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Today's setup would
offer some redemption after my soft bust the previous day along the Black
Hills. A negatively tilted trough was lifting across the Central
Rockies, however the cap appeared to be a major contender. Late morning
observations revealed a mass of mid and upper level cloudiness across western
SD. This diminished my hopes for the triple point being a viable
target today, so I departed Rapid City before noon for eastern WY where
the cap would be weaker and the environment still supportive of supercells.
I amazingly found a wi-fi spot in Upton, WY and upon glancing at obs and RUC data, things out here were still looking good. Convection later developed to my distant west and I proceeded north to near Moorcroft for better positioning. Here's a view looking west at some of this initial convection (SVR warned) and its diffuse mammatus. 1427 MDT |
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The convection was
arranged in a broken line and I needed to get farther west for better viewing.
Just prior to arriving at I-90 westbound, a tornado warning was issued
for a cell southwest of Gillette citing a confirmed tornado. Keep
in mind this is one of the biggest tornado prone radar voids in the US!
Here I'm between mile markers 153 and 154 straining my eyes to observe the tornado southwest of Gillette. This tornado is roughly 30 miles away and worse, I only had my wide angle zoom lens with me today. 1442 MDT |
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Pronounced wall cloud with a nicely
tapered tornado. I really should have brought my telephoto zoom lens,
but this is the most photo cropping I can do to highlight the vortex.
1442 MDT |
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The tornado dissipated
around 1445 MDT, but was in progress for some time before I had visual.
I continued westbound and had a heck of a time watching multiple bases
of interest showcase suspicious lowerings and some rotation.
1455 MDT |
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This base was my biggest concern
at the time and the frequent CGs were a reassuring sign of its strength.
I exited at Wyodak and drove to the power plant to observe this cell's
rotation. Naturally, a shift change was underway at the power plant
and traffic quickly flooded the road I was on! A wet
RFD then overtook my location only adding to my frustration.
The once individual cells then consolidated into a line and with no other promising storms nearby, I shifted my sights to new convection in western SD. 1458 MDT |
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While driving to the
Black Hills, I was a bit shocked to see how fast the triple point in southwest
SD lit up. It seems every other chaser was there and I initially
thought I could make it too, but I later shifted my sights on new development
just north of the Black Hills. Long story short, several of these
promising cells eventually merged into a line southwest of Faith, SD.
1801 MDT |
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It was still early enough even considering
I needed to back to work the following morning, so I watched this shelf
cloud evolve further.
1803 MDT |
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A steady state lowering
soon developed along the leading edge and I began considering potential
QLCS vortices. At best, I recall there being slow rotation here.
1807 MDT |
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A wider view giving some perspective
of this embedded lowering. Here's another
view a while later showing the persistence of the feature and another
weakly rotating extension/possible funnel.
1809 MDT |
