2026--Day 4

Started with a leisurely rollout (compared to yesterday, anyhow) from Spearfish, where we headed west toward Gillette, Wyoming in hopes of early firing storms.  There were storms going up to the west during lunch, and while they were visually impressive, they didn't amount to much, at least where we were.  That said, you can see in the later radar images that the supercell split, which is always great to see in the wild, and not just in mesoscale class.

Did get to see some Kelvin-Helmholtz clouds along the way, always cool.  The video shows the wave action. 

We then drove north to Broadus, MT to go after some promising storms.

To keep an eye on this storm, we drove southeast towards the bustling metropolis of Alzada (population 17 as of 2023).

This was a very ugly HP supercell with a history of strong wind gusts and large hail (one spotter noted 3.25" hail).  We tried getting ahead of it to get better visuals, but weren't entirely successful.  

The path took us from southeast Montana through northeast Wyoming (again) and back into northwest South Dakota.  After attempting to get ahead of this ugly storm (we never got in its path) we abandoned the chase near Faith, SD.  

After dinner at a (very) local bar that I'm certain were not expecting a dozen foreigners on a quiet Sunday evening, we headed north and west toward North Dakota.  One of the major concerns was that these discrete cells would congeal into a linear system of storms, which isn't ideal for chasing (you chase supercells, squall lines chase you).  There was even talk of the system turning into a derecho, a long-lived system of storms that produce swaths of strong straight-line winds.  While we were able to thread the needle between some of the lines, we did get some serious crosswinds (our van is very tall and basically turns into a sail) and some very healthy rain.  In addition, there were long periods of continuous lightning, as seen in this video that I can't upload.  Casey and I, having lived in the Midwest and being veterans at this kind of thing, we often take these visuals for granted.  Seeing these through the eyes of our students who have never experienced such things is a complete blast.  Here's a summary of yesterday's events.

At loooong last, we pulled into Bowman, North Dakota (state #4 for the day).  The hotel lobby was unlocked and deserted, but I found an envelope with my name on it, along with five sets of keycards--thank the Lord and sing His praise.  Could have been worse--there was a car in the parking lot driven by a storm chaser from Australia who wasn't so successful in avoiding the hail, as the windscreen on his (I assume) rental car was obliterated. 

Another 500+ mile day--that makes four out of four (514 today/2263 total).  Tomorrow should be much quieter.  Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.