5/28/06 REPORTS: NE / SD

[Brian A. Morganti]

Finally...a FUN chase and the most massive dusty outflow feature I have ever seen! Definitely a nice surprise...several photos and full summary here:

http://www.stormeffects.com/recent_events.htm

 

[Mike Umscheid]

Note to MOD: edit title as needed as this is a ND account.

Jay Antle, Stacie Hanes, and I.. along with my friends Rob Mitchell, Mitch Daszewski, and Jon Smith intercepted a brief, but fairly picturesque marginal LP supercell in far northeastern North Dakota on the 28th. We expected more than this, but at least it wasn't a monumental bust. An outflow boundary from early morning convection just north of the Canadian border was just too stable to the north of it... with a sharp baroclinic zone with temps to 68-70F and northeast winds due east of the storm when it was near Cando.

Mike U

 

[Paul Austin]

After driving straight from Jackson TN to Fargo ND for a marginal chase experience 5/27, we decided to skip the chase focus in favor of washing clothes and a trip to the Badlands. Were we in for a pleasant surprise. Two monstrous cells moved into the area out of NW Nebraska just prior to sunset. We basically allowed the cells to chase us eastward along I90 until they had passed to the north near Pierre. Though they each were often tornado-warned we observed no discernible rotation, but the vast and awe-inspiring structure...the most impressive shelf feature I have ever witnessed. We missed Brian's 'dust bowl', however. Pics to follow when I can think straight.

 

[Oscar van der Velde]

We started in Winner, South Dakota, and went up to the I-90. Got a Raider Burger and headed west. In Murdo we turned into the parking lot of a motel to check the internet. We read the Stormtrack forum and saw that Verne Carlson had written that he was in Murdo near a motel in the shade of a huge wooden billboard structure. We looked out of the window and well, it must be that red car, let's meet! After chatting we decided to go to the Badlands, hoping storms would fire up and have a special scenic foreground.

We had sunny skies there, almost called it a good bust day, and this wall of cirrus killed the best red sunset photography possibilities, but soon enough I realized this wasn't going to be a double bust at all - squall line!
One of my dreams, shooting lightning over this park, became reality! With still some daylight left, a picturesque shelf cloud approached with pink/orange patches of light flashing all over the cloud, sometimes CGs. An amazing sight! A bolt out of the anvil ahead of the shelf was caught on photo, I was already happy to see a bright branch of it in my photo, until I saw what Ben got!

We went out of the park onto the I-90, like Paul Austin, and got ourselves into a hail core **4 times**. The first one was worst and ear-deafening with 1-2 cm (around 0.5 inch) stones, the second one was a bit smaller hail but piled up like 5 cm deep. Eventually we got out 10 miles ahead of the squall line near Hwy 283. We ended the day again in the same motel in Winner, not full at all there. A wonderful day! I'll post some pictures later.

 

[Paul Austin]

We read the Stormtrack forum and saw that Verne Carlson had written that he was in Murdo near a motel in the shade of a huge wooden billboard structure. We looked out of the window and well, it must be that red car, let's meet! [/b]

We met Verne & son by chance as well at the same spot! So here are a few pics I managed to process (one is
"photochopped" for structure's sake). Some vidcaps may be added later.

Distant storm southwest of the Badlands

Sunset in the Badlands

My chase partners and I

Distant storm approaching Badlands

Being chased along I-90 by the two-headed beast

Fantastic monstrous structure - photo (and chop job) here does no justice.

 

[Oscar van der Velde]

As promised, some shelf cloud + lightning photos taken from the Badlands.

I just got the branch of a pre-shelf CG:

one of us got more of it using a wider angle: