6/25/10 DISC: IA/MN/IL/WI/SD/ND/NE

[Danny Neal]

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/news/display_cmsstory.php?wfo=fsd&storyid=54208&source=0

Tornado that hit near Sibley, IA last night was rated an EF-4. Tail end charlie supercell that developed in SW MN and moved S into N IA. I believe Gabrielson got this tornado.

 

[Jayson Prentice]

A more extensive report has been made available online from the Sioux Falls NWS. I also have wrote a brief summary of the events on my blog:


http://severeplains.com/blog/?p=988

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/fsd/?n=news_tor062510

 

[Andy Jackson]

I noticed a lot of people parking under overpasses in Minnesota as the line of storms made it's progression south north of the I-90. I don't really blame them to want to do that especially when an ominous line of storms is bearing down on them. I think the whole line had tornado warnings on it at the time so really it was a catch 22 for anyone that needed to drive north to get home etc... The only option that probably was a better choice was for a person to drive to the closest town and seek shelter. I let the line overtake me around Fairmont, MN where I was treated with 60-70mph winds, funnels, and a possible brief tornado.

 

[AndyGabrielson]

We were able to capture this incredible sight, it was breath taking as the lightning lit up what appeared to be a snaking elephant trunk tornado near Sibley, IA. I had a bad feeling injuries had occured on HWY 60 as we were about 3 miles from the tornado, we were right on it's tracks and ended up getting on highway 60 and saw cars that had been tossed around. My SN kept saying I was having an error, it finally gave me the ol' data updated succesfully south of Sibley and my first move was to report the cars and the tornado (which we watched lift and made note of that). I saw emergency personel on the way and we decided at that point we needed to stay with the storm for more reasons than seeing a tornado. We ended up tracking the storm to the south, passed through what was the old couplet and noticed a new hook forming to our west, we surged on through the rain and ended up coming out and seeing an incredible supercell... we closed in on the area of rotation and ended up getting within about 3 miles of this one as well, reported this one at the first sight of it as it was a large tornado, we watched it for about 5 minutes before it got wrapped in the rain, we then caught a glimpse of it or another tornado near Germantown IA about a half hour later, that appeared to be an extremely large cone burried in the rain. The destruction we encountered heading back home along HWY 9 immediately made me realize the severity of the storms we tracked that night and that this was definately on the high end of the EF scale... This tornado hasn't gotten much attention or discussion really, which I am surprised by, either way, it was lucky there wasn't any fatalities...

Here is the 4 different "looks" we saw of the Sibley, IA Tornado... for more my video link is in the reports for this day.

 

[Derek Weston]

Had called it a night and were heading towards Sioux Falls when this thing really took off -- simply didn't pay attention to the radar for a bit, and missed it.

A person that didn't miss this storm was my brother, who had a wedding to attend in Sibley Iowa.

Get a call from him while in Sioux Falls stating that sirens are going off in his town. Check the radar... sure enough, nice hook, and heading what looked to be west of Sibley Iowa. Told him if he takes a peak west and north, he should be able to see it. Sure enough... few minutes later he calls telling me he's got a tornado in between lightning flashes. Doesn't think it looks too big. (turns out this was only because it was partially rain wrapped -- I saw the video and he had a good sized tornado) Bails on it as it seems to be moving towards him and heads back to the hotel only a few blocks back east.

The tornado just barely missed his location. In retrospect, feel a bit stupid suggesting he take a peak at the storm -- hadn't had radar up long, didn't know he'd be looking at a tornado as it was or neared EF4 strength. At least he knew not to try anything if he couldn't see it.

Later on, after the storm had cleared them... he went out again. Another tornado snaking its way SE away from them. They could see clear skies and stars... with a lightning lit tornado. Amazing sight I'm told.

I'll get some video captures from him soon, hopefully he'll get the video up sometime here.

Along with Andy... the only person I know that has captured good footage of it. (and perhaps the only footage of what would seem to be the EF4 strength phase -- though I need to figure out his exact time of video capture)

 

[Rean Clover]

[SIZE=-1]Amazing that no one was killed.

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/fsd/?n=tor2010jun25

We drove out by the places today, looks like a bomb went off.
[/SIZE]

 

[Jon Davies]

EF4 tornadoes are pretty rare after dark in the Plains, so I posted a quick look at the supporting environment last Friday night in northwest Iowa on my blog at:

http://davieswx.blogspot.com

The setting fits what Andy Fischer and I wrote about nighttime tornado environments in 2009 at:

http://www.nwas.org/ej/2009-EJ3/


Jon Davies

 

[Nathan Edwards]

I see 8 of the 12 injuries were from motorists stopping beneath an overpass. How no one was killed is beyond me given the state of the cars thrown around... You'd hope people would have gotten the message by now...

 

[Nick Nolte]

I see 8 of the 12 injuries were from motorists stopping beneath an overpass. How no one was killed is beyond me given the state of the cars thrown around... You'd hope people would have gotten the message by now...

I finally got around to looking at the damage survey...holy crap. If those three cars aren't the poster children for why you don't take shelter under an overpass, I don't know what is. I mean, if the tornado damage path was 1/2 mile wide, they were right on the outer edge of circulation.

 

[STurner]

A more extensive report has been made available online from the Sioux Falls NWS. I also have wrote a brief summary of the events on my blog:


http://severeplains.com/blog/?p=988

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/fsd/?n=news_tor062510

The house that was almost entirely swept away looks like strong EF4 damage.

 

[Jayson Prentice]

Shane, it was rated as EF4 damage per the NWS survey. It is stated within both my blog post and the survey...

 

[STurner]

Shane, it was rated as EF4 damage per the NWS survey. It is stated within both my blog post and the survey...

Oh I know, I was just saying the damage to the home looks upper-end EF4(getting close to EF5).

 

[Dave Rennie]

I have nothing new to add, but am trying to learn how to embed images in posts rather than having them just show up as attachment links, so here goes:

This shot was from southern Minnesota, east of Alden, on 6/25/10.