2011-07-23 REPORTS: MN

[Skip Talbot]

Chased some low topped storms across southern MN with Jonathan Williamson and Nick Nolte. We were about an hour from calling it a cap bust, before some towers finally started to sluggishly build after 7pm in south central MN. We got on the first few towers and watched some gorgeous low topped convection lit up by the setting sun. Storms never became very robust or severe weather producers, but a retreating boundary drifting down from the north appeared to force some mini-supercellular structure out of the storms briefly before the southern most cells were culled by the strengthening cap and the rest merged into a messy MCS. It was a very interesting process to watch visually and on the radar, and I'ld like to start a MISC thread with some radar grabs if I get a chance. We caught a small wall cloud out of one of the low topped storms south of Madelia, and then a very interesting cone shaped lowering north of Mankato. I'm skeptical about calling the feature a funnel, but it was in a very intriguing location on the storm and the radar had what looked like a tiny hook. I'll save that one for the MISC thread when I can get some radar grabs and video caps though. All in all a very fun and photogenic chase, despite the lack of tubes or monster supercells.

Low topped updraft tower with flanking line, quickly killed by strengthening cap:

Low topped storm, possible mini-sup with a tiny wall cloud:

Close up of the wall:

Sunset convection:

 

[Winston Wells]

This day in southwestern Minnesota failed to meet most expectations. As the afternoon progressed, the best parameters appeared to be in the Windom area, where many chasers ended up waiting. And waiting. Although a tornado watch seemed likely by mid-afternoon, both the RUC and the HRRR began to lose more of their precipitation signals over the region with each successive run. I suspect that the 13 degree 700 mb temps played a role here.

Just before 8 p.m. a few small areas of convection finally began to fire southeast of Windom that would persist and sort of congeal into a line running northeast over MN 60. I was heading down US 71 with the intention of giving up, but I decided to head east on County Rd 30 toward the cell that looked the best on radar. These two pictures were taken between Bergen and Trimont and look NNE:

I then headed north on MN 4. The cell was beginning to wrap up a bit and looked somewhat promising; the view here is also to the NNE from near the town of Ormsby:

I took the next shot, which looks north, from County Rd 50 between Ormsby and Truman. After this, though, the cell quickly fell apart and looked junky.

And while it's no Mike Hollingshead/Hill City, the storm's tail cloud did give me a quick alligator-mouth before croaking.

I then called it a day in rainy Mankato.