7-23-10 Herrick, SD Tornado

Well what a needle in the haystack find this was. We left Sioux Falls, SD at 3:30 and headed west on I90 towards Chamberlain. We arrived in Chamberlain around 6:00 and started watching the storms directly west of us and debated on crossing the river and staying on the East side but we could tell the storm was moving slow so we crossed the river and continued West, we got cored just East of Presho, SD (the national record hailstone fell approx 8 minutes before then in Vivian, SD from the same storm) and turned South on Hwy 183. Being on the backside of the storm while most other chasers were on the leading edge gave us an advantage to get the needle in the haystack. We stopped a couple time along Hwy 183 and watched the outflow/inflow areas with some great views of hail shafts and then we got to Hwy 46 and came up on the roation that was just forming. From there we chased it down to Hwy 18 towards Herrick, SD where we caught this beautiful tornado!

Inflow/Outflow Area

Wall Cloud by Winner, SD

Tornado by Herrick, SD

Spencer, NE area, leading edge of storm

Same as above

This storm was truely one of the most beautiful storms I have seen, the contrast and depth of colors were absolutly amazing!

This might have been the last "good" setup chase this year so it was a great way to possibly close out the year.