March 25 2007

Not the best day, but I've had worse

Melanie Metz, David Drufke and myself teamed up for our first chase of the year.  Target was Albert Lea, MN.  Knew we were in trouble as the temps rose into the mid- 70's leaving the dewpoints far behind.  The huge spread coupled with totally unidirectional winds was not favorable for tornadoes by any means but as they say, a bad day fishing still beats a good day at work.  This applies to the first chase of the year also. Cumulus field struggles to get going as we wait in Albert Lea with Eric and Carie Whitehill, Tony Perkins and Doug Keisling.

A line of cells begins to develop as we move a little to the north towards Owatonna.  A nice rain foot begins to take shape.

We opt to play the odds and take the southern cell hoping the near storm environment will help us overcome the temp/dewpoint spread.  Scud tags begin to be ingested as the storm gets a severe warning put on it.  Shortly after this, the cell to the north becomes tornado warned despite feeding off cold inflow from this cell.

Near Kenyon in Goodhue County the base tried to develop a wall cloud but the unidrectional winds and southwest inflow would keep stretching it off to the northeast.  The storm motion was 40 mph at this point.

Video grab from north of Wannamingo, MN the cell once again tried to get a wall cloud going.

Another video grab a few minutes later.  This was about as good as it got.  Shortly after the storm became totally stretched with a lack of directional shear.

Cell takes on a shelfy appearance as it merges with a strong cell to the north and weaker cells to the south.

Dave, Melanie and I agree to drop the cell near Red Wing, MN and let it go into Wisconsin on the other side of the river.

Not the best chase ever but not a bad way to get the season going up here.  The sunset was a good one and yes, that is ICE covering a lake near my home still!  Gotta love early spring chases in Minnesota.

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