2014-06-18 REPORTS: SD/ ND/ MN

[Bob Schafer]

I was a little late getting into the right position on this storm due to a couple of rookie-type decisions, but no matter. I chased the "Wessington Springs SD" tornado up a gravel road for about its last 25 minutes until it roped out. It was a beautiful tornado, but why do we have to keep hitting towns? I hope everyone in Wessington Springs is OK. Here are, once again, a couple low-res vidcaps:

 

[JThumberger]

My contributions:

View attachment 8537 - Just east of Gann Valley. Weak and short lived, but still counts Looking SW from the intersection of 366th Ave and 229th St. Rated EF-0 by Aberdeen (tornado #4 of their assessment here)

View attachment 8540 - 1 mile south of the image above. Looking SW from the intersection of 366th Ave and 230th St. No rating yet...this one is technically in Sioux Falls' jurisdiction, and they haven't released anything for this one yet.

View attachment 8539 - 2 miles east of the last image. Looking SW from the intersection of 370th Ave and 230th St. After the tornado above dissipated, this multivortex tornado formed a few minutes later. Shortly after this picture the tornado seemed to lift again and started getting obscured by rain. As such, I bailed east to 373rd Ave and headed south to get out of the danger area.

View attachment 8538 - After bailing on the tornado above when it became wrapped in rain, I headed east to 373rd Ave and headed south. Even before turning south on 373rd Ave, I could see this large tornado to my south. At one point it appeared to be an actual wedge (by the correct definition that is), but by the time I got closer it appeared more like this. Taken looking SE from about 0.5 miles north of 234th St.

I actually missed most of the Wessington Springs tornado because I sat and watched this tornado for so long. Eventually it got so wrapped in rain, and I was hearing reports of a new wall cloud forming and tightening up, that I bailed on this one. By the time I got back into position, I only saw the very end of the Wessington Springs tornado. Instead of messing around with it's remnants for too long, I shifted focus to the area developing into what would be the Aplena tornado.

View attachment 8536 - And last but not least, the rope out of the Alpena tornado.

Quick video of these tornadoes. Much more video of this day to go through....eventually.
Watch video >

 

[Marcus Diaz]

Jacob, your picture links aren't working.

 

[Hank Schyma]

Bagged the white morpher near Alpena South Dakota...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hd1xmri8wls

 

[Hank Schyma]

Here's a more in depth version of the Alpena SD Tornado...
Watch video >