6/26/2005 REPORTS: Northern Plains

[Justin Turcotte]

Surely someone else om ST was on the Aberdeen cell. I must have saw over a hundred other chasers out there. While I don't belive I bagged a tor, this was a wildly fun storm to be on. It was fun watching it go through a cycle and then have to reposition to avoid the green death. I got on the cell about an hour after it fired. A good 400 miles, one winding funnel, several meso cycles, and other fun stuff. I'll try and get a page up with a more detailed summary in the next couple days.

 

[Kurt Hulst]

I saw for sure one tornado and lots of half way to the ground funnels. The tornado was breif and i think no one reported it as to the reason why it wasnt in the LSR. I had another breif tornado just after a large RFD plum of dust scoured the earth. Lots of 1 stroke cannon lightning. makes your butt pucker when it strikes with in a few hundred yards. I had a lot of rope funnels as well. Lots of Pheasents. Stupidest birds in the world. I killed a bunny im sorry little dude.

I wound up meeting up with Mike H a couple times and some how we kept meeting. And to end the chase with Scott Olson. Whose Truck i pushed into the gas station this evening. Wow am i outta shape. Then i get to Watertown for the night and there's Scott Blair, Scott Currens, and Eric Nyguen.

Ill get some vid grabs later this week more likly after tuesday.

 

[Mikey Gribble]

I was on the Aberdeen cell also. I got one brief tornado(not reported) and numerous funnels. I was questioning whether or not there was a brief spinup during the same time as there was the dust wall the RFD kicked up. If you got any video or pictures of this Justin I would like to see a picture. I will check my video once I get home. I am at a hotel now and the 2 inch screen on my video camera isn't big enough for me to review video closely.
I got on the storm shortly after it went up. Here is a picture of the updraft as I approached from the West.

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The storm took a little while to get organized, but after the tornado warning was issued, it started to develop a nice wall cloud. Here is the only picture I took (other than the updraft) with my digital camera. I don't know what time this was at.

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The storm seemed to loose its intensity for a little while during the middle of its life. This lasted for about 30 minutes to the best of my recollection. I don't know what the deal was. Anyways, it started to exhibit good structure after this short break and developed a nice wall cloud with strong rotation. I was about 2 miles West of the meso when a funnel made it about half way to the ground. This was at 8:25. I didn't have my camera out so I don't have a picture of this funnel. A few minutes after this is when the tornado touched down. This first picture is of the funnel when it peaked out from the wall cloud.

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Here is a video grab from a few seconds later when you could see the dust getting picked up at the surface.

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I am not surprised this tornado didn't get reported. The roads weren't very good and I didn't see any chasers during this time. You would have had to of been quite close(a couple miles) to be able to see the brief rotation at the surface and given the road networks I doubt many were able to see it. There was another good funnel a couple of minutes later. The time of this funnel was 8:32. I am going to save my tornado video to the web and contact NWS if they don't have a tornado report up by tomorrow.

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It was a decent chase day. I was expecting better/more tornadoes, but I am happy with the one weak tornado I got. It was tough avoiding the wildlife today. I almost hit several pheasants, a deer, and a turkey. After busting yesterday in Montana I feel like I have partially redeemed myself. Hopefully Tuesday will bring more tornadoes. I am probably going to take it easy tomorrow and charge batteries. I might chase if it looks like there is some tornado potential, but going off of the glimpse I got of the 00Z NAM I don't see much in the way of tornadoes tomorrow. I might have gotten a second tornado today if there was in fact a spinup when the RFD threw up the large dust wave. I was a few miles away and driving at the time and the dust was obscuring my view so I really have no idea what I was looking at. I do know that the wall cloud was very close to the ground if it didn't produce. Hopefully someone else can shed some light on this. Congratulations to everyone else who got the tornado today.

 

[Kurt Hulst]

That Second possible tornado that was struggeling to get to the ground Was 3/4 of the way down if not more. After review i caught the last 3/4 where it was higher above the ground. There was a tree line in the way so I couldn't see and spin up on the ground. But im betting it had contact. But this second nader was north of that massive Dust plum I raced ahead of the plum so i didnt get hit with dust so that's the only way I saw this. Roger Hill was on the north side of this plum as well but was stationary and farther south when this second tornado occured. Anyway it was quickly undercut and died.

 

[Kurt Hulst]

here are some quick vid grabs so the quality isnt the greatest.



Breif tornado one:

RFD DUST PLUM

Tornado 2 now looking at it again i have no doubt this was on the ground.

 

[Scott Olson]

A fun day indeed. Got on the Aberdeen cell and it was a beautiful omnious cell. Saw a strongly rotating lowering and several attempts at tornadogenesis. I did not however ever observe ground circulation as others have indicated. Not saying there wasn't a tornado but im just not sure. Beautiful RFD plume was a great picture. Followed the cell back to Heckta, SD where it again had a nice rotating wall cloud and looked like it was going to drop a tornado. Then followed through the back of the cell into ND and once again observed strong rotation. Got some great footage and some great pictures.

Meet up with Kurt at a gas station in Forman and we flanked what was left of the cell for some lightning pictures. The CG lightning all day was like driving through a warzone some very very close strikes like getting punched in the stomach. We decided to caravan home and I ran out of gas like 100 feet from a gas station so Kurt pushed (thanks) and all in all not a bad chase day. I will review footage to see if I can find any further evidence of a tornado.

-ScottO

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

NW of Aberdeen looking sw.

Around Helca SD I think. Right on the ND border. It was rather wound up at that point, and this was after it was complete crap. It emerged from the crap it went through and was a nice supercell again. It is usually wise not to leave a storm if the environment around it is still good and it is on a boundary, just because it is dealing with convective garbage. Quite often it will come out of it.

This was the norm of the day...a billion damn mosquitoes. The second I pulled over this was always the scene. I've never seen anything quite like that and never been quite that annoyed on a chase.

http://www.extremeinstability.com/05-6-26.htm

More images there.