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Well this turned into a pretty long weekend. I had agreed to house sit for my parents while they went out of town. I planned on maybe having a party(chaser video party). That idea was quickly replaced by the chase op coming up for this day, though I would still be house sitting. One problem I have with chasing is not always going to bed when I should the night before a chase. To add to this I often have a hard time shutting my mind off once I realize I have to fall asleep soon(excited about the next day). Well this time I added even more things, like the 3 cokes I drank between midnight and 3 a.m. Then around 3 a.m. a pretty good lightning show rolled into town and I wanted to watch it, even though it was mostly all cc(cloud to cloud). So all that plus a few pets and I wind up with 1-2 hours of sleep. By 4 a.m. I was attempting to sleep. I set the alarm for 9:30 and figured I'd be ok if I could fall asleep sometime soon. Well nothing screws with falling asleep more than trying to do so.
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Here's the "sleeping" conditions, or at least one part of it. I had Roy here wanting to sleep with me, as well as Jon(the other collie of similar size), plus two cats switching places from time to time. At one point I'm on the left side here and Roy is about in the middle next to me. Then Jon jumps up and squeezes between us. I'm laying on my back and Jon turns his head at an awkward 90 degree angle from his body and has it laying across my stomach...sound asleep. Finally he moves his head so I turn over and continue to try to fall asleep. It was now getting later and later. I'd sit there and notice how much time I was losing between the present and 9:30 and try harder to sleep. So I'm about to sleep(that zone where your thoughts slowly start to go into a dream state) when Jon next to me starts dreaming and moves. Arrrrggghh. Then I'm wide awake again. I think between 5:30 and 6:30 is when I might have gotten real sleep(yeah a whole hours worth). Once I got up at 6:30 I just said screw it. So this is how my chase day starts. I look at stuff online and didn't care for the cloud cover over most of southern SD, but head north anyway. Before doing so I had to stop at my appartment and check on my new cat "Chase", the one I picked up after a chase in IA late at night. I had finally gotten him in to get his first shots and wormer pill just 2 days earlier. Well the days after that he was slowly acting different. He became anti-social and would move when I'd pet him and lay down in another spot. So before I head north I stop and find he's in VERY bad shape now. His eyes had that really out of it look to them. I tried to get him to stand and he'd just fall back down. To see just how bad he is I grab some deli meat from the fridge and try to get him to eat it. I sit it right infront of his nose and it was like it wasn't even there. He just didn't move his head or eyes. So, I call the vet and get him back in at 10:45. They give him a few shots and keep him over night. I really didn't know what to expect as they said he was in pretty bad shape as well. So I leave him there with them and head north. By the evening I get a call from them saying he's responding very well and will probably be ok. They treated him for the symptoms but never really said what it was for sure. I can't see how it couldn't be related to the vaccination shots or wormer pill since he started this change right after he got those. But anyway, I picked him up this morning(Monday) and he's acting better and happier than he has most of the time I've had him. He even played with the one toy on his own, something I've never seem him do.
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When I left I hoped somehow se SD would work out so I could keep from having a real long drive back home. Having really gotten no sleep I knew a drive back from ND would really be tough. Well things didn't work out that way. The cloud cover in SD was killing temps. The convective temps in this area were high to begin with, cover the area with much of any clouds all day and your chance at surface based convection goes to hell fast. In talking with Steve Peterson much of the day we both agreed we'd probably have to be north of this area or south back in NE. The problem with NE was the temp would be near 100 with dew points in the 60s if you were lucky. The other problem down there was lack of mid-level flow. Up north closer to and in ND the 700mb temps started to drop off pretty quick and there was more cooling coming in aloft. There was also a nice jet max coming around the base of the trough. My last wifi stop was in Watertown SD. I sat there for 30-60 minutes before having to move due to boredom. This can drive a chaser up the wall if they are in a target too early with nothing to do. Before I left I could see what looked like a new enhanced area of cu on the SD/ND border. Shortly after this an MD was issued for central SD into NE. I leave there and head north a few miles and stop on a country road. From there I couldn't see a whole hell of a lot other than some very high based small towers. I could not see this area to the nw with my eyes, but since I had xm running I figured I could wait for it to move to me. Getting bored again I drift north some more. While doing this a few small blips are popping up in western MN into se ND west of Fargo. They were very small and I figured they could just be the same as the excessively high based thing I saw before. It seems many times if the first returns are absurdly tiny that they will never grow into much(with their bases aoa 10,000 feet lol). I really thought that was the case with these since I still had no visual on them and they were so small. I just about pull off again near Sisseton SD when I see a real tower well to the nw. I pass the exit and drive towards it. It became quite clear this was real convection, not this tiny high based stuff in the area. The above image is this tower as I'm getting closer to the ND border on I-29. What was nice about this was that I couldn't see a thing south of it. The tower is towards the left side of the image(obviously), you can see the anvil being sheared east of it. There wasn't much to the anvil yet, but this would change soon. I was glad it was still struggling since I wasn't quite there yet. This would be the same return I could see on xm to the west of Fargo.
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I'm now heading west off of I-29 at the Whapeton exit. This very intense plume goes up, marking its entry into the severe world. It was not severe warned yet, but seeing this I knew it soon would be, which it was. I believe the bottom of this tower is actually in to the right a bit under those mid-level clouds, showing just how much it is spreading horizontally as it goes up. Those other towers to the left did not look like they were extending up very far.
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Not long after it was severe warned it became tornado warned. Notice it already has a very large, curling rfd. I'm at the intersection of 18 and 27 in Richland Co. ND.
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This is the same time as the above image but looking to the right/east. Notice it had a couple beavertails at this point. As far as tornadoes go, this storm just seemd much too elongated, but things can and do change.
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I'm in the same spot for the next few images as a strong rfd plows to the ese.
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Time to go east.
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Going east towards Colfax ND now. It's rapidly turning into quite the site.
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Still going east. It can be a bit hard to get a level horizon while driving(I probably had to level this in PS). It was really trying to get nice and round, but as soon as it would it would change back into a more linear nature.
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Looking west. Right now this storm is forming a hook on radar. This will continue to hook for a few frames and then an area to the west takes over and too forms a hook. You can see the base out there and kind of tell where this gust front/rfd detaches from it.
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Looking back to the north as it approaches, fairly rapidly now.
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The shape and texture to the clouds above the base at this time were very cool looking.
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I could see an area notching in pretty hard and thought it might stand a chance at producing soon. So I decide to get right under that clear slot(hoping for maybe some wind and hail) and watch the base to the north of it.
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It had a good deal of motion in it but no one area could continue cutting around. I'm just a mile or so west of Colfax now and encounter up to severe winds with no hail. Right after this the eastern area here dies a quick death east of I-29.
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I head south as the base back to the west was somewhat interesting. Note the clouds above me here. They are on the gust front and outflow from the storm that is vanishing east on/east of I-29. This new development is largely behind that.
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Right now this new area west of the old one is forming a hook on radar. The base of it and this lowering are now kind of catching that outflow from the first one.
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I almost continued chasing it but it just looked bad now(note the very short updraft now). I also had a very long drive ahead of me on very little sleep. I let it go here and make the drive home. I was surprised I did not get more tired than I did. I made it home around 2 a.m.
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