Seize the storm

Gnats!   (Nuts!)

The forecast was one of the greatest we’ve seen in a long time for South Dakota.   Parameters were on there way to outbreak level.   Amy and I picked up Nick Hartley and headed out to Sioux Falls where we filled up and sped west on I-90.   On our way, we found out that two tornadoes had dropped on the west side of the state near Allen.   Excited by the cap breaking, we continued on.   At Chamberlain, we found to our dismay that the cap was still too strong as system moved eastward.   After some consultation of radar, phone calls, and satellite imagery, we decided that the best move would be to head to our original target of Winner.   As we got close to Winner, we could make out cumulonimbus in the closing distance.   Again, our excitement heightened – Winner passed and the Baloo Mobile made its way towards Presho to get back on I-90.

Road to Presho

It was on this road to Presho that we encountered a beautiful shelf cloud.   It kicked up dust as its moisture-starved maw opened to take us in.   The straight-line winds buffeted the car and added difficulty to our route to the northwest.   We witnessed a pheasant attempt to face the straight-line winds only to be literally thrown backwards across the entire highway.   As we continued, we observed a lot of rotation that lacked organization.   There were a few gustnadoes that we saw in the distance but couldn’t get any pictures because we were too far away.

Going Home

At I-90, we fell behind Tim Samaras and his entourage, following them until Chamberlain where we filled up again and decided to persue a cell headed toward Huron.   The cell looked good for a little while but then lost all of its energy leaving a damp road ahead of us.   It was just south of Huron that I noticed this noise that sounded like rain.   After a moment of looking and trying to find the clouds, I found the supercell cumulonimbus cloud of gnats we were driving through.   It wasn’t until Huron when we filled up one more time that we saw the carnage that was the front of my car.   I daresay I laid waste to a couple of hundred thousand gnats as I could barely read my license plate.

The gnat picture…(of course I took a picture)