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Chase season 2008 is officially over for us here in
the upper midwest. Wrap-up of the season is at the bottom of the page.
May 25th- Moderate Risk
(Rice and Dakota counties, MN)
This was a very tough forecast, not the usual setup. Left my house on the north side of the Twin Cities around 11:20
to meet up with a couple people in Lakeville and head south from there. Ended up in Northfield which is only maybe an hour
south from my house. Found a hot spot at a trucker stop and looked at models, surface obs, radar etc. for a good two hours
till about 2:30 when we noticed storms firing around Willmar, MN. These storms looked like crap for a long time up until they
were about 60 (or about 3:30-4:00 in the afternoon) miles west of Minneapolis, then they got their act together and started
producing hail up to 3.5 inches in diameter. As they started moving more east than northeast they began getting hook echoes.
Around 4:30 these storms produced a tornado in Blaine/Coon Rapids area (about 8-10 miles north of my house) and produced an
EF3 tornado in Hugo (about 15 miles northeast of me). All this time we lost our internet connection and were clueless about
the tornadic potential in the northern metro area, so we stayed south of the cities expecting any storm that fired to produce
a tornado. Well, a storm finally did fire, but it didnt get warned until after it had crossed the river into Wisconsin and
after i had given up on chasing it. All in all, it was a BUST, with storms hitting just north of me, but of course i wasnt
at home, i was out "chasing" where i thought the "better" area was.  ironic, right? oh well, a short chase, shortest one to date actually, only 197 miles, so if i'm going to bust, i guess i
would prefer to go the shortest distance to bust like what happened Sunday. It just seems like such a waste of a PDS tornado
watch. Anyway, thoughts with the family who lost their son in the tornado in Hugo, and with the people affected by the monster
tornado in northeast Iowa. Cant imagine what that would be like. Lastly, a couple pics, nothing great, just structure shots,
but its all i have from Sunday: https://midweststormchaser.tripod.com/05252008/
May 31st- Slight Risk
(Wright, Hennepin, Ramsey, Anoka counties, MN)
Got off work around 4:20, got home, quickly looked at radar, didnt see much in the way of organized storms,
but i saw Rich sitting up in St Cloud, figured i would head up there and see if the storms organized on the way up. Get on
to I94 and get a text from Mike saying the Wright county storm went TOR warned. Didnt know exactly what storm i was looking
at since another storm fired in front of the TOR warned storm. I'm on the highway right before Albertville, see something
hanging off the storm, didnt want to pull the trigger and call it a wall cloud. I got off in Albertville, watched the storm
for only a few minutes before i realized it was really a wall cloud. I sat and took pics for about 10 minutes before realizing
its moving right towards me (i thought it was moving more east). I get out of there and run right in to the hail core. Winds
were also gusting to probably about 50 mph with the hail. Dive south, in pea-quarter sized hail for about 10-15 minutes, see
underpasses completely blocked off by car stopped under them. I got a little disoriented with the storm with not having GR
going, but i eventually found it again south of Maple Grove. Followed it to about Plymouth, headed back north to try to intercept
the new TOR warned storms up around my house. Ended up missing them, but even still there were some insane cloud formations
well west of the main storm. Thanks to Mike Pohler for nowcasting for me! Once again breaking the previous record above for
the shortest chase, this one only 123 miles but a very nice storm.
June 5th- HIGH RISK
(Western Iowa)
Headed out towards Sioux Falls, SD around 9:00 in the morning with Rich, his mom, and Mike for what was hyped up to be
a big outbreak from Minnesota down through Oklahoma. We drove through a morning storm around Jackson, MN that went on to produce
tennis ball size hail shortly after we got out of it. We continued to Sioux Falls and decided to head farther south towards
Sioux City, IA and drove through rain almost the entire way there. We got to Sioux City around 4:00 or 5:00 where the temp
was 81 and the dewpoint was 70, things were finally starting to look better. Sat around till about 5:30 while storms struggled
to stay severe out to our west in Nebraska, made the decision to go south and try to intercept a cell that was coming out
of Kansas. The warning said it was moving at about 50 mph but after a good 2 hours of driving towards it we were still another
hour away from it and it was starting to die plus it was getting dark so we headed home. A very dissapointing bust for what
was supposed to be one of the biggest outbreaks in quite a few years. 816 miles, 15 hours, 4 tornado watches (3 of them were
PDS tornado watches) and not a single chaseable storm. It was one of those days you could tell it was going to bust but you
still had to chase it because it was a HIGH RISK and you listened to the SPC more than you listened to yourself.
June 11th- Moderate Risk
(Plymouth, Cherokee, O'Brien, Clay, Dickinson, Palo Alto, Emmet, Kossuth, and Winnebago counties, Iowa)
Headed out around noon with Tim Purington with an initial target of somewhere around Sioux City. We got
just north of Sioux City when storms started firing from southwest Minnesota all the way to central Iowa. The storms quickly
formed a line and things werent looking good with the system looking like it was going to line out right away, but shortly
after the storms congealed in to the line, rotation started showing up in a lot of the embedded cells, most of the storms
became tornado warned shortly after firing. One note is these storms produced next to no hail, which is very rare for amount
of moisture present and the type of storms that fired (supercells). We tried finding the areas of rotation around Paullina,
Iowa when an update for the tornado warning came out saying that there were three areas of strong rotation in and around the
Paullina/Marcus, Iowa area, we were in between both of those cities. We headed east to try to get in front of the line, find
some rotation. The backside of the storm where it was mostly rain free had some incredible structure, but that didnt last
long as we got closer to the core which contained more than terrential rain. We drove through it, followed the storm as it
tracked northeast towards Spencer, Iowa. We got stuck in the core most of the way to Spencer, but as we finally got out of
it about 3 miles south of Spencer along highway 71, we saw a farm that was heavily damaged, and many powerlines down along
the highway. We couldn't have been more than 3 miles away from the tornado when it hit the farm, but due to the rain we never
saw the tornado even though we were so close. We continued to follow the storm as it moved northeast while still showing strong
rotation, but after a while we let it cross the border in to Minnesota as it looked like it was weakening and the storms to
the south were becoming the dominant storms. We sat around Buffalo Center for a while waiting for the storms to the south
to move north towards us, tried intercepting them since they were still tornado warned even after dark, but by the time we
got in front of it the tornado warnings were cancelled and replaced with severe thunderstorm warnings. We headed back towards
home and got home around 1:00 in the morning. All in all not a bad chase, we were on tornado warned storms across half the
state of Iowa, but due to the rain, haze/humidity, and very low LCL's were never had the visisibility to see the tornadoes
that were within just miles of us a couple times. The lightning with these storms may be the most intense i have ever
witnessed, many occasions intense CG's within a half mile of us. Although the storms didnt not produce much hail, and didnt
not look real great on radar, they were some of the most intense storms i have seen to date. Also, from other's experience
from the day, it shows how dangerous HP supercells can be and how important to know where you are at all times in relation
to the storm. I didnt get many pictures worth posting due to the rain and low visibility, which is dissapointing because it
was actually one of the better chases i have had. Thoughts and prayers with the families affected by the tornado that hit
the Scout Camp in northwest Iowa.
July 16th SLIGHT RISK
(West central Minnesota)
I left home just before 1:00 heading out towards Granite Falls, MN. Models showed the cap eroding by 18z and completely
gone in west central Minnesota by 0z with temps warming in to the 90's and dewpoints near 70. Met up with Tim Purington and
Andy Gabrielson in Olivia and we caravanned it from there. We hung around Olivia for a while, grabbed a bite to eat. Headed
north to Willmar, kept heading north to Morris, MN. Storms tried to fire but mesoanalysis showed the cap staying strong when
we checked it at 11:00 pm and temps/dewpoints nowhere near what they were forecasted to be. Didnt see lightning till about
11:15 pm and even those storms couldnt sustain themselves. A complete bust, not sure what happened. We had to take cover more
from mosquitoes than we did from storms. 376 miles and 13 hours on the road.
July 31st SLIGHT RISK
(North central Iowa)
Headed out towards Mason City, IA with Rich and Randy around 2:00 pm. MCS moved through earlier in the day and really
messed the winds up across southern Minnesota, but by the time we got down there they finally got back to coming out of the
southeast. Strong cap was in place, just not enough energy to break it. Storms tried firing around 4:00 with towers going
up, but they could never sustain themselves. Sat around til about 9:30 before heading home. All in all not a total bust, had
some hope for a while. I didn't get any pictures worth posting unfortunately. We had a couple oppurtunities, but the lighting
was really weird and couldn't figure out how to adjust to it. Total Miles: 442
AUGUST 3rd- SLIGHT RISK
Headed down towards New Ulm with Rich. Temps were well in to the 90's with dewpoints in the upper 70's to near 80
but with the rock solid cap that was in place the nearly 10,000 j/kg of CAPE as reported by NWS-FSD was not even enough to
break the cap. Storms tried to initiate as the cap briefly weakened around 6:00 but quickly died as the cap strengthened again.
This was a really dissapointing bust because of the great dynamics in place and the instability was unreal but it wasnt meant
to be I guess. Started heading back home around 7:00. Storms finally fired after dark but were nothing special.
August 6th- Slight Risk
(Anoka and Washington counties, MN)
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