Friday 9th June - Tour 4/Day 1 - North Dakota

Start Location: Omaha, Nebraska
End Location: Devils Lake, North Dakota
States: Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota
Total States: 7
Distance: 745 miles

Van Update 9am:
Up early for a weather briefing and then on the road. A long haul of 7-8 hours north to North Dakota. Not been to ND before so that ticks another state off my list.

All the ingredients are there for some supercells that may turn tornadic - so considering the last 2 week "Death Ridge" keeping all the storms at bay there are going to be a lot of people out chasing this one. Hopefully more Marks on my Chaser Bingo ;)

We arrived in Rugby, ND and didn't need to wait long for some storms to fire, Alec chose a particularly meaty one just East of Minot which quickly went tornado warned and we proceeded to chase that. It looked really good for a while with decent updrafts and circulation. It was a very nice structured storm too. We chased it for a while until we let the "Hail" core pass over us, which was nothing more than a few peas by this time. We dashed south to just outside Devils Lake and chased the next cycle of the storm, which also went tornado warned. This one also didn't want to play ball either.

We spotted some other "Chaser Chicks" chasing in a blue Subaru outback - with a vanity plate of "Blubaru" - brilliant :)

Although neither of the storms we chased "produced", I forgot how much of an adrenaline rush it is to chase. It makes me as happy as a pig in muck :)

Later on we met up with another couple of chasers I know from past years, Max and Scott, and we caught up over some cold beverages and a game of Cards Against Humanity. A really fun evening and its always good to hang out with like minded people.

Tomorrow is another reposition day, as Minnesota is looking good for Sunday. So we'll be making our way over there for that event.

I'm still waiting on my tornado, but there's still time :)

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