What’s left of Egret Island (my name for it), located in the Mississippi just north of the Camden bridge, after the tornado.

Some of the damage caused by the North MPLS tornado. And yes, I hdr’d this one.

I was visiting my parents in Maple Grove when the tornado started it’s path through Minneapolis. When I left them I took Highway 10 heading east. As I got close to the river, leaves and branches started falling out of the sky. Turned on the radio and heard the tornado was basically following 35W towards Forrest Lake. Always up for an adventure I headed up to Forrest Lake, and actually got ahead of the tornado, having driven through some torrential downpours. Near Forrest Lake I pulled off 35W and parked myself on a county road. The cell that had produced the tornado moved in, but this point the tornado was starting to fizzle out, and it actually got quite calm. I did get this shot of the leftovers.

On 21 May 2011 I was biking around the Lakes in some fairly unsettled weather. As it turns out this was just a prelude to a storm that tore through the northern part of Minneapolis the following day. For this week’s #teamphotoblog challenge I’ll be posting some photos of both the storm and it’s aftermath.

Spring has finally arrived in Minnesota. Lawns are greening, trees are budding, birds are flirting. You can see it in the sky too. Clouds are beginning to look like they have some real moisture waiting to come down as rain, the air feels a bit humid, and unfortunately allergies are acting up for some.

Temps are going to be in the 80s today, and we’re supposed to get some thunderstorms this weekend. First of the season. I’m looking forward to it, though now I probably won’t be able to undertake another major vehicle maintenance challenge. After last weekend’s success (saving myself $500 now confirmed after getting a quote), I’m ready for another automobile repair challenge, like tackling that little leak in my truck’s transmission cooling line that apparently costs $100s to fix because ‘you have to remove many unrelated parts to get at it’. I have some ideas.

The Wells Fargo Center in downtown Minneapolis on a foggy January evening.

Today was the first day it really felt like spring. Befitting since it actually is the first day of spring. In typical Minnesota fashion many were sporting shorts. 60 degrees feels almost like summer after a long cold winter.