June 20, 2012 Northwest Iowa shelf cloud

Today’s starting point was Redwood Falls, MN, with a slight risk for severe through central Iowa along an advancing cold front.  We drove east of the front along I-90 and stopped for lunch in Albert Lea, if memory serves correctly.  Some storms were already firing along the front to our west at lunch time, unfortunately.  These moved quickly along the front, and more storms filled in quickly along the front.  A weak squall line and shelf cloud was the result, and we stayed with it in the Algona, Iowa area and south from there another county or two.  There was the occasional brief wrap-up in the line with a TVS marker on radar.  These instances provided some hope for a tornado, but nothing was able to persist and no tornadoes occurred.  No surprise there on this rather forgettable Iowa chase.  We sat down for dinner at Fort Dodge, and then had to make a two-hour drive west to Sioux City for the night.  Area motels in northwest Iowa did not have enough rooms to accommodate us, in part because of a large number of construction folks filling up the available lodging.

The 21st was a down day/position day under clear skies, and we had a leisurely drive west on U.S. 20 to Valentine.  We stopped to photograph an abandoned house somewhere near Laurel, NE, had lunch in O’Neill, and got in to Valentine at a very reasonable hour.