October 10th, 2013 - Valley City to Cooperstown Chase

When you wake up on October 10th and see this as your homepage, you know it's going to be a good day.

After some quick work at the day job, I ran back to the station, discussed things with the rest of the awesome VNL StormTeam, Lisa and I piled into the chase vehicle, and off we went towards Valley City.  I wish I would have saved some of the data from Friday, but alas, I didn't.  There was going to be some very strong shear, but not much for instability.  As a wise meteorologist once told me "Eric, shear can overcome almost anything...don't discount a day just because you don't have much for instability."  This meant the chase was on!

Because we were going to be dealing with low-topped supercells, it was going to be very hard for us to depict anything on radar.  The area we were targeting, the radar beam was going to be fairly high up, which would make it difficult to see any sort of rotation on radar.  Thus, our eyes would be the best thing today to look at storms.

Just outside of Valley City, we were able to get on some storms.  When the first cell came through, Lisa and I could see the wall of rain and wind coming at us.  It was quite the sight to see as you could just see the rain curtains wrapping around the storm as the shelf got closer.  Once it got to us, it dropped some pea size hail and that was about it.

After we let the storm pass us by, we dipped a little south to try to see things on the back side of the storm.  Since it was a tricky day to see the action area of the storm, we had to take some chances with it.  On the back side though, we were treated with quite the view!

Lots of low hanging scud.  Great to fool people on what is a tornado or not!

After watching this line of a few minutes, Lisa and I went further south, as the low was moving to the northeast, there was another line of storms starting to form, and we wanted to pay close attention to these storms as they would be close to the low and have some additional potential. We got quite the treat!

Nice looking scud!

Not much going on here....

We watched and waiting a little, and then we were treated to this:

Good scud action under this storm!  Great Skywarn training material from today!

Not too bad!

Not long thereafter, the storm really fell apart, and we saw another cell starting to take over.  We then went north and while on our way north, we could tell the storm was starting to get a little more structure to it.

After we got further north, I took out a different lens for my camera and captured this beauty: 

Near Rogers, ND we stopped on a hill just to look at the storm a little more.

Lisa also happened to hop out of the truck and we can tell she is always hard at work scanning the skies! 

Lisa, ever vigilant! 

Just north of Rogers, it tried again to get something going, and it did drop a funnel for a very short period of time (of course while I was looking the other way!) and by the time I looked back, there wasn't much left.

Lisa was able to capture one little glimpse of it, so head on over to her twitter feed for the photo.

Overall, a very pleasant chase, and we were able to be home at a reasonable hour since the next day I had some day job stuff to take care of.

Now, it's time to start thinking about snow!  Not really what I am looking forward to, but winter helps me to appreciate the storms and our summers in the valley.  With my day job, I often times talk to people in the southern part of the US, and they ask me how can I live up in North Dakota with the cold winters.  My reply: Come check us out in the summer.  It makes it all worth it!  

August 31st - Fun in Lakes Country, MN!

Saturday morning originally I was planning on going to the lakes and doing some relaxing in my boat.  Instead, when I woke up I found this waiting for me.

5%?  2013?  Yeah, I'll take that!

Thank you SPC!  Yeah, I ended up not going to the lakes on Saturday.  Instead, I went to the Red River Zoo, checked out the camels and prairie dogs. 

Hey MikeMikeMikeMikeMike!  Guess what day it is?  IT'S A CHASE DAY!

After looking at models and placing a phone call to VNL's own Robert Hahn asking if he wants to tag along (I told him I'd have the OU game on in the car on XM)  we set off on a little jaunt.

South of Barnesville, just across the Wilkin county line we came across this little storm: 

We could tell it was trying to do a 'something'.  

We hung around and waiting for a few more minutes.  What we loved was there was almost continuous thunder around us.  What we didn't like was the number of CG's popping on this thing.  Made us a little nervous being almost the tallest object around.  

As we kept waiting, it got even more interesting.  Too bad it was undercut as hell and going all shelfy on us. 

After this, we needed to get east, which caused us to detour to Fergus Falls.  Just east of Fergus Falls, we came to Wall Lake, which is where we saw quite a bit of damage. 

A homeowner was nice enough to let us see the outside of her house which had some siding ripped off and her shingles lifted and some ended up on the other side of the road.  We also came across a number of downed trees and branches, and even a fishouse which ended up in many pieces.  Pretty strong winds to do that.  We did stop and talk to some folks who were there when the storm hit, and they reported the winds were switching directions - one second out of the east, next it was out of the west.  One thing which stood out to me was the fact the lake and all of these homes were almost at the bottom of a hill steep hill.  It made me wonder if this hill had something to do with the effects of the wind (land propagation I believe is the correct term - someone correct me in the comments if I am wrong.) and the damage it caused.  It made for a good discussion at dinner.  

At the end of the night, Robert and I went to the Applebee's in Fergus for an after chase meal.  On our way back to the station so we could get video ready for VNL 10@10, we were treated with a beautiful sunset with a shot of a storm just north of Detroit Lakes. 

As for SPC reports, there were quite a few!  

One lone tornado report up near Pembina.  Pretty interesting!  

I had one report in there from the damage near Wall Lake. 

0440 PM TSTM WND DMG UNDERWOOD 46.29N 95.87W
08/31/2013 OTTER TAIL MN STORM CHASER
TREES BLOWN DOWN AND TWISTED OFF. SEVERAL SMALL SHEDS OR
FISH HOUSES BLOWN OVER AND AT LEAST ONE HEAVILY DAMAGED
BETWEEN WALL LAKE AND BASS LAKE AREAS.

HI ROBERT!

Hopefully this is not the end of the summer severe weather season!  I'd hate to end the year like this.  I know though with each passing day, the chances of seeing more tornadoes drops.  Now, with school back in session it is time to start thinking about the next season....winter!  It's kind of a sad summer when I am still waiting for my tomatoes in my garden to ripen.  Hopefully they do, because if I get a good crop (and I should!) it's salsa making time with a little ghost pepper!  

McHenry County Tornado Warned Storm - 7-21-13

So yesterday morning I woke up, saw there was a 5% tor risk out for parts of ND.  As of late there really has not been much of anything to chase, and I've been getting rather bored.  After looking at the HRRR and the 4km WRF, I called up Bill Doms, who confirmed that if I wanted to see anything I would be most likely paying the Minot region a visit.

Shortly after I left home, I saw this:

And the text of it included these words:

     "ISOLATED TORNADOES ALSO CANNOT BE RULED OUT...ESPECIALLY OVER THE NRN HALF OF

   ND WHERE HIGHER DEWPOINTS AND LOWER LCLS ARE MORE LIKELY TO BE
   MAINTAINED."

Which pretty much summed it up to me - I'm going way north.  Like, visiting my in-laws in Minot north.

I think it was well worth it.

Nice base with lowering

This storm was tornado-warned as it has produced a tornado north of Granville, ND.  As I was approaching the storm the wall cloud was huge and spinning quite nice.  It's been a while since I've been on a tornado warned storm, so I sat here to basque in it's wall cloud glory. 

One of the things I noted is that the surface winds where I was at was very weak - less than 5 mph, which indicated to me it was probably done producing, but it was still really pretty. 

After this I re-positioned myself further north and east, I was treated to the following.

Hrm....

Beautiful updraft!

McHenry County - I'm lovin' it!  (Sorry McDonalds!)

After this I talked to Lisa back at the station a little and also with Henry Blakes at our affiliate in the Minot/Bismarck area and let them know about my photos I had uploaded to twitter.  I didn't think the storms were really going to really get going again with everything else going on, so I started my way home.  As I got closer to Valley City, I noticed just the beautiful sunset I was getting treated to.  Just amazing. 

About the same time, the storm up in Towner and Ramsey counties started to get it's act together.  Here's what it looked like from where I was at: 

You can just see the top of the anvil from where I was at.  Just amazing - almost 100 miles away and you could still see the lightning and tops of the clouds.  

Very good chase, and just an amazing sunset.  Now if we could only get some more storms and get some much needed rain for the crops, that would be the next best thing!  

June 20, 2013 Stutsman, Barnes, and Cass County Chase

A pretty warm day yesterday led to a little bit of a chase yesterday evening.

Left Fargo in the late afternoon and headed west towards some cells near Bismarck.  While I was on my way out west, it became apparent to me a couple of things:
1)  No way was I going to catch those cells out on the cold front south of Bismarck.
2)  Road construction on I-94 between Valley City and Tower City could REALLY screw me if things went poorly.

A few people might ask why did I not chase or go after the stuff in Nelson and Griggs counties?
1) It was north of the Warm Front.
2) Energy was not as great to the north.
3) I did not believe those storms were surface-based.  I.E. little chance for a tornado.  Hail, yes.  Wind, yes. Tornado?  Not so much.

So, knowing that, and knowing my late start left me out of the running for the storms near Bismarck, I drove up on the cell near Jamestown.  As I got closer, this is what I was greeted with.

 This made me kind of giddy.

I kept following this storm for a while.  It was a fairly slow mover.

A little further to the east, it became tornado warned.  It at times started to do lots of spinny stuff, but this is just a neat little thing I saw near the I-94 Spiritwood exit.

Neat, but not tornadic.

Shortly thereafter it started to gust out.  Lots of cool looking things under the shelf.

Right around in here is also where I did a couple of phone updates with Hutch and the rest of the gang down at VNL.

Neat Feature, eh?  Hrm......

I did happen to have an opportunity to catch up with some old chaser pals David and Kristen Drufke.  Pretty neat seeing some Minnesota chasers up here in ND.  So, while they weren't looking, I caught this little gem.

Dave and Kristen's photography skills put mine to shame...I'm not worthy!  I'm not worthy!!

After we also took a couple of other shots, we went our separate ways and I kept following this storm closer and closer to Fargo.

While I was meeting up there with Dave and Kristen my favorite shots of the year popped up.  I love both of these shots.

I also can't go far without my attempt at lightning. (Video grab from the camera)

My overall favorite shot though came from this:

Just a wonderful night for chasing, and hopefully people found the information all of us got to you as informative.  For those of you watching from home my live video cam, I apologize for the choppiness.  Being out where I was my video link back to the station was not playing very nice.  I think I've corrected it though for the future, or at least I hope!

All in all, it was a good night for chasing.  It doesn't sound like anyone was hurt last night by the storms, which is a good thing.

Footage I shot last night is still uploading, so I'll toss that up once it finishes.  (Edit: it will be available at http://youtu.be/dzwMGkHMl4Q in about 20 minutes)  In the meantime, here's a new totally awesome promo our promotions department at the station put together last night and today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmYKPLQ4NC8&feature=youtu.be

Also, thank you all so much for the number of friend requests on Facebook and adds on Twitter over the last two days!  Hopefully you find my tales of chasing as neat and exciting as I do!

Nelson County, ND 7-16-11 Chase

Here's another blast from the past.

It wasn't a big tornado risk day, but back in 2011, I would take what I could get.  20z outlook from the SPC showed a 5% tor risk

And there was some decent shear that day, so guess what?

mmm...Tor watch!

YEP!

The chase was on!

There wasn't much in terms of pics from this day, just due to the fact I was also tracking a very nice little supercell which formed off in Wells county and moved into Nelson and Ramsey.

It started to look really nice

Just a beautiful looking supercell. 

A little while later, it kept that corkscrew shape going. 

If you look close, yes that is the same power pole.  I didn't move in 15 minutes.  Just a wonderful looking supercell. 

As this one started to fade, another one took over closer to Devil's Lake.  Since it was dark out, I didn't get much of anything I can really share, but on my live stream (tvnweather.com/live for my live video this year!)  there was a distinct funnel.  

And, it looks like that Tornado watch paid off as well. 

Time		Location	County	State	Lat	Lon	Comments
2235		7 NE REGAN	BURLEIGH	ND	4723	10042	(BIS)
2235		9 N REGAN	BURLEIGH	ND	4729	10053	TORNADO REPORTED BY NORTH DAKOTA GAME AND FISH OFFICIAL WHO FOLLOWED IT. TORNADO LIFTED AROUND 551 PM CDT IN SHERIDAN COUNTY NEAR 5TH ST NE AND 3RD AVE SE. WEATHER CHAS (BIS)
0010		15 SE SUTTON	GRIGGS	ND	4725	9821	PERSON 5 S OF SUTTON ND SEES A TORNADO 10 MILES TO HIS EAST ... RELAYED VIA WFO BISMARCK (FGF)
0030		6 NW HANNAFORD	GRIGGS	ND	4738	9828	TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN AND TORE THE ROOF OFF OF A SHED(FGF)
0031		9 SSE BOWDON	WELLS	ND	4735	9965	THIS TORNADO LIFTED 9 MILES SOUTH OF HEATON AT 745 PM CDT AS REPORTED BY LAW ENFORCEMENT OUT OF WELLS COUNTY. NO REPORTS OF DAMAGE. (BIS)
0051		1 SW MINNEWAUKAN	BENSON	ND	4806	9927	FIRE DEPT AND LAW ENFORCEMENT REPORT TORNADO ON THE GROUND 2 SOUTH AND 1 WEST OF MINNEWAUKAN (FGF)
0056		3 S MINNEWAUKAN	BENSON	ND	4803	9925	TORNADO REPORTED OVER LONG LAKE SUCKING UP WATER (FGF)
0246		2 S LINTON	EMMONS	ND	4624	10023	(BIS)
0247		5 E LINTON	EMMONS	ND	4627	10013	(BIS)
0248		5 W STUMP LAKE	RAMSEY	ND	4791	9854	(FGF)

Just a couple of tornadoes that day. 

All in all, a good chase, and a couple of phoners into the station never hurts either.  

As for the upcoming week, starting to pay closer attention to Thursday into Friday, but it's still a ways out.  Need to be optimistic around this time of the year as we are getting closer into the hard-core northern plains chase season.  

Also, there will be a viewer meet-and-greet this Friday at the Detroit Lakes Street Fair!  Come out and say "hi" to your favorite VNL personalities!