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May 30, 2022

We woke up in Sioux City, Iowa for day two of our trip. We had to make a decision on this day whether to chase the forecasted tornadic storms further north or potentially chase the projected storms down in Kansas. One of the factors in play was getting back in time for work on Tuesday. After weighing the options and the tornadic storm probabilities, our decision was to play the storms a bit further north and make the longer drive back at night.

We worked our way north to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. We had some lunch and then waited for the storms. We put our eyes on a line of storms coming up from the southwest.

The storms were coming into a very favorable atmosphere for tornado development. We were very interested in the tail end of these storms as it sat on the outflow boundary left from the morning storm complex. It was showing signs of rotation as it approached. Other storms along the line were becoming tornado warned as they all moved north-northeastward.

We worked our way just west of Sioux Falls, South Dakota and found a spot with a clear view of the storms as they came at us. There was a lot of movement underneath the base as they became visible. We also were seeing little shear funnels in the clouds above us.

As the storm moved closer, the storm began moving more northeast forcing us to move. We moved east and as the storm kept moving toward us, we moved northward to stay out in front of the storm and kept our eye out for any rotation. As we made our way northeast of Sioux Falls and crossed into Minnesota, we were seeing several areas of rotation.

As this circulation caught up to us, we continued east on the road and as we passed a house surrounded by a lot of trees, the wind suddenly kicked up to an estimated 80-100mph and with little warning was throwing large tree limbs and other debris across the road. The car was shaking and as per our dash cam video, 4 seconds after passing the house and surrounding trees, a large tree falls across the entire road blocking the chaser right behind me.

A few seconds later, we realized it was more than just straight line wind as Ryan yells out "Tornado on the ground!". In the field next to us is an obvious circulation kicking up dirt and above it is a rapidly spinning circulation.

As we were watching the circulation, the storm became tornado warned.

Unfortunately, the tornado never condensed into a full tube. The circulation moved away and got lost in the rain, so we worked our way back to Interstate 90 and moved east. Several other developing storms worked their way northeastward but were unable to sustain any rotation as we lined ourselves up and let them pass us. We ended our chase at the Alpha, Minnesota exit on Interstate 90 and began our long trek home.