5/10/01 Manitowoc County, WI Chase

(nothing dramatic, but still a nice chase)

This was one of those days when I was analyzing every bit of data and finally realized that the Milwaukee area would not see any convection before sunset. The afternoon RUC verified with this, so after a blue box was issued I constantly checked the 1km visible and noted a couple nice Cbs well to my northwest (80+miles). After the western cell went severe, I was tempted to chase it and finally gave in around 5:30 after saving a radar animation depicting tight reflectivity gradients on the inflow side and at times a v-notch in the westernmost cell. Naturally, the storm collapsed with time and now I was in Manitowoc county hoping for more activity. By 7:30, a new convective cluster developed to my west with increasing lightning. Though an HP storm, I decided to go after it since there was some daylight left and I would prefer to show something for a 160 mile chase. I maneuvered underneath the updraft base and noted a nice lowering to my southwest. It's tough to tell from the video, but I'm convinced it was a wall cloud (possibly rotating due to laminar tendencies) early on and after about 20 minutes became outflow dominant as a shelf cloud. The storm was never severe, but drenched me with ~1.5" of rain ten minutes later according to local reports.

Check out Doug Raflik's view of the initial cell's wall cloud in northern Fond du Lac county!
 


Radar animation of the targetted SVR cell (courtesy of weatherTAP)

Storm graveyard for the initial two cells.

Looking west at a developing HP cluster

Underneath the updraft

The wall cloud early on


Radar at 8:02 depicting a bowing tendency in the HP cell.

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