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I was off for one day
and decided making the haul to ND today was justified. I arrived
in Dickinson, ND to catch the latest morning obs and model data and it
looked as if the weak surface low in southwest ND was still a reasonable
target. The red triangle here represents the tornado near Glen Ullin--very
close to where I had stopped to watch the skies later on in the day, but
departed too soon and hence missed the show!
I had been playing phone tag with my usual chase gang down in Rapid City and by late morning they began shifting north to Buffalo, SD. During the early afternoon the winds in Dickinson went calm and I realized the sfc low was very close. Judging by the slightly deeper Cu field to my east, I shifted east to the Glen Ullin exit on I-94 to keep pace with the better development. |
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It wasn't long before
the cap budged and I observed several shear funnels beneath mini towers.
Here's a photo of one of these little guys. A couple Cbs did eventually
develop to my south, but could not sustain themselves.
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While watching this TCu, I just had a feeling the atmosphere was priming itself for something bigger. Awhile later, a small Cb popped
to my SW and dropped some small hail on me before quickly dumping all of
its core.
It's worth noting that this was the exact same exit I was at on May 27, 2006 prior to initiation that day. A lucky exit? |
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Randy, Phil, Mark,
Kirk and Dave had entered ND by this point and I was urging them to get
near my area given some favorable development. They were still a good
ways off, so I let them know I would be heading north for what looked like
a developing supercell. Here's the storm of interest looking NW.
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I shot north and really began liking the looks of this cell. Some decent inflow bands from the SE and NE, crisp convection, a healthy base; I thought I had picked a good storm. |
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It wasn't long before
more convection erupted along the surface trough/dryline. This compact
base materialized out of nothing and was unfortunately located just south
of the storm above. I suddenly had a feeling this guy would disrupt
the northern cell.
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I'm not too far south of Beulah, ND at this point. The southern cell's anvil merged with this guy's and resulted in this shameful display. Despite a healthy inflow band shown here, its updraft base was being seriously contaminated. Dagnammit! |
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My WxWorx was with
Randy and gang, although I don't mind chasing visually when visibility
is good. After the convection shown above went linear, I drove east
of Beulah towards this very interesting pair of rotating storms.
A TV met from Bismarck was on the radio describing both of these as supercells,
so I couldn't refuse pursuing them!
About this time, Phil called to say they were near my original spot back in Glen Ullin watching a wall cloud develop! I was now too far east to turn back around, so I stuck to my guns. |
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Naturally, the pair of rotating
storms I targeted had fizzled just as I closed to within range. Here's
what is left of the one--nothing much to write home about. It hurt
even more when my scanner blared the TOR warning for Glen Ullin citing
a confirmed tornado! I was in this exact area not more than 1.5 hours
prior. OUCH!!!!
Phil Kurimski has some great photos and a video of the tornado here. |
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I decided to drive
SW to an area north of Bismarck where I'd meet up with the chase gang.
They caught the entire lifecycle of this day's only tornado and walked
away with some great photos and video. This photo shows the remains
of the tornadic supercell as it became a lackluster linear mass.
I did congratulate them on their catch, but we both needed to hit the road fast as I had to work the next morning and they needed to be in KS for the next day's chase. After some champion driving, they made it to KS in time to chase more supercells! |
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