From the Day 3 SPC Outlook it had been given potential, but nobody got to excited yet, that was held off until the night before for the most part. When Wendesday night's model runs came in, the forecast was looking quite good, so good that there were some chasers pretty much going crazy for a setup that was the best since April. The decision to go chasing still was up in the air though, as too many times I've awoken to cloudy skies or a new outlook that has been downgraded. Well the 8 am outlook came on Thursday morning and it had actually increased the risk for areas of southern MN! I still had classes to attend until Noon, so I went to them to come back to the new outlook that went around before Noon. Much to the surprise it had held and the chase was on!
Left Ames by 1:30 pm on the way north to pick up Josh Richardson near Clear Lake, IA where we then continued north on I35 to I90 in southern MN. Initial target had been in southwest MN, but before leaving I noticed a post from another chaser indicating that there was an OFB (outflow boundary) in Southcentral MN near the New Ulm/St. Peter area. So with this in mind and the potential for extreme capping in southwest MN I decided that we should stop sooner instead of later, meaning a stop north of Blue Earth, MN was in store. Once stopped there near the McDonalds/AmericInn, looked at radar to see nothing and read the latest MD and text on the tornado watch that had been issued for the area. Clouds were in the area, which held some disappointment, but by readings of the SPC and looking at SPC Mesoanalysis the day was still looking good. Mesoanalysis showed the warm front well and by the looks of things you were definitely playing the warm front. So the decision was made to head north towards Mankato, MN. I don't quite remember the reason why, but Josh had mentioned he would rather by further west than anything so we got off of 169 towards Mankato and got on county roads on a heading to Madelia, MN. It was on our way there where we saw some clearing and towers were going up, really starting to go up! This would have been right around 4:45 PM as we neared them and watched them just to our north as we entered Madelia. We filled up with gas and got radar updates where the first signs of the storm were, by 5 PM the storm explosively developed and within 5 minutes the tornado warning was issued and we were racing north towards the Nicollet area. By 5:30 PM we sat 6 miles southwest of Nicollet, but only 4 or 5 miles south of the growing and intensifying wall cloud. In order to get a better look at this and stay with it we would have to go into the Minnesota River valley and head north towards Nicollet. Once we emerged from the river valley and had a decent view between groves we witnessed the tornado as it was on the eastern edge of Nicollet and now heading along highway 99, this occurred at my best estimate of 5:35 PM.
We continued north trying to get onto highway 99 and follow just to the south of the storm, best road options available at that point. Once we got to the intersection on the northeast corner of Nicollet we were greeted to a not so pleasant view of debris over the roadway, portions of a house, several power lines, etc. were blocking the path and police were already on the scene by 5:42 PM. We were forced to backtrack, but still got onto highway 99 to follow the now large wedge tornado that was on the ground. From our view by this point, the tornado was very hard to see, we weren't expecting it to be a 1/2 mile wide and with the wall cloud so low to the ground as well with the terrain, it was likely that the entire storm seemed to be on the ground at this point. We followed the tornado only minutes behind it waiting for a view, trying to get south of the storm dealing with debris and rain curtains that were sweeping around the storm. Once the NWS issues their final survey, hopefully with times we can tell exactly how far behind it we were. Several areas of damage on the route that we took did not have police/fire at the scene yet so we know we were not very far behind. We go to the north side of Kasota, MN by 6:05 PM where tree limbs and powerlines were over the roadways. Once passed them we continued just behind the storm to the south of Lake Emily where sadly a death occurred just minutes beforehand.
By this time, around 6:15 PM we were to the south of Cleveland, MN and the tornado was dissapating several miles in front of us. The storm had begun to merge into a line and the tornadic threat was most likely over with. We continued to follow, zig zagging to the southeast staying just out of the rain core and watching it slowly backbuild to the southwest. The inflow/outflow with this storm and the new development to the southwest of it was nice to watch, large, weak areas of rotation were indicated and radar and could be seen by us as we finally stopped to evaluate what to do. We essentially packed it up and decided to head home for an early finishing time. Although we got our tornado for the day, we still left with an empty feeling, not being able to stop and watch the wrath of the storm, but also for all of the damage that we saw and the homes/lives that were affected.
Sorrows for the life that was lost and the dozens others that were affected by this storm, although it is great to catch a tornado it is never great to see a house damaged and lives hurt. Information on the storm can be read on the NWS Report Survey that features several images as well as the full damage report from this tornado. |
