2016-08-03 REPORTS: ND/SD/MN

[Scott Kapser]

Targeted northwest of Devil's Lake, ND for this event. HRRR showed Sig Tor's around 4-4.5 with some storms firing ahead of the cold front instead of right along it, this verified quite well. I did not have enough vacation time left to take the whole day off work so after a late start I arrived on the storm a little to late to catch the first large tornado except from a long distance with poor contrast. I saw at least three tornadoes, maybe four before the meso went HP and became totally rain wrapped. Here's the video:

 

[Quincy Vagell]

I started the day in Brandon, Manitoba and favored the southern target over North Dakota to avoid issues with cell/data coverage.

I blasted south in the morning, as my initial reaction was that it would be best to favor (prospects for) discrete activity in south-central/southeastern North Dakota. Despite a residual outflow boundary in the area during the morning and some CAM support, the threat clearly waned through the afternoon.

I sat in Jamestown for quite a while, often contemplating if I should blast north to the Bisbee area. Knowing I would likely not make it, I held on hope and when a few cells started going up down the line late in the afternoon, I blasted north.

Storms slowly organized better low-level rotation and I was directly underneath one storm that was producing intermittent, ragged funnel clouds over northern Eddy County. There were 2-3 competing updrafts, but suddenly rotation became more focused a tornado formed southwest of Warwick. I tracked this storm for about 20 minutes before it roped out. I had some decent footage early on in its cycle, particularly since I was far enough back to get the vivid structure that was being illuminated by sunset. (I saw the tornado form around 9:06 p.m., shortly before sunset)

The road network was iffy, with limited roads and muddy dirt that made navigation tricky. Nonetheless, I finally bagged both an August and North Dakota tornado for the first time in my chasing career, so it was a very successful chase, even though I didn't see much until after 8:30 p.m.

The tornado I saw was south of the Devil's Lake tornado and apparently hasn't been surveyed yet