08/11/07 REPORTS: MN / WI / IL / MI

[Doug_Kiesling]

Went out by Delano MN and Maier MN on Highway 7. Shot a bunch of lightning and then had to run back home before I got cored. Hearing lots of reports of trees down around the north metro.

Here is one of the photographs from this morning.

 

[Bill Doms]

EDIT: **Webpage is up with more pics** http://www.mnwxchaser.com/07august11.html


Shots from the Wright/McLeod/Carver MN county severe cell. Outflow dominant and undercut from the get go. Still was a heck of a lot closer to home than yesterday's chase.

 

[Andrew Pritchard]

Just got back from one of my more entertaining "wind chases". Been on vacation near Oxford, WI in Adams County so I had my eye on the bow echo. It looked like things might be dying out as it approached, but damage reports continued to come out of it so I headed out anyway. Only headed down Highway 82 about 5 miles before things started getting interesting.

There was no real shelf cloud, just some grungy low hanging clouds, and then a lightning illuminated precip core. I pulled off in the parking lot of a little bar & grill for a nicely lit place to shoot the winds. They hit very suddenly, and very strongly. I stepped out of my car to shoot the lightning and heard that "roar" coming from my southwest, and was eventually overtaken by very strong straight line winds sustained around 60-65mph with some gusts possibly higher. I was originally parked next to a couple semi-trailers but soon moved once I realised how much punch was left in the storms. Power was soon knocked out at the location I was sitting at.

Once things let up a bit I got back on Highway 82 east back the way I came from but upon cresting a hill I realised there was a tree down blocking the entire lane. So I whipped around it while hitting my four ways and tapping my brakes so the guy behind me would see it. He did, so I got out of my car and reported the damage so we could get someone to clean it up. I'd have tried to move it myself, but being on a hill and at night I wasn't messing around. Good choice. I get out my camera to film a shot of the debris in the road as I notice another set of headlights coming. Becomes apparent that it's a large 18 wheeler... So I think to myself, if he doesn't see it, this could suck thinking he might lose control of his rig coming at me. Well, he didn't see it and nailed it as I was filming. Not sure how well it turned out on the video since I jerked back into the car pretty quick to avoid getting pelted. Anyway, after that I decided I was done sitting there being the signal car that something was in the road.

I got back on the road that our cabin is on and had to drive 5 mph swerving around branches blocking the road. A tree or very large branch also fell on the deck of one of the campers in the campground down the road.

That thing packed a LOT more punch than I had planned on it having left. Really looked to be dying down, but surged again and wound up being a pretty fun 30 minute chase. Sure am glad I didn't go to Minnesota like I had debated doing. Got to enjoy a day on the lake, and then get raked after dark.

 

[Michael Carlson]

Went out just east of Denver to watch the meteor shower when a small rain shower pops up and put down some great CG's

More Photo's Here

 

[Dean Baron]

Shelf cloud near Montrose:

Another look at the shelf cloud that is basically hugging the ground

Highway to hell:

Trying to become a wall cloud but never does:

More pics:
http://midweststormchaser.tripod.com/august11th2007

 

[Tony Perkins]

I was at a wedding in Rochester all day, and when the storm formed there that night it gave us all a great excuse to avoid the chicken dance. The lighting was a constant strobe of c-to-c. Later I got the tripod and made this movie in the link below, of pics strung together from the DSLR. It's a 1024x500 WMV and I can't wait to try the technique out with auroras when they return.

http://www.blueskybust.com/dates/2007-08-11-Rochester/index.html

Preview:

 

[Chris White]

I had a heck of a day, big bow-echo did damage around my neighborhood and a couple other areas in the metro Twin Cities around 3:30am, knocked out my power for 3 and a half days. I had three sections to my report, the storm damage with mostly photos from around my house (my car's hood took a hit from a 5 inch branch, my garage roof has a hole in it and massive shingle damage, quite a few branches fell on it. I have a couple images from around the neighborhood;

In the afternoon I went chasing in the NW/W metro;

I then did some lightning shots not wanting to go home to my house without electricity/air/etc.

Full report here, I appologize for the delay.