At first glance, it looked as though Friday would have good potential for severe weather, and possibly a few tornadoes in North Dakota, with plenty of instability in place (3000+ j/kg) and good low level shear. Gulf moisture had been advecting across the central and northern Plains since early morning, aided later in the day by the development of a respectably strong low-level jet (LLJ).

I proceeded to the south part of the state, where temperatures had reached 83 F by just after noon, with dewpoints into the high sixties and low seventies. Everything looked primed for some explosive convection, especially with a 500 mb short wave trough rounding the crest of the ridge over the central CONUS. I was parked in Fargo, ND for most of the afternoon, waiting for things to pop in that blanket of low level moisture.

By around five in the afternoon, nothing was happening over Fargo, or any other part of southern North Dakota. The GR Level3 software was showing a large squall with possible embedded supercells progressing ESE just north of Grand Forks, so I opted to head north on I29 to intercept the band of thunderstorms, which was showing several tornado warned cells and TVS (tornado vortex signature) markers.

When I arrived on the outskirts of Grand Forks around six, the tornado sirens were wailing in the city. The edge of the squall did look impressive, with a prominent shelf cloud, powerful gust front and drenching rainfall. But no tornadoes were in sight, especially in the low level grunge and scud that rolled and boiled beneath the shelf cloud.

I suspect that the tornadoes sighted within the squall line were more than likely gustnadoes, or perhaps a bookend vortex or two in the mix.

All in all, an exciting and fun chase today, but the prize of a high-contrast tornado photo remained elusive.