It was a very active May for thunderstorms in the Northland with 4 favorable setups for storm chasing throughout the month, all less than 100 miles of Duluth, which is about my limit to chase storms these days.
I’ve chased storms and tornadoes in the Central Plains several years ago (2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013) been as far south as the Kansas/Oklahoma border, saw the Rozel, Kansas incredible tornado which occurred on May 18, 2013, and well there’s nothing like it, but that was enough for me, not saying I won’t ever chase again in the Central Plains, but for now I’m content on chasing storms much much closer to home.
Storm Chase #1 May 9, 2022
A severe warned storm passes just NW of Duluth, Minnesota late in the morning of May 9th. Photo looking north out of the Grassy Point area of West Duluth, Minnesota.
Later that same day I made my way south on Highway 35 in northwest Wisconsin to northwestern Burnett County for a possibility of more severe thunderstorms, but I didn’t see any storms where I was at.
On my way back home to Duluth on May 9th I stopped at Boy Scout Landing in Gary New Duluth, Minnesota.
Storm Chase #2 May 12, 2022
By far one of the coolest looking roll clouds I’ve seen in this area took place on May 12, 2022 as I once again found my way driving south on Highway 35 in northwest Wisconsin to one of my favorite spots to view storms, and that would be in northwestern Burnett County.
A few different photo edits of this epic roll cloud!
Storm Chase #3 May 18, 2022
This chase led me down Highway 23 in eastern Carlton County Minnesota as a line of severe thunderstorms approached from the west. These storms produced very strong winds, some hail and even a tornado near Rice Lake, Minnesota (north of Duluth)
I did see some downed trees in isolated spots driving south on Highway 23 after this storm passed, with the photo of a downed tree at Graham Lake/Holyoke, MN area.
On my way back north on Highway 23 to Duluth I had to stop to take a few pics of a beautiful mammatus cloud display over the St. Louis River (Boy Scout Landing) and was also greeted by a pelican which was just hanging out at the river.
May 28, 2022 – Made my way to the Ogilvie Raceway for a great night of dirt track racing action at this amazing facility, I know, not a storm chase, but a great sunset, and nothing is better than a spring/summer sunset!
Storm Chase #4 May 30, 2022
My final storm chase in May 2022 occurred on Memorial Day as I made my way west on Highway 210 to Tamarack, Minnesota in eastern Aitkin County.
I had 3 target areas in mind, one being Hill City, the other McGregor, and my final one being Mora, well I ended up staying in the middle and slightly ENE of McGregor.
Several rounds of scattered storms made their way to where I was positioned and with a favorable environment in place for these storms to organize into severe storms and supercells, I ended up staying in Tamarack for about 3 hours as these storms were all moving toward the north ahead of the main line of severe storms approaching from the west, but none of the storms ahead of the aforementioned line were able to organize into severe thunderstorms for some reason, an ingredient or two was missing!
Thanks for reading!
Tim
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