6/17/2010 - Northwest Iowa Storms

Frustrating day as I apparently missed Ma' Nature's target for the day -- she forgot to let me in on her secret. I left DeKalb around 7:30 am and targeted the area of nw IA around Storm Lake. I arrived with plenty of CAPE, 200+ m2/s2 of SRH, and a focused supercell composite maximum, yet ended up with nothing more than storms that crapped out on me early on and reformed later into a line with only transient mesocyclones (albeit, tor warned). The main show occurred over the border in MN near the I-35 and I-90 interchange. Once I realized that these initially crappy storms well ahead of the cold front were going to be the main show, it was too late. I'm still not sure why the initial storms I was on near Storm Lake didn't go crazy considering the environment they were in, but my assumption is that mixing was simply a bit too much for the early on convection and pressure falls to the north killed the directional shear for the later storms. Anyway, I was treated to a couple of wrapped up mesos along the line and then, later, a whale's mouth that tried to munch me.

Member of the second round of storms that formed into a line, which had transient supercellular structure/mesocyclones. These were tor-warned, but quickly became undercut each time they'd wrap up.

Late evening storm near Algona, IA, which produced quite a bit of nontornadic wind damage in town.

Another view of a wrap-up to the northeast of Algona, but clearly outflow dominant.

Twilight whale's mouth in Clear Lake, IA -- nothing more frustrating than stop lights and traffic when you have a storm moving at you at 55 mph.

Amazing whale's mouth perspective as I hop on I-35 south.