Andy Hamm
Instead of a storm chase in the traditional sense, I was chased by several storms yesterday right to my golf course in Menomonie, WI! I wasn't planning on chasing yesterday and, since the shear was pretty minimal, I just headed out to the golf course to get a round of golf in before sunset. By the time I started the round, I could see a beautiful anvil to my west, and by the time I got to the second hole and was thinking about heading back home (no lightning or thunder yet), large hail started coming down, with most stones measuring 1.25 inches. Needless to say, I rushed off the course while getting pelted by the hail, which quickly completely covered the ground. After getting safely to the clubhouse, the main downdraft hit, and there was considerable wind damage around the course, with numerous limbs downed. Sorry that I don't have any pictures, but I went to the golf course to golf, not chase! This day easily provided the best views of severe storms for me this year (yeah, this year has not been good for chasing up here either) and it was just fascinating. Most of the storms were multicelluar, but there were a few embedded weak supercells. Overall, the storms were far stronger than anticipated and there were quite a few power outages in the area last night (including my neighborhood).
