By early this afternoon, good dewpoints (low-mid 60s) had returned throughout much of southern SD.  Unfortunately, the upper ridge axis had shifted directly over today's target of the Black Hills thereby limiting the chances for storms.  The good thing about today is that if anything would go, it would likely rotate given the great directional shear in place.  By mid afternoon, upslope flow and full sunshine busted the cap and supported this Cb along the Black Hills.  1535 MDT

Further south of the initial Cb there developed another, yet more impressive cell in Custer county.  I exercised some patience and watched the nearby cell a bit longer for clues of what it wanted to do.  1615 MDT

It's a rare sight to see a P-51 Mustang airborne and even more so during a storm chase in South Dakota!  What a treat this was.

Well it became pretty clear this cell was LP and wasn't going to transition to another mode anytime soon.  Note the laminar base indicative of good rotation underway.  Chaser Bill Doms was much closer to this cell and observed a decent funnel at one point.  1623 MDT

The LP supercell lasted awhile longer, but the updraft core was gradually shrinking and I couldn't resist the new cell only about 35mi to my south.  But my departure was delayed almost 40min as my power inverter had DRAINED my car battery.  I never heard the alarm tone sound nor did the inverter shut off as advertised to prevent battery drainage.  After an extensive run of expletives and having cursed all things modern, I managed to flag down a farmer crossing between fields in his truck.  Thank goodness I brought along jumper cables as he had none.  I thanked him and gave him some cash for saving my day.  1654 MDT

Certainly high based, but the new updraft turrets kept looking better with time.  1715 MDT

The roads to this new cell were sparse and mostly dirt or gravel, but I forged ahead anyways.  The cell is SVR and at one time NWS-UNR was citing hail to baseball size!  This view is looking east from 8mi south of Fairburn, SD.  1731 MDT

Go figure, the one desolate road I was on would take me directly under the developing meso!  The majority of the precip and large hail was just north of this slowly rotating base.  1748 MDT

After driving for nearly 50min straight on dirt roads, I finally got on the other side of this now apparent supercell.  The base had rounded nicely and was now moving SE as a whole.  I should have shot back west to go south to stay close to this; but no, I kept going further east for my original route south.  Oh well.  1806 MDT

Even further east now (!), I had to stop and frame this supercell against the picturesque Badlands.  A well developed clear slot is now underway and on radar this supercell had attained a much tighter inflow ref gradient.  1827 MDT

A nice inflow band unfolded as this supercell was now the only show in SD.  1856 MDT

1902 MDT

One of the better wall clouds produced by this supercell, but the lack of a sufficiently moist FFD prevented the bases from lowering much more than this.  1931 MDT

A mustache or collar cloud took better shape as the wall cloud slowly flattened.  A Native American family had stopped by to see what I was doing and after telling them about this storm, the father told me that the worst storms always come from the SW.  Never wanting to get in an argument with the locals, I acted impressed and then took an immediate interest as he detailed a large tornado he saw hit the town of Oglala, SD (12mi west of this spot) back in 1999.  I figured it was the infamous 4 June 99 event and joked with him that I was chasing that very day in NE and managed to miss all the tornadoes down there!  Ah, I hate it when locals begin bragging how they saw a major tornado and I didn't.  Grrr!  1943 MDT

Despite only 40kts at 300mb, this supercell maintained LP structure for practically all of its life!  High boundary layer dewpoint depressions and a dry flow above probably aided in this feat.  I'm south of Manderson, SD in this shot paralleling the scenic Wounded Knee creek bed north.  1955 MDT

A nice view from north of Manderson, SD as this supercell breathed its last breath.  I haven't dug into the radar archives, but this supercell may have endured for just over 4hrs.  2015 MDT

This area of Shannon county has such contrasting scenery it must simply be seen to be appreciated; though I recommend taking a SUV on the gravel roads and not a sedan!

Gorgeous sunset in the western Pine Ridge Reservation.

All photos © Copyright 2006 Matt Ziebell