Chaselog July 13th South Dakota

Headed out by myself for what is by far the farthest chase I've ever done alone, and it was a GREAT learning experience for me to figure out my still of chasing while chasing alone. I got going a little late but got on the to be Valentine storm around 4:30. I didnt get real close since I had a pretty good view of it from about 15 miles away. Got off I90 near Stamford, SD and watched it for a while. It had a good base and there were lowerings hanging right on the ground, but I'm pretty sure they were not tornadoes. Tried following the storm south but the dirt roads in the area were horrible with lots of hills and curves. Decided to bail on it to go for the storm to the north since I didnt want to chance getting stuck plus I couldnt go more than 30 mph on the dirt roads. Sat the the I90/highway 63 junction south of Midland to watch the storm and get some video for a timelapse. After about 25 minutes I headed north as the base of the storm was just northwest of highway 63 and I knew I would have a good view of it. At the time time the storm wasnt much going on under the updraft, but followed it back to the interstate and by the time I got there the storm REALLY got going. Lots of motion, some rotation, and a wet RFD. Again, didnt follow the storm south of I90 due to the dirt roads. Headed west towards Rapid City to wait for the stuff coming out of WY/MT, stopped in Kakoda. Waited a while, realized there wasnt a ton of TOR potential with the way the storms were looking on radar. Headed east to get in to position for Tuesday in Minnesota. Again, a very good learning experience for me. I didnt have much experience chasing alone before, but now I realize how rewarding it is to bag something nice and know you did it by yourself. Pics and video below:View of the storm that would go on to produce the tornadoes in s.c. South Dakota and n.c. Nebraska, view is looking east from Stamford, SD.Anyways, headed out by myself for what is by far the farthest chase I've ever done alone, and it was a GREAT learning experience for me to figure out my still of chasing while chasing alone. I got going a little late but got on the to be Valentine storm around 4:30. I didnt get real close since I had a pretty good view of it from about 15 miles away. Got off I90 near Stamford, SD and watched it for a while. It had a good base and there were lowerings hanging right on the ground, but I'm pretty sure they were not tornadoes. Tried following the storm south but the dirt roads in the area were horrible with lots of hills and curves. Decided to bail on it to go for the storm to the north since I didnt want to chance getting stuck plus I couldnt go more than 30 mph on the dirt roads. Sat the the I90/highway 63 junction south of Midland to watch the storm and get some video for a timelapse. After about 25 minutes I headed north as the base of the storm was just northwest of highway 63 and I knew I would have a good view of it. At the time time the storm wasnt much going on under the updraft, but followed it back to the interstate and by the time I got there the storm REALLY got going. Lots of motion, some rotation, and a wet RFD. Again, didnt follow the storm south of I90 due to the dirt roads. Headed west towards Rapid City to wait for the stuff coming out of WY/MT, stopped in Kakoda. Waited a while, realized there wasnt a ton of TOR potential with the way the storms were looking on radar. Headed east to get in to position for Tuesday in Minnesota. Again, a very good learning experience for me. I didnt have much experience chasing alone before, but now I realize how rewarding it is to bag something nice and know you did it by yourself. Pics and video below:View of the storm that would go on to produce the tornadoes in s.c. South Dakota and n.c. Nebraska, view is looking east from Stamford, SD.

View I had of the storm from about 15 miles away just before it crossed I90 near Kakoda(I think I finally got that right), SD. This storm would go on to become the Valentine, NE hybrid monster. Many people captured the INCREDIBLE structure near Valentine. Unfortunately I didnt have a good route to get south to keep up with the storm, so I bailed on it after it got south of I90.View is looking west-southwest







The second storm I got on which was near Midland, SD. The view I had was about 3 miles south of Midland looking northwest. I'm nearly 100% sure I was the only chaser on this storm, or atleast I havent heard anyone else mention this storm in their reports and I was the only one on Spotter Network on this storm. Badlands+no other chasers=incredible photo ops.












Pic of the lowering which I am hesitant to call a wall cloud since it was displaced a bit from the updraft. However there was a lot of motion, rotation, and a wet RFD.


CLICK HERE FOR A TIMELAPSE OF THE THUNDERSTORM UPDRAFT IN HASKON COUNTY, SD

CLICK HERE FOR A REAL TIME VIDEO OF THE UPDRAFT BASE OF THE HASKON/JACKSON COUNTY, SD STORM

Semi-post chase update

I didnt post a forecast or anything for today but I ended up heading out solo to central South Dakota. Definately a gamble with such a long drive but I really think it paid off. I'll keep this brief since I have many other things to be watching right now, but I intercepted to awesome storms west of Rapid City. The first one had a beautiful meso and structure with a ragged wall cloud. Due to the piss poor roads in the area I bailed on the storm rather early, but just before the tor warning was dropped (which was later re-issued). I didnt want to chance getting stuck in the hilly mud roads in the middle of nowhere. After bailed I headed west on I90 to the highway 63 exit to get gas. I watched the storm to my north on radar for a while, finally drove up 63 a bit and had a good view of the base At the time it wasnt doing much, but I followed it back to 90 and by the time I get there the base was getting much more organized. I have a lot of video from this storm and some from the first along with plenty of pics. Right now sitting just south of Kadoka, SD trying to figure out my next move. The storms moving in to SD look like they are lining out plus I dont really want to go anyfurther west since that means it will take longer to get back. Outflow from the storms my east is pretty good, east winds gusting to 30 mph. Not kicking up anything new right now, probably just gonna hang around Kadoka and see if anything happens by 9:00. If not I will head west to get closer to position for tomorrow along the SD/MN border. Definately wasnt expecting a two day solo chase trip, but i'm definately not complaining! I'll try to have pics/vid up in the next couple days, probably not tomorrow since I will be chasing.

First day of July?

Ha, feels more like the first day of October. Currently sitting at a temp of 57 with overcast skies and patchy drizzle. This pattern sucks, and we've been in it for the last few days with temps barely scraping 70 and the last couple days it's been cloudy and WINDY. Definately doesnt feel like summer any more. We had one week of warm temps, but other than that it's been a cool summer with not many chances for storms, and that trend will continue with this pattern. But, it does look like the pattern may change next week with the possibility of some storms. The problem? I'll be out of town with family next week which is starting to remind me of last summer when the same thing happened that prevented me from getting out on July 10th and 11th. Dont get me wrong, I love being with family, but my luck is the storms come when I cant be out. But maybe I shouldnt complain, I've had some decent storms and there will be more oppurtunites this season, I mean, Minnesota only has 102 storm reports so far this season, and our average the entire season is 600-700, so we have some catching up to do. Lets just hope that actually happens.