Memorial Day Weekend. Nick and I planned for a Target of west of Pierre, SD. We started out the day early traveling from the Twin Cities arriving for a pit stop final chase target pick in Pierre, SD around 8am.
We headed west of Pierre towards White Owl, and stopped west of Union Center. Along the way we stopped at our favorite spot that looks over a steep hill. It contains prickly pear catcus along side of the road and a spectacular view in all directions.
We then proceeded to head west. We watched as the storm grew and produced many wall clouds to our west. At times the rain shrouded it, but then the wall cloud would appear again. The storm itself had so much rotation in it that the wall cloud seemed to go from the backside of the storm to the front side of the storm.
The picture above shows a nice feeder inflow going into the storm.
Above is a picture Nick took of me on the phone with the weather service reporting a wall cloud on the storm we are watching. You can see the view of the storm via our radar on the laptop in the car.
We caught this brief needle funnel cloud just to the left of our car while watching the bigger storm to the west.
The storm finally started to move to the south east and we headed back east and then south to reposition ourselves in front of the storm again. Below are some shots when we were sitting near the interstate on a county road.
Here we are directly east of the Rapid City NWS Radar site watching the storm move east.
As the sun started to set, the storm lost its energy, so we went east and grabbed the storm and colors of the sky with the setting sun.
A shot of the car with the awesome storm in the background.
What a great way to end the day!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Sunday, May 26th
We looked at and watch the prediction from the SPC. We knew the big show would be down in Kansas, and later in the afternoon. We were hoping the storms would fire back in the same area as they were the day before, but unfortunately they fired way west in Wyoming.
So we did some "tourist" stops this day instead. First stop - Wall Drug!
This train was sitting on the tracks just next to the parking lot for Wall Drug. From Wall we headed to the entrance of the Badlands. We went in at the Pinnancles Entrance and followed the Badlands Scenic Roadway through the park. Here are a few shots from the day.
A shot of Amanda taking a picture of the landscape.
A shot from the scenic byway drive.
Wild Antelope running in the park. If you look very closely you can see the baby near one of the adults.
We were treated to a rare sight - Bighorn sheep on the side of the badlands itself. Momma and Baby!
We then left the park and stopped at the Prairie Dog Gift Shop and feeding area along Highway 240. We bought the prairie dog food from the gift shop (unsalted peanuts) along with a road trip souvenir and chase mascot for SD, and went to feed the Prairie Dogs. I had fun enjoying watching Nick feed the guys. We also were treated to priarie dog babies!
Prairie Dog Babies in the hole
We then headed east towards Mitchell, SD to spend the night.
Monday, Memorial Day, we headed back home as all the risk was way south of us and out of our reach for the last long weekend chase weekend.
Nick
& I had a great three day chase across the Northern Plains and
Upper Midwest over the past weekend.
We encountered many severe storms
and lots of wonderful people along our way! Although we did not make it
further south where the more intense action was, and the bigger crowds,
But sometimes its just about sticking to a target area and pulling the
best from what the skies and surroundings bless you with.
Here is some pictures from the past weekend of our chase.
Shelf Cloud moving closer to Hughes County northwest of Pierre.
Pancake
Stack shelf just west Lake Oahe just as the sun fades into the Dakota
skies. We measured and reported a high peak wind gust of 61MPH with the
gust front on this storm as it overtook our location.
TCU trying to organize and GO! on the South Dakota/Nebraska line near Valentine.
Storms rapidly getting organized over the open county of Ziebach County South Dakota.
Finally
one of the cells attempts to do it as it interacts with a occluded
frontal boundary draped over Ziebach and Meade counties. This wall cloud
had visible rotation for a time shown here near Cherry Creek South
Dakota 5/18.
Darkening skies over the Badlands of South Dakota near Wall.
The Badlands greening up!
Well
developed wall cloud along along the Minnesota/Iowa border south of
Kiester MN. This wall cloud had fair rotation before the inflow became
quickly cut off east of Kiester.
Nice Mammatus clouds greeted us on arrival, just North of Murdo in Jones County South Dakota.
Late evening severe warned storm rolling over the endless grasslands of central Stanley County in western South Dakota.
Shelf
cloud getting better organized as the storm approaches the Missouri
River and Lake Oahe northwest of the city of Pierre in Stanley County.
Nick and I have been getting ready for our upcoming Skywarn Classes being held Friday April 5th and Saturday April 6th. We will be doing 2 private classes on Friday, and 2 public classes on Saturday. All our details can be found on our webpage at http://www.prairiewindchasers.com/skywarn-training/
Below is one of our articles that we had published in the local newspaper out in Western MN - Morris Sun Tribune in regards to severe weather, new things to be aware of and our Skywarn Training upcoming class.
2013 could have active severe weather season
Morris Sun Tribune
Friday, March 29, 2013
Trained
weather spotters keeping a close eye on a severe storm with visible
rotation near Alberta Highway 28 in Stevens County in 2012. (Amanda
Hill/Submitted Photo)
MORRIS – Although 2012 was an
unusually quiet year for tornados and damaging winds in the upper
Midwest region, it was an active season for much of Stevens County.
While it's still early to look at trends for the upcoming severe
weather season, some indications show the region could expect a more
active season.
In advance of Severe Weather Awareness Week and a local training for
severe weather spotters next weekend, we'll offer a recap on the 2012
season, a look at what Stevens County residents can expect in 2013 and
share resources for staying informed about severe weather events in the
community.
2012 severe weather season kicked off strong
Mother Nature wasted little time in kicking off the 2012 severe
weather season for Stevens County; ironically, she did so on the same
day as the local weather spotter training class that was held in the
area on Saturday, April 21, 2012 in Morris.
Shortly after the class had concluded, the area was hit with a round
of tornadoes, hail and very heavy rainfall. A confirmed EF-0 tornado
touched down in a farm field in rural Everglade Township just northwest
of the town of Chokio. The same storms then went on to produce hail and
funnel clouds to the east near Donnelly as well as producing another
EF-0 tornado in neighboring Swift and Chippewa counties near Milan.
Other significant local severe weather events in 2012 included a
widespread damaging wind and large hail event on Father’s Day, June 17,
and two very significant and damaging large hail events in August. One
occurred on the afternoon of Aug. 15, producing golf ball to tennis ball
sized hail and strong winds near Morris and Donnelly. The other
occurred in the early afternoon hours of Aug. 23, where golf ball sized
hail had fallen for over 20 minutes and resulted in significant crop,
vehicle and structural damage near and southwest of Hancock.
Looking ahead to 2013
So what can we expect this year? At this point it is really anyone’s
guess as to exactly how the severe weather season will unfold. Long
range forecast model data and current climate pattern trends are
suggesting a more normal to active severe weather season when compared
to 2012.
This is largely due in part to northern states staying much cooler,
longer into the spring and the southern states becoming warm very
quickly and remaining that way through the early summer. This could keep
the main storm track parked up over Minnesota and North and South
Dakota, potentially increasing the chance for severe weather.
Staying informed in Stevens County
Many new and useful information gathering tools and personal alerting
resources are available to receive severe weather alerts as well as
other critical emergency information for this spring 2013.
On a local level, the Stevens County Sheriff’s Office of Emergency
Management currently utilizes an advanced Emergency Alert Notification
System that sends out civil emergency notifications and significant
severe weather alerts via phone, text message (SMS), pagers, fax,
teletype and email.
This notification system is specifically designed to warn the public
of in-progress or imminent significant threats(s) to public safety
and/or property within Stevens County.
In addition to this system, the Stevens County Sheriff’s Office also
utilizes social media and local radio stations for disseminating
emergency information to the local public including a Facebook page at www.facebook.com/StevensCountySheriffsOffice.
The Stevens County Sheriff’s Office has also been highly proactive in
providing cutting edge severe weather spotter training as well as
continuing education to its dispatchers, deputies, local first
responders, fire fighters as well as other critical emergency services
staff within the county.
This all means that the very best trained eyes and ears are out there
closely and accurately scanning the skies when severe weather threatens
the area.
Some new weather alerting information coming online from the National
Weather Service for 2013 will include the new Impact Based Warnings
System, which will utilize highly enhanced wording based on the severity
of the type of weather and situation at hand.
For example, if a developing tornado is suggested by radar data, but
has not yet been confirmed a tornado warning may still be issued but
with less enhanced wording than a tornado that has been confirmed on the
ground by law enforcement or trained weather spotters.
This new system’s goal is to help reduce the public complacency to severe weather warnings and reduce false alarms.
Last, but not least, you may want to consider purchasing a weather
alert radio from your local electronics store. These radios
automatically alert to severe weather warnings to your specific area or
county. These radios typically cost between $40 and $70, a small price
to pay for a lifesaving wake-up call during a late night tornado
outbreak or straight line wind event.
Severe Weather Awareness Week
Minnesota’s Severe Weather Awareness Week will be held this year from
April 15th – 19th with a different topic covered each day. The
state-wide tornado drill day will be held on Thursday, April 18. On that
date, Stevens County will sound outdoor warning sirens during the 1
p.m. hour and again during the 6 p.m. hour to allow people, schools and
businesses a chance to drill and think about what they would do if it
were an actual tornado emergency.
If you have an interest in becoming a trained volunteer weather
spotter for the National Weather Service or just interested in severe
storms, you may want to attend a free local spotter training course
being held locally on Saturday, April 6 at the West Central Research and
Outreach Center in Morris from 2 p.m. – 4 p.m. For more information on
this course, contact Nick Elms at 763-516-1146. Nick Elms is a local news and weather contributor.
Nick and I decided to head up to the Monticello area Saturday afternoon (2-9-13) to check out the swans at the Swan Park. We figured they would be moving / flying around more due to the warmer weather and the "feed up before the big storm" that was coming on Sunday. We were not disappointed.We had plenty of flying action that afternoon.
Below are a few shots from the day.
A pair of geese flying down the river that afternoon
Swan gracefully flying by over the river.
A pair of Swans landing after feeding from the fields.
This time of year the swans start to get territorial, and we happened to catch this shot just at the right time.
Just stretching the wings.....
The noise during this time was amazing to hear - they can be very vocal.
Nick & I had a massive turn out
today at the Minnesota Federation Of County Fair's yearly convention
held today at the Double Tree hotel in Bloomington MN.
We presented a
specialized hybrid spotter training course that trained key fair &
festival safety planing & decision makers from county fair boards
from all counties of the state of Minnesota.
The group trained on the
basics of weather spotting as well as how to become StormReady with the
NWS and also on enacting a severe weather action and mitigation plan for
their county's outdoor fair when severe weather threatens.
The spotter
training today was more well received that expected with 118 persons in
attendance, A great way to kick off the 2013 spotter training season!
Nick
presenting on severe weather to a packed house at the Minnesota
Federation Of County Fair's 2013 convention in Bloomington MN today. A
special Thank you to our host moderator Steve Storck for a wonderful day!
Tornadoes by the numbers!
MFCF 2013 convention spotter training with attendees from all 6 CWFA's in the state of Minnesota!
Trained
weather spotters keeping a close eye on a severe storm with visible
rotation near Alberta Highway 28 in Stevens County in 2012. (Amanda
Hill/Submitted Photo)
