Another long drive with almost continuous rain from Topeka to Goodland. Some storms formed in the DVCZ this afternoon but stayed mostly over the mountains till after sunset. So far my plan for tomorrow and Saturday still looks promising to see storms. Currently a marginal risk for the CO/WY/KS region for tomorrow and a slight risk for severe storms in the NE PH region on Saturday. This is what the long range models were hinting at in the days before I left home and why I wanted to get into a decent position well before SPC forecasts became apparent for these regions.

HIE- Goodland, KS - 736 miles

When I woke up this morning I was fairly certain I would be heading to somewhere in northeast Colorado, but after much consternation I decided to head south along the western KS border. The models were not real high on breaking out storms in northeast Colorado, but each run of the HRRR was consistent on storm initiation by later afternoon in SE CO with these storms eventually heading northeast into north western Kansas. By late afternoon I was able to get in front of a robust cell near Cheyenne Wells in CO (first photo) with a thin line of convection stretching south of this cell. I played around with this storm for awhile (second photo) before heading back east into KS with the plan to eventually intercept the stronger cells moving north into NW KS. One isolated cell developed farther east near Oakley, but it was rather disorganized at times. Never the less I decided to make a run for it by heading east on I-70 from Goodland. I gave up on this cell somewhere east of Colby. I then headed back west to Goodland. I then made a few stops east and south of town to take photos of the decaying storms that were exhibiting some nice colors from the setting sun. All in all the day turned out somewhat as expected, even if not in my original target area.

HIE - Goodland, KS (again) - 290 chase miles

The target for today was fairly easy. Go north from my overnights stay in Goodland in order to get to the east of the surface low in far western Nebraska.  Doing so would put me close to the Dry Line and backed surface flow out of the ESE. The CAM models showed a few isolated supercells developing by late afternoon near these features in SW NE. I targeted Imperial, NE and had plenty of time to get there. I hung out in a park near Enders looking at data and biding my time.  Around 2pm I headed into Imperial for fuel and to grab lunch, but soon abandoned the lunch idea when strong updrafts were beginning to form to my south, right on schedule! One isolated updraft showed promise and soon had a 49,000 foot echo top (1st photo). I watched this storm develop for about an hour before heading southwest of town for a closer look at the base structure. It was decent, but rather weird and disorganized (2nd photo). The storm was moving due north and easy to follow north via highway 61. I caught up to the tail end of this storm as it was filling in with rain and hail a few miles south of Grant, NE. The chaser traffic north was now crazy and I really had to get out of the traffic blasting north and right into the nebulous core of this storm. I cut east on a gravel road and watched some incredible whales mouth structure to my north. I was in no rush and took numerous photos. I let the core pass north of highway 23 to my north and then headed east on this highway towards a large supercell near Wellfleet, NE. That storm was moving north along highway 83 and I followed it north to near my nights stay in North Platte. I stopped a few times for photos of some anti-crepuscular rays and new convection forming back to my west. I hung back just enough to stay out of the reports of large hail of this severe warned storm, but by this time the the structure was rather obscured and uninteresting.  Overall a very active chase day with multiple storms to pursue.

HIE - North Platte, NE - 216 miles

May 31, 2026: Sunday - Day 5 - Positioning Day - No Storms : 

I was torn between heading farther south to about I-70 in Colorado, or north to far southeast WY. Based on the models I knew there was a better chance of one big supercell to the south in northeast Colorado, but I also knew everyone else knew of this and I really didn’t feel like dealing with mass chaser hordes again. The northern target had promise as well and would not likely have as many chasers.  Not to mention it is also one of my favorite areas to chase! A nice cell went up in Wyoming but it was way too early, around 1:30pm local time. I planned an intercept near Yoder, WY (1st two photos) and that worked out okay, but by the time I got there more cells had formed to this storms southwest. I played around with the broken line of storms until they weakened and then headed south to 313 leading to Chugwater, hoping to catch the tail end storm. I abandoned that idea rather quickly as that storm weakened and instead stopped to photograph the storm structure that was happening to my north (abandoned farmstead photo). I then headed south after a new storm updraft that looked promising, and it did right until l got to the base when it rapidly fizzled out (4th photo). I then headed back north on 85 and then east thru LaGrange to my favorite look out spot above town. There simply was not much happening as everything nearby had weakened considerably. I decided my best play would be to continue east to the dominate lead severe warned storm in this broken line of storms and maybe catch something interesting around sunset. That plan worked as I got some great Mammatus photos from the large complex of storms that was departing to my east in the 30-40 minutes right before and after sunset.

HIE - Alliance, NE - 296 miles.

A rather frustrating day given the the miles driven and the prospect for isolated supercells early on from about Belle Fourche, SD to far SW ND. As I approached Sturgis, SD an impressive Cb formed to my northwest. It was still quite early and it didn’t take long for this cell to collapse. I then hung out briefly in Belle Fourche before deciding the better chances for isolated supercells would be in SE ND. I stopped in Bowman, ND when things were not looking good to my north neither on radar or visually, and we already had northerly winds. I decided to drive back south about 60 miles to check out storms that were forming to the north of Belle Fourche. The western most storm had a small LP updraft and some decent Mammatus (1st photo). I took a few photos and headed back north hoping for something to form to my west. An isolated cell did form west of Buffalo, SD that soon had a severe warning. I cut west about 20 miles on Highway 2 for a closer look, but the storm was disorganized and not very impressive (2nd-3rd photos). I then continued north towards ND and stopped one more time near Amidon just as the setting sun was illuminating another isolated severe warned storm back to my southwest (last photo). I took a couple of photos before heading for my nights stay in Dickinson, ND

Candlewood Suites - Dickinson, ND - 569 miles

I was pretty confident the best place to be today to see a early supercell before things went linear would be somewhere between Murdo and Winner, SD,  which would be about a 300 mile drive south for me. The first isolated storm went up a little south of Murdo and eventually became the storm of the day (first photo). The storm was moving northeast so I made the mistake of heading back north to I-90 and then west before realizing this supercell was fast becoming a right mover. I could no longer beat the hail core south on highway 183, so opted to cut south behind the storm on 53, hoping it did not turn into a gravel. Unfortunately the road did turn become gravel and was had just been flooded by the storm I was pursuing.  This really slowed my path south and then east way down. Even though I never was able to get east of the storm, I was able to capture some chaotic views from behind the storm, including a possible large low contrast tornado a little after 7pm from a location northwest of Winner (last photo).

Technically this was a chase and positioning day for what could be better days coming up in eastern MT and North Dakota. I positioned myself south of Rapid City near Hermosa waiting for what would hopefully be a nice tail end supercell coming in from Wyoming. The roads west from Hermosa go thru the Black Hills with beautiful scenery, but virtually no good views to witness storms. A severe warned storm came right my way before weakening and giving no structure at all. No worthwhile storm photos were captured. buy did photograph some interesting tombstones from the Highland Park Cemetery with a beautiful view of the Black Hills.

Today was simply a positioning day coupled with some scenic photo stops along the way. But first I had to get my tires spin balanced as quite a vibration had developed at high speeds. The problem was mud that caked on the inside of the tires throwing them out of balance, no doubt from that 13 mile muddy rain soaked gravel road two days prior near Winner, SD. I had beautiful cirrus filled skies on the way north and my first stop was at Medicine Rocks State Park south of Baker, MT.  This was a fun place to visit for a little light hiking and photography (first photo). Then after checking into the hotel in Glendive, Montana I drove 40 miles southwest on I-90 to the Terry Badlands. This was a place I had wanted to visit when Nancy and I were in the area a couple years ago, but time was limited at that time. I spent the last hour enjoying the rugged landscape views until sunset, a very desolate place for sure (last photo).

HIE - Glendive, MT - about 376 miles

Storms were not likely to form much before sunset, so I had a long day of waiting ahead of me. The very best chase for isolated supercells, at least initially, would be north across the Canadian border. I was not interested in the possible long wait and hassle to cross the border and for not being familiar with the currency exchange, road network, hotels. I opted for the last show in northeast Montana and spent a good part of the day hanging out in Makoshika SP fighting the heat and bugs and checking hourly model updates. I went a few miles west of town on highway 2005 and hung out another hour of so at a high spot next to the Glendive gun range. Some storms formed about 60 miles to my south, but they were rather weak. Another small cell formed near Circle, MT —- about 40 miles to my WNW. This cell had potential since it was it better air and an area of converging surface winds. The storm was never severe warned but did offer a couple of decent photo ops.

At Circle I cut NE on highway 200 since the storm was following this route to its northeast.  This worked out well since it would eventually take me to Sidney, MT where I would be staying for the night. Along the way another more potent severe warned storm formed back to my SE and was aiming its hail core right towards my route. I finally got far enough ahead of the storm so it would cross the road behind me. I stopped a few miles east of Sidney a couple of times to take photos of this storm in the setting sun. It was putting down a few really nice lightning bolts at this time. I stopped once more to try for some tripod shots of lightning, captured a few but they were getting a little too far away and imbedded in rain. All in all a nice ending to very long day waiting for the storms to form.

HIE - Sidney, MT - 136 miles. (only $99 + tax on a SAT night!)

I decided not to chase the big risk day in Canada & North Dakota, and instead play the tail end enhanced risk convection in the SE WY / SW SD area. This would also put me in good position to reach the slight risk area on Day 2 in the Palmer Divide/Cheyenne Ridge region. A couple of small severe warned cells went up a bit early well north of Gillette, WY. A played with these for awhile but was not able to follow them east for the lack of any east road options.

I went south to I-90 then east to 14, north past Devils Tower and eventually on an east route to Belle Fourche. My original storm was still the dominate cell and also the southern most cell. I tried for an intercept north and west of Belle Fourche, got close but just couldn’t reach it as it kept moving farther to the northeast. Meanwhile a few newer cells developed behind the main cell and provided a few photo ops right up until sunset.

Holiday Inn - Spearfish, SD - 498 miles (same hotel as June 4th)

Today I started my trek towards home with the bonus of intercepted a supercell near Salina, KS. I booked a room in Salina and arrived about and hour or so before storm initiation. For some reason I decided to check in the hotel early and have a key handy so I wouldn't have to go thru that process later that night. Unfortunately the hotel was without power from the previous nights storms and was not expecting power to return for 3 days! All the other hotels nearby were also out of power or booked solid! Worse I was just about out of fuel and the local truck stops were out of power as well. I learned one hotel 36 miles south had power, but no rooms, so figured I start in that direction since I had enough gas to get there, barely. Luckily I found gas a few miles south of Salina, filled up and then waited for storm initiation. Right on cue a storm cell went up about 3 miles to my NW, I went after this one in its young phase and took a few photos of this young cell.

But this storm was rapidly expanding and was soon severe warned, so time to blast east on I-70. I got about half way to Abilene and couldn’t believe how fast the storm evolved. There was a distinctive ragged wall cloud and it looked like it could tornado at any moment. Velocity scan showed a nice velocity couplet and by now the storm was tornado warned.

I then moved farther east as to near Abilene as the storm was now a right mover cutting across I-70. I had to dive south of town to avoid crossing into the hail core and got a few more looks at the wall cloud and developing tornado as strong dust and rain driven RFD winds slammed me from the north. I finally had to let the storm go as I could no longer get south of the ever expanding rain/hail core. I drove back thru Abilene thru flooded streets that resembled ranging creeks. The travel east of I-70 was rather slow with off/on heavy rain and wind.  I took my last photo shortly after sunset of a Mammatus field near Junction City, Kansas. 

HIE - Topeka, NORTH - KS - 440 miles.

A mostly uneventful trip towards home with no storms encountered except for a couple of interesting small storm updrafts between Indianapolis and Dayton, Ohio. Lots of road construction along the way but no real delays and a very long check in looking for the desk clerk who was missing for about 30 minutes or so, seemed to have some personal family issues going on.

HIE - Dayton North - OH - 646 miles

No storms or issues on the way home. A slight risk of severe storms for eastern PA but yielded next to no storms in my homw area.

Bernville, PA - 489 miles