2014-Day 2

Woke up late in Rapid City, but this isn't thought to be a problem, as we're not too concerned about leaving the area.  After consulting the data we reaffirmed our thinking, and made plans to stick close to the region.

We gassed up the car and debugged the windscreen (oh how I miss the students now), and gassing up next to us were two white 15-passenger vans with college kids cleaning the windows.  I wonder what THEY were doing today.  :-)

After an early lunch at a Wisconsin-based eatery (angioplasty at no extra charge, thankfully), we set down and waited for things to pop. During this time I looked across the street at the following.

(Pre)destined for glory

Upon seeing this, Gustavo told me about his dog, who had recently developed a minor eye issue.  He took Pippa to see a veterinary opthamologist (let that one sink in for a moment), whose last name is Woof (ditto).

The plan currently is to see what develops around here, and eventually make our way east and south to Valentine, Nebraska, the seat of Cherry County.  If you look on a map, it's a gigantic county, over 6000 square miles in area.  To put it into perspective, Rhode Island is a bit over 1200 square miles.  Connecticut (where I was born and raised) would fit into Cherry County with about 500 square miles to spare.  We'll spend the night there to get closer to the moderate risk region progged to be in central and eastern Nebraska.

It's 3:00 pm MDT, and after sitting in Culver's parking lot for nearly 2.5 hours (remember, lots of waiting involved in the pursuit of all things twisty), we decide to drive to Spearfish, north and west of us.  Directly west is not an option, as the Black Hills National Forest poses a road network issue.  A severe thunderstorm watch was issued for the area, but Rapid City is on the eastern edge of it.  We'd much prefer to be on the back side of the storms and watch them as they move away--better to chase than be chased (or chaste, but that's a topic for my other, secret blog).  This does mean more time driving later when we head for Nebraska, but if it means we stand a better chance of seeing action today, so be it.

We overshot Spearfish (we got to talking about the differences between American and Brazilian funerals, of all things) and wound up in Wyoming again, where we ran into some piddly rain and thunder.  There is a much more interesting cell to the north along the Wyoming/Montana border, but that would take some doing to get to (or from).  Saw some decent mammatus near the Welcome Station, along with enough lightning that getting out of the car for long periods was ill-advised.  We headed back into South Dakota toward Belle Fourche, but before we left Wyoming we drove through Aladdin, a bustling metropolis of 15.  We didn't stop to count.  In retrospect, we should have--read on.

A view from a hill

Wyoming welcomes you...now get out.

Tornado?  Maybe?

At 4:45 pm, a tornado warning was issued for Hulett, Wyoming (we stayed there last chase), about 40 minutes west of here.  This is the storm I alluded to earlier.  Unfortunately, our data feeds were somewhat compromised, and so we're holding put in a Shopko parking lot near US212 and US85 in Belle Fourche, .  Wound up seeing a short-lived wall cloud, and got (sorta) core punched by some BB-sized hail.  Lt me reiterate: we didn't core punch, the core came to us and punched.  There were really healthy winds as well.  In fact, just before the rain started a flag I'd been watching (for wind direction) was suddenly gone--whether or not it was taken down on purpose or by the wind is a mystery, but I'm guessing it was the latter.  I would have hated to be the poor intern/schmuck who had to bring it in.  As it turns out, that storm did produce a tornado not too far from where we were, so we probably should have taken that left turn at Albuquerque (I mean Aladdin).  Apparently a storm chaser northwest of Belle Fourche was able to see the tornado in Wyoming; he must have spectacular vision or really good weed.  On the plus side, law enforcement estimated a 50-mph wind where we were, so that was something.

Soft mamma...

Warm mamma...

Little balls of doom!

Angry mamma, violent mamma, zoom zoom zoom!

Is that a wall cloud in your pocket...

...or are you just happy to see me?

Here comes the rain again...on the right.

Heading east on I90 through Sturgis we're seeing some beautiful crawler lightning.  Just another type of lightning that I cannot seem to capture on the digital equivalent of film, thank you very much.

We're currently stuck on I90 east just east of Box Elder due to what must be a very serious accident.  It seems as if every emergency vehicle in western South Dakota is rushing to the scene.  Apparently it's bad enough that we've been told to drive west in the eastbound lane.  They must have closed the interstate, and since we were close to the scene it took a while for us to get there.  We're now following a police escort, driving the wrong way on the longest interstate in the country.

Just another Friday night in western South Dakota

Due to the long distance left to go, we stopped in Wall (no drugs) for a quick bite at DQ.  On our way out the door a small group of students clambered in.  I recognized one of them from his Norway t-shirt--it was the group from the gas station this morning.  I was tempted to ask how they did.  Back on the highway we're getting a great lightning show to the south and east.  The cells to the south are about 25-30 miles away, but it's still vivid.  Surprising, there's no warnings up for them. The lightning is nearly continuous, and all types: cloud-cloud, cloud-ground, crawlers, and my favorite, smitening.  When you think how much charge separation needs to happen (AND IT'S HAPPENING SO QUICKLY), I'm simply astounded.  Some of this lightning was as good as Chadron 2011.  I have some short movies that don't do it justice.  I'll try to get them loaded onto here when I can.

At long (and I mean LONG) last, we arrived in Valentine around 12:45 am local.  We were concerned about beating out a pretty intense cell to our west that formed a small bow and then a LEWP while we were traveling south on US83.  Still some lightning out there (and there were some periods along the way where it was continuous--I have movies).  387 miles today--see you tomorrow!