More Facts on Exploding Sewer Video

UPDATE: Friend and Storm Chaser Douglas Kiesling has another video of what appears to be the same storm drain exploding on July 11, 2004. He says it is "Interstate 35W". This confirms my suspicion that it was in Minneapolis. Thanks Carl for the tip. I think this investigation can be closed.

ORIGINAL POST:

I have done more research into the Exploding Sewer Video that I showed last weekend, and I now believe that it is entirely plausible that it did take place in Minnesota, as YouTube claimed, and likely in Minneapolis (see below for more info). Below is a static image which links to a loop of the radar that night - showing very heavy thunderstorms moving in a line across the state.

Sewer Expert & Blog Reader Greg wrote in with some interesting information:

He also offered a link to this video showing "dancing" manhole covers in San Francisco.

Here are details of my research that led to the assumption above. The radar images were obtained from the NCDC National Radar Archive

The time listed on the video was 5:19 AM Saturday July 3, 1999. Converting that from Central Time to Z time leads to 10:19 GMT/Z. The image above is from 10:30 Z.

Furthermore, since the only large city in central or southern Minnesota (where the storms tracked) is Minneapolis, I think it's likely that it occurred there. I believe that a large city would be required due to the amount of traffic at 5 AM on a Saturday, coupled with the fact that only populous centers would have had traffic cameras in 1999, especially on the Internet (though it's likely this video was copied from a TV station broadcast).

I suppose one could click on all 200 Minneapolis traffic webcams at the MNDOT site, but I don't have that kind of patience. Plus, it's likely that the camera system they used in 1999 has been replaced since then. I have emailed them to ask if they recognize the intersection or can substantiate my claim that it did happen there.

Many of you sent in this report from the NWS detailing a weather event from July 4th, 1999, asking if this could be the storm which caused the sewer explosion. That derecho [WikiPedia] event was called "The BWCA Blowdown" and the storms caused severe wind damage in the state. But after downloading the NCDC radar loop for this event, it is clear by that it was a separate storm system that did not enter the state until mid-morning on July 4th.