Friday June 27th, 2008: Storm Chase

Yesterday was supposed to be the big chase day, when we would see our first high plains strong supercell. However, we ended up in a dead zone in Martin, SD, cut off from the south by a large MCS in Nebraska and Colorado. Strong moisture advection and convergence, a substantial moisture boundary (dryline), and shortwave were all converging on the region, but storm initiation was slow. This lead us to stop the chase a little early, and head home to Wall. Of course, once we pulled in the parking lot we looked southeast and there was a towering cumulonimbus right where we were located earlier. Lucky for us (and those in the area) it didn't develop into a tornadic supercell, but it illustrates the need for patience when storm chasing!

But the day was not at a loss, as a strong bowing line of storms developed in the SD/NE/WY border region and raced to the ENE towards the Badlands. This gave us an opportunity to witness some very impressive lightning over an hour and a half period while parked at the Pinnacles Overlook in Badlands National Park. It may not have been the supercell or tornado we were hoping for, but it was a nice consolation.