A South Dakota landscape and a developing thunderstorm west of Chamberlain, SD
On May 30th, I decided to start a week trip to the Great Plains to chase some storms. Finally, after waiting and waiting I needed to shake some "cabin fever" as of late. I started the day leaving Peoria, IL around 5:00am en-route to Wall, SD as it was largely a travel day. I did keep tabs on weather models, mesoanalysis, etc. along the way as a cold front would be along I-90 during the late afternoon and evening providing the focus for thunderstorm initiation along my route in South Dakota. Since storms would be along my path on this travel day I figured I'd "goof" around with these storms once they developed during the mid-afternoon. The area along the cold front in southern South Dakota featured 2,000J/kg of CAPE, 0-6km shear at a meager 20kts or less, and a moist-boundary layer along the cold front with dew points near 60°F. I didn't expect much out of this day since conditions were rather marginal for severe storms, but I figured I could grab a few nice shots of the convection and the South Dakota landscape. By far this is my favorite state to chase and photograph storms! By mid-afternoon, storms had initiated along the cold front in south central South Dakota. At this point, I was still on I-90 heading west and was observing convective initiation overhead just west of Chamberlain, SD along the interstate. I grabbed some pleasing shots at this point showcasing the convective environment. Some storms in northern Nebraska were also creeping northwest from the south and starting to congeal so I tracked them most of the evening along I-90. Along the way I found some decent landscapes etc. as the these multicell thunderstorms that were outflow dominate moved in during the evening. Once sunset was near and the storms didn't look photogenic anymore I roomed at a Best Western in Wall, SD. This would set me up nicely to chase some upslope storms in Wyoming and Montana the following day. I've added photos from this travel/chase day below:
Convective initiation occurring along I-90!
A solid updraft looking south near the Nebraska border!
All that's missing here is a rainbow...
Very interesting watching this towers propagate northwest toward my location...
A very nice convecting updraft along I-90...
"Kaboom"
The "rolling" landscape of South Dakota makes for some great landscape shots!
"Let me guide you to the storm"
High-base convection now moving in from the south!
Deep moist convection!
Outflow dominate convection moving along the South Dakota landscapes...
Shelf cloud moving in along the boundary!
"Storms moving in"
Usually, travel days are not that enjoyable, but since I was able to catch some photogenic storms along my route I was quite pleased with how the day unfolded. These storms were not that strong, but provided some good photography on a otherwise boring 12-hour travel day. I chased the very next day in Wyoming and briefly ventured into Montana as well. Stay tuned for another chase post.
