERY WEIRD. We were chased eastward on 43 thru Pambrun, and the supercell became HP in character. New mesos on the leading edge teased us with ephemeral strong rotation and prominent bowl-shaped lowerings, but we never did witness a full-fledged tornado. Radar showed a strong velocity couplet and low-level structure was pretty with inflow bands and a laminar look, but mid-levels were largely obscured by a persistent strato-cu deck. We got ESE of the cell a little before sunset (03Z) south of Hodgeville. The storm seemed to try to wrap up one more time at low levels as it weakened. Light rain from new weak storms to our south was falling, and this led to further weakening. It had been a fun 2 or 3 hours, but the show was over. We found rooms in nearby Gravelbourg.
Bill Reid, with Chad Cowan
By about 23Z we were hanging out around Admiral and Shaunavon. A very healthy cell with strong rotation was near Havre, about 80 miles to our southwest. We considered blasting towards that, but storm towers were finally building nearby, in our target area. We positioned ourselves just south of the largest storm base, north of Shaunavon. This was around 01Z. It took a little time, but the storm gradually attained supercell status and began to spin hard at mid-levels, according to the Glasgow radar. We watched a heavy precip core develop north of the base, which led to a large and low wall cloud. We got east of the WC west of Neville on route 4. Cloud motions were very nice, but there was no strong and persistent low-level rotation. Cool west winds hit us before I would have liked, too, so there may have been some outflow issues. We scooted east on 43 a few miles and looked back west and northwest again. A very impressive and large "barrel" was practically scraping the surface. It looked for all the world like a very large tornado, but there was only weak rotation with it. VERY WEIRD. We were chased eastward on 43 thru Pambrun, and the supercell became HP in character. New mesos on the leading edge teased us with ephemeral strong rotation and prominent bowl-shaped lowerings, but we never did witness a full-fledged tornado. Radar showed a strong velocity couplet and low-level structure was pretty with inflow bands and a laminar look, but mid-levels were largely obscured by a persistent strato-cu deck. We got ESE of the cell a little before sunset (03Z) south of Hodgeville. The storm seemed to try to wrap up one more time at low levels as it weakened. Light rain from new weak storms to our south was falling, and this led to further weakening. It had been a fun 2 or 3 hours, but the show was over. We found rooms in nearby Gravelbourg.
Bill Reid, with Chad Cowan