June 8th, 2006 Southern Montana Supercells
Montana was the place to be on June 8. A strong short wave pushing across the state would spawn supercell thunderstorms off the northern Big Horn mountains. We intercepted 3 supercells. The first was a dying beast that dumped hail baseball sized over the area. The second developed a well defined wall cloud and I though for a few moments there could be tornadogenesis any moment. The third supercell was the storm of the day. It developed just east of the first two on the outflow boundary. It became a striated monster, with a well developed wall cloud (above). A clear slot formed and strong RFD winds cut into the back of the storm. We came very close to a tornado as the wall cloud, now rapidly rotating passed just north of Lame Deer. Finally it became an HP storm and eventually gusted out. Thanks to Caryn for her superb driving skills keeping us ahead of this beast on dirt and gravel roads!
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