April 12 2015 First Good Thunderstorms of the Season

Although sub-severe, central Minnesota had a round of thunderstorms which if nothing more, brought some much needed moisture to the area. With a cold front passing through the area with a little bit of elevated instability, a couple of lines of storms form. The first was on a pre-frontal trough / wind shift line and the second right on or just behind the cold front itself. Although there was some risk for hail or gusty winds, I was hoping for something at least somewhat visually appealing.

My son, Cullen, came home from work and hopped in just as I was leaving to check out the towers growing to the west of us. We headed to highway 15 north of Powder Ridge Ski Area where we had a clear view of the cells working their way up the trough.

Definitely better than I was hoping for.

The cool structure and colors faded out pretty quickly so we decided to head east with it a bit towards Clearwater.

We gave up on the storm just the other side of Clearwater as the most interesting structure was now north of the interstate and nothing coming up from the southwest looked very good.

A little later, (right at sunset) the cold front came through with a second line of storms. The light was awesome with everything from orange/yellow to electric blue all at once.

Cold front passage!

A little lightning on the backside of the storms to close out the day.

Looks like this week will be damp and cool coming up. Maybe another hiking overnight trip next weekend!