August 13th, 2007 Sherburne County MN

Drove up to Sauk Center and saw some nice Mammatus and Virga on the way up. I stopped at McDonald’s for a number 3 with a large iced tea. I then went to Holiday to fill up the gas tank, then to BP for their view to the North (180 degrees as far as the eye can see). After about 10 minutes I notice the wxpage.com group were parked about 50 feet in front of me. I also chatted with a few others to kill time waiting for the cap to break. I actually got rained on a couple times and saw lightning. I experimented with the McDonald’s Fry as compared to a DQ Fry and their effects on a large group of Pigeons. The Pigeons in Sauk Center are ‘Minnesota Nice’ when presented with a single fry at a time the one closest grabs it(however, they do that big convergence thing the first time a fry is released, the one closest to the fry get’s it after the initial convergence thing occurs. Little repositioning occurs while the fry’s drop.). Their was no clear winner in the taste test. I held hope that the cap would go in a few minutes for an hour or two, while others were taunting me to hit the Supercell to the North that had been working it’s way in from Grand Forks since morning. We had several wind shifts during the wait where the temps would drop 15 degrees, it would get really dry, and vice versa. It sprinkled twice, saw several CTG’s visually.

It was in some very dry air at the time, dewpoints just 10 miles North were like 55 while 10 miles South West were 75, (I might have this wrong but, I think those numbers are accurate). But, it must of sucked up our moisture (I assume) because I started to get a sunburn. I noted a slight Southward shift in the Supercells movement as it had begun to move along the ‘warm front’, also transitioning into a linear system with embedded Supercell to a bow echo. But, it also meant I could intercept on my way home if I jump on I-94. The cell was moving fast, I don’t recall the speed, 55mph, SE, it was on an almost parallel course with I-94 but, it would hit the N&E Metro.

I made it back to St. Cloud alot faster than I made it to Sauk Center (I went the same speed, just seemed alot faster, generally it’s the reverse). Getting thru St. Cloud was nuts. I made it onto Hwy 10 that runs SE from St. Cloud to Elk River, about parallel with the storms movement. At Elk River Hwy 10 turns Eastbound where the cell would pass over.

I did’nt get any decent photos all day long. So I made a short video with the dashcam footage, it’s 32meg. Initially I came across a fantastic looking shelf surrounding the precipitation core, the shelf trailing backwards as far as the eye could see. As I came closer to the core, I could see teeth developing on the shelf, and dust being kicked up in front of it like a big bulldozer, towards the end of the video you can see a big dirt/dust blowoff from high-winds possibly from a downburst(I need to review more video, long highway, lots of trees). I believe this was the blowoff event reported in an LSR. It had crazy winds, meso’s and TVS’s aplenty. However, I saw no rotation or any rapid movement the appeared to be just teeth with high winds blowing dirt off the ground out in front. As I came close to Elk River I stopped and let the cell pass in front of me. It was at that point tornado warned (I had not read the warning text if it was radar indicated or a spotter report, I have read second hand it was a funnel report in my general vicinity from law enforcement). I only captured a few screen shots while I was waiting for the cell to pass. I might grab some archived NEXRAD and satellite data from NCDC later.

September 13th, 2007 Roll Cloud »« August 11th, 2007 MN Chase/Storm Damage