Rich Gudmenson and I headed down towards Mankato around 3:00 after the SPC issued an MD for the southern half of Minnesota. Things didnt look good up until mid-afternoon, but then things changed. It wasnt long after we got to Mankato that a cell popped just west of Buffalo (only about 50 miles west of both our homes, instead of 90 miles south to Mankato). We headed back up to Buffalo as this storm just blew up right in front of our faces. Meso markers started showing up and stuck on it even after the warning was cancelled for the storm. Around 6:00 we finally intercepted it around Montrose and watched as the shelf cloud pretty much hugged the ground. After we watched the shelf, headed back west to an area where we both thought we had seen a couple hooks try to form. End up not seeing much of anything once we got there, but a lot of SLC's. I have to say, this was on of the weirdest looking storms I have ever seen on radar, and cant even count the number of times we saw this thing cycle. Started heading home around 8:00 and got some more pics on the way home of other storms in the area. None of my pics are really that great, I picked a bad time to try and play with the settings. Stats: 1 severe storm watch, 1 severe warning, 1 storm, 236 miles.
Shelf cloud near Montrose:
Another look at the shelf cloud that is basically hugging the ground
Highway to hell:
Trying to become a wall cloud but never does:
More pics:
http://midweststormchaser.tripod.com/august11th2007
Linear Mode
