Ugh, the marathon of Hurricane Dorian is over. Last week was one of those weeks of should we or should be not, do I go or do I stay home and work the desk? In the end, I made the decision to stay home and work the desk while the team went out and covered the storm in the USA. We didn’t send anyone to the Bahamas since we I did not feel the need for footage and the risk involved of going to or sending anyone into a Cat Five hurricane in another country would be worth it.
In other news, I finally closed out the Smug Mug account. That account was basically a cool idea but waste of money. Over coming weeks, I will be reviewing and editing all of my photography to make sure only what needs to be in a gallery is in gallery and have everything organized correctly.
Footage of a wicked car crash that looked like it was a head on crash. While working in the home office, we heard a large boom that sounded like a tree limb hit the house but soon the police scanner revealed the sound was a wreck two blocks away.
Video is of the scene of a “Head On” Accident on west bound 2nd Street just west of the intersection of Division. Force of the wreck was great enough that two tow trucks had to try two times to pull them apart. Still working on details of what happened.
So, no updates? What have I been up to for the last week since the chase in Iowa? Just working on paperwork here at the office and trying to get stuff caught up. Nothing exciting. Just working on the crews footage when they come in and entering data into Quickbooks.
Wow, so extreme… I’m joking since it is not extreme but boring. That is the other half of this fun life of chasing which is the not so fun side of paperwork.
Today was a different chase, was not that impressed with the setup but I was able to chase to I made the most of it.
Target this morning was the area around Blue Earth, MN to Mankato, MN. I left the house after lunch as the first cell of the day fired up and dropped large hail west of the Twin Cities metro and I was able to avoid that storm. I saw reports of hail up to four inches in size. No thank you, that would destroy my Jeep and I was focused on finding some rotation and maybe a lightning strike or two.
Just north of Medford, MN, I stopped to check the data since Minnesota is now Hands Free and I can’t use half of my equipment while chasing. Saw the data and the MD for a possible watch that I posted earlier today. I checked the weather data and yes, it was MOIST!
Kestrel 5000 showing it was MOIST!
The problem with today was the upper level winds. The storms had some sheer and were rotating but they were not moving all that fast and pretty much sat in place as they grew and started raining and eventually rained themselves out and created outflow and new storms.
The first storm of the day near Owatonna, MN was trying but it was just not that impressive while the original target area did have a storm that was over 51,000 feet tall. So I headed southwest and intercepted the storm near Amboy, MN . Below is a photo of the storm as it was growing before it became outflow dominate.
Severe Storm brewing near Amboy, MN
When I got over to the base of this storm, it split but I followed this to Blue Earth, MN and into Iowa.
North of Blue Earth, MN Blue Earth, MN Wall Cloud forming and weak rotation. Lowering and rotation near Blue Earth, MN
*** Update *** I was going to just edit the video later today (Tuesday) but I started reviewing the footage and I actually got a brief touch down when I continued to follow the storms into Winnebago County, Iowa and I was pretty much shocked that it showed up on the camera but I could not see it but then again I had so much going on at that time with three different cameras and watching out for the storm that was about to slam the area I was at.
Here is the video from Winnebago County, IA
Winnebago County, IA Tornado, Funnel, Lightning Time-Lapse – 8/5/2019
In the field now, decided to chase today. Targeting south central Minnesota and an MD just came out. Heading down to Owatonna now.
Mesoscale Discussion 1646
NWS Storm Prediction Center Norman OK
0118 PM CDT Mon Aug 05 2019
Areas affected...parts of central and northern Wisconsin...southern
Minnesota...and adjacent northern Iowa
Concerning...Severe potential...Watch likely
Valid 051818Z - 052015Z
Probability of Watch Issuance...80 percent
SUMMARY...Severe potential is forecast to gradually increase across
the discussion area, on the southern fringe of ongoing convection.
Watch issuance is likely.
DISCUSSION...Latest radar loop shows a band of thunderstorms moving
east across western Upper Michigan and northern Wisconsin, while
additional storms are increasing in coverage along the southern
fringe of the ongoing band -- and westward along remnant outflow
over southern Minnesota.
The airmass ahead of the storms/convective outflow continues to
heat/destabilize, with objective analysis showing 2000 to 3000 J/kg
mixed-layer CAPE -- in line with the 17Z special RAOB from MPX.
Latest VWPs, and the MPX RAOB, show low-level southerly/
southwesterly flow veering to northwesterly aloft, and increasing
40-plus knots at mid levels. Resulting shear is supportive of
organized/long-lived storms, and is contributing to an
intense/long-lived updraft which moved through the Minneapolis metro
area and has produced hail to tennis-ball size.
As storms continue to increase -- and likely organize eventually
into a south/southeastward-moving MCS, risk for severe weather will
likewise ramp up. As such, WW issuance will become increasingly
likely over the next hour or so.
..Goss/Dial.. 08/05/2019
Welcome to the first look at the reboot of the Behind The Chase, the StormChasingVideo.com blog video or “VLOG” that I never had a chance to do and was not sure what direction to take it. Now that the personal site is updated and up and running, time to give it another chance with weekly and several times a week in depth behind the chase info.
In this Behind The Chase, I bring you along on a chase where you don’t have to sit and watch it live and wait for something to happen. Now were editing the video after the chase to virtually ride along with us.
In this episode, ride along with for a behind the scenes look at the Sherburne County, MN, Intense Hail Storm – 7/26/2019. Yes, I’m a huge Rush fan and see if you can catch my Rush reference in the video about the hail storm.
The Behind The Chase video’s are going to be unlisted and published here first on my personal website for at least a half day before being made public on Youtube.
I have to get the pages up and running for the give away to have all the legal stuff to comply with Youtube terms of service for give away and contest rules. I will be working on that tomorrow for the next video. Until then, enjoy a sneak peak at the reboot of Behind The Chase.
Hey Weather Paparazzi fan’s, just an update from the weekend as it was decent. On Friday I told Nick and Mandy that I was taking Sunday off and they said no, it’s a chase day but I said it was a chill day for my Birthday and wanted to just sleep in and relax. Well I did get just that. Neva kept Laura from waking me up and I actually slept until a little past noon, and it was amazing! For those of you that don’t have kids, you won’t understand and for those of you that do, you get it.
I know some thought I was being a downer on the storms yesterday since it did look good but I just wanted a chill day. Well the MD came out, then the tornado watch and finally a tornado warning, all while watching the radar and I told Neva I had to go chase as the storm over Saint Cloud was about about to produce.
As soon as I drove over to the east side of town… BULLETIN – EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED Tornado Warning National Weather Service Twin Cities/Chanhassen MN 337 PM CDT Sun Jul 28 2019
The National Weather Service in The Twin Cities has issued a
* Tornado Warning for… Southeastern Benton County in central Minnesota… Northwestern Sherburne County in central Minnesota…
* Until 415 PM CDT.
* At 336 PM CDT, a severe thunderstorm capable of producing a tornado was located near Clear Lake, or 10 miles east of St. Cloud, moving northeast at 30 mph.
HAZARD…Tornado.
SOURCE…Radar indicated rotation.
Here are some images of the chase. And no these are not watermarked as they are on MY website under my terms of service and no they may not be reproduced on your site.
7/28/2019 Chase
7/28/2019 Chase
7/28/2019 Chase
7/28/2019 Chase
7/28/2019 Chase
7/28/2019 Chase
And then there was the chase from Nick and Mandy down south who called this one on Friday, yes, 48 hours before the chase. Again, SCV images, they are contracted with SCV, I own SCV and the images are hosted on company property and this website so no fair use allowed 🙂
And here is their video from yesterday.
Biscay, MN Violent Tornado And Destroyed Buildings – 7/28/2019
