May 6 was an incredible day. It was to be the “day after the big day” type scenario. On May 5, a couple of weak tornadoes occurred, but did not destroy the set up for May 6. The morning models showed an explosive situation with over 5,000 j/kg of CAPE, strong westerly 500 mb winds across southern Oklahoma, and an old boundary. We headed south towards the Ardmore area to play the better shear, and much to our dismay, severe thunderstorms developed back in Oklahoma City where we had come from. The temptation to go back and chase these cells was short lived as two explosive supercells developed in a north/south line from Springer to Overbrook. The first storm produced the first tornado below, an F2 that was gorgeous. The second storm also produced an F2 near the town of Overbrook. Finally we ended up near Denton, Texas chasing a gorgeous LP supercell that is shown in the last photos.
May 1st, 2001 Glenville, Minnesota Tornadoes
The day of May 1, 2001 will live a long time in my mind. The day started out with a potentially explosive situation in northwest Iowa and southwest Minnesota. A strong low with associated warm front was approaching the area from South Dakota, as well as a pronounced dry punch from Nebraska. Our thoughts were to get in position at the nose of the dry punch. Several tornadic supercells developed in Minnesota before we could make it there. However, little did we know that the tail end storm, the Glenville storm, was to be the most spectacular show of the day, and maybe of the season. The cell developed in Winnebago county, Iowa and intensified as it crossed the border into Minnesota. It rapidly developed one of the most incredible large rotating wall clouds I have ever seen, followed by an awesome tornado. Unfortunately it hit parts of the town of Glenville. A second even larger tornado developed after an occlusion near the town of Austin, Minnesota, followed by a third “Wizard of Oz” type tornado near Rosebud, Minnesota.
May 11th, 2000 Dunkerton, Iowa F3 Tornado
This is the second damaging tornado from the cyclic supercell on May 11, 2000 in Blackhawk county, Iowa. This tornado formed to the southeast of the decaying original tornado and ended up damaging part of the town of Dunkerton. Unfortunately, Dunkerton had been damaged in 1999 by floods, and now was to suffer again only a year later. The tornado traveled in a northeast direction and clipped the western side of town causing up to F3 damage to some buildings.
