September 18, 2013 Chase

Since it's been a little while again, I went and pulled out some photos from September 18, 2013.  This was an interesting chase.  It was a storm that, while it was severe warned for a little while never really stood a chance of doing much of anything.

One thing I remember was the moon rising this night.  Really made for a pretty background to the storm.

And a little while later as the sun continued to set.

I got sidetracked by the moon rising I almost forgot about the storm!

Awww....nice little eroding base.

Buh-bye now, see you next year!

And that was it.

Once I got home, there was another storm to the north that was tossing off some lightning.  Unfortunately, my lightning-fu was off this night, and my best shot was pretty bad.

If you look at the bottom, you can see the shelf moving in.  Pretty nice, but I figured no one wanted to see the house in the field I was at taking these photos.  That, and I don't want to reveal the field I go to!

That being said, this was really the second to last 'summer convection' chase of the year - with the last one being in October with Lisa.  Also, note to some other chasers who were out there on this storm - SLOW DOWN.  No reason to be driving like maniacs on a non-severe storm.  Your fellow chasers appreciate it.

Bonus Blog! (because it's quick!) 7-1-08 (Fargo, ND)

Here's a couple of lightning pics from 7-1-08

Apparently this thing was a hail producer out in lakes country.  I tried to figure out why I didn't go after this guy....after looking at my calendars, I believe I had some day-job related commitments the next day.  Most likely.

Either way, enjoy the two quick pics.

Quite the anvil on this guy!

The one advantage on this guy is the total chase miles traveled.....about 25 feet.

Best chases are the close ones, right?

Link to the SPC:

SPC Reports for this day.

June 5, 2006 - Cass County, ND

Since we are in the depths of winter here, and I haven't updated the chase blog in FAR too long, I figured I'd go into my archives and pull something out which makes me think of summer.  Especially since today it was over 40 degrees ABOVE today!  Really isn't much of a story with it, other than "Hey, here's some cool photos!" since it's been a few years.  You'll have to forgive the horrible copyright, etc.

This first pic here is from near Casselton.  Quite the nice day when you see an LP here in North Dakota.  We don't see many of them, so this was very nice for a change.

Mmm...pretty!

Here's a couple more from coming up on the cell.  I took quite the number of photos this day! 

Supercell anyone?

One thing I remember about this chase is how slow this storm moved.  It pretty much just sat there.  I remember watching it going "Wow!  This is just awesome!"  Yeah, it was....

Starting to get it's act together...

I remember listening in on the spotter net this evening and people were calling in stating it wasn't doing anything and they could not figure out why FGF had this storm warned.  I knew why....

HELLO THERE!

Yeah, it had a nice little lowering going on with lots of action.  Yep, if it's not an HP supercell.....

I don't know why but this shot from above just sticks with me.  I think that's why I decided to post this blog tonight.  Even though I don't remember every single detail about this chase, I still remember this photo sticking out in my mind.

All by my seelllllfff....

One thing which this photo that strikes me is that I was all by myself on this chase.  No other chasers out there.  I know those days are pretty much gone now, but I still like to sit back and think of these times when I was just out chasing and I would be the only person on the storm.  I'm not sure days like that will happen much anymore, but I still love being able to do it.

One more shot from the day.

Apparently this storm did have a touchdown, but I never saw anything fully condense.

Time		Location	County	State	Lat	Lon	Comments
2145		6 SSE FORESTBURG	SANBORN	SD	4394	9806	TORNADO VISIBLE FOR 2-3 MINUTES AFTER TOUCHDOWN AT 445 PM CDT. BECAME RAIN WRAPPED BUT APPEARED TO CONTINUE THROUGH 452 PM CDT. DAMAGE UNKNOWN. (FSD)
0035		8 ENE SHELDON	RANSOM	ND	4663	9734	A DEPUTY REPORTED A BRIEF TOUCHDOWN WEST SOUTHWEST OF LEONARD ALONG THE CASS AND RANSOM COUNTY LINE. (FGF)
0035		2 WSW LEONARD	CASS	ND	4664	9728	A DEPUTY REPORTED A BRIEF TOUCHDOWN WEST SOUTHWEST OF LEONARD ALONG THE RANSOM AND CASS COUNTY LINE. (FGF)

I never saw any touchdowns, but then again I think there were several storms that day.   (edit) Yep, just checked - there were.  I just picked the wrong storm.

Either way, a pretty nice day in June.  And I still think about it 8 year later.  Let's hope I still remember it this fondly in another 8 and 28 years.

At least we aren't -30F right now!