June 20, 2014
Statistics
Glen Ellyn, IL 7:30 AM 6/20/2014
Sioux Falls, SD 8:00 PM 6/20/2014
Summary
First day as driver for COD Trip 5. Targeted Siouxland area for elevated/marginally severe clusters of cells. Noted mammatus, convection, and anvil debris from disorganized clusters. River crossing along Missouri blocked due to flooding so detoured well north to Sioux Falls for night.
Crew and Equipment
Chase partners: College of DuPage Trip 5. Equipment: Canon 60D, Canon t2i, Canon EFS 10-22, Canon EF 50mm, Sony HDR-xr500v..
Video
Map
Details
In June of 2014 I had the privilege of being a driver for the College of DuPage storm chasing program trip number 5. We were scheduled for 10 days of chasing between June 20 and June 30 with a total of fifteen on the trip. Victor Gensini, meteorology professor at COD was leading the tour, with Kim Hoogewind, a meteorologist out of Indiana, as assistant. I’d be driving van 1 and Dan Murray would be driving van 2. These were huge vans compared to my little minivan and the first couple hours on the road were spent getting acquainted with the rather unwieldy, large vehicle and meeting everyone on the trip. We were rolling bright and early by 7:30 am, heading up into Wisconsin for some marginally severe play near Sioux Falls.
We stopped in La Crosse, WI for lunch at Jimmy John’s before continuing on down 90 across southern Minnesota. Storm clusters with marginally severe weather were expected across northeastern Nebraska into Iowa and Minnesota. We weren’t expecting too much, but this was a great warm up day to get familiar with chasing with COD and get acquainted with the group so we’d be ready for bigger days. We cut southwest into northwest Iowa after some strengthening storms, stopping outside to watch some faint mammatus and distant convection.
Victor booked us rooms in Sioux Falls, SD for the night. We tried to take a direct course there but the Missouri River was overflowing its banks. We came to several crossings that were flooded over and closed before finally being able to cross at Canton, SD and stopping at Old Chicago in Sioux Falls for dinner.
Conclusion
Our first scheduled day out for Trip 5 was pretty lackluster, but we were just happy to get out there, get settled and acquainted with everyone on the trip, and see a little weather before building up to some real storms and chasing.
Lessons Learned
- If the Missouri is flooding you may have to go well out of your way to find a major crossing that is traversible.
