Weather With Heather: May 30th, 2011 Chase: My First Tornado

It seems as though our team is getting better each time that we chase because today, for the first time this season, we scored our first tornado.

May 30th was a very cool 53 degrees in Rapid City. We left about 9:30 a.m. (we had to stop at AT&T before we got on the road, though). We headed east on I-90 and before we knew it, the temperature rose more than 30 degrees. We reached Mitchell, SD at about 4 p.m. CDT. By this time, there was already development in northern Nebraska and a tornado watch was issued for northern Nebraska and the eastern half of South Dakota. We decided since we were having such an amazing time with our internet connection to stay in Mitchell and let the action come to us. These storms were tornado-warned at the time, so we were excited. However, we were also nervous because these storms were moving 40 knots or faster and were also afraid of these storms becoming linear fast. After waiting for a while, we saw another storm to the north that could produce so we went after that. The structure looked amazing, but did not produce a tornado. We then decided to go after the other one. With our internet connection being a pain, it was hard to find a place in these small towns that we were going through to find a wi-fi connection. We got into the Emery/Bridgewater area and saw another storm, but this one did not produce either. Finally, we found a dirt/gravel road and went down it to get into position. To our right (south and west) were clear of trees, buildings, etc. However, there was a line of dense trees to our left (east). The skies grew dark very fast, the lightning was increasing in frequency, and we thought that we were in perfect position to see something. It then started raining and we decided to go back up the road to our north. After we passed the tree line, we got a surprise: our first tornado of the season. It all happened so fast. I was only able to get out my video camera to get a shot, because ten seconds later, a wall of rain hit us and we could not see the tornado anymore. We then decided to go east to get ahead of the storm so we can see the tornado. However, we were not able to get out of the rain. The lightning and heavy rain and wind was incredible, though. At about 8:30 p.m., with light fading away and our safety levels going downhill, we headed back to Rapid City.

Seeing my first tornado was very exciting. I was hoping that the experience would last a little longer, though. Hopefully next time, we will see an even stronger tornado and it will last a lot longer as well.