Saturday Morning Northern lights, fog, and first fall colors.

My first attempt at photographing the Auroras. It didn't go that great, since the main event was over before I could get the camera ready. I still got some of the faint afterglow, with some help from saturation enhancement, I have some nice color. Next time I need to be ready before it happens.

I took these at the Elk lake boat ramp, near Zimmerman MN

After it got too light to see anything up there, I drove around the area and took a few photos of the fog and colors.

Sun Halo

I saw this on a the way home from a run to Rochester and had to get a few shots!

Sunset near Princeton MN August 23

August 6th Thunderstorms

I went up near the Annandale area to catch some storms moving southeast. The top one was severe warned and had some weak rotation, but I didn't see anything severe. it had some pretty structure for a while. Then I got on the back of the bottom storm for some lightning action. A fun short Saturday evening chase.

July 30th Thunderstorm from St.Cloud to Buffalo MN

I followed the storm from St. Cloud to Buffalo, rapidly clearing skies behind the updraft made for nice structure and lightning photos.

SW Minnesota 7-23

I was hoping to chase some storms yesterday afternoon in SW Minnesota, the Morning thundershowers, and persistent cloud cover kept pushing things south. I got fairly close to the action area, but decided I would rather enjoy the light on the way home, than join the crowds.

the only photo I got of the storms

North Dakota storm chase 7-17

I had a family picnic to go to Sunday, but it was cancelled due to the heat and slight risk of severe storms. I saw Jacob Thumberger on face book who is an expert storm chaser I met at Campus Pizza in the spring. I asked him if he was going out chasing and if he had an empty seat where I could come along.
He was planning on going out with his family and wasn't sure where, but he invited me to follow along, so now I had my new plans for the day, yes! I got a little late start and couldn't catch up to him, which was frustrating at the time, but ended up working out good for me. Nothing going on in MN but some weak thundershowers. Later I saw that he was going up well into North Dakota to chase a large supercell that did not seem to be going anywhere fast. I was a little skeptical that the thing would stick around that long, But Jacob knows storms well, and why not? I love a good road trip anyways, and it was too hot to go fishing!
I stopped to gas up in Fargo and bought a ND atlas, which was a trip saver for sure!
Soon I could see the anvil in the distance! Jacob was already up there, a bit north of I94, along with quite a few other chasers and spotters there, or on the way.
I figured out what road I wanted to take up, coming up from valley City but I blew right by it because it was not well marked and did not show up on my Tomtom. By then I had my eye on another storm to the west of Jamestown that was looking really crisp on my laptop radar app.
I called JT to get a report, but no answer, so I left a message, that I was going to keep heading west and check out the new storm that no one was on yet.
So I was driving right by the storm I drove all that way to see!
When I got to it, I knew right away I had made the right choice! 

I intercepted just south west of Jamestown and was greeted by this nice flanking line and sunlit anvil

Jacob called me to see how it was going, and said he was heading over too. I asked where a good place to stop and watch, he mentioned the small town of Sydney, that turned out to be really nothing more than an intersection of two dirt roads less than a  mile west of the US highway281. That turned out to be perfect. I was right in the clearing near the hook shape on radar, and had a nice view of a lot of neat stuff. Unfortunately after the long drive with the AC on the hot inflow hit my cold camera when I got out and it was fog up time. I was unable to get any pictures. My smaller camera worked ok though and I took a short clip of something that looked like a tornado, but it was too far away to tell if it was rotating, and lack of damage reports in the area, means it was most likely just a look alike.
Soon the storm was getting way too close and started fling a few nickle sized hail stones my way, so I bailed out of there and soon was on the highway heading south. Once I got a reasonable distance from the core, I started looking for a got road heading east. I chose county road 34, north of Berlin, and it turned out to be a good choice, narrow, but paved, and plenty of slots on the side to park and see the approaching storm!
I drove along the road stopping to take some photos and moving east as the storm followed me, an almost perfect setup!


I found that my camera kept coming back to this area, an absolutely sick looking structure with a huge inflow tail going towards the core, and wrapping around! About that time Jacob reported spotting a tornado somewhere north of me on spotter network and was making a video, and there was a report made about baseball sized hail, so I was not about to let the core catch up to me!

I moved a bit more and got more shots, this time I barely could make out an ominous looking cone shape in the dark wrap around area. I snapped a couple pics really quick, but it soon got overrun by the core, and could not see it again to make a positive ID. Later reports and a little help on the contrast slider in my photo editor revealed that indeed I was looking at the tornado that Jacob was filming.
I attempted a video in case it reappeared, but it was just solid rain and hail.
Unfortunately at some point it turned violent and demolished a home, the couple that lived there decided to ride out the storm in there and were uninjured. They were interviewed and explained they had climbed into a storm shelter they had just made not too long ago!

After most of the structure disappeared in the core and it was getting too close for comfort a bailed east on cr34 taking pics on the way.
I got a shot of the inflow tail, wow!

I wish I would have noticed the car coming, maybe I would have thought to try to stop him, as he was heading straight into the core. he must have found a left turn somewhere, or he would have got a nasty surprise!

Looking west, right down the inflow, as the beast crosses the road near where I got the most photos! Now just a massive black and green wall of huge hail, rain and the tornado somewhere in there!

by then it was getting close enough to my to fling some more stones, so I bailed for Grand Rapids, then headed southeast til I was clear. I took another turn east at LaMoure, to Verona, and then south to Oakes, taking a few pictures along the way, but not getting far enough away to see any good outer structure.

Until I got to the town of Oakes, where the storm was looking like it might be getting more linear. It was now forming a nifty looking layered shelf that needed some pictures taken. I wish I would have noticed the power lines and moved a bit for this photo. oh the mistakes photographers can make  when they see something exciting!

I was thinking this was it, and time to head home, when I noticed a wall cloud from another cell just to the west back lit by the sun!
It was one right turn I was glad I made, after driving up one of the areas interesting "lake" roads...

I came upon the sight that really made my day!

What a beauty! sadly it was cut off from inflow be the bigger storm and was not going to last long, half the wall cloud was gone already. Why did I not notice that power line and pole and move a bit? Luckily I did take a few sans pole! There was still plenty of eye and photo candy left to enjoy as the storm died off, I will let the pictures finish the story.

I just noticed this tonight. I ignored this photo and thought is was worthless because it is somewhat out of focus, I looked at the little lowering in the middle, and looked at the order it was a few frames before the tornado photos! and it was in the same part of the storm as where the tornado would be after I moved away from it a bit. Could this be the beginnings of the Berlin Tornado? I think it could be!