September 17th, 2007 Sterns County

I pounced on 12 West out of the metro to escape rush hour just before 5pm (rush hour begins at around 3:45 then increases to the point where it pretty much stops after 5). I was not really positive where I wanted to go, I had been looking at the Buffalo surface data, it appeared that the warm front had not yet passed and moisture was slightly higher than anywhere else. But, I had to get out of the Metro area. Hwy 12 had alot of construction going on so I went North to Hwy 55 finally stopping in Buffalo to look what was going on. A few cells were starting to appear West of me, I eventually headed West on I-94 to Melrose and Albany just short of Sauk Centre, road construction prevented me from taking the optimal route. A line of cells had formed and were moving over this general area in a NE direction at about 45 knots. The cells appeared to intensify and organize as they approached I-94. I had missed the first nice cell but, saw it from a distance along with another nice looking cell before the sun set. I pulled over in Melrose to watch another cell approach, I decided last minute not to sit their in the parking lot while the core of the storm passed over me. Coming up to Albany I spotted what appeared to be a tail cloud (it was completely dark, lightning illuminated), so I pulled off then headed straight North to intercept the feature and watched it for some time. It was pretty solid and attached to the base at all times for 20+ minutes but, I really could’nt see too much.

The video is not liner, I went thru and basically stuck a bunch of lightning illuminated frames together, otherwise it was mostly catching a brief glimpse of it every 5-10 seconds which is I guess why I generally try and avoid chasing after dark.

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