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Last Updated on Sunday, 10 January 2010 01:28 Written by Roger Hill

2001

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This day was one of my all time favorites. An incredible set up with a warm front lifting northward through southern Minnesota, an approaching short wave and developing cyclone in northeast South Dakota set the stage for explosive thunderstorm development. The day started in Granite Falls, MN under cloudy skies with elevated convection. The morning convection soon cleared and left us with southeast winds at 35 mph with a temp of 90 and a dewpoint of 72!!! WOW!!! All things were pointing to the area northeast of Watertown, SD as the hot spot. Winds were backed wonderfully, but the atmosphere was strongly capped. Shortly after 2 PM, the first surface based tower exploded after several hours of excellent convergence, into a strong supercell that within an hour, produced the Benson tornadoes. This supercell was on the wet side of classic, but morphed into an intense HP storm. By the time it approached the twin cities, we left it for the night. Please check out the photos below, as some are breathtaking!!!

Razor sharp anvil edge as we approach the supercell, looking west..	Our first view of the tornado about 10 miles away.
Another early shot of the tornado.	Wide angle shot of the occluding meso with tornado, and another tornado in front of it.
Same shot a couple minutes later.	Tornado fully occluded.
We drove closer to get a better look.	Wide angle shot of the large tornado!!
Very large wedge tornado!!!!	Check the RFD dirt to the left of the occlusion.
Large tornado again.	Close-up of the tornado.
Check out the wall of this beast!!	Very large tornado getting rain wrapped.
Second tornado develops under strong rotation above.	Another shot as the tornado moves east.
Wide angle shot of the supercell and occlusion.	Second meso develops east of the first meso.
I love this shot!!!	Tornado #3 chases us eastward quickly!!
Tornado #4 developing.	Tornadic circulation on the ground.
Debris is seen here.	Tornado ropes out.
Just a needle funnel left.	Quick spin up under the shear line. This happened many times.
Nice white funnel with main meso in the background.