Justin Turcotte
EF5
Currently only one car between the wife and I and she had it until 5pm but opted to chit-chat with the daycare provider for an additional 20 minutes while I'm seeing all the pretty red and magenta blobs on radar. She gets home and I give a 10 minute "how was your day" and then took off. I knew I should have filled up the car the day before but this ultimately ended up going in my favor. I headed south on I-29 toward Hillsboro after getting some gas hoping to catch what was a decent looking supercell on radar at the time I left the house. As I was heading south I noticed a very nice cell to the northwest and figured it would be a nice plan B. The storm I was after began to weaken considerably as I approached so I swung back north for plan B. The radio mentioned a tornado warning for Walsh county and I'm thinking two things; an ultimate waste of 80 miles and why didn't I stay with the northern option (seems like the northern option is most often the best around here). The NWR was blurting out ETA times so I knew I could get to my favorite overpass and enjoy whatever crossed the freeway. The storm had very visible low-level rotation along with a nice cut and produced a few funnel looking features but otherwise failed to produce during the time I viewed it. The storm fell apart very fast as it moved into more stable air in Minnesota. There was a tor report from the cell about 20-25 miles w/nw of my vantage point about 40 minutes before I was on the cell. Had my gas tank been filled the previous evening I would have been 10 miles further down the freeway before turning around and would have missed the mini show.
RFD cut and what may be a nub funnel on the north flank.
Looking straight north down I-29 some 25 miles north of Grand Forks. Some of the best rotation I've seen in a while but no tornado. I was standing on a middle-of-nowhere overpass above I-29 a couple miles north of the exit to Oslo, MN. The bridge is probably used less than two dozen times a day. Note how flat the terrain is. Red River Valley chasing is awesome when storms come through but this year they have been far and few between.
RFD cut and what may be a nub funnel on the north flank.
Looking straight north down I-29 some 25 miles north of Grand Forks. Some of the best rotation I've seen in a while but no tornado. I was standing on a middle-of-nowhere overpass above I-29 a couple miles north of the exit to Oslo, MN. The bridge is probably used less than two dozen times a day. Note how flat the terrain is. Red River Valley chasing is awesome when storms come through but this year they have been far and few between.
