2011-07-22 REPORTS: ND

[Skip Talbot]

Jon Williamson and I targeted north central South Dakota and wound up intercepting a photogenic, tornado warned supercell north of Flasher, ND. The storm had trouble rooting to the boundary it seemed, and kept getting pushed northwest by low level flow. It hung on for awhile, remaining nearly stationary, putting down a nice wall cloud, and what may have been a funnel or two, but we were a little too far from the base to confirm those. The storm was on its way out shortly after going tornado warned, as it seemed it was pushed back into the stable air to the north where it died a quick death. Instead of tangling with a nocturnal intercept on the line to our west, we headed back into South Dakota where the tornado parameters were maximized, hoping for a futile chance at new initiation. A strengthening cap killed any hopes for that, however, and we continued east to get into position for a Minnesota play the next day. Still a fun chase with photogenic scenery and structure:

 

[Winston Wells]

I chased the same storm as Skip in southern North Dakota. Somewhat disappointingly, it ended up being the only discrete play ahead of the MCS that later swept in from eastern Montana.

I never got near the storm's base. Here are a few photographs from a good distance to the east. I took this shot from ND 6 near Selfridge; the view is to the NW:

The next two photographs show the cell starting to wither and orphan. I took both from ND 6. The storm is at least 15 miles off to my west:

Here's a final shot of the anvil and mammatus over Mandan, ND. The view is to the east:

I had never chased in this part of the Dakotas, and the landscape was beautiful! I had a nice chat with the TVN crew in Selby, SD as well. Lots of driving, though, for very little stormwise.