5/9/2011 -- South Dakota Shuffle

Woke up to what appeared to be another lackluster day upcoming in the Badlands; however, by early afternoon, I was thinking this day had good potential.  I won't dive into the synopsis, but nice upslope ahead of an upper-level impulse tends to get me excited in this area of the High Plains. Alas, by late afternoon, it was clear that the upslope that I had loved so early on, was banking a stratus deck up against the Blackhills. This reduced insolation and, ultimately, instability in the region of greatest forcing. I finally broke from Murdo, to Kadoko, to Wall, and then further west thinking I was done for daytime initiation. As I passed Wall, I did see some convection forming east of Rapid City.  Well, I found it, and it was unimpressive. Sure enough, about 45 min before sunset, a storm went up over Wall and the Badlands, meaning a  revisit to Wall and eastbound. I clipped the hook all along I-90 with nothing but low visibility and an eerie feeling. Finally got to test the inflow north of Phillip. The supercell was quite impressive on radar; unfortunately, it was visually lackluster due to 1) the fact it was nighttime now and 2) a stratus inflow that obscured what would clearly be some impressive structure. I slid to the apex of the hook, hoping to see something ... anything ... alas, I'm not the type to dive into the hook at night with no east-west road options. Granted, there were a couple of brave folks who did; not sure if they were brave or just stupid, but that is just my opinion, man. Anyway, another day where this bowling ball out west failed to materialize good photogenic supers. Ended the night in Wall, which had a hell of a storm roll through about 11 pm or so. Nice wind-driven hail.

Wouldn't you know it, storm fires back to the east. Ah Ma' Nature, you are cruel sometimes ... heading east near Wall, SD.

What a hook, with stratus obscuration, looks like at nighttime -- hell, it is even contrast enhanced!! The face of the deer that ran out in front of me on the way back to Wall after this lapse was much more exciting -- sorry, I don't have a picture.