Jesse Risley
Staff member
I chased on Monday with Tom Williams, Kholby Martin and Steve Polley. We initially targeted Great Falls, MT due to the decent road network and proximity to the eastern fringe of the Rocky Mountains. Convection formed in the early afternoon southwest of Missoula, in association with an approaching trough overspreading an area of decent instability as moisture pooled from the east. We intercepted a cell that come off the continental divide, near Simms, MT, and tracked it for several hours ENE along the Hwy 87 corridor. The cell went tornado warned later in its cycle, though we were never able to confirm a tornado touchdown. We ended the chase up in Havre, MT as night fell. Attached are some still grabs from my Sony NX5U video camera, taken at various points in the cycle of the storm.