Skip Talbot
EF5
Started in Mobridge, SD after camping on the Bowdle damage path in my van. Targeted east of Pierre closer to the triple point along the warm front for afternoon north moving supercells. It was apparent by early on that cloud cover and convection in the warm sector and warm front would limit the day's potential, hindering destabilization, despite very favorable shear profiles along the warm front. Based off the visible satellite loops I moved down to Redfield, SD, where it looked like there was some clearing and robust convection coming up from the south.
An elongated, line segment of a cell developed south of Faulkton, SD about 20-30 to my west, moving north. Despite the linear presentation, the cell was gaining intensity and moving across the warm front so I moved in for the intercept, catching the storm a few miles southwest of Faulkton.
Initially a very linear, elongated gust front presented itself, low to the ground and training north. There looked like a couple scuddy attempts at a wall cloud:
Scuddy warm front junk, not a very impressive chasing catch. I'd seen a very similar visual presentation on a setup with similar surface pattern though: October 4, in Wayne, Nebraska. That event also featured an elongated line segment training north across the low LCL warm front before it rapidly organized and produced.
I moved north to stay ahead of the unwarned storm. Right on the warm front as it moved over Faulkton, it started to take on supercellular characteristics in a similar fashion to the Wayne storm. RFD cut a deep clear slot into the base with a prominent tail cloud:
I moved north again to stay downstream, and was eventually in line with the NNE moving storm's clear slot. I let it move overhead. Rain filled the region, but the motion overhead was quite dramatic. Rain and low clouds were wrapping around the low meso and there was a distinct rushing noise as it approached and passed west of me.
I made a rather critical decision at this point. Instead of cutting a couple miles east to highway 45 to go north and parallel the storm outside of its path, I went west into the storm. The evolution of this storm so reminded me of Wayne that I decided to try and chase it in the same fashion, by trailing immediately behind the NNE moving cyclone. I drove west into the RFD and then went north on the paved county road out of Faulkton toward Wecota. There was some rain obstructing ground level, but I could plainly see the meso above and in front of me. The storm picked up a tornado warning, just as it began to produce its first tornado:
I couldn't confirm it at the time, but this funnel had a ground circulation underneath. A 10 yard wide debris cloud documented by Bill Doms, Eric Whitehill, Amanda Hill, Tanner Schaaf and others. NWS surveyed an EF0 at the location.
I continued due north, my view of the funnel was blocked by a huge, ground scraping mesocyclone immediately to my north which had my full attention. It was black as night underneath and white sheets of mist and rain rocked the van as they surged under and around the mass. I was still trailing behind it so I pushed on to the north, hoping the RFD would open up and the region would condense into a large Wayne-esque tornado. North of highway 20 my road went to gravel, however, and within the howling core I decided not to pursue at that range without pavement. I turned around and went back to 20 to cut east to get out from under the RFD. It was a good thing too. Unlike Wayne, this storm rapidly cycled to the southwest. A more robust couplet appeared on the velocity scan, immediately upstream of my location. I went east between the supercell's two circulations: the occluded one which was producing a weak tornado to my northeast and the new tornado cyclone spinning up to my southwest.
As I went east I could see a dramatic, ground scraping tornado cyclone taking shape. A huge cylindrical, rotating mass of cloud, with white mist streaming into and around it. I suspected a large, broad but also weak and diffuse tornado may be in progress. NWS Aberdeen surveyed another very narrow tornado under this region, which may be this black cone shaped lowering underneath the coke can shaped tornado cyclone:
I just couldn't let it go and take the extra two miles east to a paved north. Getting over zealous and a little foolish, I had to hold my position on this feature fearing I would miss something epic behind sheets rain and lose my contrast if I continued east. I turned north on a dirt road. The road was wet, but it looked like the storm hadn't really tracked over it, so I figured it would be OK to travel. It was compacted and looked to be in good shape. I paralleled the tornado cyclone for a mile and a half down that road before I started to get into trouble. The van started to slide slightly and then slow down as the tires lost traction in mud. I tried to keep it alive as long as I could while not skidding off the road, but I eventually came to a stop.
I tried in vain to rock it back and forth several times but I was only digging ruts.
The storm passed to my west and the north, the massive cyclone becoming completely wrapped in rain as it moved off toward Ipswich with a very prominent, but rain wrapped couplet.
I had one bar of service on my phone luckily. The only number I had in Faulkton was for the Super 8. I called the front desk and asked if they could recommend a local tow. More than helpful, they referred me to Shane at the gas station across the street. After interrupting his dinner, he agreed to come out in his truck with straps. Shane surveyed the van, and then jumped in and started driving it down the mud after a couple attempts to get it moving. "Jump in, I don't want to stop!" I ran along side and dove into the passenger seat as the van rolled down the mud road, while Shane Jr. drove the truck ahead of us. I felt a little foolish that he was able to just drive the van out of there after I had tried and failed to do the same, but also more than relieved to be free. Had the storm core hit that road, the van would have probably been stuck there at least all night.
I gladly paid Shane for his time. After less than two hours I was back on the chase. I caught a little unwarned, mini supercell south of Aberdeen at sunset before calling it a chase and grabbing dinner and splitting a room with Chad Cowan.
A chase with hard to catch, needle in the haystack tornadoes, and some misadventure. I think I might count one of these features as a tornado intercept, but it's a tough call given the visibility issues. Not a very impressive tornado catch from my vantage, but it would technically be my first August tornado. A few have suggested that had there been more instability available to this storm, we could have had a significant tornado event and Ipswich would have been in some serious trouble given the scale and intensity of that low level mesocyclone and the shear profiles on the warm front.
An elongated, line segment of a cell developed south of Faulkton, SD about 20-30 to my west, moving north. Despite the linear presentation, the cell was gaining intensity and moving across the warm front so I moved in for the intercept, catching the storm a few miles southwest of Faulkton.
Initially a very linear, elongated gust front presented itself, low to the ground and training north. There looked like a couple scuddy attempts at a wall cloud:
Scuddy warm front junk, not a very impressive chasing catch. I'd seen a very similar visual presentation on a setup with similar surface pattern though: October 4, in Wayne, Nebraska. That event also featured an elongated line segment training north across the low LCL warm front before it rapidly organized and produced.
I moved north to stay ahead of the unwarned storm. Right on the warm front as it moved over Faulkton, it started to take on supercellular characteristics in a similar fashion to the Wayne storm. RFD cut a deep clear slot into the base with a prominent tail cloud:
I moved north again to stay downstream, and was eventually in line with the NNE moving storm's clear slot. I let it move overhead. Rain filled the region, but the motion overhead was quite dramatic. Rain and low clouds were wrapping around the low meso and there was a distinct rushing noise as it approached and passed west of me.
I made a rather critical decision at this point. Instead of cutting a couple miles east to highway 45 to go north and parallel the storm outside of its path, I went west into the storm. The evolution of this storm so reminded me of Wayne that I decided to try and chase it in the same fashion, by trailing immediately behind the NNE moving cyclone. I drove west into the RFD and then went north on the paved county road out of Faulkton toward Wecota. There was some rain obstructing ground level, but I could plainly see the meso above and in front of me. The storm picked up a tornado warning, just as it began to produce its first tornado:
I couldn't confirm it at the time, but this funnel had a ground circulation underneath. A 10 yard wide debris cloud documented by Bill Doms, Eric Whitehill, Amanda Hill, Tanner Schaaf and others. NWS surveyed an EF0 at the location.
I continued due north, my view of the funnel was blocked by a huge, ground scraping mesocyclone immediately to my north which had my full attention. It was black as night underneath and white sheets of mist and rain rocked the van as they surged under and around the mass. I was still trailing behind it so I pushed on to the north, hoping the RFD would open up and the region would condense into a large Wayne-esque tornado. North of highway 20 my road went to gravel, however, and within the howling core I decided not to pursue at that range without pavement. I turned around and went back to 20 to cut east to get out from under the RFD. It was a good thing too. Unlike Wayne, this storm rapidly cycled to the southwest. A more robust couplet appeared on the velocity scan, immediately upstream of my location. I went east between the supercell's two circulations: the occluded one which was producing a weak tornado to my northeast and the new tornado cyclone spinning up to my southwest.
As I went east I could see a dramatic, ground scraping tornado cyclone taking shape. A huge cylindrical, rotating mass of cloud, with white mist streaming into and around it. I suspected a large, broad but also weak and diffuse tornado may be in progress. NWS Aberdeen surveyed another very narrow tornado under this region, which may be this black cone shaped lowering underneath the coke can shaped tornado cyclone:
I just couldn't let it go and take the extra two miles east to a paved north. Getting over zealous and a little foolish, I had to hold my position on this feature fearing I would miss something epic behind sheets rain and lose my contrast if I continued east. I turned north on a dirt road. The road was wet, but it looked like the storm hadn't really tracked over it, so I figured it would be OK to travel. It was compacted and looked to be in good shape. I paralleled the tornado cyclone for a mile and a half down that road before I started to get into trouble. The van started to slide slightly and then slow down as the tires lost traction in mud. I tried to keep it alive as long as I could while not skidding off the road, but I eventually came to a stop.
I tried in vain to rock it back and forth several times but I was only digging ruts.
The storm passed to my west and the north, the massive cyclone becoming completely wrapped in rain as it moved off toward Ipswich with a very prominent, but rain wrapped couplet.
I had one bar of service on my phone luckily. The only number I had in Faulkton was for the Super 8. I called the front desk and asked if they could recommend a local tow. More than helpful, they referred me to Shane at the gas station across the street. After interrupting his dinner, he agreed to come out in his truck with straps. Shane surveyed the van, and then jumped in and started driving it down the mud after a couple attempts to get it moving. "Jump in, I don't want to stop!" I ran along side and dove into the passenger seat as the van rolled down the mud road, while Shane Jr. drove the truck ahead of us. I felt a little foolish that he was able to just drive the van out of there after I had tried and failed to do the same, but also more than relieved to be free. Had the storm core hit that road, the van would have probably been stuck there at least all night.
I gladly paid Shane for his time. After less than two hours I was back on the chase. I caught a little unwarned, mini supercell south of Aberdeen at sunset before calling it a chase and grabbing dinner and splitting a room with Chad Cowan.
A chase with hard to catch, needle in the haystack tornadoes, and some misadventure. I think I might count one of these features as a tornado intercept, but it's a tough call given the visibility issues. Not a very impressive tornado catch from my vantage, but it would technically be my first August tornado. A few have suggested that had there been more instability available to this storm, we could have had a significant tornado event and Ipswich would have been in some serious trouble given the scale and intensity of that low level mesocyclone and the shear profiles on the warm front.
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