7/13/09 Now: MT/ND/SD/WY

[Dustin Wilcox]

Just got home last night after spending all weekend floating and partying at a Ranch out in BFE SW of Valentine, just so happens to be RIGHT where that storm is spinning over. I was dumb and didn't take my computer, and of course they didn't have one. So I never caught on to the setup until I got home, and then didn't feel like making the drive back out there... BAD life Choice. Finally got a hold of my buddies out there and they said they never seen a tornado but they said "hail bigger than baseballs" at the South place. That storm is absolutely massive, looks like the whole thing is just spinning like mad per radar, undoubtedly going to be some insane photos from that area...

Will be interesting to see how this sup and squall to the West convergence ends up, that is assuming this sup continues to move SSE and maintains it's self; appears it might have a hard time rekindling to what it once was after this last RFD blast and now that convection from the West has caught it. This from earlier explains a lot, don't really recall seeing to many good sups in an area with that high of parameters, seems normally if you get composites that high things are mega capped...

 

[Brian Stertz]

Oh the pain Dustin ....not sure how chaseable that monster would have been but the structure shots could have been pretty ridiculous. It has cycled pretty violently since it started moving south from South Dakota. It looks like the kind of supercell that would have destructive hail...and surely some ejecting hailbombs miles from the updraft to boot !!

 

[Jeremy Den Hartog]

Wow, I hope anyone near and in particular WSW of Wood Lake, NE is taking cover - that is a monster hook on that cell right now!

 

[Dustin Wilcox]

Wow, I hope anyone near and in particular WSW of Wood Lake, NE is taking cover - that is a monster hook on that cell right now!

I really wonder how many tornadoes this storm has produced, it could be producing monster EF-5 tornadoes and no one would ever know. You have to see that area for yourself to really understand just how barren it really is out there, other than a small town along one of the few hwy's every now and then, you can drive for 50+ miles and never see a house or any sign of human life other than a few fence posts, often you can go for miles and not even see cattle. Given the path of that storm, it's quite possible that if it has indeed been producing, there will have been many tornadoes that will never be recorded, just because not only is there no one to see them, but there is absolutely nothing of any sort for them to damage. Interesting the storm has now began moving due East if not even a little North of East, as the junk convection from the west caught it, but it continues to maintain its supercell characteristics, at least for now.

 

[Michael O'Keeffe]

Dustin is right, the drive from North Platte to Valentine is easily the most barren and grueling drive east of the Rockies with 2 towns on the 150+ mile stretch. Anyway with the way that hook looks and the intense velocity couplet I wouldn't be surprised to see a significant tornado on the ground. It almost appears to have the donut hole look to it similar to the Greensburg tornado however the velocities aren't as strong but it does look similar in appearance on radar. At least if there is a violent tornado on the ground it ain't hitting anything.

 

[Dennis Dennison]

In Hastings ,NE waiting to some of the remenants to blow thru--but it looks as if everything is going to pass north of here at this moment