April 14th kept us in the northern plains. The same synoptic warm front/triple point from the 13th, was evident on the 14th centered northwest of Des Moines, Iowa. By mid afternoon storms formed there and intensified as they moved northeast. Near Eldora, Iowa, one supercell cranked up quickly and spun like a top. A rotating wall cloud formed, spinning wildly, and dropped a tornado that skipped across the ground for about 10 minutes causing some damage to farm buildings. After the storm occluded, the cell moved east towards Waterloo and kept having cell mergers which interfered with it’s ability to produce more tornadoes. East of Waterloo, near Masonville, it cranked back up and became tornado warned. A lowering/truncated cone funnel formed and wrapped quickly with rain. It touched down producing some minor damage as it stayed on the ground for several minutes. After it lifted, the storm became rain clogged as more cells developed merging with the parent supercell. At this point, having to be back in Denver the next day, we dropped south to Iowa City and headed west to Lincoln, NE for the night (arriving after midnight!). As did dropped south, another supercell developed a hook and became tornado warned as well. We could see the lowering, which 30 minutes later produced a pretty 3 minute tornado, as we headed westbound for the night. Overall a fun day, great storms, messy tornadoes, but everyone enjoyed it! Enjoy the pics! Video coming soon too!
April 13th Southern Minnesota Tornadoes
April 13th took our on call tour north to a volatile set up along a warm front/triple point over southern Minnesota. Mid afternoon we arrived near Fairmont, MN as the atmosphere became extremely unstable. Several storms developed along the warm front, then crossed it into colder air. These were not tornadic, but produced big hail. Soon, our storm formed west of Truman, MN and anchored on the warm front. You knew that the show was about to begin as it ramped up quickly and grew to over 50,000 feet. A tornado warning we issued as the storm spun had and approached our location. We drifted east with it and a huge bowl shaped lowering formed, and quickly dropped a pretty cone tornado. It stayed on the ground several minutes before lifting. Another elephant trunk shaped tornado formed east of town and was also on the ground for several minutes. It was quite pretty! After it dissipated, a third truncated cone shaped tornado formed and was on the ground for about 5 minutes before lifting. We stayed with the supercell past Minnesota Lake where it continued to be tornado warned, but it did not produce anymore tornadoes. Numerous cell mergers would disrupt the low level mesocyclone until it soon died off. An incredible day with a pretty supercell and 3 tornadoes we were only a mile away from! Enjoy the pics!
April 2nd Eastern Iowa Tornadic Supercell
April 2nd had potential but there were a few flies in the ointment. First would storms form ahead of a surging front? Second would they form north of a warm front? The answer to these questions was soon resolved. An isolated supercell formed ahead of the front/squall line near Ottumwa, also south of the warm front. As it moved northeast, it strengthened and soon became tornado warned. Several times it produced funnels and even a couple of brief tornadoes as it moved just east of Iowa City. Eventually it was absorbed in the surging squall line. Structure on the supercell was decent, and it had low and mid level striations. Wall clouds were persistent the entire time it was tornado warned. It also produce hail to golfball sized. Fun chase day, but it is always difficult to stay up with storms moving at 60 mph!!
