weather malfunction

Storm - July 11, 2008
taken by Pockafwye

With apologies to Han Solo...

Uh, we had a slight weather malfunction, but uh... everything's perfectly all right now. We're fine. We're all fine here now, thank you. How are you?

Another storm came through last Friday night, bringing an amazing light show and a frenzy of media coverage. The one confirmed tornado the storm generated that I know of (an EF3) was in Willmar, MN, which is about 90 miles away from us. It clobbered a turkey barn and there were a few injuries, but thankfully no one was killed. (If you are curious, NOAA has posted photos and an official NOAA storm report for this tornado.)

When the storm had passed the power was out, and my Mister joined some of our neighbors outside for a beer and some fireworks. Their conversation eventually turned to food, and prompted us to get together with several folks from the neighborhood for a picnic on Sunday evening. Joe smoked a bunch of ribs in his Weber bullet, and the neighbors brought delicious grilled corn, deviled eggs, blueberries and home made coleslaw.

mn afternoon storm chat

Excerpt of a chat conversation between me and a friend who was working at the other end of town. Obviously my spelling/grammar goes down the tubes when on IM with a good friend.

There's a short video of the storm we're discussing on my flickr page.


( Edit: Here's a local news channel's report on this storm. )



[ ] indicates text changed later for clarity/name removal.

Me:	you there?	12:20:30 PM
Friend:	yeppers	12:22:00 PM
Me:	where'd this thunderstorm come from?	12:22:17 PM
Friend:	thers a storm?	12:22:23 PM
Me:	it was beautiful when I left[*]. Not a cloud in the sky.	12:22:33 PM
	Now lightning and small red squirrels fleeign for cover	12:22:46 PM
Friend:	fun!	12:22:52 PM
Me:	hey... that sounds like hail	12:27:36 PM
	peekign outside	12:27:42 PM
	oh yeah, that's hail alright	12:27:58 PM
	blocks of ice falling from the sky in loud fashion	12:28:12 PM
	in big chunks	12:28:29 PM
	ok, hail stopped. raining now	12:31:46 PM
	not so big. lima bean sized	12:32:03 PM
Friend:	uh oh	12:32:15 PM
	on its way?	12:32:25 PM
Me:	only did it for about 2 mins	12:32:28 PM
Friend:	ok	12:32:32 PM
Me:	lemme look at the radar	12:32:32 PM
	raining hard now	12:32:38 PM
Friend:	rain good - hail - not so much	12:33:02 PM
	unless it takes the roof off my house	12:33:10 PM
	hahahahaha	12:33:11 PM
Me:	take a bit more than this for that	12:33:30 PM
	sirens going off	12:34:09 PM
	Yeah, WCCO shows it moving your way link	12:34:35 PM
Friend:	not good	12:34:59 PM
	maybe it will head more south	12:35:06 PM
Me:	you don't want that.	12:35:15 PM
	the bigger part is north of us	12:35:20 PM
Friend:	ooo	12:35:23 PM
Me:	only a little bit is this far south	12:35:29 PM
	course, only the red bits are over us	12:35:44 PM
Friend:	its dark and stormy looking outside	12:35:58 PM
Me:	cats no likey the sirens	12:36:17 PM
Friend:	I bet not	12:36:40 PM
Me:	and unless it breaks up, it's definitely coming your way. Hail might not go with it though?	12:36:49 PM
Friend:	in bloomington the red parts are north and south of us	12:37:20 PM
	which is good	12:37:22 PM
	heading right ot the airport tho	12:37:42 PM
Me:	yuck	12:38:00 PM
	it's moving fast. shouldn't delay much I'd assume	12:38:11 PM
Friend:	no	12:38:16 PM
Me:	and your hastas should be ok. wasn't a lot of hail	12:38:24 PM
Friend:	yea	12:38:31 PM
Me:	and peppers, and cukes... and tommytoes	12:38:44 PM
	you got tommytoes?	12:38:50 PM
Friend:	lots of tommy toes	12:38:56 PM
Me:	oooooooOOOOoooOOOoooo	12:39:01 PM
	can I has one?	12:39:03 PM
Friend:	if they survive the hails	12:39:13 PM
Me:	shoo hail!	12:39:21 PM
Me:	hmmm rain's gone. sky's a weird sea-green-blue tho	12:39:44 PM
Friend:	thats not good either	12:39:53 PM
Me:	not green green...	12:40:04 PM
Friend:	green usually means bad	12:40:06 PM
Me:	or yellow green	12:40:09 PM
	more robin's egg but not right for sky behind clouds	12:40:21 PM
Friend:	maybe the after hail look	12:40:36 PM
Me:	could be	12:40:41 PM
	I'm not really well versed in rain/hail skys	12:40:56 PM
	California girl	12:41:01 PM
Friend:	basic rule is green is bad	12:41:12 PM
Me:	we got some sleet now and hten	12:41:14 PM
Friend:	get out of the outside	12:41:18 PM
Me:	whew. got that one covered	12:41:27 PM
Friend:	in [South Dakota] the other thing was no wind meant take cover	12:41:37 PM
	only got still before twisters came	12:41:45 PM
Me:	ahhh	12:41:47 PM
	of course. they screwed up the weather patterns	12:41:57 PM
Friend:	yea	12:42:02 PM
	I still get nervous when I realize there is no wind	12:42:12 PM
Me:	NOAA says Chance of precipitation is 60%	12:42:13 PM
Friend:	Id say maybe closer to 100	12:42:24 PM
Me:	ooo it's dark dark dark now	12:42:34 PM
Friend:	round 2	12:42:42 PM
Me:	like after sunset dark	12:42:46 PM
	not nighttime dark	12:42:55 PM
Friend:	like the street lights just came on dark?	12:42:57 PM
Me:	but late dusk	12:43:00 PM
	lemme check	12:43:05 PM
	yup they're on	12:43:21 PM
Friend:	keep an eye on things	12:43:29 PM
	you in a basement?	12:43:36 PM
Me:	curtains are open. near basement	12:43:41 PM
Friend:	good	12:43:44 PM
Me:	watching sky from the couch	12:43:55 PM
Friend:	good	12:43:59 PM
	make sure you can gather the kids [feline variety] in a hurry if you need to	12:44:12 PM
	you should be ok	12:44:18 PM
	but never a bad idea to be ready	12:44:25 PM
Me:	NOAA not reporting any rotation	12:44:35 PM
	just hail	12:44:37 PM
	and "DESTRUCTIVE WINDS IN EXCESS OF 70 MPH"	12:44:56 PM
	buckets of rain falling now	12:45:19 PM
	visibility just decreased significantly	12:45:39 PM
	going to take a photo out the door. brb	12:45:45 PM

A shot of the storm, taken from my front door.

Me:	wind blowing rain sideways across roofs	12:48:22 PM
	lightning	12:48:28 PM
	sky is really dark now	12:48:36 PM
	some hail again, not much	12:48:46 PM
	lightning and much greener sky	12:49:07 PM
	kind of ugly green gray	12:49:26 PM
Friend:	let me peek here	12:49:39 PM
Me:	NOAA says: DOPPLER RADAR HAS INDICATED SOME WEAK ROTATION WITHIN THIS STORM.	12:50:17 PM
	laptop is on battery power now since the storm is so close. rather not have it plugged in just now	12:50:51 PM
Friend:	yea	12:51:33 PM
	good idea	12:51:35 PM
	[My relatives] had a pc get fried that way	12:51:51 PM
	even thru a surge protector	12:51:58 PM
	but then their house got hit by lightening	12:52:08 PM
	so not much a surge protector is going to do about that	12:52:22 PM
	[they] said it was about midnite and all of their lights came on	12:52:41 PM
	scary then	12:52:49 PM
	pretty funny now	12:52:52 PM
Me:	yup	12:53:06 PM
	our puters and TV (and off atm) are on full fledged UPS boxes, but the laptop not so much.	12:53:39 PM
	Ugly green sky... yellowy now.	12:54:04 PM
	Rain in sheets. Lightning near on top of us. And the cat tried to sneak out while I took a few photos out the door.	12:54:32 PM
Friend:	hahaha	12:54:43 PM
Me:	She wouldn't have wanted to be out there long I spect	12:54:49 PM
Friend:	nah	12:54:55 PM
Me:	Oh wow	12:54:56 PM
Friend:	she would be al "why did you let me go here?"	12:55:09 PM
Me:	nearly done passing over by the look of the radar images on WCCO	12:56:27 PM
Friend:	i see that	12:57:40 PM
Me:	and it's getting a bit lighter, though not less stormy	12:57:43 PM
Friend:	heading here now	12:57:43 PM
	i think the city takes some of the stuffin out of it	12:58:06 PM
Me:	worst winds look like they've passed.	12:58:08 PM
	it's amazing how fast the color of the sky changes	12:58:36 PM
	it was a yucky green just a few mins ago, now back to more gray than green	12:59:08 PM
	I should break for a commercial or something... I feel like a sports commentator	12:59:35 PM
Friend:	[my husband] is on the phone	1:04:56 PM
	he can hear the branches breaking	1:05:10 PM
Me:	ugh	1:05:12 PM
Friend:	its a mess there	1:05:24 PM
	our tommy toes are in bad shape	1:05:40 PM
Me:	calling [my Mister] to tell him to stay inside when it goes over.	1:05:44 PM
Friend:	and its still in full swing there	1:05:46 PM
Me:	oooo no!	1:07:09 PM
Friend:	[my husband] said theres about a foot of water in the street	1:07:39 PM
	was watching a idiot try to drive through it	1:07:52 PM
	south of me yet	1:08:07 PM
Me:	Oooo poor tomatoes	1:08:07 PM
Friend:	yea	1:08:10 PM
	we have them tied up	1:08:14 PM
	but its reall windy	1:08:19 PM
Me:	Ok, sky is a normal rain-gray now	1:08:24 PM
Friend:	good	1:08:30 PM
Me:	thunder outside is that constant rolling sound that sounds like a plane flying overhead	1:08:42 PM
Friend:	im glad that [my husband] is home with [my son]	1:08:51 PM
Me:	yup	1:08:55 PM
Friend:	it sounds very scary now	1:08:56 PM
Me:	Sirens are going off at [my Mister]'s office now	1:09:09 PM
	I'm glad even Minnesotans aren't totally unphased by this stuff	1:09:36 PM
	not like an office full of San Diegans in a mild earthquake.	1:10:02 PM
	Who all look around for a minute... say... was that a quake? and then go back to business unless there are non-locals in teh room who need comforting	1:10:35 PM
	(while I sneaked off to check in with the USGS website and fill in teh survey on their Did You Feel It page)	1:11:11 PM
Friend:	yea - but we loves our weather here	1:11:51 PM
Me:	yeah	1:11:57 PM
	you folks with your weather guys in the mornings comparing notes on which of the twin cities has the coldest windchill that morning.	1:12:27 PM
	Oooo St. Paul gets the trophy today at -27F	1:12:47 PM
Friend:	haha	1:12:56 PM
Me:	winter is fun around here	1:12:57 PM
Friend:	when it hit 60 below in Embarras	1:13:05 PM
	there was a lot of folks who were ticked that it broke the previous record - where ever that was	1:13:28 PM
Me:	I love watching the locals in short sleeves at 12° F	1:13:29 PM
Friend:	yea	1:13:34 PM
	I have a 60 below mug from when that cold snap hit	1:13:54 PM
Me:	woot	1:13:59 PM
	Ok, storm's officially blown over. Sky is almost starting to look blue again through the gray	1:14:56 PM
Me:	sunny now. go figure. teh deck is even dry now since it's not real wood.	2:12:19 PM
Friend:	[my husband] said the power is out all over bloomington
	they went to savage to find lunch	2:30:00 PM
Me:	the chipmunks are ferrying seeds back and forth from the neighbor's bird feeder. all must be well out there now.	2:43:20 PM

* when I left the house for a doc appointment at 9:30.