6/12-14/2007 More Multicells and Time To Throw in the Towel

We started the day in Rapid City and headed up to Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse for a bit of site seeing. We grabbed some data in Custer, SD and quickly decided to head east out of the Black Hills in order to view the developing convection near Murdo, SD. Despite the issuance of a tornado watch for much of NE and SD, the conditions didn’t look favorable for anything other than multicellular convection with perhaps a “hint” of midlevel rotation. After a bit of traveling, which included traversing quite a bit of the Black Hills … slowly, we eventually arrived in Murdo. We got ahead of the line of multicells just in time for a picturesque photo or two.


After this convection appeared to “gust out,” I made the decision to head south toward Nebraska as convection looked a bit better in that area. This long drive put us ahead of what I can only characterize as deep, tropic convection in Custer County. The thunderstorms produced extremely heavy rains and made driving faster than 5 mph or so difficult. At the minimum, it was good to see extremely low cloud bases again. We eventually found ourselves in North Platte where we ended the day at the Comfort Inn.

On Wednesday, I decided not to chase the marginal setup in Oklahoma. Instead, my brother and I visited Rocky Mountain National Park and ended the day at the Holiday Inn on Lake Dillon in Frisco, Summit County, CO. I was quite amazed at just how bad the pine beetle infestation had become since my visit to this same area last year. Entire pine forests will be wiped out because of the beetle. Eventually new growth will takeover, but it will be a bit unsightly for perhaps 15-20 years?

On Thursday, I dropped my brother at the Denver airport and then proceeded to drive to Des Moines, IA. Made it home to DeKalb on Friday. This concludes my formal storm chasing this year, although I’m sure I will do plenty of spot chases to IA or within IL if the pattern cooperates.