Chase partners: Jennifer Brindley.  Equipment:  Kenwood TH-F6A Tribander, Dell Inspiron Laptop.  Millenicom 760 USB datacard and cradlepoint router, Holux 236 GPS, Canon 60D and EF-S 10-22mm

Additional photography courtesy: Jennifer Brindley Ubl

Jenn and I had spent the past couple days in South Dakota sight seeing, waiting for the chase setup on the 22nd. Shear and instability looked fairly modest for June, but models showed a bowing dryline across eastern Wyoming and Colorado with a weak warm front in southwest South Dakota, and a hint of disturbance aloft. Instability and shear combinations looked best in southwest South Dakota and this was our initial target leading up to the event a few days ahead of time. The modest parameters and uncertainty of storm initiation lead SPC to keep the tornado probabilities at very reserved 2%.

We abandoned our original target for one further away, and missed a beautiful front lit stovepipe. I was quite frustrated by that, but at the same I couldn't complain as we had an amazingly photogenic chase with several gorgeous supercells and the first wildfire I'd ever seen or photographed. SPC's 2% verified nicely with basically just the one isolated tornado up in South Dakota. The rest of the plains failed to produce. It was the end to an amazing several days on the northern plains and we left with a ton of great photos. A tornado would have been the cherry on top, but it was still one of my best marathon chase trips.

Lessons Learned: 

• Do a hand analysis of a surface chart when target areas looks about even, the setup isn't obvious, and you're thinking about switching targets.

• Watch for fires after lightning strikes in dry areas.