Chase Logs 2007
Slammed into the Cage: Multi-Storm/Heavy Rain Event
August 13, 2007
6:00pm-11:45pm
Anoka, MNNote: Written between November 2007 and January 2008
Like numerous other storm events, tonight's light show developed over central Minnesota during the dinnertime hour to the west and south of St. Cloud. The SPC called for a moderate risk of severe weather stretching down the 1-94 corridor from Alexandria to La Crosse, WI. So if anything were to form, I'd have a backyard storm chase. The cell line migrated southeastward throughout the waning hours of the afternoon, and began obscuring the sunlight over Anoka shortly before 8:00pm (photo 1 below). Severe weather warnings cropped up for Sherburne and Isanti counties shortly thereafter and I drove to the Anoka High School parking lot to capture the storm as it moved in. The entire day had been characterized by strong southerly winds, and the encroaching storm only helped to amplify them. I had to brace the car door open in the parking lot as I set up the camera gear; the wind whistled through the tripod, nearly knocking it over at times. Using the car to shield me from the wind and blowing sand, I began firing away on one of the cells directly to the north, which was producing a substantial amount of C-G and C-C lightning. The swirling wind made it difficult to keep the camera still, but I finally captured a C-G bolt to the NE at 8:40pm (photo 3 below). To the NW in the orange glow of the setting sun, two stacked thunderheads drew ever closer to Anoka, occasional lightning bolts spitting from their bases (photos 4 and 5 below). With the weather radio blaring out reports of golftball sized hail north of Elk River and the sunlight fading fast, I decided to pull out and head for the shelter of home a mile or so away.
Airborne branches and twigs bounced off the car as I turned into the neighborhood. Suddenly the weather radio squealed to life with a tornado warning for Anoka county. A funnel was reported SE of Elk River and moving towards Anoka. The sirens commenced within seconds, and my cell phone began ringing off the hook with calls from my mom and Dan about what this storm was doing. I floored it into the garage and ran into the house to check the radar. I didn't see anything prominent on the images, but I didn't take any chances and sent my mom and brother to the basement. I busted out the camcorder and began filming the sky from my driveway. Stretching from west to east was a very peculiar cloud that I could only see between lightning flashes. It was shaped like a funnel, but it was in the wrong location. I watched it for awhile longer and decided that it was a gust front/shelf cloud moving overhead. The video stills of this cloud are below.
Then the rain began in torrents. Even moving about five feet into the garage didn't shield me from the wind blown rain. I took shelter behind a cooler near the garage door and continued filming, my camcorder-armed hand stretched out above the cooler while I lay protected behind it. Potent lightning bolts ensued shortly thereafter, the thunder at times knocking me back with its intensity. A sequence of video stills of one of these bolts is below.
After twenty minutes the rain subsided, but ramped up just a few minutes later as a second cell flew in on the heels of the first. More close lightning strikes ensued, but this storm quickly pulled out by 11:15pm. I stashed the camcorder for the night and brought out the DSLR for a little fun. I shot a few lightning flashes from inside the garage before moving outside. A few impressive crawlers exploded from the departing storm; I captured one of these in the photo set below (middle photo). Note my weather station on the far left of the photo. :-)
The storm departed just as quickly as it arrived, and was but a distant memory by 11:45pm.
