8/10/07 REPORTS: ND / SD / NE

[Zach Chappell]

WOW what a day started out calm and ended wild we had not verified 5-8 tornado's on the ground in NC SD with 4 verified I was in the wrong spot at the wrong time i did get a good wall cloud pic though and Much thanks to KXMB in Bismarck for providing updates and for Coverage on TV also i would like to Thank KSFY for there Coverage on it in sioux falls.

 

[Bill Doms]

Nucking futs...that is all I'm going to say. Stopped to do a splash and dash in Hoven SD at the gas station no pay at the pump so had to run inside to pay. Came out to a tornado basically just outside of town to the west coming at us. Just stood there for what felt like 10 seconds before I grabbed the VX off the dash. People who worked in the station were pretty exicited as well as Cullen, Dave Drufke and his girlfriend Kristen. It was very weak but still one heck of a rush. Time was 9:30.

Raw video clip:
http://www.mnwxchaser.com/video/070810hovensdtornado.wmv

Video grabs.

Oh yeah, we saw another tornado SW of Hauge ND eariler. I'll get video of that one up also this weekend.

 

[Kory Hartman]

Possible Season-Ending Chase Recap

Recap and blog at our website.
www.SevereStudios.com
End-of-chase Video Blog now posted

Storm initiation was further north and west than expected. However, we had forecast a change in our target to Mobridge after seeing mid- to upper-60's dew points in northcentral SD at 5 PM. We busted out of Aberdeen, SD on Highway 12 at 5:10 PM and arrived at Ashley, ND just as the cell in Emmons County, ND went tornadic.

At one point, we could see three separate supercells in a 50 mile area with multiple lowerings, wall clouds, and even a tornado near Hague, ND. Traveling down gravel roads, we observed multiple funnels, but could never get close enough to get decent video. Meanwhile, our live ChaseCam stream was up and down due to network connectivity issues. We felt horrible that we were letting our viewers down. Not to mention the NWS was trying to watch the feed to confirm our reports.

We turned south towards Pollock and headed back into SD on gravel roads. Looking to our SW towards Mobridge, we observed a stovepipe tornado. We have video that needs to be cleaned up. It was backlight by the sun for some time, but contrast and visibility were poor due to the numerous lightning-induced grass fires.

As we arrived in Pollock, SD, one of the supercells came right over the top of the city, rotating vigorously. We had 50-60 mile per hour winds, hail, funnel cloud, and sheets of rain. We had no cell service, but pulled enough data signal on the video computer to send a Spotter Network report electronically. Sirens blared in Pollock and we followed fire trucks out of town. We passed a huge grassfire five miles south of Pollock.

North of Glenham, SD, we reported another large grass fire to the local authorities through 911. This is when we had another tornado near Mobridge with a funnel that came 2/3 of the way to the ground with rotating debris at the ground. The funnel was a slender cone with a slight curve.

To our surprise, our car's "Check Engine" light came on, followed shortly by the battery light. The air conditioner died and we started losing power. We went to Selby, SD to get out of the hail and wind core that was punishing Mobridge and Glenham. We pulled over south of Selby to shoot the large lowering structure that produced a few wall clouds and funnels. At this time, a well defined hook was forming on radar. Shear markers were almost perfectly placed on GRLevel3. Everything looked good, but no tornado.

As we went to reposition, we found the car would not start. After looking under the hood, we determined that the AC compressor hard locked and snapped the serpentine belt. We were dead in the water with this large supercell closing in. We had no power left, little battery on the laptop for data support, and horrible cell service. We made one website post before everything died.

For more... see our site.

 

[Colin Davis]

Will make this short as I am still running on 7 hours of sleep since Wednesday. I'm sure Scott can elaborate more (and correct me on some of the descriptions/times), but I'll give you what I can remember.

Scott Kampas and I witnessed the purely sculpted LP/Classic hybrid in Emmons County, ND (which was, by far, the most beautiful storm I've seen)...and may have witnessed the Hague tornado (still trying to gather information on location and time from radar, GPS, and other chaser reports), but we did, from approximately 20 miles away, see a tapered cone that looked about 2/3 of the way to the ground. We also witnessed a multiple landspout event, a wet microburst from a couple miles away, an intense gustnado, and beautiful structure -- both supercellular and outflow -- from this cell.

The second cell in northern SD exhibited several wall clouds, including one near tornadogenesis just south of Selby as it interacted with the outflow dropping in from the north. We also may have witnessed Bill's tornado from a few miles west of Hoven. Our contrast was much worse looking east, but we had seen a large ghostly white cone of similar shape amongst the rain a little to the NW of Hoven. Originally we wrote it off as an optical illusion, but it looks like we'll have to re-examine.

Photos to come soon...first time chasing in ND, and I was completely flabbergasted.

 

[Bill Doms]

At one point, we could see three separate supercells in a 50 mile area with multiple lowerings, wall clouds, and even a tornado near Hauge, ND.

Here are some MAJOR crops from Hauge ND looking SW. As visible as everything was and given the down sloping terrain looking over the Missouri River to the west. This was likely the Mobridge/Timber Lake tornado. If this is that torn, it is a first for me in terms od be so far away from a torn and still being able to see it. According to the LAT/LON on the LSR and my GPS coordinates at the time, it would have been 52 miles off to the SW.

http://www.mnwxchaser.com/07august10.html