May 22 South Dakota Tornadoes: The Storm Chase of a Lifetime

Holy cow.

What had all the indications of an impending cap bust turned into an unbelievable chase day in South Dakota. Highlights included a ferocious, Greensburg-style wedge that narrowly spared the town of Bowden, and some smaller, beautifully photogenic tornadoes and amazing storm structure. I’ll need some time to process the events of this storm chase, which began in earnest just east of the Missouri River as a tower broke the cap and went absolutely crazy in an environment with CAPES approaching 5,000 J/kg. Right now, I’m chilling in a hotel in Aberdeen, and I probably won’t post in earnest for a couple of days. There’s just too much to write about, and I need to step back from it all for a bit. I’d share some photos if I had my photo processing apps installed on my laptop. As it stands, I’ll just say that I got some great shots, and I’ll be sharing some of them along with a more in-depth writeup in a future post, or perhaps several posts.

Tomorrow looks like another good shot at tornadoes once again in South Dakota. Since we’re already here, we may stick around for round two, provided that Mike, whose vehicle we came in, is up for it. If so, I’m game. If not, I’ll be more than happy with yesterday’s experience. I can’t imagine a storm chase getting any better than that–or any worse and emerging from it intact.