7.24.00 Carter, SD

Today looked promising. SPC had placed a moderate risk in south central South Dakota. There was a cold front draped from northeast through southwest South Dakota. Winds were from the southeast at Pierre and Winner with dew points in the 60s. Northwest flow aloft and a shortwave approaching from the northwest suggested a good chance of thunderstorm initiation southeast of the front.

I left Rapid City at 1135 am expecting to end up in the Plankinton, SD area. I checked data in Vivian, SD around 2 pm, and Winner, SD now looked to be the best target. I could see cumulus starting to develop directly south of me. I drove to Presho, SD and then southbound on highway 183. The first development resulted in an orphan anvil as the cap was still trying to hold strong. However, the new development that followed quickly developed into a impressive thunderstorm. I watched the updraft base from 7 miles west of Ideal, SD. Around 4 pm, the storm split with the right split moving slowly south and the left moving northeast. I followed the south split and positioned myself 5 miles east of Carter, SD along highway 18. There was relatively little precip with the storm until a little after 430 pm. In a span of 10 minutes the updraft base became almost completely obscured with heavy precip. At 442 pm, I could barely make out a v-shaped silhouette through the precip and tried to reposition north to try and get a clearer view. By 450 pm, law officials were reporting a tornado on the ground in the Carter area. However, from my vantage point, the core and tornado were completely obscured.

My move north would end up being a frustrating miscalculation. As the storm continued to move south, large hail now blocked my best road options to get south of it. My gameplan now was to get south of the storm by flanking it on its west side. Road options were not great so I spent the next 2 1/2 hours (mostly on dirt roads) trying to get south of the storm. By 700 pm I was southeast of Valentine, NE on highway 20 (and still north of the storm!!) . Once again, it looked as though the storm would cross the highway ahead of me and prevent me from getting south of it. This happened earlier on highway 12 near Sparks, NE. However, at 707 pm, I saw a large wedge-shaped tornado 5 miles south of Wood Lake, NE (5 miles W-SW of Johnstown). It was very low contrast, but I was able to get 2 minutes of video before the hail curtain wrapped around and blocked my view for good. With 3 inch hail being reported ahead of me along with a verified rain-wrapped tornado, it was time to backtrack to the west and south. I headed down highway 83 but daylight was running out. I managed to get some good pictures of an incredible backsheared anvil as the sun set, and I finished the chase north of Thedford, NE with a continuous lightning show.

On Wednesday, July 26th, I, along with a Rapid City NWS forecaster, conducted an aerial survey of the Carter, SD tornado damage area. The NWS completed a ground survey the day before, so we followed up with an aerial photo shoot. We were able to photograph corn field damage as well as scour marks left in a plowed field. We then flew south to look for damage from the wedge tornado that I saw west of Ainsworth, NE. We came upon some heavy tree damage in the area I suspected the tornado passed through. Images are below.

	316 pm The first updraft ended up as an orphan anvil, however, this updraft took hold to become a long-lived tornadic supercell. View is looking west from highway 183 about 10 miles northwest of Ideal, SD.
	335 pm The updraft base was starting to get organized. This updraft would split with the right (south) moving split becoming the tornado producer. View is looking west from highway 183 about 7 miles west of Ideal, SD. Satellite Image
	431 pm The right/south moving split is now over Carter, SD. Its base is relatively rain free and there were definite signs of rotation. View is looking west from 5 miles east of Carter, SD on highway 18. Satellite Image
	442 pm This image was taken at the same location and view of the previous one. Precipitation has now obscured my view of the base of the storm. It was time to move. Satellite Image
	451 pm Not much improvement after moving a mile or so north. The core and tornado were completely obscured. View is looking southwest from highway 183. Satellite Image / Radar Image 449 pm / Radar Image 454 pm
	707 pm This is a video grab of the wedge tornado. It is very hard to make out so I put red arrows to point out the dimensions. View is looking south from highway 20 near Wood Lake, NE. Satellite Image 702 pm / Satellite Image 715 pm / Radar Image 703 pm / Radar Image 709 pm
	745 pm While back tracking on highway 20, the backsheared anvil come into view. View is looking south from highway 20 northwest of Wood Lake, NE. Satellite Image / Radar Image
	800 pm - Sunset As the sun set, the anvil took on some incredible colors. The inverted cumulus cast shadows on the underside of the anvil. View is looking east from highway 83 north of Thedford, NE.


	South Dakota Damage View is looking north-northeast. The corn field in the center of the image shows damage as the tornado moved from left to right (southeast).
	South Dakota Damage View is looking north. This image shows a plowed field that had top soil scoured away to the hard pan (lighter color). Tornado motion was from upper left to lower right (southeast).
	Nebraska Damage View is looking west-northwest. Most trees are laying southwest, but there are a few in random directions.
	Nebraska Damage View is looking west. Just west of the barn there is a tree broken to the right/north. To the right of the barn, there is a trailer overturned to the right/north. There is white debris near the driveway/road intersection suggesting it was moved to the north. Notice at the top of the image, there are trees laying to the southwest.

	Nebraska Damage View is looking southwest. Notice the different directions that trees are laying. I cannot determine if the bail of hay that is spread out in the top of the picture was a result of strong winds or had been already spread out for livestock.