Upslope convection enters the Badlands of South Dakota
providing some spectacular contrast to the sky south of Wall, SD
On
May 16th, I started a mini-vacation with some storm chasing on the agenda since I was able to get a few days in advance off work. I began the very long 12-hour drive just before sunrise with a target of
Wall, SD to photograph the Badlands of South Dakota. I would later wait for convection to fire off the Black Hills in an upslope regime later in the afternoon. I wasn't expecting much out of this day as it was pretty much a "travel day" to prepare for the next couple days of storm chasing. I thought however I'd at least get a few thunderstorms later in the evening to photograph. By early afternoon, it was getting somewhat unstable as instability began to build throughout the afternoon. This area was characterized by
1,000J/kg of CAPE, 0-6km shear at
30kts, and a moistening boundary-layer in an upslope regime with dew points near
55°F. By early evening, one thunderstorm began to
develop off the Black Hills along the dryline/lee trough and started to progress southeast. Since it appeared it would head into
Badlands National Park I decided to await its arrival in the park. I shot a few photos throughout this thunderstorm's life-cycle as it
progressed through the park during the early evening. It did provided some beautiful contrast to the Badlands providing a good evening of photography for myself. Once the storm dissipated I roomed at a Best Western in
Wall, SD that night to rest up for the next chase day. Photos from this travel day I've posted below:
You can't miss the dinosaur at the Wall, SD exit off I-90...
The Badlands are quickly becoming one of my
favorite locations to photograph!
I spent about an hour hanging out in the park as convection
begins to build to my northwest...
Convection blossoming to my northwest!
A nice wide-angle shot as convection begins to enter the park...
I've always wanted to get a storm to go through the park while I
was out doing some photography and on this day I got my wish!
One of my favorites as the storm approaches!
If it wasn't a 12-hour drive to get here I'd be
traveling here all the time...
Great stuff around every corner!
This storm is becoming a little bit better
organized as the evening progresses...
Fresh asphalt really added to this photo as this highway
wraps into this storm's base!
Another good one here! (looking northwest)
Another cool perspective farther east...
Downdraft takes over and chokes the updraft off
weakening this storm...
I drove east and saw the making of this shot along the way so I
had to stop and get out to get a picture from this perspective!
The anvil from the storm just seemed to provide a perfect backdrop...
I'd love to look out the window and see this view everyday!
I've added a short YouTube time-lapse (above)
That wraps up this "chase day" even though it really ended up being more of a travel day to set up for the next three days of chasing. I'll update those chase days in a few future posts in the coming days.
