DISC: 8-6-08

Started just a few blocks from home and took this pic of a shelf cloud entering the Cambridge city limit (taken from the old bowling alley parking lot).


Shelf cloud still chuggin' along. Here I was on Isanti County Road 9 near the Isanti/Chisago County line (looking west).


Not long after the pic above, I noticed a small notch forming on the radar. Then while westbound on Anoka County Road 76, near Thames St., there was an area of strong rotation to my south. That would have put it on the northeast side of Martin Lake. MPX apparently confirmed this rotation with Isanti County Skywarn Net Control. This next pic was taken near County Road 76 on Typo Creek Drive.


Still rotating as I headed east on Anoka County Road 22 (Viking Blvd) towards Wyoming.


Rotation had stopped when I was 1-2 miles west of Wyoming so I turned around and started back towards Cambridge. There was another cell that was popping up near Isanti, but it didn't do much--just dropped 1/4" hail for less than a minute at Isanti County Roads 56/23 (the only hail I found today ).

So, driving through Cambridge, I took some pics of the damage (I'm assuming from the strong winds associated with the shelf cloud). Lots of branchs down, including this one that took out a power line (lying in the grass in the bottom, right side of the pic).



Now in my 10th year of spotting/chasing, and this may be my first storm that started with the shelf cloud and then went on to start rotating (and I don't believe that it was at the end of the shelf).

Thanks to Rob for all your help.

For bigger pics, click here to see my chase log. Click on a pic to enlarge it.

This is copied from the Cambridge airport weather station from yesterday. Is it obvious what time the storm rolled in? At 1:55pm it was 79 degrees. Just 20 minutes later, at 2:15pm, the temperature had dropped 16 degrees, down to 63.

06 14:15 NE 6 G 21 10.00 Light Rain SCT044 BKN055 BKN070 63 57 30.05 NA 0.01
06 13:55 NW 14 G 17 10.00 Mostly Cloudy SCT055 SCT070 BKN090 79 57 30.03 NA