11/9/2023 0 Comments Scuddy shelf cloudA low-topped squall line was forming–something that experience told me could be quite photogenic in such otherwise clean air and sky. Proceeding westward across the borderlands, we finally broke into sunshine west of Langdon–but not for long! Onboard radar showed a thin, curving arc of cold-core thunderstorms developing to the W, over the turtle Mountains. This trip already was a splendid pleasure, and soon would become more so. Landscapes here were familiar from the day before, but the setting was different–scuddy, light rain on the back side of the elevated storm band, with broken blue sky to the west, and the cool, moist freshness of wet earth behind a summertime cold front. In rural areas, we saw a distinct absence of junk cars, rusty appliances, neglected fencing, or haphazard accumulations of dilapidated mechanical rubbish strewn across weedy lawns of occupied homes–in other words, a refreshign difference from thousands of points of blight that are prevalent in the southern Plains countryside. In towns, this means well-kept houses, gardens and lawns. Folks here seem to inherit their ancestors’ fastidious tidiness ethic. Instead, we headed up to Walhalla and toured the misty, scuddy and decidedly green Pembina River Gorge by car.Īscending that small canyon, which drains an escarpment separating the Plains from the Red River of the North valley, leads the driver to the marvelously open, flat and attractive countryside characteristic of most of the state NE of the Missouri River. That was followed immediately by a rather featureless, messy band of elevated thunderstorms that timed badly for visiting the state park. “warm-advection clouds”) between Grafton and Cavalier. Somewhat retracing the route we took the evening before, we encountered a fantastic layer of asperatus (a.k.a. After finishing the wash and brunch in Grafton, we charted a net WNW course on the township-range zigzag of eastern and northern North Dakota, aiming to grab a couple bucketfuls of rich, black soil from the old Lake Agassiz bed for my vegetable garden back home (check), visit Icelandic State Park (uncheck), see the Pembina Gorge (check), visit the International Peace Garden (check), and spend a night or two in the so-called Turtle Mountains (check). Laundry beckoned, and so did a few days of R&R in the heretofore superficially explored state of North Dakota before the next substantial atmospheric perturbation brought severe potential to the northern Great Plains. Strong to severe storms also were possible farther south, along and ahead of the front, in mode viewing-friendly areas of Iowa, NW Missouri and Kansas, but under weaker deep-layer shear. The cold front from the previous day’s action was slated to shift into more forested land of central and northern Minnesota, within which we didn’t wish to chase. While en route to Int’l Peace Garden, intercepted photogenic, low-topped squall line and attendant arcus cloud over very green fields near St. SHORT: Blew off chasing in trees in MN or driving from ND-KS in one shot, intending to hang out in ND ’til the pattern returned favorable parameters to Dakotas. Comments Off on Squall Line Way Up North.
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