After a great night of lightning photography we left our hotel in Chadron, Nebraska and headed North into the green countryside of South Dakota.

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Passing the Black hills and Mount Rushmore we headed first East then North towards the triple point where the cold, warm and occluded fronts meet; always a hot-spot for interesting weather wherever it occurs and where our storms would be initiating.

As we approached the North Dakota stateline we could see the anvil from 75 miles out.
After a frustrating delay in roadworks at the stateline we made the final push into North Dakota just outside the town of Strasburg.

A wall cloud was already present and we followed the system on a farm road to a great viewing point.

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Rotation was insane in multiple parts of the wall cloud which was quite linear in nature. Most promising was a large funnel which lowered ahead of us almost 3/4 way to the ground. This was well on the way to forming a wedge tornado but was sheared apart just like all the others.

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This was the day of the funnels. They formed, they lowered and they retracted.

Plenty of candidates and i'm sure there were a few people who may have called some of them as tornadoes. Either way it was great watching and some great opportunities to take photos over wide open country.

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