Another day, another trip down SR-24. The road is best known as a biker paradise and its pretty mountain scenery; alas, on this day it also featured a tornadic supercell. This was a relatively simple
chase complicated by the mountain terrain. We had only one road option and simply had to keep ahead of the cell as it moved east from Devils. The storm really wrapped up near Hulett, WY ... we had to push east just as it appeared to tornado as the meso was upon us. This likely cost us a view of the touchdown as we drifted through the mountain-valley terrain east of Hulett. We stopped along SR-24 a few times, each time awestruck at the intense rotation meandering in the mountains. With no way to gain perspective by driving north, we were locked in with a pure west view of the rain-wrapped, tornadic circulation. We followed it east toward Belle Fourche, before pushing east since convection exploded everywhere, muddying the scene. The
EF2 tornado was over 18 miles long and, unfortunately, caused an injury. Eventually, we met up with my brother (who ferried from Denver) near Wasta, SD, where both groups gobbled up the beautiful convective sky. Called it quits as the storms dissipated in the evening light; overnighted in Winner, SD.
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