I had looked at the latest models and sounding information before leaving and decided that the threat for severe weather in Ontario was weak (or not enough for me to stick around in the province for another day). I crossed the border at about 1 pm after spending a half an hour registering my equipment (yes this has to be done unless you like to pay the government taxes on equipment you already have before) and talking to the customs guy on the U.S. side. I decided to head to Flint and then Lansing on Hwy. #69 for the early afternoon. The ETA model had indicated lift indices around -2 and the soundings showed this to be a little weaker in the morning so this was a good a place as any today. This was a driving day and not a specified chase day.

I ran into some instability showers just east of Flint with some nice cumulus clouds building but not enough to peak my interest and stick around the area. The wind speeds at the upper levels were moving quite quickly and any chance of pursuing these storms would have ended up in Lake Huron. I continued west towards Lansing when (at best I can gauge) about 2-2:30pm, I saw a nice squall line formation to my southwest with an almost bow echo to it. Temperature were running around 74 F (sorry but I change my thermometer to Imperial to compare to NOAA reports) wind moderate winds of 40 kms from the southeast.

I pulled over at the next off ramp and set up my tripod and camcorder in the front seat on the off chance this had something to it (the weather radio was not talking about anything). Now the winds had been gusting to 60 kms/hour for the past 30 mins and my hands had started to get a tad sore from griping the wheel so hard to prevent myself from getting blown off-line and into a car. This single fact saved me and others from hitting the ditch a few minutes later.

As I approached a split tree stand (trees, an opening and then trees again) to my southwest, I flicked on the camcorder by habit. I had picked up rain being shot through the stand almost horizontal. As I approached the opening in the tree stand, the rain just pummeled me and the winds picked up to a howl. I figure 80-90 km/h at least as every car on the road in front and behind me shifted about 5 feet to the right. As I fought to keep the car on the road, I glanced over to my left and spotted a mass of swirling dust in the air.

I spotted about 3 separate tight vortices in this mass by quick glance rising about 50-70 feet in the air. First thought was a tornado that had no condensation funnel but I immediately discounted it due to the fact there was no wall cloud and the clouds had not exhibit any tornadic tendencies. They were not even supercellular that I could see. I flicked the camcorder to the right when I regained control on my car and caught about 5 secs of this before the trees swallowed me up. I continued to look in my rearview (could not pull over safely due to traffic) and watched this swirling mass of dust cross over 69 and continue before I lost total sight of it by trees.

My preliminary assessment is that I witnessed a strong gust front that had picked up the dust from the field. This was possibly enhanced by the confines of the trees on both sides and the alignment of the opening to the southwest-northeast direction. The video shows the dust but I can't see anything through the viewfinder tonight to verify the small vortices I witnessed and the t.v. needs cable connections which I don't have so I will look again tomorrow at my next hotel. I hope to find these. Then I could possible consider this video as a very weak set of gustandoes which is something I have never witnessed before. Either way it was a sight to see.

I heard that at Bad Axe a tornado was report this afternoon and am wondering if this is possibly a mistaken sighting of what I witnessed an hour earlier. I know the storm was heading in that direction earlier but have no information or radar images to check. I head south out of Lansing on Interstate 69 and decided that Indianapolis was the place to stay for the night.

I reviewed the information from the Michigan NWS and found out that most of the reports were indeed possible gustandoes. They thought there may have been one tornado but I never heard anything after that so I discounted it as a gustanado with a strong enough wind gust to cause some damage.

Tomorrow I plan to head to St. Louis. I have a few days to kill so I am not rushing.

All Photos are copyrighted 1999 by Dave Patrick.  Any use other than authorized by them is against the law.  If you wish to contact me regarding use of these photos, please e-mail me. I have left any copyrights off the images to show the images unaltered digitally (except where stated)