July 19, 2017

Statistics

Initial Target

Start

End

Storm Intercepts

Tornadoes

Hail

Wind

Features

Miles

Sioux Falls, SD

Springfield, IL 9:00 PM 7/18/2017

Yorkville, IL 10:30 PM 7/19/2017

Dell Rapids, SD

0 mph

Whale's Mouth

1355

Summary

Marginal setup in eastern South Dakota. Storms fired too early and lined out. Arrived by early afternoon noting whale's mouth and then drove straight back home.

Crew and Equipment

Solo chase. Equipment: Sony AX100, Canon 60D with EF-S 10-22.

Video

Map

Details

Drove all the way out to eastern South Dakota hoping for some out of season magic on a sleeper setup as you can get some of the prettiest tornadoes on these types of days.

Gust Front
6 miles NW of Dell Rapids, SD
1:16 PM

Storms fired too early and lined out immediately. I was greeted by a lackluster gust front north of Sioux Falls.

Whale's Mouth
4 miles NW of Dell Rapids, SD
1:21 PM

I shot a time lapse as the Whale's Mouth went overhead. I had just arrived, but the chase was a dud. I called the chase ridiculously early and drove straight back to Illinois to meet up with family.

Conclusion

This was up there on the waste of time bust list. 1300 miles for a crappy whale's mouth. Ugh.

Lessons Learned

Don't sacrifice too much going after sleeper plays for they can be real snoozefests.

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