Tuesday Adventure

The weather in Minnesota can be mysterious and sensitive during this season.  I left downtown at roughly 7pm and headed to the gym only to find tornado warnings blaring in Maple Grove.  I turned on MPR to find that Hennepin County was under a tornado watch.  In the twenty minutes it took me to get from downtown Minneapolis to Maple Grove, Albertville, St. Michael, Edina and select surrounding suburbs had experienced hail storms the size of golf balls and tennis balls.  And, the hail storm was making its way into downtown.  I was on the road the whole time and got only a few rain drops.  I completely missed the storm.
I ditched the gym, and took my chances at seeing a storm brewing in St. Michael where meteorologists and an enthusiastic radio host announced that a tornado would touch down at any moment.  I got onto 116 toward St. Michael, and drove north toward the dark wall of clouds.  The sun was threatening from the west with a pink glow behind the gray skies.  I listened to the radio to give me the coordinates of the potential danger.  As I drove cautiously toward St. Michael I kept my eyes half on the road and half on the darkest patch of cloud.  At some point it crossed my mind that I was being completely unreasonable because as the radio warned people of getting shelter, I was driving into the storm - more like I was looking for the storm.  I guess its never too late to be an adventure enthusiast.
I rolled down the windows so I could hear and smell the storm as it organized to make an assault on the northwest metro suburbs.  The air was oddly still, and dramatic.  It smelled like cool watermelon on a hot picnic afternoon.  Just my luck.  As I arrived in Hanover (approximately 5 minutes from St. Michael) the radio host announced that the tornado warning had been lifted, and hail storms and tornado threats were now moved onto downtown Minneapolis.  The Twins game was stalled, and happy hours all over downtown and uptown were interrupted by the thrashing of golf ball size hail.
Adventure escapes me this time, but I hope to find some adventure soon.  I will post pictures that I took of the brewing storm in the morning.  Good night all!



 On my way toward Hanover



After the warnings were cancelled