David Drufke, Minneapolis photographer, storm chasing, sports, outdoor » Tornado

Storm Chasing: June 21 Alden Minnesota Tornado Video

David — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 04:09:11 +0000

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Check the posts below for all the details.

Here’s the video in HD.
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Storm Chasing: June 21, 2009 Tornado In Minnesota

David — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 21:40:04 +0000

After spending an entire afternoon last week baking in the sun on Thursday’s Mod Risk/Hatched Tornado area bust, I waited until initiation with the intention of catching up with the storms a few hours after initiation in Iowa. That plan was shot down by I-35 construction zone traffic which added more than an hour and a half to our trip. It all work out though as storms fired just west of Albert Lea.

We randomly ran into our normal chase partner Bill Doms, who was already on the storm. Our tornado warned target storm didn’t produce in our presence, but a storm to it’s south gave us a funnel cloud and two tornadoes before nightfall.

We have good video for once, which should be up later in the week.

All 2008 Storm Chasing accounts now posted.

David — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 02:14:57 +0000

All 2008 Storm Chasing accounts now posted. They are all back dated to the date of the event, so select “Storm Chasing” from the catagories menu or just scroll backwards through the blog to view these events.

Storm Chasing: June 11th, 2008 Tornado Outbreak in Iowa

David — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 19:08:11 +0000

Both of these images were taken in very low light. Everything today was wrapped in rain. It was a somewhat dangerous chase day for this reason, with two very experienced chasers getting hit by a tornado to our south. Both were ok. Both of these images were taken in northwest Iowa. Our prayers are with the families of the boy scouts killed in today’s storms.

A lowering descends after dark

A rotating thunderstorm approaches after dark

Storm Chasing: June 7th Iowa Tornado Outbreak

David — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 19:57:47 +0000

I didn’t expect this day to do much. Bill called, but I wasn’t inspired to get out the door. By noon, after watch my friend, the Sig Tor parameter, climb to levels I like to see, and storm development looking imminent, I was out the door for a relatively close storm chase. I headed out to southeast Minnesota and northeast Iowa for an unexpected tornado outbreak. It wasn’t the most beautiful day, and everything seemed to be concealed by rain, but more often than not, I ended up in the right place at the right time and saw between two and four tornadoes. I saw two tornadoes, strongly rotating rain bands which could have been a tornado, and 4 minutes of ground rotation, which could have been either a tornado or gustnado. I also determined I need to shoot more video. Awesome rotation this day.

[Edit: After review pictures showing debris in the air and vertical bands connecting the ground to the wall cloud, I'm convinced the rotation witness first was a multi-vortex tornado.]

A multi-vortex tornado sweeps across a turkey farm in Iowa causing damage.

A gustnado/tornado moves east on the leading edge of the storm base. I am looking south with rain to my north and west.

[caption id="attachment_144" align="alignnone" width="414" caption="The gustnado/tornado was on the ground for about 5 minutes."][/caption]

I took some artistic strokes to this image of a dying thunderstorm.

[caption id="attachment_146" align="alignnone" width="869" caption="A wall cloud is kicked out of a dying thunderstorm."][/caption]

Storm Chasing: May 25th, 2008 Hugo Tornado

David — Sun, 25 May 2008 22:57:07 +0000

Kristen and I met up with Bill and Cullen Doms in the far northwestern suburbs where thunderstorms were forecast to develop. A thunderstorm developed and quickly moved east. We eventually fell 10 minutes behind in the north metro area construction and road closings, but were witness to a path of destruction of a tornado moving east. Unable to catch up, we headed home on I-35E and once again encountered the tornado’s path were it had crossed the highway, knocking down trees and branches.

Storm Chasing: May 22, 2008 Kansas Tornado Outbreak

David — Fri, 23 May 2008 01:37:24 +0000

AMAZING, CRAZY, INTENSE.

After waking up in 4 inches of mud in the Badlands of South Dakota surrounded by buffalo, we headed down into Nebraska, and eventually into northwest Kansas. We found a good area to intercept storms that were forming along I-70 and moving north. We settled in around Hoxie, Kansas. The first storm with an incredible wall cloud and distant tornado blew by us too far to our east.

A distant wall cloud. We couldn't catch it or keep up, but it did produce a very distant tornado.

We had better luck with one of the next storms, watching a thin tornado from several miles away. We pulled off the main road, just onto a dirt road at the top of a hill to watch this tornado. This decision made things “interesting.”

Video One, distant tornado

After this tornado roped out, I immediately noticed an area in the cloud base getting a little stirred up. This area was very close, and we were right in the path of this area, so I decided it was time to move out of it’s way. As I went to back up onto the main paved road, we lost traction and started sliding down the hill. Further attempts to reverse up the hill brought us sliding further down and almost off the road. By this time a full fledged tornado had developed and was closing fast. I decided to drive all the way down the hill, turn around, and get a running start. This proved successful, and Kristen started rolling video, eventually shooting out the sunroof. Another tornado developed. See John Wetter’s video to see both tornadoes on the ground. We were much too close to get both in the frame. We raced about a mile up the road and let both tornadoes cross the road behind us. As those tornadoes died, another tornado developed VERY close, causing us to race down the road a half mile to watch it churn away at the spot our car had been only moments before. It raced north, going multi-vortex and eventually becoming very wedge-like before disappearing into the precipitation.

Video Two – Much more exciting

This was Kristen’s second storm chase, and her 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, and possibly 7th tornadoes. She did a great job with the video, as a first time videography.