Exclusive! What I saw from my dock late Saturday

This is what I saw from my Tonka Bay dock Saturday evening around 8:30 pm. After glancing at the Doppler radar (on my laptop) I mentioned to no one in particular "this crap seems to be blowing up directly over our heads." We live in a 1930s-built home in Tonka Bay, with a great view to the west/northwest, toward Mound. I ran down to the lake, and I could tell this was no ordinary thunderstorm. The cell was spinning wildly, a classic mesocyclone. Under the "lowering" cloud base I could see little wisps of white, looking like smoke, forming, dissipating, re-forming.

And then the tornado itself became more apparent. At about this time the sirens went off, my kids came running down from the house "Dad, KARE-11 says it's forming right over Mound - do you see anything?" Sure enough, those unconfirmed reports are now CONFIRMED! They too saw the developing tornado over Mound, moving rapidly toward Long Lake. I will provide more Doppler images shortly, and I want to upload the (spinning mesocyclone) video to YouTube for everyone, but in the meantime here are a couple of still pics of the Mound/Long Lake tornado.

Paul Douglas
Tonka Bay, MN

Mound Tornado. Looking toward the west/northwest from our dock in Tonka Bay. Note the lowering wall cloud, which was spinning very noticeably. The RFD (rear flank downdraft) is approaching from the left of the screen (the southwest) with heavy rain/hail to the north/northeast of the tornado. This is the 3rd tornado I've seen, but the FIRST here in Minnesota (both the others were in Oklahoma). It was all a bit surreal, but I'm glad I grabbed my camera and RAN down to the dock when I did!

Mound Tornado #2. The tornado kept "pulsing", trying to gain momentum and circulation, it took a little while to get its act together, at one point not looking terribly organized. But all the ingredients were there - extreme instability, wind shear, dew points in the 70s; all we needed was for something to break the cap (the warm lid acting as a brake on severe thunderstorms) and that's what happened, VERY RAPIDLY to the west of Lake Minnetonka yesterday evening, between 8 and 8:30 pm.