Start: Glendive, MT
Lunch: Ekalaka/Wagon Wheel Cafe
End: Hot Springs, SD
628 miles
Finally — the weather pattern was favorable for severe weather on the northern High Plains! A nice upper-level wave was moving through Montana and Wyoming. Still, dew points were mediocre, so storm bases would likely be on the high side and the tornado prospects would remain very low.
From Ekalaka we headed south to Alzada, and I was lured south to I-90 at Sundance (passing Devils Tower) to check out some cells a little southwest of Sundance. This turned out to be ill-advised, as these were really high-based and junky. New storms were now moving into better air back to our NNW, and I needed to get back to Alzada.
We got back to Alzada via Spearfish and Belle Fourche. A nice discrete cell was moving to the northeast, north of Albion. The road network here made it difficult to get to where we needed to be! We wound up coming up behind the cell a bit, from the south. It sported a nice, organized, laminar updraft base. A large clear slot was evident, as was a wall cloud for a bit. Unfortunately, as soon as we got close to where we needed to be, it moved off into another roadless area.
And, fortunately, another decent and organized storm was coming up behind it! This second one gave us a good show with a striated gust front/shelf cloud. We tried to stay close by heading up to Capitol and Buffalo, but the storm did not get any more interesting for us.
The images below are of both of these storms, from between Albion and Capitol in Montana.
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