Omaha Tornado Chaser: Southeast South Dakota 6/26/10

this will possibly be the last chase of the 2010 season. not because i can't go anymore, but because the actual season is probably done. the weather pattern now through september will mainly not be conducive for severe weather. in september there can be a second season, so there might be a chance or two to go out again then. today was another moderate risk day chase. i had missed a day the week before that looked like it could be really good, but luckily for me nothing huge happened. the chase before this one in northern kansas also showed potential for a big day, but was basically a bust. so i was hoping today wouldn't continue the streak of "bad" moderate risk days. i left kind of last minute around 2 pm, as i wasn't even going to go out today until i saw the forecasts more closely. my target was southeast south dakota. here a warm front was forecast to set off storms in an extremely unstable environment with some of the highest amounts of energy in the atmosphere that there's been all year!

outlook issued at 1130 am

tornado risk issued at 1130 am. this was a higher risk than was issued for minnesota outbreak)

hail risk issued at 1130 am

severe wind outlook issued at 1130 am

outlook issued at 3 pm. notice the moderate risk expanded into nebraska

high risk tornado area expanded!!

hail risk area at 3 pm

severe wind area expanded as well!

map of extreme instability

again

i went up I-29 and into southeast south dakota. a storm developed and quickly became severe near parkston, south dakota moving east. i went far enough north on I-29 and then headed west towards the storm. i could see the tops of the storm from more than 60 miles away!! the storm went tornado warned as i was about 25 miles away! i thought i was timing this perfect. i continued west having to take some gravel roads to get into position. as i approached the storm, i could see its base, and there was a very low hanging cloud underneat the storm. i couldn't tell if it was rotating or just scud. then as i got within 10 miles or so, the storm began to look less impressive and there was no longer anything hanging under the base of the storm.

pic of storm from 50+ miles away. the tops of the storm were estimated over 60, 000 feet tall!

getting closer

the base of the storm as i approached. notice the lowerings underneath the storm!

getting closer, storm still looks good

storm looking less impressive

i followed the storm back to the east, staying along to the south of the storm. it never looked real impressive tornadically, but it had some reports of large hail and winds of 70 mph as it moved into sioux falls, south dakota. meanwhile storms began filling in everywhere. this is bad for tornado chances, and i was beginning to doubt this day. i gave up on this storm and headed back south down I-90. there were a couple of more severe storms near yankton moving northeast towards my direction. i stopped in beresford, south dakota and let these storms overtake me. they were warned for quarter size hail or larger, and i thought i would like to get some more dents!! the hail never got larger than marbles or so, though. the line of storms continued to backbuild down to the south, and since there was nothing else going on i followed them into western iowa to see if i could get lucky. these storms did nothing else either and so i headed home, tired and disappointed!

some more pics from the chase: