5/8/2011 -- Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

I left DeKalb at 4 am for my first Plains chase excursion of 2011. Targeted the central Nebraska region early on; though, convective resolving models persuaded me to set-up afternoon shop north and west of Omaha. Spent some time relaxing at a park in some lazy Nebraska town, before realizing that the cap was going to hold across east-central Nebraska. Basic analysis suggested that the northwest quadrant of the theta-e axis as it intersected the well mixed air out west would be a good secondary target -- somewhere in extreme south-central SD. However, bubbling Cu near Neligh, NE restricted my hasty advance toward that target. It is always difficult to turn away from towering Cu; unfortunately, these towers never amounted to much and continued to orphan. That slow meandering toward the northwest cost me a daytime view of the only good supercell in the north-central Plains during the late afternoon, which formed and remained stationary near Presho, SD. By the time I approached the cell, new convection was forming to the southwest of Winner, SD -- that pulled my attention away from the supercell up north b/c of the nice cloud-to-ground lightning. Alas, I was unable to capture a bolt via the camera. These high-based severe storms lacked sufficient organization, so I re-turned my eyes toward the Presho region where another supercell developed due south of the original, yet decaying at this time, supercell. Had a beautiful view of the updraft as I drove north toward Presho, but by the time I got close enough to get some shots, the storm was beginning to lose its beauty in the waning light. I was able to capture a few nice shots of mammatus and intracloud lightning as the cold, gusty outflow kicked through. Ended the night at the Holiday Inn Express in Winner, SD. It was nice to meet up with former graduate student Victor Gensini and professional photographer David Mayhew.  We enjoyed a couple late night beers before calling it a night.

 Towers south of Winner, SD throw an interesting shadow.

 Supercell near Presho produces some mammatus in the late evening light.

Friend and professional photographer, David Mayhew, works his magic along a desolate grass covered road north of Winner, SD.