May 5, 2005

Location: Southwest Minnesota

Miles: 160

Time: ~6 Hours

May 5, 2005 Chase Photos

The first chase of the season and one of the first actual chases of my career got off to a rocky start, but ended pretty well. Another cold front coming across the plains, which as you read on will realize why that isn't said with enthusiasm. It was forecasted to be along the MN/SD border and southward by late afternoon, SPC had the moderate risk issued with risks of tornadoes, large hail and especially damaging winds. Ben Leitschuh was traveling from over from Iowa City where he had spend the night in anticipation of the drive. Ben, my dad and I all met up in Jackson, MN where we were just north of cells that already fired in northwest Iowa. This cells were no where near discrete and only reports coming out of them were large hail. We decided we would head west and get along the front and hope for a couple of the discrete cells that were already firing would hold out. We made our way through cells and basically reached our last hope. This cell wasn't it to bad of shape and had some small lowering of an overall base. We watched it and followed it some, trying to stay out of a large rain shaft more than anything. We eventually came upon a possible wall cloud, it was quickly becoming shielded with rain and only got a couple quick photos of it before dissapearing. We escaped the rain shaft after being forced to drive right back through it and mae our way back to Jackson, MN. Besides the images of the potential wall cloud and small lowering, we ran into a nice sunset, a small tower and an ending rainbow.

June 20, 2005

Location: Southwest MN & Northwest IA

Miles: 60

Time: ~3 Hours

June 20, 2005 Chase Photos

This day wasn't exactly a planned chase, I knew there were thunderstorm possibilities, but it wasn't supposed to be anything spectacular so I didn't make any plans. By later afternoon storms began to fire and they quickly gained strength. I decided to head out and make my way just over the IA/MN border. I sat on the southern edge of a cell and was watching it develop, it ended up developing right over me and dropped dime sized hail on me, this was relayed to the NWS and they issued severe thunderstorm warning. Followed this cell to the east before losing it as it raced off, it did apparently produce a small rain concealed tornado that the local sheriff reported. The next cell in line had just developed to the southwest, and was looking linear already. Only choice was to race in front of it and watch for a shelf cloud to develop, which it did promptly, I was only 5 miles away from my own home at this point. We waited to watch it approach and then ditched back to my house. The storm went overhead and produced nice wind gusts and some decent sized hail. This was the end of the severe weather, but later on in the night another small round of thunderstorms came through that was good for a couple lightning shots. Overall for a local chase it wasn't to bad, saw dime sized/pea sized hail on two occasions, nice scud features and turbulent skies to go along with a somewhat ragged shelf cloud. Finished off the day with some lightning and that ends the second chase of the season...

June 29, 2005

Location: SD/MN/IA

Miles: 250

Time: ~8.5 Hours

June 29, 2005 Chase Photos

June 29th was set out to be the longest chase that I've had in my career and with the conditions that were expected it would likely be the best chase day that I've ever had. Started out around noon and went east to intercept the front that was coming across eastern South Dakota. By mid-afternoon my dad and I had setup just ahead of the cold front in Beresford, SD. The CU field had already developed as we were heading into SD and now the CU was rising and rising fast! The first storms developed to the north of us, just south of Sioux Falls, SD. I figured with these being the first ones, they would likely be the best ones to get on, so off we went. The storms were moving off to the northeast now at around 45 mph, with us having to go all the way to Sioux Falls and then onto I-90 to Minnesota it was going to be tough. It was indeed too tough, at this point I was rejected the fact that we were missing those storms by not being able to get in position to catch them and follow. Instead we continued and headed into Jackson, MN and made a call to Mark Bruggom. I was informed by Mark that they were watching a possible cell in northwest Iowa and with that the only thing in play we dove south. The storm quickly developed as we came into it and we were the first ones to notice a funnel that had developed just to the southwest of Milford, IA. A tornado warning was quickly issued as this funnel sat around and then finally took off to the east-northeast. Followed behind the storm and just to the south of it as we were west of Estherville when the funnel made its' best appearance while only slightly rotating. Although the storm remained tornadic and severe, no tornado and no major hail reports ever were received from it. Remainder of the evening was spend watching some amazing structure from this massive supercell...

July 25, 2005

Location: Northwest Iowa

Miles: 125

Time: ~4 Hours

July 25, 2005 Chase Photos

Well... What can I say, one busted chase in the year ain't to bad is it? But, it was a bad call on my part as I set up to far west. It was a questionable day to begin with as the low was close enough to already be producing showers and isolated thunderstorms early in the day. This was hampering instability tremendously and taking away from moisture pooling. Tornado risk was there and SPC issued a mesoscale discussion for northwest Iowa. I had set up on the western edge of this MCD and was hoping for storms to fire along the line that was already north of me along the cold front. Cold fronts were bad for me this year as they were for many, not producing at all or producing somewhere else that wasn't really expected. Either way, I missed the one tornado of the day as most everybody else did as it was quite unexpected and out of the main tornado risk area. The line fired to the east of me and was quickly moving to the east at near 60 mph. An attempted catch up wasn't meant to be as the storms moving to quick and the road choice was bad. The back side of the line can be seen below in the first picture, then the sunset gave some nice contrasting colors near Wallingford, Iowa.

August 9, 2005

Location: Northwest Iowa

Miles: 65

Time: ~3 Hours

August 9, 2005 Chase Photos

Wasn't really planning on a chase this day with no tornadic potential at all, just a large hail/damaging wind threat. But, when storms fired right on me I decided to head out. Started out in Wallingford, IA and went north to the first cell near Estherville. Sheriff reported a funnel with that one, but rotation wasn't enough for a tornado warning on this cell. Instead severe thunderstorm warnings out due to large hail which I definitely encountered. With no rotation available for these storms I considered myself safe to punch the core of these things. I followed down the entire line of storms as they slowly expanded southwestward. Along the way I encountered anywhere from pea to nickel sized hail near Estherville. Then had to run into 1" diameter hail near Graettinger, IA, followed by the strongest cell of the day near Ruthven, IA; 1.5 inch diameter hail and winds approaching 70 mph. I sat around the Ruthven area with this being the furthest south I wanted to go for the day. Grabbed some hail that I was able to photograph and got some images of the blinding rain that I found myself in several times. One of the shots that looks more like a hurricane than severe thunderstorm was the flag whipping in the wind. The pole right there is probably bent over to the side a couple of feet, the pole is a solid 3 inch diameter steel pole. Ended my chase season with the hail and wind. But, what I thought to be a no tornado season.

September 8, 2005

Location: Ames, Iowa

Miles: 0

Time: NA

September 8, 2005 Chase Photos

What I thought was a no tornado season turned out to change unexpectedly. In my meteorology class September 8th we were watching a nice line of storms coming in to the Ames area. Severe thunderstorm warnings had been issued as the storms were expected to produce winds up to 70 mph. As the storm approached the storm continued to intensify and we got to be as close to a tornado as you want to be. This storm went right over the campus and dropped down an F1 tornado right on the meteorology building. Our weather obs on the roof was able to clock an 84 mph wind gust with the winds going in a full 360 degree turn! The tree below that is leaning on the building was one that we saw happen right outside of the window. The storm caused other damage throughout campus thanks to the straight line winds. I spent much more of the afternoon out getting pictures of all the damage on campus. This was one of the rare occasions that you are able to get a tornado out of a squall line/bow echo type system. I can proudly say that I was within just feet of a tornado as it went through the ISU campus and that was the first tornado of the year, too bad I had to wait until September for it!

November 12, 2005

Location: Ames, Iowa

Miles: 0

Time: NA

November 12, 2005 Chase Photos

Photos below are very small and do not have a thumbnail, I did this on purpose. The terrible contrast with the tornado as the sun was setting actually shows up best with the smaller photos. The photos were taken from Larch Hall on Iowa State University campus (my room) on the 7th floor. You are looking north at this tornado as it is most likely 4 miles or so north of Ames, IA. This tornado was a part of the November 12th Iowa tornado outbreak, several tornadoes touched down that day with two hitting small towns in Iowa. This tornado was only a couple miles away from Ames, IA and what could of been a huge disaster. It was on national news as Jack Trice Stadium was evacuated due to this tornado threat, tens of thousands of people were at risk of severe weather and luckily it missed, but only by miles. This brings up the count of tornadoes to 3 in my life and up to 2 now this last year, overall it wasn't a great year, but a good one for the rookie year of full chasing. Look to 2006 for even better accounts and hopefully some more of what you see below, only a little closer!

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