Arriving in Boise City just after noon I noticed a distinct east-west band of agitated Cu just north of town with deeper growths and Cbs about 40 miles WNW of town. The Cu field was along a warm front lifting north, but I didn't want to stray too far from the surface low in northeast NM/southeast CO where surface vorticity was the strongest. Needless to say I shot WNW of Boise City on 325 towards Kenton as the Cbs recycled themselves over the course of the next hour. I did observe a few lowered updraft bases and crisp towers at times, but nothing persisted long enough to keep my interest. Just before 3pm I aborted the chase but did satisfy my curiosity by reconnecting to the Internet (once I was back in range) to see what else was going on across the region. I only saw the expired SVR from OUN and figured the day was a loss everywhere. Bottom line, a wedge tornado developed a short while later not more than 60 miles to my northeast. D'oh! Mike U did manage to chase this exceedingly rare November event and I'm glad to see today's setup wasn't entirely a pipe dream. No photos or video were taken as my cameras stayed in the case the entire chase.

During a stop for lunch in Belfield, ND (near I-94), crisp TCu blew up just to my southwest ahead of the advancing dryline.  A few of these anviled out later on near Dickinson, but as the hours went on these failed miserably despite the readily visible instability.  I eventually pulled up a visible satellite loop and noticed a distinct convective mound well to my southeast in SD.  This growth soon became the tornadic cell in Ziebach county.  I did choose to pursue this for about 30 minutes before turning around on the ND/SD state line given the storm's hard right turn (due south in this case) which would have resulted in at least another hour's worth of driving before making an intercept.  That combined with the need to be back to work the following morning was enough to convince me it wasn't worth the drive.  Good thing I did this because the storm withered away about 45 minutes later.  I was already frustrated with the events of the day and seeing a tornadic storm disappear right as you're closing within range would have been a life-altering kick in the jimmies.  I did at least witness this supercell showcase cyclic overshooting tops that were all quite robust; though I have no photos or video of these.  The day wasn't a total waste as I did manage to photograph some distant Cbs (photo 1, photo 2) to my east along the dryline during the return home.  Total mileage: 488.

Driving north on HWY 6, I entered welcome sunshine and over time a highly capped Cu line emerged to my northwest.  I believe it was at the intersection of HWYs 6 and 13 where I pulled over to monitor a crisp turret break the cap and later glaciate.  The atmosphere was surprisingly moist as this tiny cell's precip core was actually surviving all the way down.  In the end this cell turned out to be a distraction from the real show that was still about 60 miles to my NW.  With time I could see much more robust convection ensuing to my northwest, so I shot north to Regina and about 15 minutes later decided to turn on the weather radio.  To my surprise, I heard the tornado warning statement for the area northwest of Regina...aarrgghh!!!  This cell's anvil (photo) was already visible by this point and became heavily backsheared with even a few knuckles taking shape (vid grab).  While about 10 miles south of Regina, the base became visible and I observed a narrow, tapered lowering extend surfaceward in a 10 to 4 o'clock direction.  My video only shows a wall cloud moments after this...the funnel was just too brief.  From here on my route took me east on the TCH up to HWY 46 (mainly to avoid downtown Regina).  I drove about eight miles ENE of Regina before pulling over to watch this readily apparent supercell showcase a tail and wall cloud (vid grab).  The inflow to this supercell felt awfully cool, but it was all relative considering temperatures aloft and more importantly the shear.  A tapered lowering (vid grab) quickly materialized and later became columnar (vid grab) to the NNW of the RFD.  After reviewing the video I'll call this a *very slowly* rotating funnel or tornado if one subscribes religiously to the 50% or better rule.  Proceeding north on a side road that dropped off into dirt I documented a vivid wall cloud from a heavily occluded mesocyclone (photo).  I was getting too close for comfort at this point, so I shot east on Cat Creek Rd (dirt again) and watched as this wall cloud persisted for probably the next 15 minutes all the while becoming more distant with respect to the front flank updraft (photo).  Driving north on 364 (vid grab showing a low contrast beaver's tail), there was still rotation apparent within the wall cloud (vid grab 1, vid grab 2), but nothing that had my spine tingling.  While this wall cloud was dissipating east of 364, a husband and wife in a white minivan pulled over to tell me of a close encounter they had with a tornado not more than 10 minutes earlier just north of Edenwold.  I didn't question their observation, but in reality I didn't see anything remotely resembling a tornado unless there was no condensation and limited debris.  Not too impressed with this supercell's structure just west of Edgeley (vid grab), I focused my attention on a new cell developing back to my southwest. 

Dropping south and catching a quick fuel up, the CG activity with this new cell near Regina was increasing markedly.  I had high hopes for this storm (vid grab), but it ultimately failed to organize any further as its updraft base didn't want to build eastward (turn to the right).  Yet another storm rapidly developed just southwest of the decaying cell, but the rippled/wavy updraft base combined with overturning scud directly below (vid grab) signaled it was running over the previous storm's cold pool.  Dangit!  Unable to get any radar or internet data, I called it a day while motoring south to Weyburn for dinner before catching the nearest border crossing.  I did stop briefly to photograph a tail-end Charlie (vid grab) north of Weyburn that eventually exhibited a nicely arced updraft base (photo), but probably spent too much time here or in Weyburn as I arrived too late at the Fortuna border crossing.  I screwed up big time and as a result had to drive two hours out of my way to the nearest 24 hour border crossing just to get to my motel in Williston, ND!  Not my finest moment by far.  I arrived in Williston dog-tired just after 1am CDT, but overall very satisfied with this day's storms.  Total mileage: 540.

The road network south of Chinook is limited at best, but I needed to drop farther south to maintain a good view of the rounded updraft (vid grab).  I pulled over about seven miles SSE of Chinook just in time to observe a visual hook echo (vid grab w/CG) with a slowly rotating, shallow wall cloud nearby.  The cloud base was still high enough and considering rotation in the wall cloud was weak, a tornado didn't seem too likely.  So I remained in place and decided to let the FFD core (vid grab) overtake me.  The HDA out of TFX was indicating hail up to 3.75" on a few volume scans, so at the very least golf ball size hail seemed plausible.  About five minutes later, I found myself surrounded by hailstones as large as 2-2.5" (vid grab) (most were quarter to golf ball size) and the crack in my windshield certainly confirmed the larger stones!  Since all of the hail reports up to this point had only been around an inch, I measured one stone and called it in to the NWS.  The hail was still falling ten minutes later when I decided to drift east on a gravel road, but was now only around 0.75" in diameter. 

I caught up with the supercell north of Lodgepole on Lodgepole HWY and once again let the storm overtake me.  Its cloud base was still quite high (if not a little higher than before) and there was little evidence of any apparent lowered bases despite continued cloud base rotation.  I didn't have much hail in the FFD this time, but continuing south I encountered the wet RFD with several 1" stones that made for a vivid sight as they crashed into a nearby pond (vid grab).  Behind the precip-laden RFD, wind gusts hit an estimated 60-70 mph resulting in my cell phone antenna being blown over.  I thought I could make another intercept by racing south then east to HWY 191, but the storm motion had increased some (no surprise considering the severe RFD winds) and I had to settle for a view of HWY 191 covered in small hail.  Several motorists had pulled over either amazed at the sight or too fearful to drive in the slippery conditions.  This supercell then entered what I consider to be the worst place to chase a storm...southeast Phillips and southwest Valley counties.  The roads here make a washboard surface seem like an enjoyable ride and worse off neither of the roads cross the Missouri River!  This is really no great wonder considering the population void down here, but lordy have there been some phenomenal supercells in this area in recent years. 

I ended up driving back to Glasgow before continuing east for another rotating storm located northwest of Wolf Point.  I drove north towards Lustre as the cell began wrapping down an extensive rain and hailshaft around a decaying, circular base (vid grab).  I stayed just south of this wall of precip (hail reported at 2" again!) and managed to photograph some colorful views of the updraft as the sun lowered to the horizon.  Total miles: 453.

Overall a fantastic chase vacation, though I wish I could have hooked up with Randy, Phil, Mark, Kirk and Dave when they were out chasing. At least we all managed to see some great supercells and tornadoes!

Drove west to Pine Bluff, WY then north to monitor convection, but trends stunk and I drove back east to HWY 71. Later on, better organized cells pulled together west of Scottsbluff and these lured me north for a chase, but overall they could have been even better organized. Got some nice structure shots of SVR multicells and later passed two teenage girls running along a remote road north of Scottsbluff. I pulled over to get some photos on a hill a short while later and was surprised to see them still running towards me as the storm was bearing down! The core was about to hit the road, so I turned around and asked them if they had a ride coming (which they did) and alerted them to the hail threat. Thankfully their parents arrived just after the small hail hit (up to 1" in diameter). Drove back south for better storms approaching the Kimball area, but these junked out with time.