On June 30, we began in Kadoka, lunched in Wall, and watched some stuff struggle on the north side of the Black Hills near Spearfish.  These cells never got very strong.  I booked rooms in Kimball, SD (east of Chamberlain), in order to be closer to our target area around Sioux Falls the following day.  On our way east after dusk, we were blasted by a severe squall at Murdo.  Wind gusted over 65 mph and knocked down some utility poles in town, and the heavy rain and wind forced us to come to a stop in Murdo.  I shot a little video of this severe electrical storm, but apparently took zero stills this day!

We are leaving VTN currently. VTN and vicinity may well be where we want to be towards sunset, but for now we are being pulled west and perhaps north a little, towards an apparent mesolow near the Black Hills. The RUC shows a nice tongue of high CAPE along the SD/NE border to our west. Shear and instability look very good later this afternoon between VTN and the southwestern edge of the Badlands area. The latest satellite pic shows a cu field near CDR.

With plenty of time to kill, we roamed off of the beaten path (U.S. 20) and checked out the little hamlet of Eli, Nebraska.  There isn’t much there except for a few houses and a church.  I photographed Chuck driving his tractor back home from midday mass.

From Eli we drifted towards the northwest and into the Badlands of SD.  A handful of cloud towers tried to go up around Batesland and Wounded Knee, but the cap held strong, to our chagrin.  We killed some more time on the southern fringe of the Badlands, near a dinky place called Rocksprings.  Some activity to the west, near the Black Hills, looked good briefly but then shriveled.  I led some of the tour guests to a hilltop, where a circle of rocks marked an alien spaceship landing site.  Storm clouds percolated in the distance to the southeast, near Valentine.  Super.

Well, it was getting a little too late to go on a wild goose chase back to VTN.  We waited near Sharps Corner for some new activity that was approaching from northwest Nebraska.  These cells threw a big anvil and some mammatus overhead, but the general trend was weakening and blah-blah-blah.  I managed to get a lightning image and a few other so-so pics, including the “kiss of death” cloud.  Our beds for the night awaited in Kadoka.

As the junky convection approached, I had to decide whether to target the northern end (along U.S. 20) or the southern end (along U.S. 26). Both ends were showing some promise of organization. I went for the closer cell to the northwest, which was also closer to my original target area.

We made a quick pit stop in Manville while the storm strengthened overhead. An impressive CG barrage greeted us in Lusk as we pressed eastward to get ahead of the storm base. Finally, near the Nebraska border, we managed to get far enough in front to stop and take a look. The storm exhibited some supercell characteristics while we tried to stay dry right in front of it from Harrison to Crawford.

There is a forested canyon area just west of Fort Robinson, and we stopped on a high point on its west side to watch a nearby storm base. It had an area of weak rotation with a bit of a “pregnant” look, which sometimes precedes tornado development. As it moved nearly overhead, we had to bail to the east through the canyon, and were unable to see what was going on behind us for maybe 7 minutes. It was during this time frame that someone reported a tornado at about the spot that we had just been! When we reached an open area with a good view back to the west, there was no tornado—just a mediocre wall cloud (last two images above).

The storm was moving somewhat quickly to the northeast, and started to fall apart a little as it interacted with other junky storms. It wasn’t worth expending much energy to stay with. We raced east on U.S. 20 beyond Chadron to try to get ahead of another storm. It was mildly interesting for a bit, and then weakened. At Hay Springs, we were left with a little lighting and rain and a worked-over atmosphere, so we relaxed and had dinner. On our way to Valentine at sunset, the atmosphere gave us a good reason to stop and enjoy the western Nebraska sky! These colors are accurate and real-life — little to no photoshop enhancement was implemented on the images below!

Ardmore presents numerous photo opportunities, especially if you enjoy taking pictures of old abandoned houses and junked automobiles.  We were there midday, so the light with the high sun was not particularly favorable.

With nothing in the atmosphere to chase, we continued north to Devils Tower and had some nice light just before sunset.

There were no storms on my way to Denver this afternoon and evening, but I stopped a couple of times to take the camera outside.  The first one below is called “Final Approach”.  The second one I named “Similar to ‘Final Approach’, but in Portrait Mode”.  The first sunset image is named “Kansas Town”.  The second one is “Kansas Town, Moments Later”.  When you have your own web site, you can name your photos anything you want.