Scott Kapser
EF0
With 5000-6000 cape and a moderate risk for a sure to be derecho type event I knew if I was to see any chance of a tor on this day I would need to be on these storm shortly after initiation. I set up in Wahpeton, ND and saw two areas of interest, slowly organizing elevated convection to my north, and some surface based towering cumulus to my south at roughly 4:30pm. I drove south a bit to observe the growing cumulus but it appeared to be "turkey towering", at this time the elevated storms to the north rapidly congealed into a tornado warned supercell so I booked it back north and crossed into Mn. to pursue the supercell. This supercell still seemed somewhat elevated and now the surface based growth to my south started to explode sandwiching me between the two storms.
I punched back south through the rapidly intensifying new precip core, luckily only encountering dime size hail, as it merged with the storm to my north. MCS formation was already underway. As I made my way to the southwest flank of the storm it began to drop funnel clouds. As new updrafts fed into the storm complex they would acquire mesocyclones, only to soon be cut of by outflow winds with the process repeating itself a few miles south each time. I caught two of the funnels on video with the first being observed to briefly touchdown, from my vantage point in the precip I could not see if it was an actual tornado or not. Unfortunately at this point my vehicles traction control went out and I had three lights and an alarm flashing at me so I decided it would be best to not push my luck and retreat back home, turns out my front-left wheel bearing was bad. Still a great day and my local chase season has been an absolute success with six tornadoes and two additional funnel clouds observed in the last month.
Here's my video for the day showing the two funnels and a timelapse:
I punched back south through the rapidly intensifying new precip core, luckily only encountering dime size hail, as it merged with the storm to my north. MCS formation was already underway. As I made my way to the southwest flank of the storm it began to drop funnel clouds. As new updrafts fed into the storm complex they would acquire mesocyclones, only to soon be cut of by outflow winds with the process repeating itself a few miles south each time. I caught two of the funnels on video with the first being observed to briefly touchdown, from my vantage point in the precip I could not see if it was an actual tornado or not. Unfortunately at this point my vehicles traction control went out and I had three lights and an alarm flashing at me so I decided it would be best to not push my luck and retreat back home, turns out my front-left wheel bearing was bad. Still a great day and my local chase season has been an absolute success with six tornadoes and two additional funnel clouds observed in the last month.
Here's my video for the day showing the two funnels and a timelapse:
