June 11, 2001 Tornadoes in western Minnesota
This day featured a very potent set-up across western Minnesota. It was one of those cases where it was possible to pinpoint where the tornadoes would occur several hours prior to their formation. However, it was also an early show. The storm du jour developed explosively near Appleton, Minnesota at about 2:30 pm CDT. From our perspective in Redwood Falls it looked like an atom bomb being detonated to our distant northwest. We wasted no time moving north and west towards the burgeoning supercell. As we got west of Willmar, MN on Hwy 12, we could begin to see a fairly complex milieu unfolding to our west. A mature mesocylone (rotating thunderstorm updraft) was in progress to our west. A dryslot had completely occluded (wrapped around) this low-level mesocyclone, giving the whole thing a whitish/bluish hue as seen in the first few pictures below. Meanwhile, a weak tornado was forming directly ahead of us in front of the mature circulation farther west. All tornadic action was essentially over by 4:30 pm. To read more of an in depth chase summary click here.
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| Our first view of the tornadic storm's underbelly, looking northwest along Hwy 12 from Kerkhoven, MN. The leading edge updraft is visible as a thin dark line at the very top of the picture. Experienced storm chasers can tell that there is a tornado in progress to their distant west. Most motorists driving that way probably cannot. | We are fairly desperate to proceed westward towards the mature, occluded mesocyclone to our west, knowing full well that this is where the major tornado threat exists. Nonetheless, the updraft base directly in front of us is generating a weak tornado, whose dust whirl can be seen just to the south of the road. | A wider perspective of what we shall now call the "Benson" storm reveals a small funnel cloud above the dust whirl - tornado. | Note the vehicles ahead braking as they realize that they are about to drive into a tornado, which is now crossing Hwy 12 just west of Murdock. |
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| The dust whirl tornado strengthens as it moves into a field north of Hwy 12. | A close-up of the debris cloud. It is quite a tight circulation. | Once the weak tornado crosses safely ahead of us, we move quickly west up Hwy 12 towards Benson where a large tornado has now formed within the mature mesocyclone that we've been watching to our west. | Large barrel-shaped tornado on the east side of Benson, doing significant damage at the time of this video capture. |
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| A wide-angle shot of the tornado. Note how the tornado has constricted for a time, with the inner core shrinking somewhat into a stovepipe. | The tornado widens as it moves slowly east and begins to wrap in rain, eventually becoming totally obscured from view. In all, we had a view of the Benson tornado for about 20 minutes. | We follow the supercell storm east towards Willmar, noting new frequent tornado formation at the storm's leading edge. Fearing that we would not be able to stay ahead of the storm on Hwy 12 (it was bearing down on us, bashing us with very large hail) we escaped south letting the storm go. | |