Tornado in South Dakota

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On Wednesday morning, the Mississippi State storm chasing team left Ogallala, Nebraska for Central South Dakota in hopes of seeing supercell storms…. The video below demonstrates the success we had!

This was my first time messing around with Windows Movie Maker.  I am not sure why there is no audio, but trust me, the winds were kickin’!  (I may put together another video with pictures leading up to the storm and images from after the tornado…you know, so you get the full effect.  Hopefully that one will have audio!)

Friday did not yield any storms for us.  We started out in Garden City, Kansas and headed into East Colorado.  We ran into some road construction, so that slowed us down.  Storms fired in Wyoming, but we decided that we would just call it a day and get ourselves positioned for Saturday’s events.

We headed out from our hotel in Ogallala, Nebraska (my first time in Nebraska!) a little later than we had hoped; Mountain time kind of messed us up!  We crossed over into South Dakota that afternoon and before long could see cumulus clouds building.  (That’s indicative of the atmosphere being unstable–necessary for storm development!)

Unlike the mid portion of the week when chasing storms in Oklahoma, the roads were not nearly as crowded.  That, coupled with relatively flat terrain, made for great chasing!

We followed the storm closely on radar and positioned ourselves East-Southeast of it.  We got out of the van to snap a few pictures as the rotation intensified.  Quickly, the wall cloud lowered and began to rotate noticeably faster.  And almost in an instant, it seemed liked, a tornado formed!  It was AMAZING seeing a funnel form and drop to the ground right before our eyes.  As it approached, we got back into the van.  At one point we could see multiple vortices!  Our 15 passenger van began to rock as the rear flank downdraft was over us.  And we could still see the remnants of the tornado.  It was an experience I hope to never forget…and probably the coolest one I’ve ever had!

We followed the storm a little while longer (going down stretches of gravel roads), but it became rain-wrapped.  So if there was another tornado, which I don’t doubt there was, we couldn’t see it due to the rain.  We have seen at least four tonadoes this week, but this one was the coolest because it initially was low precipitation.  We could easily discern the twister.

We are in Aberdeen, South Dakota tonight–not far from Bowdle, where we saw the tornado.  Tomorrow, I am hoping the plan is to stay in SD and go to Mt. Rushmore.  It’s on my life to-do list!

Oh, and how did I forget to mention this?  Vortex 2 decided NOT to chase today…and remember they were complaining about roads being too crowded in Oklahoma.  This was the PERFECT storm for them.  Great terrain, and low amounts of storm chasers.  They have nothing to complain about.

THANKS for taking the time to read this, and don’t forget you can see my most recent storm chasing album by clicking here, and you can follow the MSU storm chasing website which has professors’ blogs and you can track our location by clicking here.  I sent in my video to The Weather Channel, so maybe you’ll see it on TV Sunday.  And if you have never left a comment on Comment page, click here!  Yes, YOU!