5/28/07 REPORTS: SD/ND

[Bill Hark]

I am currently at a Super 8 hotel in north Sioux City, SD. I started in Pierre SD, traveled to the Jamestown area of North Dakota. I initially waited for storms to form in Gackle, ND then shifted northward after a tornado watch was issued. I found some isolated storm development late in the evening and followed the storms to an area between Devil's Lake and Grand Forks, ND. The storms never really got their act together. It was a total bust.

Bill Hark

 

[Aaron Kennedy]

Bustola in NE ND. Waited around in Grand Forks until 4pm or so then headed out with the wife and 5 other grad students. We ventured only 40 miles or so west before initiation occured NE of the surface low, a few miles to our north. A mushy pile of cu took the form of some high-based multicellular junk. This mass of cloud moved quickly to the NE and we followed it to Grafton. Considering it was nearing the border of Canada and still lacked a low base and organization, we waited around to see what a new cell due west of us would do. Of course, this cell promptly evaporated as the first patch of storms conglomerated into one solid core. Around this time, the storm (now well to our NE) had a so-so looking updraft with a bit of a back-sheared anvil. This storm apparently produced a tornado. Doh! We chased after the cell in a last-ditch effort to at least get some sunset pictures, but midlevel clouds spoiled the table scraps. While driving home, storms formed once again near the sfc low ~30mi to our west. In a final act of kindness, mother nature provided us with a tower that resembled a one-fingered salute.

Saving grace for this chase was its relative shortness. Something I will always welcome these days.

Aaron

 

[Josh Boustead]

We drove up into southern North Dakota by late afternoon from northeast CO, but realized we unable to make it into northeast North Dakota near the warm front and the cumulus along the cold front looked very flat. So we decided to bag it for the day and head back to Valentine, NE for the night to set up for Tuesday in eastern Colorado. As we approached Pierre, SD a tornado warning was issued for an isolated cell in Meade County South Dakota. Although daylight was limited, decided to head west on South Dakota Highway 34 to intercept the cell. We arrived in southeast Meade County just before dark to see a pretty nice supercell. Great structure, with a nice corkscrew updraft and several inflow bands from the east and southeast. Never produced a tornado that we saw, but did have a well-defined wall cloud for a while, along with some great lightning! We let the supercell pass just to our north about 30 miles north of Phillip, SD where we got into the RFD with winds around 30 to 40 mph, and some dime size hail. Will post some pictures later as time allows.

Sorry about the blurriness of the pictures. The Pictures were taken with a digital camera without a tripod at dusk. Hopefully the 35 mm pictures will come out better.

 

[Justin Turcotte]

As Aaron stated, nothing much in the Minto-Grafton, ND vicinity. I was out of town for the weekend and told the other mets there would be chasing on one of the days during the extended weekend since tornadoes have always formed when I'm gone. I even said, when in doubt go to Hallock, MN (Kittson County) which is the Red River Valley's version of Thayer Co, NE (among other hot spots). Something like 8 of the last 10 years have produced tornadoes in and around Hallock. I poured through all the real and model data before leaving MSP to head back home near the area of interest and was quite excited. I was dumbfounded when there was no sign of convection by the time I made it to Fargo. When I was about 20 miles north of Fargo I could see the the Kittson county storm. Another 30 miles up the freeway and I could see the backsheared anvil and immediately told my wife, "missed another one while on vacation". Thinking all is not lost when I made it home some 20 minutes later I pull up the radar and see a cell firing up west of town and moving northeast. Since the cell was on the edge of the shear zone I figured it had a chance. I took the U.S. 81 northwest toward the Minto area to intercept it. When I got there I was unimpressed. It did give me a chance to test some settings on my cheap digicam while getting burried by mosquitos. If you come chasing in the eastern Dakotas be sure to have a barrel of insect repellent. The 35 mile drive back home led to a massive accumulation of bug splatter on the car and that was probably the highlight of the brief chase.

 

[Stuart Robinson]

Target was Bismarck, ND area. Drove east to Jamestown, ND to keep ahead of the front. Many parameters sure looked good on paper but the cap was too strong. All we saw was puff mush. Decided to abort around 6 PM, just after T-box was issued to get in position for Tuesday. TM

 

[Johnathan Brouwer]

Although INCASE was poised north the whole day, things just didn't work out. A beautiful day and part of the country. AND, we met some other nice chasers!
We also picked up a some new t-shirts that say "I hate the cap!"

Regards, Johnathan Brouwer and Clay Stahlka

 

[Scott Weberpal]

Left Wisconsin 10 PM Sunday night, met some folks in Chicago, picked up another in Iowa, and made it to the area around Grafton, ND by 5 PM. Watched initial soft convection develop and move northeast toward Canada. Being the only development at the time, decided to follow it north. Much to our amazement, a tornado warning was issued for a storm which showed little to no organization in the low-levels, and was relatively high-based. After hearing of a tornado 5N Hallock, MN (exactly where we were when it was reported...there was nothing even close to tornadic from our vantage point), we decided to look for the trees down and damaged camper that were in the intial SPC report. Found a few small trees down and a camper which was pushed off a couple jacks. Nothing a small downburst couldn't have done. After reading the public statement from Grand Forks this morning, I'm fairly convince these were the same trees and camper listed in the LSR. Given the lack of organization, zero low-level rotation, and relative high base, and our visual very near where the tornado was reported, I'm 99% certain there was no tornado north of Hallock.

Ran into ROTATE in Grafton later in the evening and ended the night in Grand Forks. Dave Hoadley happened to be at our hotel and his rental car happened to have 2 bad tires so we offered him a ride to dinner. From what I remember during our chat, Dave said he wasn't too far from Hallock either, and was also skeptical of the Hallock tornado report.

Sent an e-mail to Grand Forks this morning. Sounds like they've already given the imagine-nado an F0 rating...didn't even use the EF scale

EDIT: Received an e-mail back from FGF, and it sounds like they are in agreement that it was more likely downburst winds. Apparantly the woman who called the report into the sherriffs office saw a "small white tail" to the northeast after the strong winds. Given the position of the storm at the time, it seems likely she was looking at a sunlit hailshaft...the same theory I got in the response from FGF.

 

[Paul Knightley]

We headed north from Pierre - spent a couple of hours at Selby, SD, and then continued north into southern ND (at least it was another new state for us Brits!). After a while, and knowing we have to be in DFW on Wed, we gave up, and headed south to Winner, SD, for the night. Busted out, but we've had a great 2 weeks or so over here, so thanks for the hospitality, and it was great to chat to some of you (even if I didn't catch your names on the road!).

Paul.

 

[David Hoadley]

Monday was a 570 mile chase from Pierre, SD to Lancaster, MN. My morning surface-based forecast favored central SD, but chase friends said it would be capped, so I joined their caravan on the long trek north. When the 3:17 MD saw a better chance west of Jamestown for "boundary layer based convection," we stopped east of Devils Lake to reassess. Some were undecided about where to go next, so I broke away and dropped 30 miles south to look back west. However, that area looked mushy and linear and, moreover, strong surface winds were now turning from the SSW. I drove east, looking north and south, and then heard Tornado Watch #303.

That detour did get me into the clear air, where I could see the entire convective line from the south. I drove north from Grand Forks, turned east into Minnesota, and then north to just east of Hallock and the southernmost cell. The base was clearly visible the entire time.

It initially produced a small, flat lowering south of the rain core, which then lifted. Then the rain band seemed to grow smaller, as fractus formed beneath. One large scud pocket and several smaller tags developed and rose but never reached the base. Several weak cloud tracks converged from the SE-S. With a clear view from 5 miles SE, I never saw any condensation tube, significant lowering, or dust/dirt rotation on the ground. However, the condensation beneath cloud-base was turbulent. At the time of the second tornado report (7:25), one very thin, ropy condensation column briefly formed mid-way to cloud base and moved rapidly upward. I assumed that was when ground damage occurred. However, no pictures or video were taken, since it never looked that impressive.

I passed one chase van with Scott Weberpal and others, while driving back west and down to Hallock but saw no damage. Despite the "tree was twisted" report, I am reluctantly inclined to agree with Scott that this was a localized downburst. At least, we were on the only tornado warned storm.

While stopped east of Hallock, my eye caught a silver/metallic reflection from the left front tire. A half inch of steel cord was sticking out, completely around both outside tread bands on one tire and the outside band on the other! I had been chasing the last hour on steel --and was lucky to be alive (didn’t blow at 75MPH on the Interstate)!! Returning south, 25 miles from Grand Forks, the left tire went flat. I got out and was promptly attacked by a swarm of mosquitoes. Fortunately, years of chasing had placed spray repellant in my tool box. After a generous application, the tire was changed --and no bites. I limped into town on the other steel rimmed tread and stayed overnight at a Super 8. The next morning, the airport rental agent courteously provided another car, and I drove home. However, I did take several pictures of the two front tires, with license plate clearly visible, next to a copy of the local newspaper. If they ever give me any future problem, I will remind how they put my life at risk, and we will come to an accommodation.

 

[Alex Fisher]

Forgot to add my chase report/photos from a while ago.
They can be found here.
http://flickr.com/photos/49122322@N00/sets/72157600354772301/