07/10/08 REPORTS - Saskatchewan

[Reed Timmer]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tlj-GfvqKWw

Here is a video clip of an incredible supercell we chased in southern Saskatchewan into southwest Manitoba. We intercepted the storm south of Regina, and it went completely nuts once it reached the moisture. The storm looked very similar to the Pipestone, MB supercell from last year, minus the massive photogenic tornadoes of course. It was one of those storms with the block of rain in the middle of the meso... it looked like there was a large tornado embedded in the rain just south of the moose mountains, but when we punched into the "meso rain block" only a rapidly rotating nipple with no ground circulation remained. I've been talking with Environment Canada today and the town of Carlisle, SK sustained substantial damage. The RFD was about 80-100 mph and nearly blew our car off the road, so that damage may have been non-tornadic. I posted pictures of the storm on TornadoVideos.net..

 

[Patrick McCarthy]

Pat McCarthy's Summary

I've posted my chase summary for this event at that following site:

http://members.shaw.ca/wxdog/Carlyle.htm

It was nice to briefly meet you Reed!

Pat

 

[Aaron Kennedy]

Short: Busted by ending up in no-man's land between convection far in the distance. Had a great dinner at Space Aliens Bar & Grill in Minot, however.

Long:

I headed out with a carload of passport carrying grad students with an initial plan of getting to Minot and evaluating the situation. Arrived at Minot and decided NW ND and the Saskatchewan border stil looked good with a cu field stretching along the WF back towards the west into MT.

We raced NW towards North Portal, ND where we would reevaluate once more... cross the border? or stay in the US? We were admiring the scenery and let our guard down checking out the large rock formations done by local high school classes when we noticed towers developing towards are west along the CU field. Then we glanced in the rear view mirror and saw the explosion of convection that occurred near Bismark. We pulled off and decided it would be a long haul and the better target was still near the border and into S. SK. We eventually reached the border crossing and noticed anvil blowoff from storms in Canada.

Now it's time to reflect on our fatal mistake(s). Not sure what we did, but I mistakenly thought the convection that went up in Canada was north of Regina. I figured it was a 2+hr drive and we still had somewhat promising cu along the WF near the border. We twiddled our thumbs a bit and watched the cu field near us. After an hour or so (and I honestly can't recall the time) the cu field went to crap and then I realized we were in trouble. With several hours of daylight left, and several hours (or so we thought) away from any real convection, we were in a bit of a bind. What we should of done was blast off towards the convection in Canada... we would of been able to intercept it with at least an hour or two of daylight I believe. At least we would of made the long trip worth it. Instead, we headed back towards Minot following 1 last attempt at convection by an isolated tower. It pulsed several times, but shear ripped the top off each time. Pulled into Minot and grabbed dinner around dusk. Got out of dinner and noticed the large anvil and updraft from the Canadian storm. Took a glance at radar and realized it was only ~45min or so north of the border. Crap! Had an uneventful drive home other than some convection giving a bit of a lightning show as the LLJ kicked in.

2008 season pains continue...