July 20th, 2008 Minnesota Zoo

We hit the zoo on Sunday, mid-day when the large outdoor animals were mostly resting under shade. A few of the animals were moving about, nice thing is it’s about a 15 minute drive and we have a membership. In the winter the animals seem alot more active while the zoo is near empty, otherwise many of the larger animals are active in the morning and evening (after the zoo closes).

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July 20th, 2008 Semi-Macro Butterfly Garden

I will try and post more often but, more of the subject matter is going to be photography related as I don’t get storms everyday. Less text more photos, more updates.

I warned the kids not to smack any bugs that land on them before going in but, of course this little fellow decides to land on me and almost lost his life.

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July 19th, 2008 Chase – Twin Cities

I hate chasing in the cities, I just try not to do it other than spotting. I was looking at SW MN mostly just procrastinating getting out of the house, I left my laptop for 20 minutes and when I came back I was told thier is a tornado warning in effect for Sherburne County. I raced Northward to Forest Lake arriving 20 minutes late (I had plenty of time but, all the roads were closed I-35W, Ceder, I-35E), I literally had to drive thru downtown St. Paul for 20 minutes. Anyway, I then attacked a new cell that formed in the South Metro, Tony advised me ‘The Chase is Over’ he was correct of course but, I figured I would press on. I ran into and chatted with Rich Gudmunson, and Randy Nelson (Randy, I believe who lives in Big Lake, and caught a nice wall cloud this day in addition to the tornado he bagged earlier in Maple Grove? earlier this year).

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT...SUMMARY
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TWIN CITIES/CHANHASSEN MN
959 PM CDT SAT JUL 19 2008

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0205 PM     TORNADO          3 E BECKER              45.37N 93.82W
07/19/2008                   SHERBURNE          MN   TRAINED SPOTTER

            TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN NEAR A BARN ALONG 165TH AVE NW AND
            DOWNED SEVERAL 2 TO 3 FT OAK TREES. TIME WAS ESTIMATED.

0225 PM     TORNADO          BIG LAKE                45.34N 93.75W
07/19/2008                   SHERBURNE          MN   TRAINED SPOTTER

            TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN BRIEFLY IN VICINITY OF BIG LAKE.
            REPORTED BY OFF DUTY GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL.

0240 PM     FUNNEL CLOUD     2 S ST FRANCIS          45.41N 93.31W
07/19/2008                   ANOKA              MN   AMATEUR RADIO

            SPOTTED NEAR NOWTHEN AND TROUT BROOK ROAD IN BURNS
            TOWNSHIP.

Remnants of the last cell

Bust Photo

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July 18th, 2008 Police Ride Along

I went on a Police Ride along July 18th from about 6pm to 3am (Fri night). I am not allowed to give any specifics other than it was fun to beat heck. Plenty of traffic stops (people running stopsigns into busy intersections, 5+ over in 35mph zones(depended on conditions, maybe it was 9+), etc, 2 medicals (both resulted in code 3 rides to the hospital), patrolling, an assault, missing person, full tour of dispatch (if you have never visited a decent sized dispatch, do it, very cool, this was the second I have seen, now I want to see Henn Cty dispatch in Golden Valley). I am thinking ‘and they pay you for doing this’. Very cool.

(no photos, no additional details)

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July 11th, 2008 Chase SW Metro Twin Cities

I did not want to head up into the forest but, I guess some had success. I took a half day off so I had lunch with the kids followed by Journey to the Center of the Earth (IN 3D), great movie, take the kids now! I arrived home around 4:45.

Things just did’nt impress me(it should have, conditions were ripe and the system was building Southward), I really should have positioned myself out West at that point but, I never left the house until 7:35PM as things came a little closer to the metro, hoping to catch the Shelf out West followed by a back lit Anvil during sunset, I skipped the second part. When I left the house immediately I saw mamatus, a dying storm but, cool to photograph;

I headed to flying cloud and shot the Shelf Cloud up front, returning home I parked on a multilevel parking structure to watch the rest of the storm the rear of the storm was lit up a nice orange during sunset but, just too far away to get any unique photos in time.

The preliminary Wilmer storm survey rated the damage of EF-3 with an estimated path of 8 miles and a width of 200 meters through Wilmer causing 2 injuries and property damage.

Work in progress, months behind, I figured I would get something out here to begin with. Photo need some touch up’s and closer review.

EDIT: Previously incorrectly filed under June 28th.

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