Another line out quasi-bust in western Iowa that looked promising at the start. But hey, that's what you get with a cold front.
I actually made a pretty good call heading out to Denison for an initial target. However, having no data, I had no choice but to call some ISU chasing pals who were also out to get some information. Since they went to Harlan (25 miles south), I decided just to join them. Well, the way it turned out, shortly after I joined them in Harlan, we headed back up to Denison and then northwest towards Mapleton. As we neared the town, a cell just west of town went tornado warned, but also went outflow dominant and lost it's potency shortly after.
Unwilling to bust, we began chasing along the front of the line looking for inflow notches and spin ups etc. We zig-zagged down through Ute and Soldier to near Moorhead. We stopped on 300th St. just east of Moorhead, where we witnessed something mysterious and ominous. However, due to rain, it was difficult to confirm anything. What we didn't realize at the time was that we were witnessing the hook of the embedded supercell in the line that produced the Little Sioux Scout Ranch EF3 tornado from just northeast of the apex of the hook. So we could see just along the axis of the hook, so to speak... Here is a video I got from that point.
We moved east a few miles and watched the cell approach, but the storm had so much rain in it that it masked everything as it cruised our way. We had no choice but to continue sliding down the front of the line, hoping to see something. However, all we really saw were shelf clouds, one of which temporarily "ate" us as we raced south.
I gave up the chase at about 9 PM when we were between Treynor and Carson on Highway 92. A few of the other people in the group kept going afterward, but having no data and no light, I decided enough was enough (3 busts in a row as of this day). I headed home.
| The very right edge of the circulation that was the Little Sioux Scout Ranch tornado from just east of Moorhead. |  |
| Taken a few minutes later and a few miles east of the previous picture. By now the hook on the embedded supercell had fully obscured our view of anything tornadic in there. |  |
| A few minutes later still, the storm began to line out around here, as seen by the shelf cloud and "mouth" already getting south of us. |  |
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