June 17 TWISTEX Chase

Status: On-The-Road
Location: Pierre, SD to Grand Forks, ND

10:30 PM: The team has been on the cell in Ramsey/Nelson/Walsh counties in North Dakota for nearly the past 2 hours. Quite a unique storm and very interesting situation, as we approached we had very thick fog (visib. 1/4 mile) and could not make out any structure whatsoever. The storm did however really become organized and tornado warned; visibility became better and we were able to see structure with it. As noted, we followed this storm very closely for approx. an hour and a half watching various lowerings as it continued to be tornado warned. We broke off from the storm approx, a quarter after 10; once on our road to go southeast however we encountered the core of the storm once again. Wind gusts 40-50 kts and some penny sized hail along with blinding rains finished off the chase nicely, now likely heading for a stay in Grand Forks, ND for the night. Tomorrows' plans will likely include the journey back home for the crews...

8:15 PM: Well we've watched an elevated storm just north of the warm front near the Devils Lake, ND area for a while. After watching the towers south of the front pulse and die, with little hope of development the decision is we might as well head to that storm and

7:15 PM: Went up to McVille, ND to top off the gas tanks and wait a while for something to show up that was exciting. Ended up with fresh radar images that showed off a nice boundary that was actually moving southwards, as we let it overrun us just before leaving it was a nice cool air with winds from the northeast. Now moving back southeastward out ahead of that boundary and back into the really juicy air that we left behind for a moment.

5:30 PM: Stopped just south of Finley, ND to check up on things and wait for better development; now moving once again just to stick around in the area of good CU development. (6:00 PM)

4:15 PM: After seeing what the cell northeast of Grand Forks did, rapidly turning tornadic, we've quickly decided to move east and north. This will locate us along that same boundary and near two other potential boundaries that we've picked up on. One located now east of Jamestown and another that we recently noted on the Aberdeen radar that has just crossed over the border and moving north.

4:00 PM: Sitting in Jamestown, ND awaiting something to get our attention and begin the chase. We are fairly pleased with the way things are sitting right now as far as observations go, but still awaiting a good sign of convection along or south of the warm front and ahead of the cold front. We should have storms to chase within an hour or two the way things look...

12:49 PM: We've now entered North Dakota with CU field's in sight to our west/north and even some CU to our east. With the warm front still in sight and hanging around we have good hopes compared to last night. Looks like we'll be driving continuously here as I doubt we'll have time to spare the way the CU are starting to act up.

11:00 AM: Taking a late start today thanks to the target area being nearby and the delay of getting a tire fixed. We're going to try and play the warm front/cold front intersection (triple point) somewhere along the ND/SD borders as it stands right now. On the road again after a good 8 hour period of 'downtime' from the vehicle; going to put another state visited under my belt today as we're likely end up in North Dakota. Just to continue the blabing a little more, Pierre had some nice folks and overall South Dakota was a nice place to chase (only better if there were storms).

3:00 AM: Finally arrived in Pierre after our adventures of the day, or actu0ly 2 days and very ready for some sleep. Will update again in morning with some idea of our target along the cold front...

1:00 AM: An update a little earlier than expected, a nice blowout in one of the vehicles near Wall, SD has put us even further behind in route to our hotel. With a spare tire it has also decreased our speeds to a near unbearable 55 mph. Currently planned on arriving to Pierre near 3:30 am local time; with an earlier wake-up to fix a tire in the morning.

12:30 AM: Still driving to begin the day, 25 miles east of Rapid City with over 165 miles left to go before the night is done. Will be spending the night in Pierre, SD and hopefully awakening to a decent outlook for tomorrow or at least one better than is being pictured by what data/forecasts we have looked at so far tonight.