August 9th McPherson County SD

Cullen, Dave Drufke and myself approach a severe warned supercell in northwestern McPherson County of South Dakota.

The cell splits and we decide on the north split as the tower is sheared much better.

North of Long Lake, SD on the North Dakota side of the border the supercell really gets it's act together with a meso and wall cloud.

Pretty apparent this time Mother Nature means business and we are right in her path,

Getting closer by the minute.

The RFD (Rear Flank Downdraft) starts to cut in from the left.  Time to make sure we have road options to escape if needed!

Cullen shoots some video for the TV station.

Dave Drufke putting the D-50 to work.

Sunburst to the southeast.  This brought a flashback of June 9th 2003 near Stuart Nebraska  for those of you who were on that tornado.

Time to head south and stay ahead of the wall cloud and meso.  The storm was not moving very fast but we were running out of daylight.

One last look as I jump in the car as the rotation slips just to the east of us and the RFD starts kicking in.  This is going to be wicked soon.

New vantage point just south and east of the village of Long Lake, SD.  Looking at the south split.  Note how vertical the tower is and soft it looks.

Ever hear that saying "never put the horse before the RFD?  In a couple of minutes 80 mph+ RFD is going to rip these trees apart and send the sheet metal from the windbreak in backgroud hurling at me on the road off to the right.  I still have sand in my ears and eyes!  I really felt sorry for this gal as I knew the RFD was going to hit HARD and she had nowhere to go. The video is plain INSANE!

We get back into position west of Leola, SD by a couple of miles.  The RFD is still getting us as we film and watch  everything rapidly wrap up and form what appears to by a funnel.  View is looking to the north east.  Out of light but the lightning was pretty cooperative.

F0 tornado N of Leola, SD.  Thankfully this tornado lifted before it reached Leola.  Gorgeous view with the lightning.

South of Leola now.  The wall cloud still has a nice tail to it but the whole storm will quickly die from ingesting rain cooled air from the south split strom.  Wow, what an incredible storm for August.

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