My Storm Log #1: When the Weather Tells You to Get Up

So finally, after nearly two years of no real severe weather and 9 spring severe weather free months, there was finally a severe storm that came through my house. It wasn't much of a storm at my house, but it did cause some very high winds and damage about 50 miles west and east of my house. Trucks were overturned on I-94 near Oriska, North Dakota, and a peak wind gust for the event was 70mph near Lake Park, Minnesota. My good for nothing except for waking me up for Blizzard Warnings at 3AM weather radio woke me up a solid 40 minutes before the storm got here, even with it moving at 60mph.

And according to the Barnes County, ND Sheriff's office, the brothers driving the trucks that were flipped over saw what looked like a dust cloud, and the winds were strong enough to pick up their cars. The Cass County sheriff said he saw a large dust cloud blowing across the interstate as he was traveling to a meeting in Bismarck. So that means it was either a dust storm associated with the severe wind (it was so dry that there was almost no rain) or possibly...the first tornado of the year in North Dakota?!!

(Dramatic Music)

There will be more of these storm logs as these summertime severe storms either move over my house in the dead of night or as I get the chance to go out storm chasing. (Maybe this weekend??)