Start/Chadron, NE
End/Williston, ND
860 miles
Lunch at a Belfield, ND, convenience store
Wow — look at the miles we did. We had to be up in extreme northeastern Montana, and maybe even a bit into Saskatchewan on this day. I was hoping that it would not be Saskatchewan, given the usual delays getting across the border. One of our guests had forgotten his passport, too. Would we have to leave him in an open field on the U.S. side of the border? (Just kidding — in a feedlot)
Apparently we got out of Chadron on the early side, as we were already up in ND at lunch time. That was a quickie stop in Belfield, and further north we went, to Williston, and then west into Montana. A potent upper wave would be impacting Montana this afternoon and evening. A surface low near Billings would steer good low-level moisture into northeastern Montana. The easterly surface flow beneath strong WSW flow aloft would create tremendous wind shear. It looked like a pretty good chase day, but of course the sparse road network of Montana, the possible border-crossing headaches, and fast storm motions might be very problematic. From the model forecasts, it appeared that the best tornado chances would be during the evening (around 00Z-02Z) a bit east of Glasgow. But, there wasn’t much happening there to get a storm going — no front or boundary. It looked like we would have to drive well west of Glasgow to meet storms that were forming on the mountains WAY out near Havre. Through Wolf Point and Glasgow we went, to Hinsdale and Saco and Sleeping Buffalo, on the eastern edge of Phillips County. A big storm was getting its act together south of Havre and was coming this way! It was dropping large hail on Phillips, southwest of Malta, about the time we stopped to watch it approach. We were northeast of Malta by maybe seven miles, or west of Sleeping Buffalo on Highway 2. The images below are from this location, and it is evident that a large shelf-like feature is dominating the forward flank, suggesting outflow winds already. The greenish hues were real!
It was a bit disappointing that it wasn’t looking much like a tornado-making candidate, but it was quite the beast, and it was coming at us fairly quickly. Hmmm…it’s already right here…we gotta go!
Rook took us back to the east at a good pace, and we exited the van about 15 minutes later, near Saco. Golly — the beast was still right behind us, and it looked like it wanted to teach us a lesson! “You storm chasers, you…you can’t get away from me! I am a Montana storm, and we eat storm chasers for supper.”
We were able to get out and take pictures for a minute or two, and then we were back in the van, speeding eastward to stay in front of the severe storm. We did the same near Hinsdale, and then near the road to Vandalia. The severe thunderstorm warning mentioned large hail and very strong winds —- two or three-inch hail, and 80 mph winds?! And the NWS warning said it was moving east at 75 mph! Stations and reports from near Saco and Sleeping Buffalo confirmed these conditions. We could sit here and let the storm pass over us, and spend the next 24 hours at the auto/body/window shop and/or the hospital. Or we could try to stay ahead of it. As we passed Vandalia, it was Nervous Time as the highway went southeastward for about 15 miles. Oh, no!
The maw of the beast was beginning to wrap around us. Another vehicle passed us going the other direction.
—
Prayers.
—
The severe storm seemed to be following U.S. 2 eastward, perfectly centered along its dashed yellow line. The wall of death to our southwest was excruciatingly close as Rook took us down that southeast jog towards Glasgow. Winds from the southwest were beginning to become very strong, very problematic. It was more difficult to keep the big van under control. The adrenaline was rushing! We had to get out of here! Rook had it up to near 85 mph or so, but the crosswinds were now much too strong to allow that. I had him bring it back down to 65 mph. To add insult to impending injury, the strong wind had flipped the windshield wiper on Rook’s side. Rain was no longer being wiped off of the windshield. Rain was whipping across the road and visibility outside the windshield was almost as bad as it was through the windshield.
Well, we made it to Glasgow relatively unscathed, with the storm right on our heels, still. Would Glasgow get totally hammered by wind and large hail? Maybe…but first let’s take a look at my wide-angle shots of the storm along Highway 2 from Saco to Glasgow.
And these were along the same stretch, primarily Saco to Vandalia, taken with the longer lens, generally to the south out my window as we rolled east.
Glasgow was deserted as we moved through town. I think that the residents knew what was coming. We continued east of town maybe 10 miles or so and stopped. Something weird had occurred. The storm had ceased its tremendous motion to the east. We were able to spend time outside of the van, and it looked like a storm base just south of the road was wrapping up some! This is where tornado prospects were looking good earlier, but now it was now, when tornado prospects would be best right here! Maybe there was an increase of low-level easterly flow which helped to reorganize the storm. I don’t know, but it was nice to relax, and to take a deep breath.
That base with the lowered, wrapping area was just south of Highway 2. That would have been a perfect place to treat us to a tornado, but it was not to be. We continued east to Wolf Point, with some fabulous CG lightning down the road to the east as it got dark. This was quite the spectacle; this storm had pretty much everything except the tornado! At Wolf Point we took cover and had one-inch hail. There was a 4-inch hail report elsewhere in town —- how did we miss that? Or how did that miss us?
I had overestimated our endpoint for today’s chase and had reserved rooms in Williston. We had to go another 90 miles or so before our day was done. As we got into Williston, I had problems finding our motel. Soon, we were heading out of town to the north, it seemed! What happened?! Well, much of the town was without power due to the storm and wind. We found our motel in the dark and eventually collapsed into our beds. Thanks for the great driving, Rook!
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.