7/11/08 REPORTS: MN

[Tony Perkins]

Saw a great mammatus show at the end of an otherwise non spectacular chase.

Full chase log and some lapse video here

I can't remember the name of these perspective rays where the light is actually behind you, but the rainbow was only visible in the rays. Very cool.

 

[kenny_allen]

Willmar, MN Tornado - July 11th, 2008

Kenny Allen and Kory Hartman captured video of the Willmar, MN tornado on July 11th, 2008. The tornado was on the ground for about 15 minutes. It caused damage to homes, barns, and a turkey farm.

We left Clear Lake, SD at about 4 PM and followed towering cumulus for about 2 hours before this particular storm got interesting. Multiple walls/funnels before this tornado happened.

We currently have a 3 minute flash video up of the tornado. We are working on adding the damage video.

See our site, www.SevereStudios.com for the video clips.

(By the way - It was great to see many of our friends out and about tonight!)


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Update:
Damage video is up at our site. We have a lot more video, but edited up a small piece so everyone could see something. As we were leaving Willmar, MN this morning we saw a lot more damage. We think the tornado started around Priam, MN from the damage path we saw, may have lifted temporarily,then formed again. We are looking forward to seeing the NWS rating on this storm.

 

[Aaron Kennedy]

World's shortest/quickest chase. Got out of a research meeting as towers were busting the cap just east of Grand Forks. Raced home, grabbed the cameras, and took the neighborhood shortcut past a pesky stoplight.

This time, the shortcut cost me the chase.

Dang.

 

[John Wetter]

I chased up further north than the willmar stuff as I really didn't think tornadoes would happen that far south today.

Got a few nice wall clouds, and did get this shot of the one near Staples:

Was talking to the NWS making sure they knew what was happening the whole time. Then, I dropped down on the line and caught the TOR warned storms in Wright county where it produced a great rotating wall cloud that got wrapped in rain. That must have taken care of it as I didn't hear any tornado reports on it. Then, in Orono, I got a nice lightning show and got this shot:

Thanks to all the chasers who were reporting to MPX! Sounds like they had a good flow of information on the storms most of the time.

-John

 

[Simon Brewer]

Justin Drake and I just got back home; we witnessed a rain-wrapped tornado somewhere in the vicinity of Staples/Aldrich/Verndale... Sorry, but at this time I just can't remember the exact location of the tornado (no sleep, just hauled it to Norman after the chase was over), but it was definitely a tornado! We watched a nice little wallcloud pass northeast of Wadena, so we started moving ESE along SR10 to find a road south to the Almora cell. We were driving pretty slow and let the rain overtake us somewhere in the vicinity of Staples/Aldrich/Verndale and then we were able to get a good view of a stovepipe/cone tornado wrapped in a heavy rain shield just north of SR10, but south of the old wall cloud we witnessed near Wadena, MN.

I'll try to post more later on this tornado, but I can't make any promisses...

Simon

 

[Bill Doms]

EDIT: Added full chase account HERE

Here is the weak Frazee, MN tornado. Got very lucky to have roads which flanked the cell *pretty* well and got some gaps in the trees when I needed them. The RFD occlusion was spectacular with beautiful cascading motion. Will have more later once I get the stills cleaned up.